{"id":2882,"date":"2021-09-10T15:00:55","date_gmt":"2021-09-10T06:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/?p=2882"},"modified":"2021-09-13T09:15:28","modified_gmt":"2021-09-13T00:15:28","slug":"hiragana","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.genkijacs.com\/blog\/hiragana\/","title":{"rendered":"Japanese ABCs – Hiragana"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hiragana Comes First<\/h3>\n

<\/p>\n

kind of…<\/em><\/h5>\n

When you start learning Japanese the first thing you will most likely study, after the kanji for Ninja (\u5fcd\u8005\uff09and, more recently, kanji for a blade (\u5203) and a demon (\u9b3c), is the Japanese ABCs or the Hiragana writing system.
\nIf you are completely new to the Japanese language, or even if you are a weathered warrior of learning this mind-boggling language, this article is for all of you. Because there is way more to \u5e73\u4eee\u540d than meets the eye.
\n\"Calligraphy<\/p>\n

Origins of Hiragana<\/h4>\n

It may come as a surprise, but Hiragana came from Kanji or Chinese characters, but it has not has been a smooth transition. Before Hiragana, there was another script called man`yogana<\/strong>. That is right!
\nTo put it simply, man`yogana (\u4e07\u8449\u4eee\u540d\uff09is and was a set of kanji that was used to write Japanese phonetically. Bear with us!
\nKanji are not used phonetically at all, they are pictograms that represent words or parts of words and phrases, especially in Japanese. But with man`yogana people were able to start writing Japanese phonetically.
\nHere are some of the examples:
\n\"Manyogana\"<\/p>\n

As you can see, these are basically Kanji and this fact caused quite a lot of confusion. When writing letters or scriptures using kanji as well as man`yogana, things got quite a bit more complex as there was no real way of telling whether a character is used phonetically or as a pictogram and it created a bit of a barrier to reading and thus, learning and knowledge spread.<\/p>\n

So, eventually, an easier script was starting to take shape and the shape of the new script derived from the cursive way of writing of Kanji or Shousho (\u8349\u66f8) which was traditionally used by women more than men. This is believed to be one of the reasons why hiragana was first popular among women. Historically, as in many other countries, women did not have access to the same levels of education as men, which meant that early hiragana was used by women courtiers. This also leads to some of the greatest works of literature of Japan being written in Hiragana only because women wrote them!<\/p>\n

Standardisation<\/h4>\n

Standardisation came in the early 1900s when inevitable variations of hiragana were all brought together under one umbrella and the standard hiragana script we use today was agreed upon. The thrown characters were named hentaigana (\u5909\u4f53\u4eee\u540d) or kana of unusual form. (Please do not mistake for a different kind of hentai written \u5909\u614b<\/strong>– as we don`t want you to have google results full of viruses).<\/p>\n

The current iteration of \u5e73\u4eee\u540d is familiar to all Japanese learners and you can see it below:<\/p>\n

\"Hiragana<\/p>\n

Iroha Song<\/h4>\n

But another way of potentially remembering all of \u5e73\u4eee\u540d is by learning the Iroha song<\/a> or poem. It was developed almost 1000 years ago – have a read:<\/p>\n

\u8272\u306f\u5302\u3078\u3069
\n\u6563\u308a\u306c\u308b\u3092
\n\u308f\u304c\u4e16 \u8ab0\u305e
\n\u5e38\u306a\u3089\u3080
\n\u5b87\u4e95\uff08\u6709\u70ba\uff09\u306e\u5965\u5c71
\n\u4eca\u65e5\u8d8a\u3048\u3066
\n\u6d45\u304d\u5922\u898b\u3057
\n\u9154\u3044\u3082\u305b\u305a \u4eac(\u3093)<\/strong><\/q><\/p>\n

If you are familiar with kanji then you might notice something here, if you are not have a look here instead:<\/p>\n

\u3044\u308d\u306f\u306b\u307b\u3078\u3068
\n\u3061\u308a\u306c\u308b\u3092
\n\u308f\u304b\u3088\u305f\u308c\u305d
\n\u3064\u306d\u306a\u3089\u3080
\n\u3046\u3090\u306e\u304a\u304f\u3084\u307e
\n\u3051\u3075\u3053\u3048\u3066
\n\u3042\u3055\u304d\u3086\u3081\u307f\u3057
\n\u3091\u3072\u3082\u305b\u3059<\/strong><\/q><\/p>\n