Hiragana

Hiragana (平仮名, literally "smooth kana") are a Japanese syllabary, one of four Japanese writing systems (the others are katakana, kanji and rōmaji;).

Hiragana are used for:

Japanese words for which there are no kanji, for example particles such as kara から and suffixes such as ~san さん.
Japanese words for which the kanji form is not known to the writer, not expected to be known to the readers, or too formal for the writing purpose.
Verb and adjective inflections, for example in tabemashita 食べました (used like this, hiragana are called okurigana 送り仮名).
Giving the pronunciation of kanji for readers who may not know them (used like this, hiragana are called furigana).

Each hiragana represents one syllable (technically, one mora), and is either a vowel on its own (such as a あ), a consonant followed by a vowel (such as ka か), or ん, which sounds like the English "m" or "n".

The presence of hiragana among Chinese characters is usually sufficient to identify a text as Japanese.

Table of contents

1 The hiragana writing system
2 Spelling rules
3 Pronunciation
4 Collation
5 History
6 Hiragana in Unicode

The hiragana writing system

The hiragana consist of a basic set of characters, the gojūon (五十音, literally "fifty sounds", but only 45 are in common use today), which can be modified as follows:

Adding a dakuten (濁点) marker ゛ turns an unvoiced consonant into a voiced consonant, in particular it changes k→g, t→d, s→z, and h→b.

Adding a handakuten (半濁点) marker ゜ changes h→p.

Adding a small version of the hiragana for ya, yu or yo (ゃ, ゅ or ょ respectively) changes a preceding i vowel sound to a glide palatalization.
A small tsu っ indicates a glottal stop. Typically this only appears before consonants that are fricatives or stops. This is representated in romaji by doubling the following consonant. Occasionally this will follow the last vowel in a word to indicate surprise.

There are ways to represent other sounds with hiragana, using miniscule versions of the five vowel kana. This is not generally used in formal writing, but is occasionally used with loanwords in katakana in an attempt to approximate more closly the source word's pronunciation.

There are a few hiragana which are not in the standard modern set. wi ゐ and we ゑ are obsolete. vu ゔ is modern and is pronounced as bwu to approximate the "v" sound in foreign languages such as English (it is rarely seen because transliterated words are usually written in katakana).

If you have a font including Japanese characters, you can view the following chart of hiragana together with their Hepburn romanization.

Hepburn Romanization of Hiragana
あ a い i う u え e お o (ya) (yu) (yo)

か ka き ki く ku け ke こ ko きゃ kya きゅ kyu きょ kyo
さ sa し shi す su せ se そ so しゃ sha しゅ shu しょ sho
た ta ち chi つ tsu て te と to ちゃ cha ちゅ chu ちょ cho
な na に ni ぬ nu ね ne の no にゃ nya にゅ nyu にょ nyo
は ha ひ hi ふ fu へ he ほ ho ひゃ hya ひゅ hyu ひょ hyo
ま ma み mi む mu め me も mo みゃ mya みゅ myu みょ myo
や ya ゆ yu よ yo
ら ra り ri る ru れ re ろ ro りゃ rya りゅ ryu りょ ryo
わ wa を wo
ん n

が ga き gi ぐ gu げ ge ご go ぎゃ gya ぎゅ gyu ぎょ gyo
ざ za じ ji ず zu ぜ ze ぞ zo じゃ ja じゅ ju じょ jo
だ da ぢ ji づ zu で de ど do
ば ba び bi ぶ bu べ be ぼ bo びゃ bya びゅ byu びょ byo
ぱ pa ぴ pi ぷ pu ぺ pe ぽ po ぴゃ pya ぴゅ pyu ぴょ pyo

Hepburn Romanization of Hiragana
あ a	い i	う u	え e	お o	(ya)	(yu)	(yo)

か ka	き ki	く ku	け ke	こ ko	きゃ kya	きゅ kyu	きょ kyo
さ sa	し shi	す su	せ se	そ so	しゃ sha	しゅ shu	しょ sho
た ta	ち chi	つ tsu	て te	と to	ちゃ cha	ちゅ chu	ちょ cho
な na	に ni	ぬ nu	ね ne	の no	にゃ nya	にゅ nyu	にょ nyo
は ha	ひ hi	ふ fu	へ he	ほ ho	ひゃ hya	ひゅ hyu	ひょ hyo
ま ma	み mi	む mu	め me	も mo	みゃ mya	みゅ myu	みょ myo
や ya		ゆ yu		よ yo
ら ra	り ri	る ru	れ re	ろ ro	りゃ rya	りゅ ryu	りょ ryo
わ wa				を wo
				ん n

