Hiragana

Hiragana
Font	Syllabary
languages	Japanese
Emergence	since approx. 800 AD
Officially in	Japan Palau (on Angaur )
ancestry	Chinese script  →  Man'yōgana   →  Hiragana
relative	Katakana , hentaigana
Unicode block	U + 3040..U + 309F
ISO 15924	Hira Hrkt (Hiragana and Katakana) Japan (Hiragana, Katakana, Kanji)

The Hiragana ( Japanese 平 仮 名 or ひ ら が な ) are a Japanese syllabary (more precisely Morales script ), next to Kanji and Katakana one of the three scripts of the Japanese language . Each hiragana characters is as Syllabogramm either a vowel or a consonant to the following vowel, with the exception of the added later character ん that a nasal represented.

use

In a typical Japanese sentence, the three scripts are each used for different sentence elements. Nouns are typically in Kanji or Katakana (for loan words ). In verbs, only the root of the word is written in Kanji, while the Okurigana , the grammatical part that is added at the end, is in Hiragana (Japanese is an agglutinating language ). The grammatical part also includes auxiliary verbs such as suru and aru , which are almost never written with Kanji, although there are Kanji for these words. Particles are also written in hiragana.

In Japanese character dictionaries, the kun reading is written using hiragana , while the katakana is used for the on reading . Hiragana continue to be used to clarify rare kanji or unusual kanji readings. The pronunciation of horizontally written characters is then placed above the character in hiragana, with vertical writing it is placed to the right of it. These pronunciation aids are known as furigana . Furigana are used in intermediate level textbooks and in books intended for a wider audience. Furigana are also used the first time names appear in scientific articles and dictionaries.

In contrast to an alphabet, there is no clearly defined order for Japanese syllables according to which they are arranged. Today the 50-lute table is mostly used for such purposes , but there are also other classification methods, e.g. B. the Iroha poem, which was used in the past and is still used today.

Hiragana are the first characters Japanese schoolchildren learn. The better primary schools require that the children already master the hiragana when they start school, which is why many children already learn the hiragana in kindergarten. Children's books are entirely in hiragana or contain only isolated, simple kanji with the reading in furigana.

The hiragana syllables

The basic set of hiragana syllables consists of a set of formerly 50 characters, 45 of which are still in regular use today, another syllable, ん, was added later.

In addition, there are two diacritical marks : With the dacute ( ゛ ) an unvoiced consonant is changed into a voiced one, k → g , t → d , s → z and h → b . With the hand acute ( ゜ ) an h is transformed into a p . In the Heian period , when the hiragana was developed, the consonants of the H series were pronounced more like p , but the consonant was weakened more and more by a sound shift . The handakuten marks the original pronunciation, so to speak.

The selection of syllables is also expanded by adding a lower case ya , yu or yo to the hiragana of the i-column . This palatalizes the vowel i to a j . The syllables formed in this way are called yōon in Japanese .

A small tsu っ , called sokuon , on the other hand, transforms the following consonant into a double consonant ( gemination ). In the Hepburn transcription this is written as a double consonant.

When rendering spoken language such as interjections , elongated sounds are sometimes represented by small appended vowels ( は ぁ, ね ぇ ). This happens especially when playing back spoken words (e.g. in manga or works from the field of trivial literature ). Young Japanese also use these small vowel syllables when communicating with one another via email on their mobile phones. These syllables cannot be found in regular standard Japanese.

Since the writing reforms in 1900 and 1945, the hiragana ゐ wi and ゑ we are no longer officially used. The う u with dakuten ( ゔ ) was introduced a few decades ago in order to be able to represent a w [βu] in foreign words, for example in the word “Venus” ( ヴ ィ ー ナ ス ). Since loanwords are mostly written in katakana, it is not used in hiragana.

Table of all hiragana syllables

The following table lists all hiragana and their transcription according to the Hepburn system based on the 50-sound table .

0 0	a	i	u	e	O	ya	yu	yo
	Individual graphs ( Gojuon )					Digraphs ( Yoon )
∅	あ a	い i	う u	え e	お o
k	か ka	き ki	く ku	け ke	こ ko	き ゃ kya	き ゅ kyu	き ょ kyo
s	さ sa	し shi	す see below	せ se	そ so	し ゃ sha	し ゅ shu	し ょ sho
t	た ta	ち chi 1	つ tsu	て te	と to	ち ゃ cha	ち ゅ chu	ち ょ cho
n	な na	に ni	ぬ nu	ね no	の no	に ゃ nya	に ゅ nyu	に ょ nyo
H	は ha	ひ hi	ふ fu	へ hey	ほ ho	ひ ゃ hya	ひ ゅ hyu	ひ ょ hyo
m	ま ma	み mi	む mu	め me	も mo	み ゃ mya	み ゅ myu	み ょ myo
y	や ya	2	ゆ yu	2	よ yo
r	ら ra	り ri	る ru	れ re	ろ ro	り ゃ rya	り ゅ ryu	り ょ ryo
w	わ  wa	( ゐ  i / wi ) 3	2	( ゑ  e / we ) 3	を  where
*	ん n
	Single graphs with diacritics ( Gojūon with Dakuten and Handakuten )					Digraphs with diacritics ( Yoon with Dakuten and handakuten )
G	が ga	ぎ gi	ぐ gu	げ ge	ご go	ぎ ゃ gya	ぎ ゅ gyu	ぎ ょ gyo
z	ざ za	じ ji	ず to	ぜ ze	ぞ zo	じ ゃ yes	じ ゅ ju	じ ょ jo
d	だ there	ぢ ji / dji / jyi	づ to / dzu	で de	ど do	( ぢ ゃ yes / dja ) 4	( ぢ ゅ ju / dju ) 4	( ぢ ょ jo / djo ) 4
b	ば ba	び bi	ぶ bu	べ be	ぼ bo	び ゃ bya	び ゅ byu	び ょ byo
p	ぱ pa	ぴ pi	ぷ pu	ぺ pe	ぽ po	ぴ ゃ pya	ぴ ゅ pyu	ぴ ょ pyo

