It is a phonetic lettering system. The wordhiragana means "common" or "plain"kana (originally also "easy", as contrasted with kanji).[1][2][3]
Hiragana and katakana are bothkana systems. With few exceptions, eachmora in theJapanese language is represented by one character (or one digraph) in each system. This may be a vowel such as /a/ (hiraganaあ); a consonant followed by a vowel such as /ka/ (か); or /N/ (ん), anasalsonorant which, depending on the context and dialect, sounds either like Englishm,n orng ([ŋ]) when syllable-final or like thenasal vowels ofFrench,Portuguese orPolish.[citation needed][contradictory] Because the characters of the kana do not represent single consonants (except in the case of the aforementioned ん), the kana are referred to as syllabic symbols and not alphabetic letters.[4]
Hiragana is used to writeokurigana (kana suffixes following a kanji root, for example to inflect verbs and adjectives), various grammatical and function words includingparticles, and miscellaneous other native words for which there are nokanji or whose kanji form is obscure or too formal for the writing purpose.[5] Words that do have common kanji renditions may also sometimes be written instead in hiragana, according to an individual author's preference, for example to impart an informal feel. Hiragana is also used to writefurigana, a reading aid that shows thepronunciation of kanji characters.
There are two main systems ofordering hiragana: the old-fashionediroha ordering and the more prevalentgojūon ordering.
After the1900 script reform, which deemed hundreds of charactershentaigana, the hiragana syllabary consists of 48 base characters, of which two (ゐ andゑ) are only used in some proper names:
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 (butsi→shi,ti→chi,tu→tsu,hu→fu,wi→i,we→e,wo→o). Of the 50 theoretically possible combinations,yi,ye, andwu are completely unused. On thew row,ゐ andゑ, pronounced[i] and[e] respectively, are uncommon in modern Japanese, whileを, pronounced[o], is common as aparticle but otherwise rare. Strictly speaking, the singular consonantん (n) is considered to be outside thegojūon.
These basic characters can be modified in various ways. By adding adakuten marker ( ゛), avoiceless consonant is turned into avoiced consonant:k→g,ts/s→z,t→d,h/f→b andch/sh→j (alsou→v(u)). For example, か (ka) becomes が (ga). Hiragana beginning with anh (orf) sound can also add ahandakuten marker ( ゜) changing theh (f) to ap. For example, は (ha) becomes ぱ (pa).
A small version of the hiragana forya,yu, oryo (ゃ, ゅ or ょ respectively) may be added to hiragana ending ini. This changes thei vowel sound to a glide (palatalization) toa,u oro. For example, き (ki) plus ゃ (smallya) becomesきゃ (kya). Addition of the smally kana is calledyōon.
A smalltsu っ, called asokuon, indicates that the following consonant isgeminated (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 ann – for this purpose, the singularn (ん) is added in front of the syllable, as in みんな (minna, "all"). Thesokuon also sometimes appears at the end of utterances, where it denotes aglottal stop, as inいてっ! ([iteʔ], "Ouch!").
Two hiragana have pronunciations that depend on the context:
は is pronounced[wa] when used as a particle (otherwise,[ha]).
へ is pronounced[e] when used as a particle (otherwise,[he]).
Hiragana usually spellslong vowels with the addition of a second vowel kana; for example, おかあさん (o-ka-a-sa-n, "mother"). Thechōonpu (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, theOkinawan 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). Plain (clear) and voicediteration marks are written in hiragana as ゝ and ゞ, respectively. These marks are rarely used nowadays.
The following table shows the complete hiragana together with themodified Hepburn romanization andIPA transcription, arranged in four categories, each of them displayed in thegojūon order.[7][8][9][10] Those whose romanization are inbold do not use the initial consonant for that row. For all syllables besides ん, the pronunciation indicated is for word-initial syllables; for mid-word pronunciations see below.
In the middle of words, theg sound (normally[ɡ]) may turn into avelar nasal[ŋ] orvelar fricative[ɣ]. For example, かぎ (kagi, key) is often pronounced[kaŋi]. However, じゅうご (jūgo, fifteen) is pronounced as if it wasjū andgo stacked end to end:[d͡ʑɯːɡo].[11]
In many accents, thej andz sounds are pronounced asaffricates ([d͡ʑ] and[d͡z], respectively) at the beginning of utterances and fricatives[ʑ,z] in the middle of words. For example,すうじsūji[sɯːʑi] 'number',ざっしzasshi[d͡zaɕɕi] 'magazine'.
