The word hiragana in hiragana

Hiragana 平仮名 ひらがな
Script type	Syllabary
Time period	~800 CE to the present
Direction	vertical right-to-left, left-to-right
Languages	Japanese and the Ryukyuan languages
Related scripts
Parent systems	Oracle bone script Seal script Clerical script Regular script (kanji) Man’yōgana Hiragana
Sister systems	Katakana, Hentaigana
ISO 15924
ISO 15924	Hira (410), ​Hiragana
Unicode
Unicode alias	Hiragana
Unicode range	Hiragana: U+3040–U+309F Kana Extended-B: U+1AFF0–U+1AFFF Kana Supplement: U+1B000–U+1B0FF Kana Extended-A: U+1B100–U+1B12F Small Kana Extension: U+1B130–U+1B16F
This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

Hiragana (平仮名, ひらがな, IPA: [çiɾaɡaꜜna, çiɾaɡana(ꜜ)]) is a Japanese syllabary, part of the Japanese writing system, along with katakana as well as kanji.

It is a phonetic lettering system. The word hiragana literally means «flowing» or «simple» kana («simple» originally as contrasted with kanji).^[1][2][3]

Hiragana and katakana are both kana systems. With few exceptions, each mora in the Japanese language is represented by one character (or one digraph) in each system. This may be either a vowel such as «a» (hiragana あ); a consonant followed by a vowel such as «ka» (か); or «n» (ん), a nasal sonorant which, depending on the context, sounds either like English m, n or ng ([ŋ]) when syllable-final or like the nasal vowels of French, Portuguese or Polish. Because the characters of the kana do not represent single consonants (except in the case of ん «n»), the kana are referred to as syllabic symbols and not alphabetic letters.^[4]

Hiragana is used to write okurigana (kana suffixes following a kanji root, for example to inflect verbs and adjectives), various grammatical and function words including particles, as well as miscellaneous other native words for which there are no kanji or whose kanji form is obscure or too formal for the writing purpose.^[5] Words that do have common kanji renditions may also sometimes be written instead in hiragana, according to an individual author’s preference, for example to impart an informal feel. Hiragana is also used to write furigana, a reading aid that shows the pronunciation of kanji characters.

There are two main systems of ordering hiragana: the old-fashioned iroha ordering and the more prevalent gojūon ordering.

Writing system[edit]

Basic hiragana characters a i u e o ∅ あ い う え お k か き く け こ s さ し す せ そ t た ち つ て と n な に ぬ ね の h は ひ ふ へ ほ m ま み む め も y や [6] ゆ [6] よ r ら り る れ ろ w わ ゐ [6] ゑ を ん (n) Functional marks and diacritics っ ゝ ゛ ゜

Only used in some proper names

After the 1900 script reform, which deemed hundreds of characters hentaigana, the hiragana syllabary consists of 48 base characters, of which two (ゐ and ゑ) are only used in some proper names:

• 5 singular vowels: あ a [a], い i [i], う u [ɯ], え e [e], お o [o]
• 42 consonant–vowel unions
  • へ is pronounced [e] when used as a particle.
  • を is only used as a particle and in some names. It is often pronounced [o] instead.
  • ゐ and ゑ are both obsolete, only used in some names. They are usually respectively pronounced [i] and [e] instead.
• 1 singular consonant (ん)

These are conceived as a 5×10 grid (gojūon, 五十音, «Fifty Sounds»), as illustrated in the adjacent table, read あ (a), い (i), う (u), え (e), お (o), か (ka), き (ki), く (ku), け (ke), こ (ko) and so forth (but si→shi, ti→chi, tu→tsu, hu→fu), with the singular consonant ん (n) appended to the end. Of the 50 theoretically possible combinations, yi, ye, and wu are obsolete, while wi (ゐ), and we (ゑ), are now uncommon in modern Japanese. Wo (を), pronounced [o], is common as a particle but otherwise rare.

These basic characters can be modified in various ways. By adding a dakuten marker ( ゛), a voiceless consonant is turned into a voiced consonant: k→g, ts/s→z, t→d, h→b and ch/sh→j (also u→v(u)). For example, か (ka) becomes が (ga). Hiragana beginning with an h (or f) sound can also add a handakuten marker ( ゜) changing the h (f) to a p. For example, は (ha) becomes ぱ (pa).

A small version of the hiragana for ya, yu, or yo (ゃ, ゅ or ょ respectively) may be added to hiragana ending in i. This changes the i vowel sound to a glide (palatalization) to a, u or o. For example, き (ki) plus ゃ (small ya) becomes きゃ (kya). Addition of the small y kana is called yōon.

A small tsu っ, called a sokuon, indicates that the following consonant is geminated (doubled). In Japanese this is an important distinction in pronunciation; for example, compare さか, saka, «hill» with さっか, sakka, «author». However, it cannot be used to double an n – for this purpose, the singular n (ん) is added in front of the syllable, as in みんな (minna, «all»). The sokuon also sometimes appears at the end of utterances, where it denotes a glottal stop, as in いてっ! ([iteʔ], «Ouch!»).

Hiragana usually spells long vowels with the addition of a second vowel kana; for example, おかあさん (o-ka-a-sa-n, «mother»). The chōonpu (long vowel mark) (ー) used in katakana is rarely used with hiragana, for example in the word らーめん, rāmen, but this usage is considered non-standard in Japanese. However, the Okinawan language uses chōonpu with hiragana. In informal writing, small versions of the five vowel kana are sometimes used to represent trailing off sounds (はぁ, haa, ねぇ, nee). Standard and voiced iteration marks are written in hiragana as ゝ and ゞ respectively.

