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UNDERSTANDING KANA

Japanese Writing Systems

There are four different kinds of characters used for writing Japanese: kanji, hiragana, katakana, and rōmaji (Roman alphabet). Kanji incorporates meanings as well as sounds. Hiragana, katakana, and rōmaji are phonetic characters that express only sounds. However, unlike English, one kana character can be pronounced only one way: 「あ」 or 「ア」 is only pronounced [a].

Japanese sentences are usually written with a combination of kanji, hiragana, and katakana. Katakana is mainly used for foreign words that are adapted to fit Japanese pronunciation. Kanji appears in nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. Hiragana is primarily used to show the inflectional endings of kanji (okurigana). Particles, conjunctions, and interjections are mostly written in hiragana. Although hiragana can substitute for kanji, a combination of kanji and hiragana is much faster to read. For example, compare these four ways of writing the same information:

Kanji and hiragana: 私は毎朝早く起きます。 出かける前にテレビを見ます。

Hiragana only: わたしはまいあさはやくおきます。 でかけるまえにテレビをみます。

Rōmaji: Watashi-wa maiasa hayaku okimasu. Dekakeru mae-ni terebi-o mimasu.

English: I get up early every morning. I watch TV before I leave home.

Japanese Syllabary Chart

Each square in the chart below represents one pronounced syllable.

Additional Katakana

Created with small ァ ィ ゥ ェ ォ ュ

Derivation of Kana

Hiragana and katakana are Japanese phonetic syllabaries developed from kanji in the eighth century. Hiragana, which are cursive letters, derive from the shapes of entire kanji characters. Katakana, which are combinations of straight lines, derive from various parts of kanji characters. In some cases both hiragana and katakana are derived from the same kanji, such as ka, mo, te, yu, ra, and ri, shown below. Kana derived from some of the kanji introduced in this textbook are also shown.