|
The term ‘kana’ refers collectively to the two phonetic alphabets; hiragana and katakana. They both represent the same set of 46 basic sounds but are used in different situations. Japanese children learn hiragana first, and while they progress into kanji, small hiragana or ‘furigana’ is employed to indicate the correct pronunciation of the new kanji.
Today both hiragana, katakana and kanji are used together, and it is not unusual nowadays to see some Romaji mixed in too. As a general rule, most words (of Chinese or Japanese origin) are written with kanji, verb endings, particles and words using rare kanji in hiragana, and foreign ‘loan’ words are written with katakana.
Please refer to the ‘phonetic markers’ and and glides pages of the book for an explanation of these. The 46 kana characters are shown in the table below, are read from top to bottom. Glides are not listed separately here although you will see many reference books which do list glides as though they are separate ‘letters’.
|