Table of hiragana[edit]

The following table shows the complete hiragana together with the modified Hepburn romanization and IPA transcription in the gojūon order.^{[7][8][9][10]} Hiragana with dakuten or handakuten follow the gojūon kana without them, with the yōon kana following. Those in bold do not use the initial sound for that row. For all syllables besides ん, the pronunciation indicated is for word-initial syllables, for mid-word pronunciations see below.

Hiragana syllabograms

	Monographs (gojūon)	Digraphs (yōon)
a	i	u	e	o	ya	yu	yo
∅	あ a [a]	い i [i]	う u [ɯ]	え e [e]	お o [o]
K	か ka [ka]	き ki [ki]	く ku [kɯ]	け ke [ke]	こ ko [ko]	きゃ kya [kʲa]	きゅ kyu [kʲɯ]	きょ kyo [kʲo]
S	さ sa [sa]	し shi [ɕi]	す su [sɯ]	せ se [se]	そ so [so]	しゃ sha [ɕa]	しゅ shu [ɕɯ]	しょ sho [ɕo]
T	た ta [ta]	ち chi [tɕi]	つ tsu [tsɯ]	て te [te]	と to [to]	ちゃ cha [tɕa]	ちゅ chu [tɕɯ]	ちょ cho [tɕo]
N	な na [na]	に ni [ɲi]	ぬ nu [nɯ]	ね ne [ne]	の no [no]	にゃ nya [ɲa]	にゅ nyu [ɲɯ]	にょ nyo [ɲo]
H	は ha [ha] ([wa] as particle)	ひ hi [çi]	ふ fu [ɸɯ]	へ he [he] ([e] as particle)	ほ ho [ho]	ひゃ hya [ça]	ひゅ hyu [çɯ]	ひょ hyo [ço]
M	ま ma [ma]	み mi [mi]	む mu [mɯ]	め me [me]	も mo [mo]	みゃ mya [mʲa]	みゅ myu [mʲɯ]	みょ myo [mʲo]
Y	や ya [ja]	[6]	ゆ yu [jɯ]	[6]	よ yo [jo]
R	ら ra [ɾa]	り ri [ɾi]	る ru [ɾɯ]	れ re [ɾe]	ろ ro [ɾo]	りゃ rya [ɾʲa]	りゅ ryu [ɾʲɯ]	りょ ryo [ɾʲo]
W	わ wa [wa]	ゐ[6] wi [wi]	[6]	ゑ[6] we [we]	を o [o]
	Monographs with diacritics (gojūon with (han)dakuten)	Digraphs with diacritics (yōon with (han)dakuten)
a	i	u	e	o	ya	yu	yo
G	が ga [ɡa]	ぎ gi [ɡi]	ぐ gu [ɡɯ]	げ ge [ɡe]	ご go [ɡo]	ぎゃ gya [ɡʲa]	ぎゅ gyu [ɡʲɯ]	ぎょ gyo [ɡʲo]
Z	ざ za [(d)za]	じ ji [(d)ʑi]	ず zu [(d)zɯ]	ぜ ze [(d)ze]	ぞ zo [(d)zo]	じゃ ja [(d)ʑa]	じゅ ju [(d)ʑɯ]	じょ jo [(d)ʑo]
D	だ da [da]	ぢ ji [(d)ʑi]	づ zu [(d)zɯ]	で de [de]	ど do [do]	ぢゃ ja [(d)ʑa]	ぢゅ ju [(d)ʑɯ]	ぢょ jo [(d)ʑo]
B	ば ba [ba]	び bi [bi]	ぶ bu [bɯ]	べ be [be]	ぼ bo [bo]	びゃ bya [bʲa]	びゅ byu [bʲɯ]	びょ byo [bʲo]
P	ぱ pa [pa]	ぴ pi [pi]	ぷ pu [pɯ]	ぺ pe [pe]	ぽ po [po]	ぴゃ pya [pʲa]	ぴゅ pyu [pʲɯ]	ぴょ pyo [pʲo]

Final nasal monograph	Polysyllabic monographs
n	kashiko	koto	sama	nari	mairasesoro	yori
ん n [ɴ m n ɲ ŋ ɰ̃]	kashiko [kaɕiko]	koto [koto]	sama [sama]	nari [naɾi]	/ mairasesoro [maiɾasesoːɾoː]	ゟ yori [joɾi]
	゙ goto [goto]

Functional graphemes
sokuonfu	chōonpu	odoriji (monosyllable)	odoriji (polysyllable)
っ (indicates a geminate consonant)	ー (indicates a long vowel)	ゝ (reduplicates and unvoices syllable)	〱 (reduplicates and unvoices syllable)
		ゞ (reduplicates and voices syllable)	〱゙ (reduplicates and voices syllable)
		ゝ゚ (reduplicates and moves a h- or b-row syllable to the p-row)	〱゚ (reduplicates and moves a h- or b-row syllable to the p-row)

Spelling–phonology correspondence[edit]

In the middle of words, the g sound (normally [ɡ]) may turn into a velar nasal [ŋ] or velar fricative [ɣ]. An exception to this is numerals; 15 jūgo is considered^{[citation needed]} to be one word, but is pronounced as if it was jū and go stacked end to end: [d͡ʑɯːɡo].

In many accents, the j and z sounds are pronounced as affricates ([d͡ʑ] and [d͡z], respectively) at the beginning of utterances and fricatives [ʑ, z] in the middle of words. For example, すうじ sūji [sɯːʑi] ‘number’, ざっし zasshi [d͡zaɕɕi] ‘magazine’.

