The gojūon (五十音) is the Alphabet of the Japanese Langue which indicates the order of the Kana. Gojū (五十) means “fifty” and “one” (音) means “sounds”. Gojūon thus means “fifty sounds”. Although the alphabet comprises nothing any more but 46 of them still of use and two not used.

The gojūon contains all the basic kana but does not include:

  • versions of kana with a Dakuten such as が or だ;
  • miniature kana such as っ for つ;
  • kana with ょ, the forms Yōon such as きょ or しゃ.

It is essential to use three writings to write Japanese: the spelling-books hiragana and katakana as well as the kanji (ideograms resulting from Chinese, approximately 2000).

The order of the gojūon is also the order of classification of the words in the dictionary. The order Iroha is also sometimes used, whereas for the Kanji, one uses the order of the radical .

History

The gojūon would have been created between the year 1004 and 1028. The order of the consonants of the gojūon is inspired about the consonants of the Sanskrit. The Iroha would go back to him to 1079.

Table

This table uses the Tategaki and the Yokogaki which are the written forms vertical Japanese. It must thus be read line vertically towards the left. For each cell, the first character is a hiragana, the second is the corresponding katakana, the third is the Rōmaji (according to the Méthode Hepburn) corresponding to the kana, and the fourth is the pronunciation according to the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).

1 These kana is not used any more.

Ordering

In the ordering based one the gojuon, smaller versions off kana are treated in the same way ace full size versions:

  • the Sokuon, the small kana tsu , is ordered in the same way broad ace the tsu , and after them. Thus, for example,
  • : まつまったくまつばまとう (matsu, mattaku, matsuba, tom cat)
  • Yōon sounds are ordered in the same way ace the full sized sounds, and before them, thus, for example,
  • : きょきよきょいきよいきょう (kyo, kiyo, kyoi, kiyoi, kyou)

Voiced versions off the kana (those with has Dakuten) are placed after the kana, and classified under to their unvoiced versions. Thus, for example,

すすきすずきすずしいすすむ (susuki, suzuki, suzushii, susumu).

Mnemonics

In order to remember the gojuon, various mnemonics cuts been devised. For example,

has H, K ana S ymbols: T ake NR except H ow M any Y or R ead W ell.
and
K ana S igns, T hink NR ow H ow M uch Y or R eally W ant (to learn them).

Initial The first letters in thesis sentences give the ordering off the non-voiced sounds.

For vowel ordering, the vowel sounds in the following English phrases may Be used ace has mnemonic:

has H, w' e' oo' N g' e' T O ld.

The vowel sounds in the English words approximate the Japanese vowels: has, I, U, E, O.

Refer

  • "The Japanese language" , Roy Andrew Miller, ISBN 0226527182, describes the origin off gojūon in Sanskrit.

  • Gendai Kokugo Reikai Jiten , ISBN 4095010428, used to obtain examples off dictionary ordering.

External links

  • depending sci.lang.japan FAQ one the origin off kana order contains the quote from the above refers.

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  • Kana Table (pdf)

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