仮名

are syllabaries used to write Japanese phonological units, morae. In current usage, ''kana'' most commonly refers to ''hiragana'' and ''katakana''. It can also refer to their ancestor , which were Chinese characters used phonetically to transcribe Japanese (e.g. ''man'yōgana''); and ''hentaigana'', which are historical variants of the now-standard hiragana.

Katakana, with a few additions, are also used to write Ainu. A number of systems exist to write the Ryūkyūan languages, in particular Okinawan, in hiragana. Taiwanese kana were used in Taiwanese Hokkien as ruby text for Chinese characters in Taiwan when it was under Japanese rule.

Each kana character corresponds to one phoneme or syllable, unlike kanji, which generally each corresponds to a morpheme. Apart from the five vowels, it is always CV (consonant onset with vowel nucleus), such as ''ka'', ''ki'', ''sa'', ''shi'', etc., with the sole exception of the C grapheme for nasal codas usually romanised as ''n''. The structure has led some scholars to label the system '' moraic'', instead of ''syllabic'', because it requires the combination of two syllabograms to represent a CVC syllable with coda (e.g. CV''n'', CV''m'', CV''ng''), a CVV syllable with complex nucleus (i.e. multiple or expressively long vowels), or a CCV syllable with complex onset (i.e. including a glide, C''y''V, C''w''V).

The limited number of phonemes in Japanese, as well as the relatively rigid syllable structure, makes the kana system a very accurate representation of spoken Japanese.

Etymology

''Kana'' is a compound of and , which eventually collapsed into ''kanna'' and ultimately ''kana''. ''Kana'' were so called in contrast with which were kanji used "regularly" (kanji used for their meanings as they are now), or more specifically the writing of such kanji.

It was not until the 18th century that the early-nationalist movement, which promoted a move away from Sinocentric academia, began to reanalyze the script from a phonological point of view. In the following centuries, contrary to the traditional Sinocentric view, ''kana'' began to be considered a national Japanese writing system that was distinct from Chinese characters, which is the dominant view today.

Terms

Although the term 'kana' is now commonly understood as hiragana and katakana, it actually has broader application as listed below:
* or : a syllabary.
** or : phonetic kanji used as syllabary characters, historically used by men (who were more educated).
***: the most prominent system of magana.
****: cursive man'yōgana.
*****, , , or : a syllabary derived from simplified sōgana, historically used by women (who were less educated), historically sorted in ''Iroha'' order.
****** or : obsolete variants of hiragana.
**** or : a syllabary derived by using bits of characters in man'yōgana, historically sorted in ''gojūon'' order.
****: hiragana and katakana, as opposed to kanji.
***: magana for transcribing Japanese words, using, strict or loose, Chinese-derived readings (''on'yomi''). For example, would be spelt as , with two magana with on'yomi for ''ya'' and ''ma''; likewise, spelt as for ''hi'' and ''to''.
***: magana for transcribing Japanese words, using native words ascribed to kanji (native "readings" or ''kun'yomi''). For example, would be spelt as , with three magana with kun'yomi for ''ya'', ''ma'' and ''to''; likewise, spelt as for ''natsu'' and ''kashi''.
* , , or : kanji used for meanings, historically used by men (who were more educated).
* : mixed script including only kanji and katakana.

Hiragana and katakana

The following table reads, in gojūon order, as ''a'', ''i'', ''u'', ''e'', ''o'' (down first column), then ''ka'', ''ki'', ''ku'', ''ke'', ''ko'' (down second column), and so on. ''n'' appears on its own at the end. Asterisks mark unused combinations.

*There are presently no kana for ''ye'', ''yi'' or ''wu'', as corresponding syllables do not occur natively in modern Japanese.
**The (''ye'') sound is believed to have existed in pre-Classical Japanese, mostly before the advent of kana, and can be represented by the man'yōgana kanji 江. There was an archaic Hiragana () derived from the man'yōgana ''ye'' kanji 江, which is encoded into Unicode at code point U+1B001 (𛀁), but it is not widely supported. It is believed that ''e'' and ''ye'' first merged to ''ye'' before shifting back to ''e'' during the Edo period. As demonstrated by 17th century-era European sources, the syllable ''we'' (ゑ・ヱ ) also came to be pronounced as (''ye''). If necessary, the modern orthography allows e(''ye'') to be written as いぇ (イェ), but this usage is limited and nonstandard.
**The modern Katakana ''e'', エ, derives from the man'yōgana 江, originally pronounced ''ye''; a "Katakana letter Archaic E" () derived from the man'yōgana 衣 (''e'') is encoded into Unicode at code point U+1B000 (𛀀), due to being used for that purpose in scholarly works on classical Japanese.
**Some gojūon tables published during the 19th century list additional Katakana in the ''ye'' (), ''wu'' () and ''yi'' () positions. These are not presently used, and the latter two sounds never existed in Japanese. They were added to Unicode in version 14.0 in 2021. These sources also list (Unicode U+1B006, 𛀆) in the Hiragana ''yi'' position, and in the ''ye'' position.
*Although removed from the standard orthography with the ''gendai kanazukai'' reforms, ''wi'' and ''we'' still see stylistic use, as in ウヰスキー for ''whisky'' and ヱビス or ゑびす for Japanese kami Ebisu, and Yebisu, a brand of beer named after Ebisu. Hiragana ''wi'' and ''we'' are preserved in certain Okinawan scripts, while katakana ''wi'' and ''we'' are preserved in the Ainu language.
*''wo'' is preserved only as the accusative particle, normally occurring only in hiragana.
*''si'', ''ti'', ''tu'', ''hu'', ''wi'', ''we'' and ''wo'' are usually romanized respectively as ''shi'', ''chi'', ''tsu'', ''fu'', ''i'', ''e'' and ''o'' instead, according to contemporary pronunciation.
*the sokuon or small ''tsu'' (っ/ッ) indicates gemination and is romanized by repeating the following consonant. For example, って is romanized ''tte'' (exception: っち becomes ''tchi'').

