Keyword Search:

HIRAGANA

LANGUAGE Katakana Kanji Studying Japanese Japanese on computers

Around the 9th century, the Japanese developed an own writing system based on syllables: Hiragana and katakana (together: Kana). Of the two kana systems, hiragana is more cursive while katakana characters are quite angular. Hiragana and katakana each consist of 46 signs which originally were kanji but were strongly simplified over the centuries. When looking at a Japanese text, one can indeed clearly distinguish between two kinds of signs: the complicated kanji and the simpler kana signs. Among the syllables are 5 vowels (a i u e o). The rest are syllables combined by one of these vowels with a consonant (ka ki ku ke ko ra ri ru ...). One exception is the n. In addition, many syllables can be softened or hardened by adding two small strokes or a small circle in the top right corner next to the character. Hiragana table Even though one can theoretically write the whole language in hiragana, it is usually used only for grammatical endings of verbs, nouns, and adjectives, as well as for particles, and several other original Japanese words (in contrast to loan words that are written in katakana) which are not written in kanji. Hiragana is the first of all the writing systems taught to Japanese children usually in kindergarten. Many books for young kids are, therefore, written in hiragana only.

HIRAGANA Kana Web (Thomas Gantz Homepage) General information including audio files. Usa-chan teaches Kana (Katmekat) General information and flash card quiz. Learning Hiragana (Japanese Language Information) 17 short lessons with hiragana stroke orders, example words, practice drills. Internet Shodo: Writing Hiragana With animation and sound. Japanese ABC (Yukihiro Yabuta's Home Page) Quickly loaded kana tables. No links yet.