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Kana
Type
Syllabary
Languages Japanese, Okinawan, Ainu,
Palauan
[1]
Time period c. 800 AD to the present
Parent
systems
Oracle Bone Script
Seal Script
Clerical Script
Regular script (Kanji)
Man'ygana
Kana
ISO 15924 Hrkt, 412
Unicode alias Katakana or Hiragana
Kana
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Katakana or Hiragana (script))
Kana () are syllabic Japanese scripts, a part of the Japanese writing system
contrasted with the logographic Chinese characters known in Japan as kanji ().
There are three kana scripts: modern cursive hiragana (), modern angular
katakana (), and the old syllabic use of kanji known as manygana (
) that was ancestral to both. Hentaigana (, "variant kana") are historical
variants of modern standard hiragana. In modern Japanese, hiragana and katakana
have directly corresponding character sets (different sets of characters representing
the same sounds).
Katakana with a few additions is also used to write Ainu. Kana was used in
Taiwanese as a gloss (furigana) for Chinese characters during the Japanese
administration of Taiwan. See Taiwanese kana.
Each kana character (syllabogram) corresponds to one sound in the Japanese
language. This is always CV (consonant onset with vowel nucleus), such as ka, ki,
etc., or V (vowel), such as a, i, etc., with the sole exception of the C grapheme for
nasal codas usually romanised as n. This structure had some scholars label the system
moraic instead of syllabic, because it requires the combination of two syllabograms
to represent a CVC syllable with coda (i.e. CVn, CVm, CVng), 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, CyV, CwV).
Contents
1 Hiragana and katakana
1.1 Diacritics
1.2 Digraphs
2 Modern usage
3 History
4 Collation
5 Kana in Unicode
6 See also
7 References
8 External links
Hiragana and katakana
The following table reads, in gojon 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.

(n)
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Japanese kana: hiragana (left) and katakana (right)
(Image of this table)
k s t n h m y r w
a

i
*
u
*
e
*
o

There are no kana for ye or yi, as corresponding syllables do not occur in Japanese natively. While there was kana for wu, it usage
ended much earlier due to that sound likewise never having existed in Japanese, and it does not yet exist in Unicode.
[2]
The [je]
sound is believed to have existed in pre-Classical Japanese, mostly prior to the advent of kana, and is generally represented for
purposes of reconstruction by the kanji , although an archaic hiragana we/ye, , does exist. In later periods, the syllabogram we
came to be realized as [j], as demonstrated by 17th century-era European sources, but it later merged with the vowel e and was
eliminated from official orthography in 1946. In modern orthography, if necessary, [je] may be written as (); however, this
usage is limited and nonstandard.
While no longer part of standard Japanese orthography, wi and we are sometimes used stylistically, as in for whisky
and for Yebisu, a brand of beer. Hiragana wi and we are still used in certain Okinawan writing systems, while katakana wi
and we are still used in Ainu.
wo is preserved only in a single use, as a grammatical particle, normally written in hiragana.
si, ti, tu, hu, wi and we are often transcribed into English as shi, chi, tsu, fu, i and e instead, according to contemporary
pronunciation.
Diacritics
Syllables beginning with the voiced consonants [g], [z], [d] and [b] are spelled with kana from the corresponding unvoiced columns (k, s, t
and h) and the voicing mark, dakuten. Syllables beginning with [p] are spelled with kana from the h column and the half-voicing mark,
handakuten.
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Dakuten diacritic marks, hiragana (left) and katakana (right)
g z d b p
a

i

u

e

o

zi, di, and du are often transcribed into English as ji, ji, and zu instead, respectively, according to contemporary pronunciation.
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 yon.
Yon digraphs, hiragana
k s t n h m r
ya

