Hiragana

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

Related Topics:
Kana - Japanese - Syllabary - Japanese writing system - Katakana - Kanji - Rōmaji

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Hiragana are used, for example, for:

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• 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 ????? (used like this, hiragana are called okurigana).
• Giving the pronunciation of kanji for readers who may not know them (used like this, hiragana are called furigana).
• Stylistic purposes. Hiragana may be perceived as looking more traditional, feminine, childish, or kawaii (cute).

See the main article Japanese writing system for more discussion of when the various systems of writing are used.

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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".

Related Topics:
Syllable - Mora

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

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There are two main systems of ordering hiragana, the old-fashioned iroha ordering, and the more prevalent goj?on ordering.

Related Topics:
Ordering hiragana - Iroha - Goj?on

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Hiragana: The hiragana writing system ►