In archaic forms of Japanese, there existed the kwa (くゎ [kʷa]) and gwa (ぐゎ [ɡʷa]) digraphs. In modern Japanese, these phonemes have been phased out of usage and only exist in the extended katakana digraphs for approximating foreign language words, names and loanwords.

The singular n is pronounced [n] before t, ch, ts, n, r, z, j and d, [m] before m, b and p, [ŋ] before k and g, [ɴ] at the end of utterances, and some kind of high nasal vowel [ɰ̃] before vowels, palatal approximants (y), and fricative consonants (s, sh, h, f and w).

In kanji readings, the diphthongs ou and ei are today usually pronounced [oː] (long o) and [eː] (long e) respectively. For example, とうきょう (lit. toukyou) is pronounced [toːkʲoː] ‘Tokyo’, and せんせい sensei is [seɯ̃seː] ‘teacher’. However, とう tou is pronounced [toɯ] ‘to inquire’, because the o and u are considered distinct, u being the verb ending in the dictionary form. Similarly, している shite iru is pronounced [ɕiteiɾɯ] ‘is doing’.

For a more thorough discussion on the sounds of Japanese, please refer to Japanese phonology.

Obsolete kana[edit]

Hentaigana[edit]

Polysyllabic kana[edit]

yi, ye and wu[edit]

yi[edit]

Though ye did appear in some textbooks during the Meiji period along with another kana for yi in the form of cursive 以. Today it is considered a Hentaigana by scholars and is encoded in Unicode 10^[11] (𛀆) ^[12][13] This kana could have a colloquial use, to convert the combo yui (ゆい) into yii (𛀆い), due to other Japanese words having a similar change.^[14]

ye[edit]

An early, now obsolete, hiragana-esque form of ye may have existed (𛀁 [je]^[15]) in pre-Classical Japanese (prior to the advent of kana), but is generally represented for purposes of reconstruction by the kanji 江, and its hiragana form is not present in any known orthography. In modern orthography, ye can also be written as いぇ (イェ in katakana).

	衣	江
Hiragana	え	𛀁
Katakana	𛀀	エ

It is true that in early periods of kana, hiragana and katakana letters for «ye» were used, but soon after the distinction between /ye/ and /e/ went away, and letters and glyphs were not established.

wu[edit]

Hiragana wu also appeared in different Meiji-era textbooks ().^[16][17] Although there are several possible source kanji, it is likely to have been derived from a cursive form of the man’yōgana 汙, although a related variant sometimes listed () is from a cursive form of 紆.^[18] However, it was never commonly used.^[19] This character is included in Unicode 14 as HIRAGANA LETTER ARCHAIC WU (𛄟).^[14]

Spelling rules[edit]

With a few exceptions, such as for the three particles は (pronounced [wa] instead of [ha]), へ (pronounced [e] instead of [he]) and [o] (written を instead of お), Japanese when written in kana is phonemically orthographic, i.e. there is a one-to-one correspondence between kana characters and sounds, leaving only words’ pitch accent unrepresented. This has not always been the case: a previous system of spelling, now referred to as historical kana usage, differed substantially from pronunciation; the three above-mentioned exceptions in modern usage are the legacy of that system.

There are two hiragana pronounced ji (じ and ぢ) and two hiragana pronounced zu (ず and づ), but to distinguish them, particularly when typing Japanese, sometimes ぢ is written as di and づ is written as du. These pairs are not interchangeable. Usually, ji is written as じ and zu is written as ず. There are some exceptions. If the first two syllables of a word consist of one syllable without a dakuten and the same syllable with a dakuten, the same hiragana is used to write the sounds. For example, chijimeru (‘to boil down’ or ‘to shrink’) is spelled ちぢめる and tsuzuku (‘to continue’) is つづく. For compound words where the dakuten reflects rendaku voicing, the original hiragana is used. For example, chi (血 ‘blood’) is spelled ち in plain hiragana. When 鼻 hana (‘nose’) and 血 chi (‘blood’) combine to make hanaji (鼻血 ‘nose bleed’), the sound of 血 changes from chi to ji. So hanaji is spelled はなぢ according to ち: the basic hiragana used to transcribe 血. Similarly, tsukau (使う/遣う; ‘to use’) is spelled つかう in hiragana, so kanazukai (仮名遣い; ‘kana use’, or ‘kana orthography’) is spelled かなづかい in hiragana.

However, this does not apply when kanji are used phonetically to write words that do not relate directly to the meaning of the kanji (see also ateji). The Japanese word for ‘lightning’, for example, is inazuma (稲妻). The 稲 component means ‘rice plant’, is written いな in hiragana and is pronounced: ina. The 妻 component means ‘wife’ and is pronounced tsuma (つま) when written in isolation—or frequently as zuma (づま) when it features after another syllable. Neither of these components have anything to do with ‘lightning’, but together they do when they compose the word for ‘lightning’. In this case, the default spelling in hiragana いなずま rather than いなづま is used.^{[disputed – discuss]}

Officially, ぢ and づ do not occur word-initially pursuant to modern spelling rules. There were words such as ぢばん jiban ‘ground’ in the historical kana usage, but they were unified under じ in the modern kana usage in 1946, so today it is spelled exclusively じばん. However, づら zura ‘wig’ (from かつら katsura) and づけ zuke (a sushi term for lean tuna soaked in soy sauce) are examples of word-initial づ today. Some people write the word for hemorrhoids as ぢ (normally じ) for emphasis.