The singularn is pronounced[m] beforem,b andp,[n] beforet,ch,ts,n,r,z,j andd,[ŋ] beforek andg,[ɴ] at the end of utterances, and some kind ofhighnasal vowel[ɰ̃] before vowels, palatal approximants (y), andfricative consonants (s,sh,h,f andw).[citation needed]
In kanji readings, the diphthongsou andei are usually pronounced[oː] (long o) and[eː] (long e) respectively. For example,とうきょう (lit.toukyou) is pronounced[toːkʲoː] 'Tokyo', andせんせいsensei is[seɯ̃seː] 'teacher'. However,とうtou is pronounced[toɯ] 'to inquire', because theo andu are considered distinct,u being the verb ending in the dictionary form. Similarly,しているshite iru is pronounced[ɕiteiɾɯ], present progressive form ofする (suru, "to do").
In archaic forms of Japanese, there existed thekwa (くゎ[kʷa]) andgwa (ぐゎ[ɡʷa]) digraphs. In modern Japanese, these phonemes have been phased out of usage.
For a more thorough discussion on the sounds of Japanese, please refer toJapanese phonology.
With a few exceptions, such as for the threeparticles は (pronounced[wa] instead of[ha]), へ (pronounced[e] instead of[he]) and[o] (written を instead of お), Japanese when written in kana isphonemically orthographic, i.e. there is a one-to-one correspondence between kana characters and sounds, leaving only words'pitch accent unrepresented. This has not always been the case: a previous system of spelling, now referred to ashistorical kana usage, differed substantially from pronunciation; the three above-mentioned exceptions in modern usage are the legacy of that system.
There are two hiragana pronouncedji (じ and ぢ) and two hiragana pronouncedzu (ず and づ), but to distinguish them, particularly whentyping Japanese, sometimes ぢ is written asdi and づ is written asdu. These pairs are not interchangeable. Usually,ji is written as じ andzu is written as ず. There are some exceptions. If the first two syllables of a word consist of one syllable without adakuten and the same syllable with adakuten, the same hiragana is used to write the sounds. For example,chijimeru ('to boil down' or 'to shrink') is spelled ちぢめる andtsuzuku ('to continue') isつづく.
For compound words where the dakuten reflectsrendaku voicing, the original hiragana is used. For example,chi (血 'blood') is spelled ち in plain hiragana. When鼻hana ('nose') and血chi ('blood') combine to makehanaji (鼻血 'nose bleed'), the sound of血 changes fromchi toji. Sohanaji is spelledはなぢ. Similarly,tsukau (使う/遣う; 'to use') is spelledつかう in hiragana, sokanazukai (仮名遣い; 'kana use', or 'kana orthography') is spelledかなづかい in hiragana. However, there are cases where ぢ and づ are not used, such as the word for 'lightning',inazuma (稲妻). The first component,稲, meaning 'rice plant', is written いな (ina). The second component,妻 (etymologically夫), meaning 'spouse', is pronouncedつま (tsuma) when standalone or often as づま (zuma) when following another syllable, such in人妻 (hitozuma, 'married woman'). Even though these components of稲妻 are etymologically linked to 'lightning', it is generally arduous for a contemporary speaker to consciously perceiveinazuma as separable into two discrete words. Thus, the default spellingいなずま is used instead ofいなづま. Other examples includekizuna (きずな) andsakazuki (さかずき). Although these rules were officially established by a Cabinet Notice in 1986 revising themodern kana usage, they have sometimes faced criticism due to their perceived arbitrariness.
Officially, ぢ and づ do not occur word-initially pursuant to modern spelling rules. There were words such asぢばんjiban 'ground' in thehistorical kana usage, but they were unified under じ in themodern kana usage in 1946, so today it is spelled exclusivelyじばん. However,づらzura 'wig' (fromかつらkatsura) andづけzuke (a sushi term for lean tuna soaked in soy sauce) are examples of word-initial づ today.
No standard Japanese words begin with the kana ん (n). This is the basis of the word gameshiritori. んn is normally treated as its own syllable and is separate from the othern-based kana (na,ni etc.).
