Kana


Kana are syllabaries used to write Japanese phonological units, morae. In current usage, kana most commonly refers to hiragana and katakana. It can also refer to their ancestor magana, which were Chinese characters used phonetically to transcribe Japanese ; and hentaigana, which are historical variants of the now-standard hiragana.
Katakana, with a few additions, are also used to write Ainu. A number of systems exist to write the Ryūkyūan languages, in particular Okinawan, in hiragana. Taiwanese kana were used in Taiwanese Hokkien as ruby text for Chinese characters in Taiwan when it was under Japanese rule.
Each kana character corresponds to one phoneme or syllable, unlike kanji, which generally each corresponds to a morpheme. Apart from the five vowels, it is always CV, such as ka, ki, sa, shi, etc., with the sole exception of the C grapheme for nasal codas usually romanised as n. The structure has led some scholars to label the system moraic, instead of syllabic, because it requires the combination of two syllabograms to represent a CVC syllable with coda, a CVV syllable with complex nucleus, or a CCV syllable with complex onset.
The limited number of phonemes in Japanese, as well as the relatively rigid syllable structure, makes the kana system a very accurate representation of spoken Japanese.

Etymology

Kana is a compound of kari and na, which eventually collapsed into kanna and ultimately kana. Kana were so called in contrast with mana which were kanji used "regularly", or more specifically the regular script writing of such kanji.
It was not until the 18th century that the early-nationalist kokugaku movement, which promoted a move away from Sinocentric academia, began to reanalyze the script from a phonological point of view. In the following centuries, contrary to the traditional Sinocentric view, kana began to be considered a national Japanese writing system that was distinct from Chinese characters, which is the dominant view today.

Terms

Although the term 'kana' is now commonly understood as hiragana and katakana, it actually has broader application as listed below:
  • or : a syllabary.
  • * or : phonetic kanji used as syllabary characters, historically used by men.
  • **: the most prominent system of magana.
  • ***: cursive man'yōgana.
  • ****,,, or : a syllabary derived from simplified sōgana, historically used by women, historically sorted in Iroha order.
  • ***** or : obsolete variants of hiragana.
  • *** or : a syllabary derived by using bits of characters in man'yōgana, historically sorted in gojūon order.
  • ***: hiragana and katakana, as opposed to kanji.
  • **: magana for transcribing Japanese words, using, strict or loose, Chinese-derived readings. For example, would be spelt as 也末, with two magana with on'yomi for ya and ma; likewise, spelt as 比登 for hi and to.
  • **: magana for transcribing Japanese words, using native words ascribed to kanji. For example, would be spelt as 八間跡, with three magana with kun'yomi for ya, ma and to; likewise, spelt as 夏樫 for natsu and kashi.
  • ,, or : kanji used for meanings, historically used by men.
  • : mixed script including only kanji and katakana.

    Hiragana and katakana

The following table reads, in gojūon order, as a, i, u, e, o, then ka, ki, ku, ke, ko, and so on. n appears on its own at the end. Asterisks mark unused combinations.

