![]() In contrast, Katakana is used to represent foreign or borrowed words, articulate onomatopoeia, or otherwise add emphasis to a native word or phrase (as you would with ALL CAPITAL LETTERS in English, for example on a public sign or advertisement). Some text written with Kanji can also be accompanied by its furigana spelling. In Japan, young children are first taught Hiragana to spell out their names and basic vocabulary in Kindergarten and Elementary school. Beyond the differences in the way the characters look, the two scripts also hold different functions in the Japanese language.Īll the Hiragana characters can be used to write a native Japanese word or name, signify grammatical particles, and illustrate furigana (the phonetic pronunciation of Kanji characters). Katakana characters are more angular and simple. Hiragana, which literally means "flowing " or "simple " kana, is depicted with curvy lines and can be written almost like a cursive English word. However, there are some stark differences between the two writing systems. Hiragana and Katakana characters are both phonetic alphabet systems, where each written character represents one syllable sound. How are Hiragana & Katakana Used in Japanese? Therefore, Japanese Hiragana is used in combination with Katakana and Kanji characters to separate each word and create grammatically functional sentences. ![]() However, the text would be indecipherable (or at least very difficult to interpret) because Japanese words are written with no spaces between them. In theory, you could write everything in Hiragana. This makes it very easy to read and write Hiragana. Hiragana is a phonetic alphabet that can represent every sound in the Japanese language. Today, it is the most basic building block of the modern Japanese language. In 1946, the Japanese government codified the current orthography. Over the course of time, Japanese Hiragana was eventually simplified into a one-to-one relationship between written and spoken syllables. Originally developed to sound out Chinese characters, this curvy script was used primarily by women and referred to as "onnade," or "women's hand." Men typically wrote in Kanji or Katakana. Sign up for our free trial What is Hiragana? A Quick Background to the Japanese Language
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