kanaallen

Kanaallen, also known as phonetic script, are syllabic scripts used in Japanese. There are two primary kana alphabets: hiragana and katakana. Hiragana is typically used for native Japanese words, grammatical elements, and words that do not have kanji or for which the kanji is too difficult to write. Katakana is primarily used for foreign loanwords, emphasis, onomatopoeia, and scientific or technical terms.

Each kana character represents a mora, which is a sound unit similar to a syllable. The kana systems were developed in the 9th century. Hiragana evolved from simplified cursive forms of kanji, while katakana was derived from individual parts of kanji. Both systems are composed of around 46 basic characters, with additional characters created through diacritics (like dakuten and handakuten) to represent voiced or half-voiced consonants, and combinations of characters to represent sounds not covered by the basic set. Together with kanji (Chinese characters), hiragana and katakana form the modern Japanese writing system. Understanding kana is essential for reading and writing Japanese.