¹The spelling て ぃ for ti (as opposed to ち chi ) occurs frequently when writing foreign words in Katakana ( テ ィ ), with Hiragana only in exceptional cases.

² Regarding yi, ye, wu:

These Hiragana were never used by the masses and disappeared from the Hiragana tablets as early as the Meiji period . The character (wu) has not yet been included in the Unicode standard, as even a historically uniform use has not yet been proven. So is z. B. unclear whether wu is derived from 汙 or from 㐵 . ? (ye), on the other hand, has been in the standard since Unicode Version 6.0 under the name "Hiragana Letter Archaic Ye", as it is the originally reconstructed form of the actual old Japanese / ye / sound; え(e), on the other hand, represented the / e / sound. 

Kanji of origin	衣	江
Hist. pronunciation	/ e /	/ each /
Hiragana	え	?
Katakana	?	エ
Current pronunciation	/ e /	/ e /

Hiragana ? (yi) , which was borrowed from the grass script form of 以, was added to the standard with version 10.0. Since it was not possible to differentiate between the use as hentaigana and transcriptive hiragana, it is in the "Extended Kana Block" like ye . Special fonts are required to display the two characters, as most font manufacturers do not support these two characters and the entire Hentaigana block. The installation of a special font such as UniHentaiKana or Hanazono Mincho ADFKO is therefore mandatory in order to display these characters.

³ The hiragana syllables ゐ (wi) and ゑ (we) are out of date and are no longer used today:

Due to the sound shift over time z. B. with bei from / ɰi / to / ji / and finally after / i / these two syllables with い and え coincide, so that in pre-war literature they only served visually to distinguish the originally different phonemes. For this reason, in addition to "we / e", "wye" is also a common transcription for ゑ. z. B. ゐ る (wiru) instead of い る (iru). The after-effects of the previous distinction between ゑ and え can still be seen today in the example of ゑ ん (円) heute え ん, which is still known abroad as "Yen" but not as "En".

^4thLikewise, ぢ ゃ (ja), ぢ ゅ (ju) and ぢ ょ (jo) have become obsolete in the current orthography, as these could be replaced by the phonetic じ ゃ, じ ゅ and じ ょ- depending on the region .

orthography

After the writing reforms of 1900 and 1945, Japanese with Hiragana and Katakana was essentially written as it was spoken. The three most important exceptions are the particles は, を and へ , written ha , wo and he , spoken wa , o and e . In these three cases the historical spelling was retained, although the pronunciation had changed since the 8th century.

The Japanese orthography ( 仮 名 遣 い kanazukai ) is more difficult for the Okurigana . So syllables that no longer belong to the reading of the Kanji (for example verb endings etc.) are written out with Hiragana. It is also often the case that a kanji has multiple readings and that different verbs are written using the same kanji. Examples of such are the couples 乗 る noru " einstieg " and 乗 せ る noseru "jmd. take on board ”(see transitive and intransitive Japanese verbs ) or 行 く iku “ go ”and 行 う okonau “ sth. let take place / organize ".

There are two hiragana for ji ( じ and ぢ ) and for zu ( ず and づ ). However, these two are not interchangeable. Usually じ for ji and ず for to use, but there are exceptions. If a syllable is only voiced by rendaku , the original syllable is given the dakuten . For example, 血 “blood” ち chi is read when it is on its own. In the compound 鼻血 " nosebleed " the second syllable is voiced, so it is read hanaji and は な ぢ is written, so the ち is retained. In some words that are read after reading Kun , the syllable combination chiji or tsuzu occurs, here in the Hiragana spelling , the character of the first syllable is always repeated with a dakute . Examples are chijimeru 縮（ち ぢ）め る "shorten" and tsuzuku 続（つ づ）く "persist".

The chōon ( ー ), a lengthening stroke for vowels, should, according to the orthography rules, only be used for katakana, although signs such as ら ー め ん ( rāmen ) can sometimes be found that defy it. This rule is also often ignored in the manga .

