HIRAGANA 平仮名 / ひらがな
SEION 清音
Hiragana is a Japanese syllabary and one basic component of the Japanese writing system. It is used to write native words for which there are no kanji, including grammatical particles and suffixes. When Hiragana is used to show the pronunciation of kanji characters as reading aid. That is referred to as furigana. Likewise, hiragana is used to write words whose kanji form is obscure, not known to the writer or readers, or too formal for the writing purpose.
The most basic syllabary of Hiragana is Seion. ☆ Seion is the pronunciation of a clear sound.
(THIS WILL APPLY TO ALL OF THE OTHER CHARTS AS WELL)
☆ The column to the left
A あ
I い
U う
E え
O お
are the five vowels of the Japanese language.
☆ Letters in the same column contain the same constant.
☆ Letters in the same row are considered to contain the same vowel.
① し "shi" not "si"
② ち "chi" not "ti"
③ つ "tsu" not "tu"
④ ふ "hu" or "fu"?
☆ If you listen to an audio tape of native Japanese speakers saying ふ you will notice that their pronunciation sounds much closer to "fu" than "hu", but overall it depends on your pronunciation.
⑤ ん does not end with a vowel sound & no word starts with ん.
⑥ Though it is not mentioned in the chart it is good to know that を "wo" is used only as the particle in a sentence.
pronounced like "a" as in (father)
pronounced like "ee" as in (cheese)
pronounced like "oo" as in (root)
pronounced like "e" as in (pet)
pronounced like "o" as in (clothes)
DAKUON 濁音 HANDAKUON 半濁音
The next syllabary of Hiragana is Dakuon and Handakuon.
☆ Dakuon is the pronunciation of a muddy sound and is indicated with 点々( ゛).
① "zi" or "ji"?
② "zu" or 'ju"?
③ "di" or "ji"?
④ "du" or "ju"?
☆ ①-④ Just like ④ in Seion, this is based off of the pronunciation. When hearing a native speaker say じ or ぢ it sounds like "ji". With ず and づ they both sound like "ju".
⑤ This chart is seperate on its own and is known as Handakuon.
☆ Handakuon is the pronunciation of a sound between Seion and Dakuon. This is indicated with 丸 ( ゜).
YOON-SEION 拗音－清音
The next syllabary of Hiragana is Yoon-Seion. ☆ Yoon-Seion is the pronunciation of a distorted sound, formed by adding a smaller version of ゃ"ya" ゅ "yu" or ょ "yo".
YOON-DAKUON 拗音－濁音 YOON-HANDAKUON 拗音－半濁音
The next syllabary of Hiragana is Yoon-Dakuon and Yoon-Handakuon.
☆ Yoon-Dakuon, just like Dakuon, is the pronunciation of a muddy sound and is indicated with 点々( ゛), but is added with smaller versions of ゃ"ya" ゅ "yu" or ょ "yo".
① This chart is seperate on its own and is know as Yoon-Handakuon.
☆ By now, you've probably realized a pattern here. Yoon-Handakuon, practically the same as Handakuon, and is added with ゃ"ya" ゅ "yu" or ょ "yo".