Hiragana & Katakana

The more simple kana-syllablesigns derived from the complicated Chinese characters, because it was too complex to write long Japanese words with those sophisticated Chinese signs.

Both of the two syllablewritings contain all the sounds of the Japanese language, so it would be possible to write only in one of these syllablewritings. (As an example in telegrams or computer-written texts only katakana is actually used) But in the real wordl there are too many words sounding the same (homophones), which just differ in their meaning, which you can only recognize by using kanji.

In 1900 the government codified the usual hiragana syllablesigns and sorted out unusual signs. Today the list of accredited hiragana contains 46 signs. The official list of katakana was also codified in 1900 and contains 46 signs just as the hiragana.

This illustration shows some examples how the complicated Chinese kanji where simplified and the alphabet of hiragana and katakana was built.

related links:

Japanese Alphabets
Get to know the hiragana and katakana alphabets
46 standardsigns and some more extensions.

Japanese Writing
Learn how to write the signs from the hiragana and
katakana alphabet.