As you may be aware, the Japanese language has THREE written languages. Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji. The first two are often referred to as Japanese syllabaries (and in Japanese, Kana), as they are purely phonetic sounds whereas Kanji is a logographic (one symbol stands for an entire word; logograph is a better term than pictograph, side note). You can also think of them as the Japanese alphabet.
In order to read Japanese, you must have a good grasp on all three as written Japanese is a combination of kana and kanji. If you are trying to learn some basic Japanese, it’s super helpful to learn Hiragana and Katakana. Don’t worry, you can do this fast!
In my opinion, it’s a little easier when you understand the background.
How to write Hiragana and Katakana in Kanji
Now I’m just trying to be confusing, not really! Keep reading and you’ll get the lead in. While you most likely will see hiragana written as ひらがな, it can also be written in Kanji, 平仮名. Katakana is written IN katakana as カタカナbut it also has a kanji spelling, 片仮名. Why is this?
What is Kana (仮名)?
Let’s start at the beginning. I think there is a misconception that only Japanese kanji were derived from Chinese. Nope, they didn’t have ANY written language before that. Kanji was hard. So they borrowed even further to create the Japanese syllabaries. 仮名, or Kana, literally means “temporary” or “borrowed” name.
Hiragana and Katakana both derived from Chinese Characters as well. Notice the second half of those words, and ignore the fact that the “k” in kana gets changed to a “G” in hiragana for the time being. That’s something to do with the sounds and when you have “kanji-kanji compounds”, as I like to say. They are both “kana”.
So, where did hiragana and katakana come from?
The builders of the Japanese written language found kanji that had the sound they were looking for and simplified it down to something easier to write. The 平 in Hiragana means “ordinary”, so purely a simplification of the original . 片 in Katakana means “incomplete” or “one sided”, meaning they just took part of a character.
But why are there TWO syllabaries in Japanese?
Just to make it more difficult for us, I kid, I kid. Hiragana can be considered the “cursive” version of the syllabaries, whereas Katakana is more angular and “script”. Due to that, when they were first developed, Hiragana was more often used by women (it’s prettier) and Katakana was used by men. That’s long since been lost.
When do you use hiragana and katakana?
You could write Japanese purely in kana but it would be greatly confusing. Why? Because Japanese has only about 100 distinct sounds to its name (compared to 1000s in English) so many words are exactly the same. Hence, there is furigana (振り仮名) often used for complicated kanji as well as almost exclusively in children’s books. These are the small kana characters above kanji which allows you to know how to pronounce them.
Hiragana is used in conjunction with kanji (logographic characters) to create adverbs, verbs, etc. Katakana nowadays is used for non-Chinese derived foreign words. Why non-Chinese? Because Chinese words they just use the original Chinese characters :). You will also see Katakana when an emphasis is meant, similar to italics.
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The Fifty Sounds (五十音) of Learning Hiragana and Katakana
The Japanese syllabaries or Japanese alphabet are both organized into 5 X 10 tables. The 五十音 (go-jyuu-on, fifty sounds) or sometimes referred to as a-i-u-e-o order by English speaking learners. Don’t get it mixed up with English vowel order!
Just to make it confusing, it’s not actually 50 sounds but 46 + 1. The plus 1 is for “n” which you’ll never see it by itself. “Yi”, “ye”, and “wu” never existed as best I know. “Wi” and “we” were officially removed in 1946 due to the fact that they were similar enough to “i” and “e”. In old texts, you will sometimes see them.
The consonants are in the order so it’s important to remember it. Not just because it is required if you want to use a dictionary! I like this mnemonic (remember I love memory science!) from “Learning Japanese Hiragana and Katakana”. Take the first letter of each of the words and that gets you the order.
“Ah, Kana signs! Take note how many you read well (n).”
from “Learning Japanese Hiragana and Katakana”
The other 50 or so sounds to get Japanese 100 sounds
Remember I said there are about 100 sounds in Japanese and that’s what makes learning kanji important? I constantly have to ask my coworkers, “can you write the kanji for that?” if I don’t know the context well enough to know which word they mean.
Well, if the Japanese syllabaries or Japanese alphabet have 47 sounds, where are the rest coming from?
You have the following: 20 dakuon, 5 handokuon, 36 youon and 1 sokuon. You also have mini vowel modifiers now too but that’s really a modern addition and I’m not as good with them so I’m not going to talk about them. Because honestly, when you are first learning and even what you will see in country, you won’t need that.
Dakuon 濁音
Translated is “voiced sound”, however, that first kanji is “turbid” (big word, I know) which can mean “deficient in clarity” which is exactly what these sounds are! They are modifiers to the originals. So when you see a ” or tenten mark (yes, very similar to quotation mark), K turns into G, S turns into Z, T turns into D and H turns into B.
Ji and Zu are written as the Z line unless they are clearly derived from Chi and Tsu in compounds and repeat syllables.
Handakuon 半濁音
This is a half-dakuon. Or a “half turbid sound”….Oh, Japan. You add a “maru” (small circle to the top right-hand corner) which turns H into P.
Youon 拗音
This combination of “i” column with ya, yu or yo and shortens the sound.
For example, shi (し) and ya (や) become sha (しゃ).
Sokuon 促音
And this is why my Japanese is better than my English. The English term for this is “Geminate”. It means to double or repeat a speech sound or identical adjacent sounds. Little confusing as you double the NEXT consonant.
For example, いった, itta. To type this with the Japanese language turned on for your keyboard, you just put i-t-t-a and it will automatically do the “small tsu” (っ) character. It’s more of a pause than an actual sound.
5 Tips for learning the Japanese alphabet or Japanese syllabaries
1. Learn hiragana first
Yes, I’m serious. Hiragana! Sure, katakana is useful for menus but it will help you more, in the long run, to learn Japanese if you can read how the majority of the Japanese language is written. The very basics of conversation, “こんにちは” (konnichiwa, good morning), are in hiragana after all.
2. Practice writing hiragana and katakana
This is the only time I will tell you it is also helpful to WRITE. Kanji there isn’t much need as typing is easier but for hiragana and katakana practice it is important. Some practice writing will help them stick in your brain.
One book that I use and love, if you couldn’t tell from the quote above, is “Learning Japanese Hiragana and Katakana“.
3. Look at kana or Japanese alphabet regularly
Next? Look at the kana regularly. Did you sign up for my cheat sheet already? I suggest you print it out and tape it where you’ll notice it. One of the best spots? Namely the wall in front of your toilet, if you have one available.
Have a free minute? Use your writing hiragana and katakana practice above to make yourself some flashcards. Then during commercial breaks watching awesome Japanese shows or anime you can do a quick run through.
Don’t have time to make them yourself? You can but there are also some really great sets already made from you.
4. Get an app
There are plenty of good free apps out there but if you want it to “Stick”, make sure to get one based on memory science. Make a story about the characters to remember them by. To me, た almost looks like “ta” for instance, as a super simple example. Memory science works best if the association is outlandish though. Make up something crazy!
5. Speak the sounds out loud
Another helpful hint? Say the syllable out loud as you review them. You want to get to the point that you are thinking in hiragana and katakana. It may just be the visual nature of my brain but when I say a word, I normally see how it is written in my minds eye.
So when saying the sounds, at first I was converting them to romaji (English alphabet) in my head, and then spitting back out the Japanese writing. Having multiple mental functions going at once (hearing and visual) helps speed this process along, of “thinking fluently”.
Eventually, you start “seeing” the kana instead of the English equivalent. And once you have those basics, you’ll be moving on to Japanese vocabulary and speaking in no time.
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