No standard Japanese words begin with the kana ん (n). This is the basis of the word game shiritori. ん n is normally treated as its own syllable and is separate from the other n-based kana (na, ni etc.).

ん is sometimes directly followed by a vowel (a, i, u, e or o) or a palatal approximant (ya, yu or yo). These are clearly distinct from the na, ni etc. syllables, and there are minimal pairs such as きんえん kin’en ‘smoking forbidden’, きねん kinen ‘commemoration’, きんねん kinnen ‘recent years’. In Hepburn romanization, they are distinguished with an apostrophe, but not all romanization methods make the distinction. For example, past prime minister Junichiro Koizumi’s first name is actually じゅんいちろう Jun’ichirō pronounced [dʑɯɰ̃itɕiɾoː]

There are a few hiragana that are rarely used. Outside of Okinawan orthography, ゐ wi [i] and ゑ we [e] are only used in some proper names. 𛀁 e was an alternate version of え e before spelling reform, and was briefly reused for ye during initial spelling reforms, but is now completely obsolete. ゔ vu is a modern addition used to represent the /v/ sound in foreign languages such as English, but since Japanese from a phonological standpoint does not have a /v/ sound, it is pronounced as /b/ and mostly serves as a more accurate indicator of a word’s pronunciation in its original language. However, it is rarely seen because loanwords and transliterated words are usually written in katakana, where the corresponding character would be written as ヴ. The digraphs ぢゃ, ぢゅ, ぢょ for ja/ju/jo are theoretically possible in rendaku, but are practically never used. For example, 日本中 ‘throughout Japan’ could be written にほんぢゅう, but is practically always にほんじゅう.

The みゅ myu kana is extremely rare in originally Japanese words; linguist Haruhiko Kindaichi raises the example of the Japanese family name Omamyūda (小豆生田) and claims it is the only occurrence amongst pure Japanese words. Its katakana counterpart is used in many loanwords, however.

History[edit]

Hiragana developed from man’yōgana, Chinese characters used for their pronunciations, a practice that started in the 5th century.^[20] The oldest examples of Man’yōgana include the Inariyama Sword, an iron sword excavated at the Inariyama Kofun. This sword is thought to be made in the year 辛亥年 (most commonly taken to be C.E. 471).^[21]
The forms of the hiragana originate from the cursive script style of Chinese calligraphy. The table to the right shows the derivation of hiragana from manyōgana via cursive script. The upper part shows the character in the regular script form, the center character in red shows the cursive script form of the character, and the bottom shows the equivalent hiragana. The cursive script forms are not strictly confined to those in the illustration.

When it was first developed, hiragana was not accepted by everyone. The educated or elites preferred to use only the kanji system. Historically, in Japan, the regular script (kaisho) form of the characters was used by men and called otokode (男手), «men’s writing», while the cursive script (sōsho) form of the kanji was used by women. Hence hiragana first gained popularity among women, who were generally not allowed access to the same levels of education as men, thus hiragana was first widely used among court women in the writing of personal communications and literature.^[22] From this comes the alternative name of onnade (女手) «women’s writing».^[23] For example, The Tale of Genji and other early novels by female authors used hiragana extensively or exclusively. Even today, hiragana is felt to have a feminine quality.^[24]

Male authors came to write literature using hiragana. Hiragana was used for unofficial writing such as personal letters, while katakana and Chinese were used for official documents. In modern times, the usage of hiragana has become mixed with katakana writing. Katakana is now relegated to special uses such as recently borrowed words (i.e., since the 19th century), names in transliteration, the names of animals, in telegrams, and for emphasis.

Originally, for all syllables there was more than one possible hiragana. In 1900, the system was simplified so each syllable had only one hiragana. The deprecated hiragana are now known as hentaigana (変体仮名).

The pangram poem Iroha-uta («ABC song/poem»), which dates to the 10th century, uses every hiragana once (except n ん, which was just a variant of む before the Muromachi era).

Stroke order and direction[edit]

The following table shows the method for writing each hiragana character. The table is arranged in a traditional manner, beginning top right and reading columns down. The numbers and arrows indicate the stroke order and direction respectively.

Unicode[edit]

Hiragana was added to the Unicode Standard in October, 1991 with the release of version 1.0.

The Unicode block for Hiragana is U+3040–U+309F:

Hiragana[1][2] Official Unicode Consortium code chart (PDF)

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

A

B

C

D

E

F

U+304x

ぁ

あ

ぃ

い

ぅ

う

ぇ

え

ぉ

お

か

が

き

ぎ

く

U+305x

ぐ

け

げ

こ

ご

さ

ざ

し

じ

す

ず

せ

ぜ

そ

ぞ

た

U+306x

だ

ち

ぢ

っ

つ

づ

て

で

と

ど

な

に

ぬ

ね

の

は

U+307x

ば

ぱ

ひ

び

ぴ

ふ

ぶ

ぷ

へ

べ

ぺ

ほ

ぼ

ぽ

ま

み

U+308x

む

め

も

ゃ

や

ゅ

ゆ

ょ

よ

ら

り

る

れ

ろ

ゎ

わ

U+309x

ゐ

ゑ

を

ん

ゔ

ゕ

ゖ

゙

゚

゛

゜

ゝ

ゞ

ゟ

Notes 1.^ As of Unicode version 15.0 2.^ Grey areas indicate non-assigned code points

The Unicode hiragana block contains precomposed characters for all hiragana in the modern set, including small vowels and yōon kana for compound syllables as well as the rare ゐ wi and ゑ we; the archaic 𛀁 ye is included in plane 1 at U+1B001 (see below). All combinations of hiragana with dakuten and handakuten used in modern Japanese are available as precomposed characters (including the rare ゔ vu), and can also be produced by using a base hiragana followed by the combining dakuten and handakuten characters (U+3099 and U+309A, respectively). This method is used to add the diacritics to kana that are not normally used with them, for example applying the dakuten to a pure vowel or the handakuten to a kana not in the h-group.