ん is sometimes directly followed by a vowel (a,i,u,e oro) or a palatal approximant (ya,yu oryo). These are clearly distinct from thena,ni etc. syllables, and there areminimal pairs such asきんえんkin'en 'smoking forbidden',きねんkinen 'commemoration',きんねんkinnen 'recent years'. In Hepburn romanization, they are distinguished with an apostrophe, but not all romanization methods make the distinction. For example, past prime ministerJunichiro Koizumi's first name is actuallyじゅんいちろうJun'ichirō pronounced[dʑɯɰ̃itɕiɾoː]
There are a few hiragana that are rarely used. Outside of Okinawan orthography,ゐwi[i] andゑwe[e] are only used in some proper names. 𛀁e was an alternate version of えe before spelling reform, and was briefly reused forye during initial spelling reforms, but is now completely obsolete. ゔvu is a modern addition used to represent the /v/ sound in foreign languages such as English, but since Japanese from a phonological standpoint does not have a /v/ sound, it is pronounced as /b/ and mostly serves as a more accurate indicator of a word's pronunciation in its original language. However, it is rarely seen becauseloanwords andtransliterated words are usually written inkatakana, where the corresponding character would be written as ヴ. The digraphsぢゃ,ぢゅ,ぢょ forja/ju/jo are theoretically possible inrendaku, but are nearly never used inmodern kana usage; for example, the word夫婦茶碗,meoto-jawan (couple bowls), spelledめおとぢゃわん, where茶碗 alone is spelledちゃわん (chawan).
Theみゅmyu kana is extremely rare in originally Japanese words; linguistHaruhiko Kindaichi raises the example of the Japanese family name Omamyūda(小豆生田) and claims it is the only occurrence amongst pure Japanese words. Itskatakana counterpart is used in many loanwords, however.
On the row beginning with わ /wa/, the hiragana ゐ /wi/ and ゑ /we/ are both quasi-obsolete, only used in some names. They are usually respectively pronounced [i] and [e]. In modified Hepburn romanization, they are generally writteni ande.[9]
It has not been demonstrated whether the mora /ji/ existed in old Japanese. Thoughye did appear in some textbooks during theMeiji period along with another kana foryi in the form of cursive 以. Today it is considered aHentaigana by scholars and is encoded in Unicode 10[12] (𛀆)[13][14] This kana could have a colloquial use, to convert the combo yui (ゆい) into yii (𛀆い), due to other Japanese words having a similar change.[15]
An early, now obsolete, hiragana-esque form ofye may have existed (𛀁[je][16]) in pre-Classical Japanese (prior to the advent ofkana), but is generally represented for purposes of reconstruction by the kanji 江, and its hiragana form is not present in any known orthography. In modern orthography,ye can also be written as いぇ (イェ inkatakana).
衣
江
Hiragana
え
𛀁
Katakana
𛀀
エ
While hiragana and katakana letters for "ye" were used for a short period after the advent of kana, the distinction between /ye/ and /e/ disappeared before glyphs could become established.
It has not been demonstrated whether the mora /wu/ existed in old Japanese. However, hiraganawu also appeared in different Meiji-era textbooks ().[17][18] Although there are several possible source kanji, it is likely to have been derived from a cursive form of theman'yōgana汙, although a related variant sometimes listed () is from a cursive form of紆.[19] However, it was never commonly used.[20] This character is included in Unicode 14 as HIRAGANA LETTER ARCHAIC WU (𛄟).[15]
Hiragana originated as simplified forms of similar-sounding Chinese characters.Hiragana character shapes were derived from Chinesecursive script (sōsho). Shown here is a sample of cursive script by 7th century calligrapherSun Guoting. Note the character 為 (wei), indicated by the red arrow, closely resembles the hiragana character ゐ (wi).
Hiragana developed fromman'yōgana,Chinese characters used for their pronunciations, a practice that started in the 5th century.[21] The oldest examples of Man'yōgana include theInariyama Sword, an iron sword excavated at the Inariyama Kofun. This sword is thought to be made in the year辛亥年 (most commonly taken to be C.E. 471).[22]The forms of the hiragana originate from thecursive script style ofChinese calligraphy. The table to the right shows the derivation of hiragana from manyōgana via cursive script. The upper part shows the character in theregular script form, the center character in red shows the cursive script form of the character, and the bottom shows the equivalent hiragana. The cursive script forms are not strictly confined to those in the illustration.
When it was first developed, hiragana was not accepted by everyone. The educated or elites preferred to use only the kanji system. Historically, in Japan, the regular script (kaisho) form of the characters was used by men and calledotokode (男手), "men's writing", while the cursive script (sōsho) form of the kanji was used by women. Hence hiragana first gained popularity among women, who were generally not allowed access to the same levels of education as men, thus hiragana was first widely used among court women in the writing of personal communications and literature.[23] From this comes the alternative name ofonnade (女手) "women's writing".[24] For example,The Tale of Genji and other early novels by female authors used hiragana extensively or exclusively. Even today, hiragana is felt to have a feminine quality.[25]
Male authors came to write literature using hiragana. Hiragana was used for unofficial writing such as personal letters, while katakana and kanji were used for official documents. In modern times, the usage of hiragana has become mixed withkatakana writing. Katakana is now relegated to special uses such as recently borrowed words (i.e., since the 19th century), names intransliteration, the names of animals, in telegrams, and for emphasis.