yu

yo

There are no digraphs for the semivowel y and w columns.
The digraphs are usually transcribed with three letters, leaving out the i: CyV. For example, is transcribed as kya.
si+y* and ti+y* are often transcribed sh* and ch* instead of sy* and ty*. For example, is transcribed as sha.
In earlier Japanese, digraphs could also be formed with w-kana. Although obsolete in modern Japanese, the digraphs (/kwa/)
and /(/kwi/), are still used in certain Okinawan orthographies. In addition, the kana can be used in Okinawan to form the
digraph , which represents the /kwe/ sound.
Modern usage
See also: Japanese writing system, Hiragana, Katakana.
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.
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Development of hiragana and katakana
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.
History
The first kana was a system called man'ygana, a set of kanji used for their
phonetic values, much as Chinese uses characters for their phonetic values in foreign
loanwords today. Man'ysh (), a poetry anthology assembled in 759, is
written in this early script. Hiragana developed as a distinct script from cursive
man'ygana, whereas katakana developed from abbreviated parts of regular script
man'ygana as a glossing system to add readings or explanations to Buddhist
sutras. Hiragana was developed for speed, whereas katakana developed to be
small.
Kana is traditionally said to have been invented by the Buddhist priest Kkai in the
9th century. Kkai certainly brought the Siddham script 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 Siddham, but the traditional iroha
arrangement follows a poem which uses each kana once.
The present set of kana was codified in 1900, and rules for their usage in 1946.
Identical manygana roots of
katakana and hiragana glyphs
a i u e o =:
- = = 2:3
k = = = = 4:1
s = = = 3:2
t = = = 3:2
n = = = = = 5:0
h = = = = 4:1
m = = = 3:2
y = = = 3:0
r = = = = 4:1
w = = 2:2
n 0:1
=: 6:4 5:4 6:4 7:2 9:1 33:15
Collation
Kana are the basis for collation in Japanese. They are taken in the order given by the gojon ( ), though iroha (
()) ordering is used for enumeration in some circumstances. Dictionaries differ in the sequence order for
long/short vowel distinction, small tsu and diacritics. As the Japanese do not use word spaces (except for children), there can be no word-
by-word collation; all collation is kana-by-kana.
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.
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0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F
304x
305x
306x
307x
308x
309x
30Ax
30Bx
30Cx
30Dx
30Ex
30Fx
Code points U+3040, U+3097, and U+3098 are unassigned as of Unicode 6.3. 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 ()
sometimes used in vertical writing. U+30FF is a ligature of koto (), 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+FF00U+FFEF), starting at U+FF65 and ending at U+FF9F (characters U+FF61U+FF64 are halfwidth punctuation
marks):
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F
FF6x
FF7x
FF8x
FF9x
There is also a small "Katakana Phonetic Extensions" range (U+31F0 ... U+31FF), which includes some extra characters for writing the
Ainu language.
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F
31Fx
Unicode version 6.0 also includes "Katakana letter archaic E" (U+1B000) and "Hiragana letter archaic YE" (U+1B001) in the Kana
Supplement block.
[3]
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 AB C DE F
1B00x
See also
Gojon
Romaji
Transliteration and Transcription
Historical kana usage
Man'ygana
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Hentaigana
References
1. ^ Thomas E. McAuley, Language change in East Asia, 2001:90
2. ^ ja:
3. ^ http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/Unicode-6.0/U60-1B000.pdf
External links
KanaQ (http://www.languagebug.com/kana_q) Kana flashcard tool that runs on mobile phones.
Real Kana (http://www.realkana.com/) Practice hiragana and katakana using different typefaces.
Origin of Hiragana (http://www.omniglot.com/writing/japanese_hiragana.htm)
Origin of Katakana (http://www.omniglot.com/writing/japanese_katakana.htm)
Change Kanji into Romaji and Hiragana (http://www.j-talk.com/nihongo/)
Kana web translator (http://www.qbit.it/lab/kana/) - Transliterate Kana to Rmaji
Kana Copybook (PDF) (http://brng.jp/50renshuu-s.pdf)
Kana no quiz (http://choplair.org/?en/Kana_no_quiz) Free/libre and cross-platform educational software to memorize Japanese kana
pronouncing & transcription.
KanaQuest (http://www.kanaquest.com/) Memorize Japanese words and kana with multiple quizzes.
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Categories: Japanese writing system Japanese writing system terms Kana Nara period Heian period
This page was last modified on 25 April 2014 at 11:11.
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