hiragana

Hiragana is a Japanese syllabary used to write native Japanese words and grammatical elements. Along with katakana and kanji, it forms the core scripts of the Japanese writing system. Hiragana characters are phonetic symbols called kana; each represents a single mora, and syllables are built by combining these symbols. It is commonly used for words that do not have kanji, for grammatical endings, particles, and in places where kanji are not known or appropriate. Hiragana is also used for furigana, small phonetic readings placed above or beside kanji to indicate pronunciation.

The modern hiragana set comprises 46 basic characters, arranged in the gojūon order to cover the standard sounds of Japanese such as a, i, u, e, o; ka, ki, ku, ke, ko; and so on. Additional sounds are created with diacritical marks: dakuten to voice consonants (e.g., ka to ga) and handakuten to modify h-sounds (e.g., ha to pa). Small versions of ya, yu, and yo are used with certain consonants to form digraphs like kya, kyu, kyo, and similar yōon combinations. The syllabary also includes the standalone mora n (ん).

Historically, hiragana originated in the early Heian period as the cursive variant of kanji, derived from the Man’yōgana writing system. It was called hiragana to distinguish it from katakana, which arose from fragments of kanji. Hiragana became associated with female writers and literature, while kanji-based writing remained standard for many texts; over time, hiragana became widely used by all writers.

Today, hiragana is taught in schools and remains essential for writing native words, grammatical elements, and auxiliary readings. It is used in everyday handwriting and digital text, often alongside kanji, with furigana guiding pronunciation.