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The Japanese alphabet is usually referred to as kana, specifically hiragana and katakana. While the Hiragana consists of 48 syllables,
it is a phonetic alphabet where each alphabetic combination represents just a single sound. Thus any Japanese word can be written in
a way that can be read without having to remember how the word is pronounced. So the Japanese kana are much simpler, the way
something is written is the way it sounds. There is also Kanji, a Japanese system of writing based on borrowed or slightly modified
Chinese characters.
Hiragana Syllables
The table below shows the 48 Hiragana syllables:
a あ ka か sa さ ta た na な ha は ma ま ya や ra ら wa わ n ん
i い ki き shi し chi ち ni に hi ひ mi み ri り wi ゐ
u う ku く su す tsu つ nu ぬ fu ふ mu む yu ゆ ru る
e え ke け se せ te て ne ね he へ me め re れ we ゑ
o お ko こ so そ to と no の ho ほ mo も yo よ ro ろ wo を
Maybe you have noticed that many sounds are missing, that’s why Japanese added some additional sounds using diacritics or
combinations of syllables, the table below shows the additional sounds in
Hiragana:
ga が za ざ da だ ba ば pa ぱ
gi ぎ ji じ ji ぢ bi び pi ぴ
gu ぐ zu ず zu づ bu ぶ pu ぷ
ge げ ze ぜ de で be べ pe ぺ
go ご zo ぞ do ど bo ぼ po ぽ
a ア ka カ sa サ ta タ na ナ ha ハ ma マ ya ヤ ra ラ wa ワ n ン
i イ ki キ shi シ chi チ ni ニ hi ヒ mi ミ ri リ (wi) ヰ
u ウ ku ク su ス tsu ツ nu ヌ fu フ mu ム yu ユ ru ル
e エ ke ケ se セ te テ ne ネ he ヘ me メ re レ (we) ヱ
o オ ko コ so ソ to ト no ノ ho ホ mo モ yo ヨ ro ロ (w)o ヲ
ga ガ za ザ da ダ ba バ pa パ
gi ギ ji ジ ji ヂ bi ビ pi ピ
gu グ zu ズ zu ヅ bu ブ pu プ
ge ゲ ze ゼ de デ be ベ pe ペ
go ゴ zo ゾ do ド bo ボ po ポ
For a modern Katakana there was a necessity to add some sounds, below is a list of additions to the katakana, used mainly to
represent sounds from other languages:
Kanji Characters
Kanji are used together with three other systems to write modern Japanese, Kanji which is a Japanese system of writing based on
borrowed or slightly modified Chinese characters is used to write parts of the language such as nouns, adjective stems and verb stems.
For Kanji characters refers to the Chinese characters.