Hiragana

Uses

The hiragana make it possible to write:

Japanese words to which no Kanji corresponds, for example the particles such as から (will kara) and suffixes such as さん (san);
the Japanese words whose writing in kanji is either unknown of the author or part of the assistantship, or considered to be too formal;
the grammatical Okurigana, in particular Morpheme S, for example in 食べました (tabemashita);
the Furigana, i.e. pronunciations of kanji for the readers who would not know them.

The presence of hiragana among Sinogramme S is in general enough to identify the Japanese text (easiest to locate for that being the very frequent の (No).

Compositions of the hiragana

The hiragana consist of a whole of fundamental natures, the Gojūon (五十音, literally “fifty sounds”, although there remains about it today only 46), which can be modified as follows:

the addition of a dakuten ( ゛ ) transforms a deaf consonant into sound consonant: K → G , T → D , S → Z and H → B ; in abstract writings, in particular in the Manga, one uses sometimes the dakuten on vowels to note a strangled sound;
the addition of a handakuten ( ゜ ) transforms the H into p ;
the addition of a reduced version of the hiragana ya , yu or yo (respectively ゃ , ゅ or ょ ) transforms the vowel I which precedes it in the palatalizing;
small a っ ( tsu ) indicates a consonant Géminé E, which can appear only before one fricative or a Glottal stop; it is represented in Rōmaji by doubling the consonant which follows it; in abstract writings, it is also used at the end of the word to indicate a hard or chopped articulation, to express anger or agitation for example.

It is possible to represent other sounds using hiragana by using small versions of the five vowels. They are used, especially in an abstract context, to represent sounds which grow blurred gradually (はぁ, ねぇ).

Table of the hiragana

Rōmaji according to the Method Hepburn. Kana in rouge is obsolete today. The lengthening of the vowel for the series of kanas with O or U is done using the kana う ( U ); example: とうきょう = Tōkyō , except in some words where one redoubles the kana お ( O ); ex: おおきい ōkī , “large”. It acts in fact old *owo .

Order of classification

The order of the gojūon (basic kana) is important since it is today the order more used for the classification in the dictionaries, the phone books, etc, with the Japan. One finds still sometimes the order traditional Iroha , of the name of the poem pangramme which gives the order of it.

The kana with diacritic or of small size are compared to the basic kana for the classification. If two words have same the basic kana, the priority is given to the simple kana, then with that with diacritic the dakuten , then with that with diacritic the handakuten , then with that of small size. The Katakana and the hiragana are treated in the same way for the classification.

Direction of writing of the hiragana

The hiraganas, just like the Chinese characters, have a definite direction of writing. Writing order of the features which takes its importance at the time of the Japanese Calligraphie.

Origins

The hiragana, like the katakana, were formed by insulation of part of a Kanji homophonous: they are thus simplified forms of Chinese Caractères.

Conceived at their origin to be learned and traced more easily, they were called onnate (the hand of the women).

The following table gives, for each kana (on the left), the kanji from which it draws its origin (on the right):

Others

code ISO 15924: Hira

External bonds

Converteur Romanji-Kana Transforms the rōmaji into kana
Apprendre the hiragana with WikiLivres
Apprendre the hiragana and the katakana
Furigana.jp Convertir the Web pages or the Japanese texts into three various formats to facilitate the reading of the characters: furigana, kana or rōmaji
Realkana.com To learn the hiragana and the katakana by a exercise from memorizing
Free Kana Let us injure

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Simple: Hiragana Zh-classical: 平假名

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