  • There are presently no kana for ye, yi or wu, as corresponding syllables do not occur natively in modern Japanese.
  • *The sound is believed to have existed in pre-Classical Japanese, mostly before the advent of kana, and can be represented by the man'yōgana kanji 江. There was an archaic Hiragana derived from the man'yōgana ye kanji 江, which is encoded into Unicode at code point U+1B001, but it is not widely supported. It is believed that e and ye first merged to ye before shifting back to e during the Edo period. As demonstrated by 17th century-era European sources, the syllable we also came to be pronounced as . If necessary, the modern orthography allows to be written as いぇ, but this usage is limited and nonstandard.
  • *The modern Katakana e, エ, derives from the man'yōgana 江, originally pronounced ye; a "Katakana letter Archaic E" derived from the man'yōgana 衣 is encoded into Unicode at code point U+1B000, due to being used for that purpose in scholarly works on classical Japanese.
  • *Some gojūon tables published during the 19th century list additional Katakana in the ye, wu and yi positions. These are not presently used, and the latter two sounds never existed in Japanese. They were added to Unicode in version 14.0 in 2021. These sources also list in the Hiragana yi position, and in the ye position.
  • Although removed from the standard orthography with the gendai kanazukai reforms, wi and we still see stylistic use, as in ウヰスキー for whisky and ヱビス or ゑびす for Japanese kami Ebisu, and Yebisu, a brand of beer named after Ebisu. Hiragana wi and we are preserved in certain Okinawan scripts, while katakana wi and we are preserved in the Ainu language.
  • wo is preserved only as the accusative particle, normally occurring only in hiragana.
  • si, ti, tu, hu, wi, we and wo are usually romanized respectively as shi, chi, tsu, fu, i, e and o instead, according to contemporary pronunciation.
  • the sokuon or small tsu indicates gemination and is romanized by repeating the following consonant. For example, って is romanized tte.

    Diacritics

Syllables beginning with the voiced consonants , , and are spelled with kana from the corresponding unvoiced columns and the voicing mark, dakuten. Syllables beginning with are spelled with kana from the h column and the half-voicing mark, handakuten.
gzdbpngl
aKa |Sa |Ta |Ha |Ha |Ka |Ra |
iKi |Shi |Chi |Hi |Hi |Ki |Ri |
uKu |Su |Tsu |Fu |Fu |Ku |Ru |
eKe |Se |Te |He |He |Ke |Re |
oKo |So |To |Ho |Ho |Ko |Ro |

  • Note that the か゚, ら゚ and the remaining entries in the two rightmost columns, though they exist, are not used in standard Japanese orthography.
  • zi, di, and du are often transcribed into English as ji, ji, and zu instead, respectively, according to contemporary pronunciation.
  • Usually, , , , , are represented respectively by バ, ビ, ブ, ベ, and ボ, for example, in loanwords such as バイオリン, but the distinction can be preserved by using with voicing marks or by using and a vowel kana, as in ヴァ, ヴィ, ヴ, ヴェ, and ヴォ. Note that ヴ did not have a JIS-encoded Hiragana form until JIS X 0213, meaning that many Shift JIS flavours can only represent it as a katakana, although Unicode supports both.

    Digraphs

Syllables beginning with palatalized consonants are spelled with one of the seven consonantal kana from the i row followed by small ya, yu or yo. These digraphs are called yōon.
kstnhmr
yaきゃしゃちゃにゃひゃみゃりゃ
yuきゅしゅちゅにゅひゅみゅりゅ
yoきょしょちょにょひょみょりょ

  • There are no digraphs for the semivowel y and w columns.
  • The digraphs are usually transcribed with three letters, leaving out the i: CyV. For example, きゃ is transcribed as kya to distinguish it from the two-kana きや, kiya.
  • si+''y* and ti+y''* are often transcribed sh* and ch* instead of sy* and ty*. For example, しゃ is transcribed as sha, and ちゅ is transcribed as chu.
  • In earlier Japanese, digraphs could also be formed with w-kana. Although obsolete in modern Japanese, the digraphs くゎ and くゐ/くうぃ, are preserved in certain Okinawan orthographies. In addition, the kana え can be used in Okinawan to form the digraph くぇ, which represents the /kʷe/ sound.
  • In loanwords, digraphs with a small e-kana can be formed. For example, キェ, which is transcribed as kye.
gj 'j 'bpng
yaぎゃじゃぢゃびゃぴゃき゚ゃ
yuぎゅじゅぢゅびゅぴゅき゚ゅ
yoぎょじょぢょびょぴょき゚ょ

  • Note that the き゚ゃ, き゚ゅ and き゚ょ, though they exist, are not used in standard Japanese orthography.
  • zi+''y* and di+y''* are often transcribed j* instead of zy* and dy*, according to contemporary pronunciation. The form jy* is also used in some cases.