Stroke order

history

Above: Chinese rulebook ;
middle (red): grass font;
below: today's hiragana

Both Hiragana and Katakana were developed from the Man'yōgana , a selection of Chinese characters that were used by pronunciation rather than meaning. The Katakana developed through the omission of drawing elements from the rule script, which was also known as the "man's script" ( 男 手 otokode ). At the same time, the hiragana were developed, but from a different calligraphic form, the aesthetic, curved cursive script, the so-called grass script or women's script ( 女 手 onnade ). In grass script, all the individual strokes of a character merge into one, which is still recognizable in today's hiragana.

The grass script was cultivated by the court ladies in Heian-kyō , and the literary works of these women, such as the Genji Monogatari , are in Kanji and Hiragana.

Later on, the hiragana was adopted by men as well, and hiragana were mainly used for personal recordings and correspondence, while official documents were written in kanji and katakana.

In the Edo period , a separate genre of literature developed entirely in hiragana, the Kanahon and Kanazōshi . It served to entertain the larger urban population. Thanks to temple schools ( Terakoya ), Japan achieved a high literacy rate for the time; it is estimated that around 1850, before the opening , 50% of men and 20% of women could read and write, at least hiragana.

With the writing reforms in 1900 and 1945, the Japanese language received its current form. Hiragana became the standard script for okurigana and particles, while the role of katakana was reduced to transcription and other “special tasks”.

The writing reform of 1900 had other consequences: The lower case of the syllables ya , yu , yo and tsu was introduced. The historical hiragana were also not completely uniform, for many syllables there were several characters that were derived from different Chinese characters. The system was not standardized until 1900. The deviating signs have been called hentaigana ever since . The hentaigana no longer play a role in the usual written usage, but you can sometimes still find them on the signs of restaurants with traditional Japanese cuisine or on handwritten documents from traditional Japanese associations.

Hiragana in Unicode

In Unicode the hiragana are set between U + 3040 and U + 309F:

	0	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	A.	B.	C.	D.	E.	F.
U + 304x		ぁ	あ	ぃ	い	ぅ	う	ぇ	え	ぉ	お	か	が	き	ぎ	く
U + 305x	ぐ	け	げ	こ	ご	さ	ざ	し	じ	す	ず	せ	ぜ	そ	ぞ	た
U + 306x	だ	ち	ぢ	っ	つ	づ	て	で	と	ど	な	に	ぬ	ね	の	は
U + 307x	ば	ぱ	ひ	び	ぴ	ふ	ぶ	ぷ	へ	べ	ぺ	ほ	ぼ	ぽ	ま	み
U + 308x	む	め	も	ゃ	や	ゅ	ゆ	ょ	よ	ら	り	る	れ	ろ	ゎ	わ
U + 309x	ゐ	ゑ	を	ん	ゔ	ゕ	ゖ			゙	゚	゛	゜	ゝ	ゞ	ゟ

The hiragana block contains all the hiragana characters used in modern language, including the small vowels, the yōon kana, the sokuon - tsu , the historical wi and we . All the usual combinations of hiragana and the diacritical marks dakuten and handakuten also exist as independent characters, just like the actually not used u with dakuten .

The diacritical marks are also included as separate characters, U + 3099 and U + 309A. Thanks to the Unicode combination rules, hiragana can also be provided with diacritical marks where this is not common. U + 309B and U + 309C are once again the two diacritical marks, but this time as separate characters and not for combination. In addition, there are the lower case ka (U + 3095) and ke (U + 3096) used in counting words , and the digraph よ り yori (U + 309F), which is sometimes used in the vertical notation. U + 3040, U + 3097 and U + 3098 are not occupied in order to have space for possible additions.

Web links

Wiktionary: Hiragana  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Commons : Hiragana  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

• Code table “Hiragana” on unicode.org (PDF file; 106 kB).
• Hiragana Alphabet Reading and Writing on YouTube , May 20, 2019, accessed March 2, 2020.

swell

• Yujiro Nakata: The Art of Japanese Calligraphy . 2. print. Weatherhill / Heibonsha, New York NY et al. 1976, ISBN 0-8348-1013-1 ( The Heibonsha Survey of Japanese Art 27), carries out the development of onode and onnade .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ https://glyphwiki.org/wiki/hiragana-wu
2. ↑ http://hvitumavar.blog.se/japanese-original-50-kana-yi-ye-wu/
3. ↑ Glyphwiki reference. Retrieved November 16, 2018 . 
4. ↑ https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2007/07421-e-ye.pdf
5. ↑ http://hvitumavar.blog.se/japanese-original-50-kana-yi-ye-wu/
6. ↑ http://dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/862200
7. ↑ http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U1B000.pdf
8. ↑ UniHentaiKana
9. ↑ Hanazono Mincho ADFKO
10. ↑ "Although kana for wi and we exist, namely hiragana ゐ and ゑ, and katakana ヰ and ヱ, they are not used in modern Japanese writing. These kana exist because the sounds they represent existed in Japanese at the time the kana were created. "
11. ↑ http://www5a.biglobe.ne.jp/~accent/kana/kana0e.htm
12. ↑ http://nihongo.monash.edu/j_oldkana.html