Characters U+3095 and U+3096 are small か (ka) and small け (ke), respectively. U+309F is a ligature of より (yori) occasionally used in vertical text. U+309B and U+309C are spacing (non-combining) equivalents to the combining dakuten and handakuten characters, respectively.

Historic and variant forms of Japanese kana characters were first added to the Unicode Standard in October, 2010 with the release of version 6.0, with significantly more added in 2017 as part of Unicode 10.

The Unicode block for Kana Supplement is U+1B000–U+1B0FF, and is immediately followed by the Kana Extended-A block (U+1B100–U+1B12F). These blocks include mainly hentaigana (historic or variant hiragana):

Kana Supplement[1] Official Unicode Consortium code chart (PDF)

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

A

B

C

D

E

F

U+1B00x

𛀀

𛀁

𛀂

𛀃

𛀄

𛀅

𛀆

𛀇

𛀈

𛀉

𛀊

𛀋

𛀌

𛀍

𛀎

𛀏

U+1B01x

𛀐

𛀑

𛀒

𛀓

𛀔

𛀕

𛀖

𛀗

𛀘

𛀙

𛀚

𛀛

𛀜

𛀝

𛀞

𛀟

U+1B02x

𛀠

𛀡

𛀢

𛀣

𛀤

𛀥

𛀦

𛀧

𛀨

𛀩

𛀪

𛀫

𛀬

𛀭

𛀮

𛀯

U+1B03x

𛀰

𛀱

𛀲

𛀳

𛀴

𛀵

𛀶

𛀷

𛀸

𛀹

𛀺

𛀻

𛀼

𛀽

𛀾

𛀿

U+1B04x

𛁀

𛁁

𛁂

𛁃

𛁄

𛁅

𛁆

𛁇

𛁈

𛁉

𛁊

𛁋

𛁌

𛁍

𛁎

𛁏

U+1B05x

𛁐

𛁑

𛁒

𛁓

𛁔

𛁕

𛁖

𛁗

𛁘

𛁙

𛁚

𛁛

𛁜

𛁝

𛁞

𛁟

U+1B06x

𛁠

𛁡

𛁢

𛁣

𛁤

𛁥

𛁦

𛁧

𛁨

𛁩

𛁪

𛁫

𛁬

𛁭

𛁮

𛁯

U+1B07x

𛁰

𛁱

𛁲

𛁳

𛁴

𛁵

𛁶

𛁷

𛁸

𛁹

𛁺

𛁻

𛁼

𛁽

𛁾

𛁿

U+1B08x

𛂀

𛂁

𛂂

𛂃

𛂄

𛂅

𛂆

𛂇

𛂈

𛂉

𛂊

𛂋

𛂌

𛂍

𛂎

𛂏

U+1B09x

𛂐

𛂑

𛂒

𛂓

𛂔

𛂕

𛂖

𛂗

𛂘

𛂙

𛂚

𛂛

𛂜

𛂝

𛂞

𛂟

U+1B0Ax

𛂠

𛂡

𛂢

𛂣

𛂤

𛂥

𛂦

𛂧

𛂨

𛂩

𛂪

𛂫

𛂬

𛂭

𛂮

𛂯

U+1B0Bx

𛂰

𛂱

𛂲

𛂳

𛂴

𛂵

𛂶

𛂷

𛂸

𛂹

𛂺

𛂻

𛂼

𛂽

𛂾

𛂿

U+1B0Cx

𛃀

𛃁

𛃂

𛃃

𛃄

𛃅

𛃆

𛃇

𛃈

𛃉

𛃊

𛃋

𛃌

𛃍

𛃎

𛃏

U+1B0Dx

𛃐

𛃑

𛃒

𛃓

𛃔

𛃕

𛃖

𛃗

𛃘

𛃙

𛃚

𛃛

𛃜

𛃝

𛃞

𛃟

U+1B0Ex

𛃠

𛃡

𛃢

𛃣

𛃤

𛃥

𛃦

𛃧

𛃨

𛃩

𛃪

𛃫

𛃬

𛃭

𛃮

𛃯

U+1B0Fx

𛃰

𛃱

𛃲

𛃳

𛃴

𛃵

𛃶

𛃷

𛃸

𛃹

𛃺

𛃻

𛃼

𛃽

𛃾

𛃿

Notes 1.^ As of Unicode version 15.0

Kana Extended-A[1][2] Official Unicode Consortium code chart (PDF)

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

A

B

C

D

E

F

U+1B10x

𛄀

𛄁

𛄂

𛄃

𛄄

𛄅

𛄆

𛄇

𛄈

𛄉

𛄊

𛄋

𛄌

𛄍

𛄎

𛄏

U+1B11x

𛄐

𛄑

𛄒

𛄓

𛄔

𛄕

𛄖

𛄗

𛄘

𛄙

𛄚

𛄛

𛄜

𛄝

𛄞

𛄟

U+1B12x

𛄠

𛄡

𛄢

Notes 1.^ As of Unicode version 15.0 2.^ Grey areas indicate non-assigned code points

The Unicode block for Kana Extended-B is U+1AFF0–U+1AFFF:

Kana Extended-B[1][2] Official Unicode Consortium code chart (PDF)

