(平仮名)
The hiragana script was developed around the 8th century. At that time, it was called “onnade”, or women’s writing and was considered as the feminine version of katakana. Women of the era who were not permitted to enter formal schooling, enthusiastically adopted kana and modified the harsh-looking borrowed fragments into the graceful characters that eventually became the hiragana set. Kana symbols are somewhat similar in usage to letters of the English alphabet because they are phonetic and represent pronunciation. Different from English, kana syllables constitute a syllabary rather than alphabet. Besides, the same phonetic symbols always represent the same sound or combination of sounds and vice versa.
Hiragana is used for any words of Japanese origin, but many are written in kanji according to historical use. Words which are normally written in hiragana includes:
· Japanese words with no kanji assigned to them
· Kunyomi pronunciation of kanji characters in kanji dictionaries
· The grammatical markers in a sentence, called particles
Nouns may be written in hiragana, but not normally used if kanji characters are available. Most verbs, adjectives and adverbs take the “okurigana” form.
· Japanese words with no kanji assigned to them
· Kunyomi pronunciation of kanji characters in kanji dictionaries
· The grammatical markers in a sentence, called particles
Nouns may be written in hiragana, but not normally used if kanji characters are available. Most verbs, adjectives and adverbs take the “okurigana” form.
(送り仮名)
Many Japanese verbs are formed with a kanji character as the word’s root, followed by one or more hiragana characters which provide either the tense, form or levels of politeness. Hiragana which is used in such a way is called “okurigana”.
REFERENCES
1. Takezaki, K. (n.d.). An Introduction to japanese Caligraphy. Tokyo: Tuttle Publishing.
2. J.Vogler, d. (1998). An overview of the History of The japanese language.
2. J.Vogler, d. (1998). An overview of the History of The japanese language.