Hiragana Alphabet at a Glance
- 46 basic characters representing syllables in the Japanese phonetic system [1]
- Used by over 125 million Japanese speakers worldwide [2]
- One of three writing systems used in Japanese (alongside Katakana and Kanji) [2]
- Developed around 9th century CE from simplified Chinese characters [2]
- Phonetic script where characters represent sounds rather than meanings [2]
- Used for native Japanese words, grammatical elements, and words without Kanji [3]
- First script taught to Japanese children for reading and writing [3]
Basic Hiragana Characters
The 46 basic Hiragana characters form the foundation of the script, representing pure syllable sounds that are combined to write native Japanese words and grammatical elements.
Dakuten and Handakuten Characters
Dakuten (゛) and handakuten (゜) are diacritical marks added to basic characters to create 25 additional sounds, changing voicing and creating variations like が (ga) from か (ka).
Contracted Sounds Yoon
Yōon (contracted sounds) are created by combining certain characters with smaller や (ya), ゆ (yu), or よ (yo), producing 33 palatalized syllables like きゃ (kya) and しゅ (shu).
Native Japanese Numbers in Hiragana:
While numbers are typically written using Kanji or Arabic numerals, native Japanese number words can be written phonetically in Hiragana, such as ひとつ (hitotsu) for "one" and ふたつ (futatsu) for "two".
Special Characters
Hiragana uses common punctuation marks and symbols similar to those used in Japanese writing, including iteration marks and special notation for emphasis and phonetic clarity.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
References:
- [1] Unicode Consortium. "Hiragana Block (U+3040-U+309F)". Retrieved from Unicode Hiragana
- [2] Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. "Japanese Writing System - Official Overview". Japanese government official documentation on writing systems (URL no longer accessible)
- [3] Japanese Language Proficiency Test. "Hiragana and Katakana Syllabaries". Retrieved from JLPT Sample Test
Sambhu Raj Singh ·