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

A

B

C

D

E

F

U+1AFFx

𚿰

𚿱

𚿲

𚿳

𚿵

𚿶

𚿷

𚿸

𚿹

𚿺

𚿻

𚿽

𚿾

Notes 1.^ As of Unicode version 15.0 2.^ Grey areas indicate non-assigned code points

The Unicode block for Small Kana Extension is U+1B130–U+1B16F:

Small Kana Extension[1][2] Official Unicode Consortium code chart (PDF)

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

A

B

C

D

E

F

U+1B13x

𛄲

U+1B14x

U+1B15x

𛅐

𛅑

𛅒

𛅕

U+1B16x

𛅤

𛅥

𛅦

𛅧

Notes 1.^ As of Unicode version 15.0 2.^ Grey areas indicate non-assigned code points

In the following character sequences a kana from the /k/ row is modified by a handakuten combining mark to indicate that a syllable starts with an initial nasal, known as bidakuon. As of Unicode 15.0, these character combinations are explicitly called out as Named Sequences:

Hiragana named sequences Unicode Named Character Sequences Database
Sequence name	Codepoints	Glyph
HIRAGANA LETTER BIDAKUON NGA	U+304B	U+309A	か゚
HIRAGANA LETTER BIDAKUON NGI	U+304D	U+309A	き゚
HIRAGANA LETTER BIDAKUON NGU	U+304F	U+309A	く゚
HIRAGANA LETTER BIDAKUON NGE	U+3051	U+309A	け゚
HIRAGANA LETTER BIDAKUON NGO	U+3053	U+309A	こ゚

See also[edit]

• Japanese writing system
• Bopomofo (Zhùyīn fúhào, «phonetic symbols»), a phonetic system of 37 characters for writing Chinese developed in the 1900s and is more common in Taiwan.
• Iteration mark explains the iteration marks used with hiragana.
• Japanese phonology explains Japanese pronunciation in detail.
• Japanese typographic symbols gives other non-kana, non-kanji symbols.
• Katakana
• Nüshu, a syllabary writing system used by women in China’s Hunan province
• Shodō, Japanese calligraphy.

References[edit]

Citations[edit]

Sources[edit]

External links[edit]

• Hiragana unicode chart
• Hiragana table with strokes animations
• Practice Hiragana

This article is a stub. You can help Japanese Language Wiki by expanding it.

Hiragana (平仮名 or ひらがな) is one of three Japanese syllabary, a component of the Japanese writing system along with Katakana, Kanji, and Romaji. It contains 48 characters. Hiragana and katakana are both kana systems, with the rule that each character represents one mora. Additionally, each kana is either a vowel such as «a» (あ) or a consonant followed by a vowel such as «ka» (か), or «n» (ん).

Hiragana is used for words that have no kanji attached to them, which includes particles such as kara から (meaning «from»), and suffixes such as -san さん. Hiragana is also used in situations where the reader or author does not know the particular kanji for the word, like hiragana is used in preschool and children’s books, also a situation where it would be considered too formal for the writing purpose. Adjective and verb inflections (altering a word) are written in hiragana, in this case part of the root is then written in kanji. Hiragana is also commonly used to provide a reading aid in the pronunciation of Kanji, which is called Furigana. There are hiragana characters for wi and we although they aren’t used frequently:: ゐ (wi) and ゑ (we).

Basic Hiragana[]

あ A	い I	う U	え E	お O
か Ka	き Ki	く Ku	け Ke	こ Ko
さ Sa	し Shi	す Su	せ Se	そ So
た Ta	ち Chi	つ Tsu	て Te	と To
な Na	に Ni	ぬ Nu	ね Ne	の No
は Ha	ひ Hi	ふ Fu	へ He	ほ Ho
ま Ma	み Mi	む Mu	め Me	も Mo
や Ya	いい Ii	ゆ Yu	いぇ I~e	よ Yo
ら Ra	り Ri	る Ru	れ Re	ろ Ro
わ Wa	うぃ Wi	う U	うぇ We	を O
ん N	ん N	ん N	ん N	ん N

し、ち、and　つ[]

The romaji of these hiragana symbols are written closer to the English pronunciation.

The three last Hiragana[]

Ye[]

Ye is an obselete kana. It has been encoded into Unicode.

を[]

を can be sometimes wo but more often used as ‘o’

へ can be sometimes he but more often used as ‘e’ and is identical to its Katakana counterpart

External links[]

• Romaji to Hiragana A tool to convert Rōmaji to Hiragana or Katakana.

Gallery[]

A chart showing the yōon (digraphs).

Hiragana characters with dakuten (diacritics)

A basic hiragana chart.

Hello, there. Let me guess — as a beginner in Japanese, my friend, you are looking for a Hiragana chart. Ideally, you want one that’s clear, marked with Latin script, and available in a printable PDF, right? Congratulations! You’ve come to the right place. LingoDeer is glad to present you with our newest Hiragana charts for FREE. You can download them and practice writing them on your own.

Hiragana Chart for PC

Download hiragana chart for PC here.

Download hiragana chart for PC here.

Hiragana Chart for phone

Download hiragana chart for phone here.

You can also download this hiragana lock screen image so you learn them every time you open up your phone!

Fill-in-the-blanks Hiragana Chart

You can also use blank kana practice sheets and go across the sheet.

Download fill-in-the-blanks hiragana chart here.

Download fill-in-the-blanks hiragana chart here.

What is Hiragana used for

Introduction

If you plan to learn the Japanese language, it would be best for you to start with Hiragana first, which is generally seen as the foundation of Japanese. To understand where to start with Hiragana, we first need to take a look at the Japanese writing system. Having a basic knowledge of it can help you better grasp Hiragana itself.