Diacritics

Syllables beginning with the voiced consonants and are spelled with kana from the corresponding unvoiced columns (''k'', ''s'', ''t'' and ''h'') and the voicing mark, ''dakuten''. Syllables beginning with are spelled with kana from the ''h'' column and the half-voicing mark, ''handakuten''.

* Note that the か゚, ら゚ and the remaining entries in the two rightmost columns, though they exist, are not used in standard Japanese orthography.
*''zi'', ''di'', and ''du'' are often transcribed into English as ''ji'', ''ji'', and ''zu'' instead, respectively, according to contemporary pronunciation.
* Usually, a i u e oare represented respectively by バ a ビ i ブ u ベ e and ボ o for example, in loanwords such as バイオリン (''baiorin'' "violin"), but (less usually) the distinction can be preserved by using -with voicing marks or by using uand a vowel kana, as in ヴァ(ヷ), ヴィ(ヸ), ヴ, ヴェ(ヹ), and ヴォ(ヺ). Note that ヴ did not have a JIS-encoded Hiragana form (ゔ) until JIS X 0213, meaning that many Shift JIS flavours (including the Windows and HTML5 version) can only represent it as a katakana, although Unicode supports both.

Digraphs

Syllables beginning with palatalized consonants are spelled with one of the seven consonantal kana from the ''i'' row followed by small ''ya'', ''yu'' or ''yo''. These digraphs are called yōon.

* There are no digraphs for the semivowel ''y'' and ''w'' columns.
* The digraphs are usually transcribed with three letters, leaving out the ''i'': C''y''V. For example, きゃ is transcribed as ''kya'' to distinguish it from the two-kana きや, ''kiya''.
* ''si''+''y''* and ''ti''+''y''* are often transcribed ''sh*'' and ''ch*'' instead of ''sy*'' and ''ty*''. For example, しゃ is transcribed as ''sha'', and ちゅ is transcribed as ''chu''.
* In earlier Japanese, digraphs could also be formed with ''w''-kana. Although obsolete in modern Japanese, the digraphs くゎ (/kʷa/) and くゐ/くうぃ(/kʷi/), are preserved in certain Okinawan orthographies. In addition, the kana え can be used in Okinawan to form the digraph くぇ, which represents the /kʷe/ sound.
* In loanwords, digraphs with a small ''e''-kana can be formed. For example, キェ (or きぇ in hiragana), which is transcribed as ''kye''.

* Note that the き゚ゃ, き゚ゅ and き゚ょ, though they exist, are not used in standard Japanese orthography.
* ''zi''+''y''* and ''di''+''y''* are often transcribed ''j*'' instead of ''zy*'' and ''dy*'', according to contemporary pronunciation. The form ''jy*'' is also used in some cases.

Modern usage

The difference in usage between hiragana and katakana is stylistic. Usually, hiragana is the default syllabary, and katakana is used in certain special cases. Hiragana is used to write native Japanese words with no kanji representation (or whose kanji is thought obscure or difficult), as well as grammatical elements such as particles and inflections (okurigana). Today katakana is most commonly used to write words of foreign origin that do not have kanji representations, as well as foreign personal and place names. Katakana is also used to represent onomatopoeia and interjections, emphasis, technical and scientific terms, transcriptions of the Sino-Japanese readings of kanji, and some corporate branding.

Kana can be written in small form above or next to lesser-known kanji in order to show pronunciation; this is called furigana. Furigana is used most widely in children's or learners' books. Literature for young children who do not yet know kanji may dispense with it altogether and instead use hiragana combined with spaces.

Systems supporting only a limited set of characters, such as Wabun code for Morse code telegrams and single-byte digital character encodings such as JIS X 0201 or EBCDIK, likewise dispense with kanji, instead using only katakana. This is not necessary in systems supporting double-byte or variable-width encodings such as Shift JIS, EUC-JP, UTF-8 or UTF-16.

