![]() The Siddham script was the basis of its syllables. In the 9th century, Buddhist monks used Katakana to point out the correct pronunciations of Chinese text. In the image below, you can see that in Hiragana, the stroke for the letter U is round in shape while in Katakana, the stroke is in a straight and angular line. The only difference is that Katakana’s characters have short straight strokes and angular corners. These Katakana characters represent the same phonetic sounds as Hiragana. ![]() Like Hiragana, Katakana also has a fixed number of 46 characters. Katakana has two functions in Japanese writing: it is used for loanwords from other languages and transcribing foreign names, and is also sometimes used to emphasize scientific terms just like italicized words in English. ![]() It emphasizes certain words similar to the functions of italics. Katakana mainly represents imported words from other languages. Katakana is the next set of Japanese characters learned after mastering Hiragana. Since it’s a word of Japanese descent, it is written in Hiragana as “すみません。” Katakana – Characters for Foreign Words Let’s use the word sumimasen, meaning “sorry” or “excuse me”, as an example. It completes the Japanese writing style with its grammatical functions especially in words of Japanese origin. Today, Hiragana is mostly used to write Japanese words that do not have a Kanji equivalent. ![]() However, it was later simplified to have a one-to-one relationship between spoken and written syllables, as shown in the chart above. In Hiragana’s early versions, many different characters represented each syllable. By the 10th century, men and women alike practiced using Hiragana. Hiragana was initially called onnade or “women’s hand” because women primarily used this writing script. Hiragana has three functions in Japanese writing: to indicate the grammatical purpose of a Japanese word, to change the meaning of verbs, adverbs, or adjectives, and most importantly, to use in place of native Japanese words not covered by Katakana and Kanji. Unlike Kanji, Hiragana does not require too many curves when writing and its characters are roundish in shape. These characters have phonetic syllabaries which all represent a particular sound. Hiragana is easier to learn when compared to Katakana and Kanji.Īs said earlier, Hiragana has a fixed number of 46 characters. It is the first set of characters that new language learners and children learn when they start studying. Hiragana is the most basic of the 3 sets of alphabet for it is the foundation of the written Japanese language. Let’s take a walk-through on these Japanese characters, shall we? Hiragana – A Beginner’s Best Friend Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji are all essential in learning the Japanese language as these 3 sets of characters compose the Japanese alphabet writing system. Hiragana and Katakana were based and derived from Kanji. These characters represent sound and meaning. Kanji, on the other hand, are Chinese characters that the Japanese adopted in the 9th century. Hiragana is embodying Japanese words and grammatical elements, while Katakana is for words of foreign descent. They both have a fixed number of symbols: 46 characters. Hiragana and Katakana are scripts that represent the syllables that make up the Japanese language. The Japanese writing system is composed of 3 intertwined scripts, namely Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji. To have a deeper understanding of the Japanese language, you have to learn its writing systems first. Katakana – Characters for Foreign Words.A Walk-Through of The Japanese Alphabet.
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