Languages: Japanese and the Ryukyuan languages
Direction: vertical right-to-left, left-to-right
Parent systems: Oracle Bone Script > Seal Script > Clerical Script > Regular script (Kanji) > Man’yōgana > Hiragana
Sister systems: Katakana, Hentaigana
Unicode alias: Hiragana
Hiragana Phonetic writing system
Hiragana is a Japanese syllabary, part of the Japanese writing system, along with katakana as well as kanji. It is a phonetic lettering system. The word hiragana literally means “flowing” or “simple” kana. Hiragana and katakana are both kana systems. Wikipedia
Hiragana is the backbone of all Japanese learning. It helps you learn the basics of pronunciation in Japanese and start to understand the building blocks of the language. Hiragana characters represent the 46 primary sounds used in Japanese, and are usually used to write words that are originally Japanese.
Writing system
After the 1900 script reform, which deemed hundreds of characters hentaigana, the hiragana syllabary consists of 48 base characters, of which two (ゐ and ゑ) are only used in some proper names:
- 5 singular vowels: あ a [a], い i [i], う u [ɯ], え e [e], お o [o]
- 42 consonant–vowel unions
- へ is pronounced [e] when used as a particle.
- を is only used as a particle and in some names. It is often pronounced [o] instead.
- ゐ and ゑ are both obsolete, only used in some names. They are usually respectively pronounced [i] and [e] instead.
- 1 singular consonant (ん)
These are conceived as a 5×10 grid (gojūon, 五十音, “Fifty Sounds”), as illustrated in the adjacent table, read あ (a), い (i), う (u), え (e), お (o), か (ka), き (ki), く (ku), け (ke), こ (ko) and so forth (but si→shi, ti→chi, tu→tsu, hu→fu), with the singular consonant ん (n) appended to the end. Of the 50 theoretically possible combinations, yi, ye, and wu are obsolete, while wi (ゐ), and we (ゑ), are now uncommon in modern Japanese. Wo (を), pronounced [o], is common as a particle but otherwise rare.
These basic characters can be modified in various ways. By adding a dakuten marker ( ゛), a voiceless consonant is turned into a voiced consonant: k→g, ts/s→z, t→d, h→b and ch/sh→j (also u→v(u)). For example, か (ka) becomes が (ga). Hiragana beginning with an h (or f) sound can also add a handakuten marker ( ゜) changing the h (f) to a p. For example, は (ha) becomes ぱ (pa).
A small version of the hiragana for ya, yu, or yo (ゃ, ゅ or ょ respectively) may be added to hiragana ending in i. This changes the i vowel sound to a glide (palatalization) to a, u or o. For example, き (ki) plus ゃ (small ya) becomes きゃ (kya). Addition of the small y kana is called yōon.
A small tsu っ, called a sokuon, indicates that the following consonant is geminated (doubled). In Japanese this is an important distinction in pronunciation; for example, compare さか, saka, “hill” with さっか, sakka, “author”. However, it cannot be used to double an n – for this purpose, the singular n (ん) is added in front of the syllable, as in みんな (minna, “all”). The sokuon also sometimes appears at the end of utterances, where it denotes a glottal stop, as in いてっ! ([iteʔ], “Ouch!”).
Hiragana usually spells long vowels with the addition of a second vowel kana; for example, おかあさん (o-ka-a-sa-n, “mother”). The chōonpu (long vowel mark) (ー) used in katakana is rarely used with hiragana, for example in the word らーめん, rāmen, but this usage is considered non-standard in Japanese. However, the Okinawan language uses chōonpu with hiragana. In informal writing, small versions of the five vowel kana are sometimes used to represent trailing off sounds (はぁ, haa, ねぇ, nee). Standard and voiced iteration marks are written in hiragana as ゝ and ゞ respectively. source: Wikipedia
There are 5 vowels in Japanese.
- (a), pronounced “ahh”
- (i), pronounced like “e” in “eat”
- (u), pronounced like “oo” in “soon”
- (e), pronounced like “e” in “elk”,
- (o), pronounced “oh”.
All Hiragana characters end with one of these vowels, with the exception of (n). The only “consonant” that does not resemble that of English is the Japanese “r”. It is slightly “rolled” as if it were a combination of a “d”, “r”, and “l”.
Exceptions:
The Hiragana は (ha) is pronounced “wa” when it immediately follows the topic of the sentence. This character is usually only pronounced “ha” when it is part of a word.
The Hiragana へ (he) is pronounced “e” when it immediately follows a place or direction. Both of these are very simple to detect.
source: freejapaneselessons