Originally, for all syllables there was more than one possible hiragana. In 1900, the system was simplified so each syllable had only one hiragana. The deprecated hiragana are now known ashentaigana (変体仮名).
Thepangram poemIroha-uta ("ABC song/poem"), which dates to the 10th century, uses every hiragana once (exceptn ん, which was just a variant of む before theMuromachi era).
The following table shows the method for writing each hiragana character. The table is arranged in a traditional manner, beginning top right and reading columns down. The numbers and arrows indicate thestroke order and direction respectively.
The Unicode hiragana block contains precomposed characters for all hiragana in the modern set, including small vowels and yōon kana for compound syllables as well as the rare ゐwi and ゑwe; the archaic 𛀁ye is included inplane 1 at U+1B001 (see below). All combinations of hiragana withdakuten andhandakuten used in modern Japanese are available as precomposed characters (including the rare ゔvu), and can also be produced by using a base hiragana followed by the combining dakuten and handakuten characters (U+3099 and U+309A, respectively). This method is used to add the diacritics to kana that are not normally used with them, for example applying the dakuten to a pure vowel or the handakuten to a kana not in the h-group.
Characters U+3095 and U+3096 are small か (ka) and small け (ke), respectively. U+309F is a ligature ofより (yori) occasionally used in vertical text. U+309B and U+309C are spacing (non-combining) equivalents to the combining dakuten and handakuten characters, respectively.
Historic and variant forms of Japanese kana characters were first added to theUnicode Standard in October, 2010 with the release of version 6.0, with significantly more added in 2017 as part of Unicode 10.
The Unicode block for Kana Supplement is U+1B000–U+1B0FF, and is immediately followed by the Kana Extended-A block (U+1B100–U+1B12F). These blocks include mainlyhentaigana (historic or variant hiragana):
In the following character sequences a kana from the /k/ row is modified by ahandakuten combining mark to indicate that a syllable starts with an initial nasal, known asbidakuon [ja]. As of Unicode 16.0, these character combinations are explicitly called out as Named Sequences:
Bopomofo (Zhùyīn fúhào, "phonetic symbols"), a phonetic system of 37 characters for writing Chinese developed in the 1900s and which is more common in Taiwan.
Iteration mark explains the iteration marks used with hiragana.
^Dual 大辞林 「平」とは平凡な、やさしいという意で、当時普通に使用する文字体系であったことを意味する。 漢字は書簡文や重要な文章などを書く場合に用いる公的な文字であるのに対して、 平仮名は漢字の知識に乏しい人々などが用いる私的な性格のものであった。 Translation: 平 [the "hira" part of "hiragana"] means "ordinary, common" or "easy, simple" since at that time [the time that the name was given] it was a writing system for everyday use. While kanji was the official system used for letter-writing and important texts, hiragana was for personal use by people who had limited knowledge of kanji.
^山田 健三 (Yamada Kenzō)."平安期神楽歌謡文献からみる「平仮名」の位置" [The Position of "Hiragana" As Seen from Kagura Song References of the Heian Period](PDF) (in Japanese). p. 239. Retrieved2022-04-18.
The "kata" in "katakana" does not mean just "one side", and it is well known (Takashi Kamei 1941) that it should be interpreted as a valuation epithet stating that something that should be there is missing, and considering the oppositional relationship summarized in figure (7), the word "hiragana" can be thought of in a valuation position as the "hira" kind of "kana".
The explanation of the termhiragana in theNihon Kokugo Daijiten dictionary states thathira means "unangular, easy for common people", and descriptions ofhira as a prefixing element in compounds as given in many dictionaries explain thishira as meaning "flat" (taira).
However, knowing that dictionary explanations of meaning do not always drive for the original senses, if we are to be brash, we might point out that this is not a fitting explanation of the original sense (core meaning) ofhira.Hira is morpheme/pira/, cognate with words like枚 (hira, "slip of paper, cloth, or something else flat") orひらひら (hirahira, "flutteringly"), and the core meaning indicates physical or emotional "thinness", andtaira ("flat") appears to be a derived meaning therefrom. As such, we naturally cannot get physical "thinness" fromhiragana, so thehira leans more towards an emotional expression, and much like forkatakana, from the perspective ofkana, it indicates a lower relative ranking [relative to thekanji], and the expression contains a slight nuance of discrimination or contempt.
^p. 108. Kataoka, Kuniyoshi. 1997. "Affect and letter writing: unconventional conventions in casual writing by young Japanese women".Language in Society 26:103–136.
