Hiragana is one of the phonetic writing systems used in Japanese. It has numerous crucial roles in the Japanese writing system.
The words in the language are mostly written in Kanji, but the sounds of the Kanji are represented as Hiragana. When learning how to pronounce Kanji, there will be a notation next to or above the character, this is called Furigana. Not all words in the language have a Kanji, and words it’s also accepted for you to just use the Hiragana over the Kanji. If you look at the children’s book in Japan, most of them will be Hiragana as the children have not yet learnt Kanji yet.
Hiragana plays a critical role in Japanese grammar, acting as the glue that holds sentences together. It is used to write particles such as は (wa), が (ga), and を (wo) that indicate grammatical relationships between words, and for conjugation endings that modify verbs and adjectives. For example, in the sentence 食べます (tabemasu, “to eat”), the verb root 食べ (tabe) is written with kanji, while the conjugation ます (masu) is written in Hiragana to indicate the polite form.
Hiragana Characters
Hiragana has 46 basic characters and the characteristics of hiragana characters are more circular then katakana characters.
The sounds of the hiragana characters all end with a, i, u, e, o with the exception of ん (n).
| Vowel | A | I | U | E | O |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| あ (a) | い (i) | う (u) | え (e) | お (o) | |
| K | か (ka) | き (ki) | く (ku) | け (ke) | こ (ko) |
| S | さ (sa) | し (shi) | す (su) | せ (se) | そ (so) |
| T | た (ta) | ち (chi) | つ (tsu) | て (te) | と (to) |
| N | な (na) | に (ni) | ぬ (nu) | ね (ne) | の (no) |
| H | は (ha) | ひ (hi) | ふ (fu) | へ (he) | ほ (ho) |
| M | ま (ma) | み (mi) | む (mu) | め (me) | も (mo) |
| Y | や (ya) | ゆ (yu) | よ (yo) | ||
| R | ら (ra) | り (ri) | る (ru) | れ (re) | ろ (ro) |
| W | わ (wa) | を (wo) | |||
| N | ん (n) |
Hiragana with Diacritical Marks
There are certain hiragana that have their sounds change by adding a diacritic mark to change the sound of certain hiragana.
Dakuten (゛), or ten-ten, is the small diagonal mark placed on the top right of hiragana characters to change the sound of certain characters.
Handakuten (゜) is the small circled placed of on the top right of characters starting with H to change the sound from H to P.
| Vowel | A | I | U | E | O |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| G | が (ga) | ぎ (gi) | ぐ (gu) | げ (ge) | ご (go) |
| Z | ざ (za) | じ (ji) | ず (zu) | ぜ (ze) | ぞ (zo) |
| D | だ (da) | ぢ (ji) | づ (zu) | で (de) | ど (do) |
| B | ば (ba) | び (bi) | ぶ (bu) | べ (be) | ぼ (bo) |
| P | ぱ (pa) | ぴ (pi) | ぷ (pu) | ぺ (pe) | ぽ (po) |
Hiragana Contracted Sounds
Contracted sounds are a type of syllable that is formed by having a small “Y” hiragana: や (ya), ゆ (yu), or よ (yo). This results in creating a character ending in those sounds.
| Row | Ya (や) | Yu (ゆ) | Yo (よ) |
|---|---|---|---|
| K | きゃ (kya) | きゅ (kyu) | きょ (kyo) |
| S | しゃ (sha) | しゅ (shu) | しょ (sho) |
| T | ちゃ (cha) | ちゅ (chu) | ちょ (cho) |
| N | にゃ (nya) | にゅ (nyu) | にょ (nyo) |
| H | ひゃ (hya) | ひゅ (hyu) | ひょ (hyo) |
| M | みゃ (mya) | みゅ (myu) | みょ (myo) |
| R | りゃ (rya) | りゅ (ryu) | りょ (ryo) |
| G | ぎゃ (gya) | ぎゅ (gyu) | ぎょ (gyo) |
| Z | じゃ (ja) | じゅ (ju) | じょ (jo) |
| D | ぢゃ (ja) | ぢゅ (ju) | ぢょ (jo) |
| B | びゃ (bya) | びゅ (byu) | びょ (byo) |
| P | ぴゃ (pya) | ぴゅ (pyu) | ぴょ (pyo) |
っ (Sokuon) Connecting Sounds
In Japanese, the small っ (not the regular-sized つ) is used to indicate a connect the sounds of the end of the first character, to the beginning of the next character. This small っ appears in the middle of words and affects pronunciation by adding a slight pause before the following consonant. It makes speech sound more natural and rhythmical.
The small っ is placed before a consonant in the k, s, t, or p rows. When this happens, the consonant is doubled in pronunciation.
If we have a look at the word such as まって, this would be pronounced as mat-te.
If the small っ is removed then it would be come まて, this would be pronounced as ma-te instead.
Examples:
| Hiragana | Romaji | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| きって | kitte | “Stamp” |
| さっか | sakka | “Writer” |
| しっぱい | shippai | “Failure” |
| まって | matte | “Wait” |
In these words, the consonants t, k, and p are doubled, creating a small pause before pronouncing them.