The Japanese writing system consists of three parts: 46 Hiragana, 46 Katakana, and thousands of Kanji. It could be said that the Japanese language has one of the most complex writing systems, but please don’t worry. It’s not as hard as you think. Please read on, as this will become clear to you soon enough.

Kanji is one of the few surviving ideographic writing systems in the world. Although the number of Kanji exceeds 100 thousand, you only need to learn about 3,000 commonly used characters, which comprise over 95% of text.

Unlike the Latin, Arabic, and Cyrillic scripts, which are phonetic alphabets, Kanji is neither phonetic nor an alphabet. It could be said that it’s impossible to know how to pronounce Kanji just by looking at them without memorizing their pronunciations individually. 

As a result, even native Chinese speakers need to use Pinyin, a phonetic system based on the Latin script, to standardize and assist in memorizing the pronunciation of Chinese characters. 

Likewise, Hiragana takes on the function of pronouncing Kanji in Japanese, and each one represents a particular syllable. However, is Hiragana only used to pronounce Kanji? Of course not. There are other uses for Hiragana. The following sections will offer some straightforward explanations.

Pronunciation or substitution of Kanji

First of all, Hiragana can help pronounce Kanji. Without the help of Hiragana, it’s hard for us to know how to pronounce the two words below. Furthermore, each Kanji tends to have more than one possible pronunciation, and the same Kanji can be pronounced differently in different words. However, the pronunciation of Kana (Hiragana and Katakana) is constant because they are phonetic, as we mentioned before.

Additionally, in modern Japanese, Hiragana is always used as a substitute for some extremely hard-to-write or rare Kanji. For example, for the word “parrot,” most Japanese people prefer to write its Hiragana おうむ (ōmu) instead of its Kanji 鸚鵡 (ōmu).

Generally, the more formal the written material, the greater the portion of Kanji and the lower the portion of Hiragana. Therefore, you will find a lot of Hiragana in elementary school students’ compositions but a relatively low percentage of Hiragana in formal papers such as government reports. 

Okurigana: form words with Kanji together

In the example above, Hiragana is not used as a pronunciation tool but is a part of the word itself. In such a case, Hiragana is also called okurigana. Dear reader, if you are a beginner in Japanese, you may get overwhelmed when trying to understand and internalize every new concept you come across. If I were you, I would just remember that Hiragana can be part of a word.

Pure hiragana words 

Many Japanese words are only written in Hiragana, meaning no Kanji is involved. Hiragana-only words are often onomatopoeia words made by imitation of a sound made by its referent.

Grammatical functions

Last but not least, almost all words with grammatical significance in Japanese are written in Hiragana, such as particles, verb conjugations, etc. Again, you can skip this part if you are still trying to memorize the hiragana chart. You will figure out this rule naturally as you learn more.

With my above explanations, I believe you now have a good idea of Hiragana’s functions and purpose. So what is Katakana used for? Once you’ve mastered Hiragana, you can move onto Katakana and its purposes. But for now, just start with Hiragana. If you are unfamiliar with the differences between Hiragana and Katakana, an article we wrote earlier can help you distinguish them easily. 

How to write and read Hiragana?

Now let’s learn how to pronounce and write Hiragana. The font we use for each Hiragana is called 教科書字体 (UD Digi kyokasho), which is used for Japanese textbooks. Inside each Hiragana, black arrows are included to guide you on how to write Hiragana in its correct stroke order.

Please follow the black lines if you hope to practice writing Hiragana on sketch paper. One of the most prominent characteristics of Hiragana is that they are curly, so it would be best to practice writing them out as smoothly as possible.

The below audios were recorded by a native Japanese speaker. It’s also worth mentioning that all recordings in the LingoDeer app are 100% recorded by native speakers, which can help you to learn Japanese excellently! Well, without further ado, let’s get started!

Download the Hiragana Stroke PDF

(Please note: all images and files in this article are for personal use only, and commercial use is strictly prohibited. All rights reserved by LingoDeer)

If you want to download a copybook to practice writing Hiragana, here has many copybooks of Hiragana available to download for free. While practicing Hiragana, you can learn a lot of basic Japanese words. How awesome!

How to memorize Hiragana

Practice to writing

Writing is one of the best ways to memorize Hiragana! Remember when you were a kid learning the Latin script and were asked to transcribe it on paper repeatedly? It’s a universally accepted truth that writing helps you to remember. The hiragana strokes are presented above for you. Nevertheless, it’s okay if you’re still confused. If you’re feeling this way, then you may want to try the LingoDeer app, which has a free and professional kana writing tutorial.

Graphical mnemonics

You may have seen some graphical mnemonics for Hiragana like the ones below. However, learning with them is not necessarily a great strategy because the connection between the picture and Hiragana presented to you was created in someone else’s mind. This means you need to memorize both pictures and Hiragana, which adds to the burden of memory.

So, are image mnemonics completely undesirable? No. This method works if you try associating a Hiragana with a specific image based on your own intuition, which fundamentally reflects your understanding of a particular Hiragana. If you find it difficult to associate them creatively, then graphical mnemonics may not be for you.

Musical mnemonics

The physical and visual mnemonics mentioned above have been proven to be effective by numerous theories of second language acquisition. In addition, music mnemonics are also great. Try applying kana to songs you are familiar with, or search for some kana songs on Youtube. Music will not only help you memorize Hiragana but also motivates you to learn Japanese.