が ga	き gi	ぐ gu	げ ge	ご go	ぎゃ gya	ぎゅ gyu	ぎょ gyo
ざ za	じ ji	ず zu	ぜ ze	ぞ zo	じゃ ja	じゅ ju	じょ jo
だ da	ぢ ji	づ zu	で de	ど do
ば ba	び bi	ぶ bu	べ be	ぼ bo	びゃ bya	びゅ byu	びょ byo
ぱ pa	ぴ pi	ぷ pu	ぺ pe	ぽ po	ぴゃ pya	ぴゅ pyu	ぴょ pyo

This image shows hiragana and katakana (grouped vertically):

Spelling rules

Note that there are two hiragana pronounced ji (じ and ぢ) and two hiragana pronounced zu (ず and づ). These pairs are not interchangeable. The exact spelling rules are referred to as kanazukai (かな使い, "kana use"). In general, the rules are:

If the first two hiragana of a word are the same, but the second one has a dakuten, use the same hiragana as the first one, for example chijimeru is spelled ちぢめる.
For compound words where the dakuten has added due to compounding, use the original hiragana. For example, chi (血 "blood") is spelled ち, so hanaji (鼻血, "bloody nose") is spelled はなぢ, and tsukau (使う; "to use") is spelled つかう, so kanazukai (かな使い; "kana use", "kana orthography") is spelled かなづかい. (However, this does not apply when the second element is not considered to be a meaningful, separable element: in these cases, use the default spelling given below. Thus, even though inazuma (稲妻, "lightning") is written using the kanji tsuma 妻 ("wife"), that is not considered a separable suffix and so inazuma is spelled いなずま and not *いなづま.)
ji (痔, "hemorrhoids") is written ぢ. (Actually, according to dictionaries it should be written じ, but a commercial for hemorrhoid medicine popularized the incorrect version.)
Otherwise, use the default: write ji as じ and zu as ず.

n ん can never be at the beginning of a Japanese word. This fact is at the basis of the word game shiritori. However, n is sometimes directly followed by a vowel. For example, ren'ai 恋愛 is spelled れんあい and den'atsu 電圧 is spelled でんあつ.

Pronunciation

See the main article on the Japanese language.

Collation

Hiragana are the basis for collation in Japanese. They are taken in the order given by the gojūon (あいうえお … わをん), though iroha ordering is used for enumeration in some circumstances. Dictionaries differ in the sequence order for long/short vowel distinction, small tsu and diacritics. As the Japanese do not use word spaces (except for children), there can be no word-by-word collation; all collation is kana-by-kana.

History

Hiragana developed from man'yōgana, Chinese characters used exclusively for their pronunciations, a practice which started in the 5th century. Literature was written using these characters, and as the forms of the man'yōgana became simplified (flattened), the hiragana came in to existence, used mainly by women.

Hiragana were not accepted by everyone. Many felt that the language of the educated was still Chinese. However it gained in popularity among women as they were not allowed access to higher education. (From this comes the alternative name of onnade (女手, "women's writing").) For example, The Tale of Genji and other early novels by female authors used hiragana extensively or exclusively. Male authors also wrote literature using hiragana. Hiragana with its flowing style came to be used for unofficial writing such as personal letters while Katakana and Chinese were used for official documents. In modern times, it has become preferred over katakana, which is now relegated to special uses such as borrowed words and names in transliteration.

Most sounds had more than one hiragana. In 1900, the system was simplified so each sound had only one hiragana. Other hiragana are known as hentaigana.

Hiragana in Unicode

In Unicode, Hiragana occupy code points U+3040 to U+309F [1]:

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F
304 ぀ぁあぃいぅうぇえぉおかがきぎく
305 ぐけげこごさざしじすずせぜそぞた
306 だちぢっつづてでとどなにぬねのは
307 ばぱひびぴふぶぷへべぺほぼぽまみ
308 むめもゃやゅゆょよらりるれろゎわ
309 ゐゑをんゔゕゖ゗゘゙゚゛゜ゝゞゟ