History

Old Japanese was written entirely in kanji, and a set of kanji called ''man'yōgana'' were first used to represent the phonetic values of grammatical particles and morphemes. As there was no consistent method of sound representation, a phoneme could be represented by multiple kanji, and even those kana's pronunciations differed in whether they were to be read as or , making decipherment problematic. The , a poetry anthology assembled sometime after 759 and the eponym of ''man'yōgana'', exemplifies this phenomenon, where as many as almost twenty kanji were used for the mora ''ka''. The consistency of the kana used was thus dependent on the style of the writer. Hiragana developed as a distinct script from cursive ''man'yōgana'', whereas katakana developed from abbreviated parts of regular script ''man'yōgana'' as a glossing system to add readings or explanations to Buddhist sutras. Both of these systems were simplified to make writing easier. The shapes of many hiragana resembled the Chinese cursive script, as did those of many katakana the Korean ''gugyeol'', suggesting that the Japanese followed the continental pattern of their neighbors.

Kana is traditionally said to have been invented by the Buddhist priest Kūkai in the ninth century. Kūkai certainly brought the Siddhaṃ script of India home on his return from China in 806; his interest in the sacred aspects of speech and writing led him to the conclusion that Japanese would be better represented by a phonetic alphabet than by the kanji which had been used up to that point. The modern arrangement of kana reflects that of the devanagari order used for Sanskrit in the Buddhist Siddhaṃ script hybrid known by the Japanese at the time, before, the traditional ''iroha'' arrangement used to follow the order of a poem which uses each kana once. Kana's vowel (a-i-u-e-o) and consonant (k, s, t, n, h, m, y, r, w) order coincide with the Sanskrit order, except for the letter s, but that is explained by the properties of Old Japanese and the version of Siddham buddhist monks learnt at the time. However, the first time this order was used in Japanese was during the Heian period by Myōkaku, a priest and Sanskrit scholar of the 12th century, member of the same order of Kūkai and credited as reviving Saskrit studies. In 1695, a priest named Keichū published a 5 volume book that is considered to be fundamental in fixing the sound order to this day; and this work, in turn, was probably based on an earlier 3 volume systematic study of the grammar and the writing system of the Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit, written by another priest, Kakugen, in 1681, also member of the order of Kūkai and Myōkaku.

However, hiragana and katakana did not quickly supplant ''man'yōgana''. It was only in 1900 that the present set of kana was codified. All the other forms of hiragana and katakana developed before the 1900 codification are known as . Rules for their usage as per the spelling reforms of 1946, the , which abolished the kana for ''wi'' (ゐ・ヰ), ''we'' (ゑ・ヱ), and ''wo'' (を・ヲ) (except that the last was reserved as the accusative particle).

Collation

Kana are the basis for collation in Japanese. They are taken in the order given by the ''gojūon'' (あ い う え お ... わ を ん), though iroha (い ろ は に ほ へ と ... せ す (ん)) ordering is used for enumeration in some circumstances. Dictionaries differ in the sequence order for long/short vowel distinction, small ''tsu'' and diacritics. As Japanese does not use word spaces (except as a tool for children), there can be no word-by-word collation; all collation is kana-by-kana.

In Unicode

The hiragana range in Unicode is U+3040 ... U+309F, and the katakana range is U+30A0 ... U+30FF. The obsolete and rare characters (''wi'' and ''we'') also have their proper code points.

Characters U+3095 and U+3096 are hiragana small ''ka'' and small ''ke'', respectively. U+30F5 and U+30F6 are their katakana equivalents. Characters U+3099 and U+309A are combining dakuten and handakuten, which correspond to the spacing characters U+309B and U+309C. U+309D is the hiragana iteration mark, used to repeat a previous hiragana. U+309E is the voiced hiragana iteration mark, which stands in for the previous hiragana but with the consonant voiced (''k'' becomes ''g'', ''h'' becomes ''b'', etc.). U+30FD and U+30FE are the katakana iteration marks. U+309F is a ligature of ''yori'' ( より) sometimes used in vertical writing. U+30FF is a ligature of ''koto'' ( コト), also found in vertical writing.

Additionally, there are halfwidth equivalents to the standard fullwidth katakana. These are encoded within the Halfwidth and Fullwidth Forms block (U+FF00–U+FFEF), starting at U+FF65 and ending at U+FF9F (characters U+FF61–U+FF64 are halfwidth punctuation marks):

There is also a small "Katakana Phonetic Extensions" range (U+31F0 ... U+31FF), which includes some additional small kana characters for writing the Ainu language. Further small kana characters are present in the "Small Kana Extension" block.

Unicode also includes "Katakana letter archaic E" (U+1B000), as well as 255 archaic Hiragana, in the Kana Supplement block. It also includes a further 31 archaic Hiragana in the Kana Extended-A block.

The Kana Extended-B block was added in September, 2021 with the release of version 14.0:

See also

* Furigana
* Okurigana
* Yotsugana
* Gojūon
* Hentaigana
* Historical kana orthography
* Man'yōgana
* Romanization of Japanese
* Transliteration and Transcription (linguistics)

References

Further reading

* An illustrated book on the development of magana into kana

External links

Hiragana & katakana chart and writing practice sheet





Kana web translator
– Transliterate Kana to Rōmaji

Kana Copybook (PDF)

Katakana and Hiragana study tool

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Heian period
Japanese writing system
Japanese writing system terms
Nara period

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