Fun facts about Hiragana

History

Long ago, Japanese was an unwritten language, meaning it was only expressed orally but couldn’t be recorded in writings. Around the time of the Three Kingdoms Period (3rd century A.D.) in China, Kanji (Chinese characters) began to be introduced to Japan through the Korean peninsula from mainland China. 

The Japanese language developed into a written language through absorbing Kanji and a lot of Chinese loanwords. However, Kanji was created by Chinese people to record the Chinese language, and Chinese and Japanese are two completely different languages. Therefore, it is impossible to record all the nuances of Japanese just by using kanji. This is how Kana came into being in the 6th century A.D.

Hiragana was derived from the cursive script of Chinese characters (a type of Kanji calligraphy). At first, they were just used by palace lady officials to transcribe poetry. The men and the upper class took pride in writing Kanji and learning Chinese culture, which meant Hiragana was not considered highbrow at that time. 

Nevertheless, gradually, Hiragana was used more and more widely to meet the needs of written Japanese and became an essential part of the Japanese language. From my perspective, the popularity of Hiragana is women’s outstanding contribution to Japanese culture, shining with the light of feminism.

The two missing Hiragana ゐ and ゑ

You can’t find the two kana ゐ (wi) and ゑ (we) in today’s Hiragana chart because the Japanese orthography system promulgated by the Japanese cabinet abolished them in 1946.

But why? Similar to English, Japanese has various dialects, and in some of them, these two Kana have been confused with い (i) and へ (e) for a long time. However, in standard modern Japanese, each Hiragana is supposed to represent only one syllable. 

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Hiragana developed from Chinese characters, as shown below. Hiragana were originally called onnade or ‘women’s hand’ as were used mainly by women — men wrote in kanji and katakana. By the 10th century, hiragana were used by everybody. The word hiragana means «oridinary syllabic script».

In early versions of hiragana there were often many different characters to represent the same syllable, however the system was eventually simplified so that there was a one-to-one relationship between spoken and written syllables. The present orthography of hiragana was codified by the Japanese government in 1946.

Hiragana and the kanji from which they developed

In each column the rōmaji appears on the left, the hiragana symbols in the middle and the kanji from which they developed on the right. There is some dispute about the orgins of some of the symbols

The symbols for ‘wi’ and ‘we’ were made obsolete by the Japanese Minsitry of Education in 1946 as part of its language reforms. The symbols ‘ha’, ‘he’ and ‘wo’ are pronounced ‘wa’, ‘e’ and ‘o’ respectively when used as grammatical particles.

Hiragana syllabary (平仮名 / ひらがな)

The symbols on the right are the basic hiragana syllabary in the order they appear in dictionaries and indices (reading from left to right and top to bottom). Additional sounds (the symbols on the right) are represented by diacritics and combinations of symbols.

Long vowels

Download this chart in Word,
or PDF format (also includes katakana).

See a Hiragana chart by Kayo Takumyo (JPG, 409K).

Pronunciation

Characteristics and usage of hiragana

The hiragana syllabary consists of 48 syllables and is mainly used to write word endings, known as okurigana in Japanese. Hiragana are also widely used in materials for children, textbooks, animation and comic books, to write Japanese words which are not normally written with kanji, such as adverbs and some nouns and adjectives, or for words whose kanji are obscure or obselete.

Hiragana are also sometimes written above or along side kanji to indicate pronunciation, especially if the pronunication is obscure or non-standard. Hiragana used in this way are known as furigana or ruby. In horizontal texts, the furigana appear above the kanji and in vertical texts, the furigana appear on the right of the kanji. In newspapers it is a legal requirement for furigana to be attached to kanji which are not included in the official list of the 1,945 most frequently-used kanji. Newspapers in fact rarely use kanji not included in this list.

Furigana in action

The furigana in the following text are the small hiragana above or beside the kanji.

Horizontal text with furigana

Vertical text with furigana

This text in hiragana

This text in standard Japanese (without furigana)

Transliteration (rōmaji)

Subete no ningen wa, umare nagara ni shite jiyū de ari, katsu, songen to kenri to ni tsuite byōdō de aru. Ningen wa, risei to ryōshin to o sazukerareteari, tagai ni dōhō no seishin o motte kōdōshinakerebanaranai.

Hear a recording of this text

Translation

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They
are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another
in a spirit of brotherhood.
(Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)

Hiragana are sometimes used to write words which would normally written
with katakana to make them appear more
«feminine», particularly in comic books and cartoons for young
girls. In children’s video games texts are often written entirely in
hiragana or katakana.

How to write Hiragana:

Links

Information about Hiragana
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiragana
https://www.tofugu.com/japanese/learn-hiragana
http://japanesehiragana.org

Introduction to Japanese |
Hiragana |
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Links |
Learning materials

• Japanese Uncovered — Learn Japanese Through the Power of Story
• Learn Japanese now at Rocket Languages!
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• Japanese language learning material from White Rabbit Japan

Japanese courses and other resources on Amazon
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Japonic / Japanese-Ryukyuan languages

Amami,
Japanese,
Kikai,
Miyakoan,
Okinawan,
Okinoerabu,
Yaeyama,
Yonaguni

Syllabaries

Bamum,
Caroline Island Script,
Celtiberian,
Cherokee,
Cypriot,
Dunging (Iban),
Eskayan,
Hiragana,
Iberian,
Katakana,
Kpelle,
Loma,
Mende (Kikakui),
Mwangwego,
Ndjuká,
Nüshu,
Nwagụ Aneke,
Vai,
Yi,
Yugtun

Other writing systems

Page last modified: 15.03.23

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