What is the Difference Between Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji?

Learning a new language can be challenging, especially when it has a completely different writing system from your own. For English speakers, learning Japanese can be particularly daunting due to its complex script. However, once you understand its components: hiragana, katakana, and kanji, the task becomes a lot more manageable. This article aims to provide a detailed yet straightforward explanation of the differences between these three elements of the Japanese writing system.

Introduction to the Japanese Writing System

The Japanese writing system is a mixture of three scripts: hiragana, katakana, and kanji.

1. Hiragana: Derived from the cursive form of kanji, it is a phonetic script, with each symbol representing a specific sound or syllable. It’s used for grammatical elements, words that don’t have a kanji representation or where the kanji is obscure or formal.
2. Katakana: Also a phonetic script like hiragana but is primarily used for foreign words, onomatopoeia¹Onomatopoeia refers to words that imitate the natural sounds associated with objects or actions they represent. The word itself comes from the Greek “onoma,” which means “name,” and “poiein,” meaning “to make,” essentially suggesting “to make a name (or sound)”. The sounds that animals make are some of the most common examples of onomatopoeia. For instance, in English, we say that dogs “bark” or “woof,” cats “meow” or “purr,” and bees “buzz.” These words are used because they closely resemble the actual sounds these creatures make., scientific names, and sometimes for emphasis, similar to how italics are used in English.
3. Kanji: These are ideographic characters borrowed from Chinese. Each kanji character has its own meaning and represents a whole word or concept.

Each of these scripts has its unique role and is used in different contexts. To fully understand Japanese, one has to master all three scripts.

Hiragana

Hiragana, often considered the most basic of the three scripts, is the starting point for most Japanese language learners. Hiragana is derived from more complex kanji, and was developed in the Heian period (794-1185 AD) as a way to simplify writing.

Each hiragana character represents a specific sound, which can be a vowel, a consonant followed by a vowel, or the singular consonant ‘n’. There are 46 basic hiragana characters and with additional diacritical marks (dots or a small circle added to the characters), the sounds can be modified, resulting in a total of 71 distinct syllables.

The script is cursive and the characters have a soft, flowing style. It is used to write native Japanese words and grammatical elements, and to fully conjugate verbs and adjectives. If a word can be written in kanji, but the writer doesn’t know the kanji, or the intended audience is children who may not know the kanji, hiragana is used instead. It’s also used for furigana, small hiragana characters written above or beside a kanji to show its pronunciation.

Katakana

Katakana, like hiragana, is a phonetic script, but it has a more angular appearance. It represents the same set of sounds as hiragana (46 basic characters, or 71 including diacriticals) but the characters are distinct.

The primary use of katakana is to transcribe foreign words into Japanese. For example, the English word “coffee” becomes “コーヒー” (kōhī) in katakana. It’s also used for scientific names, company names, technical or specialized terms, and onomatopoeic sounds. In some contexts, katakana is used to convey a sense of modernity or to provide emphasis.

Interestingly, katakana originated before hiragana as a shorthand for parts of kanji characters. Monks in the Heian period would use these fragments, or ‘katakana’, as reading aids for Chinese texts. Over time, these fragments evolved into a full script.

Kanji

Kanji are the most visually complex of the Japanese scripts and are used to write most of the content words in Japanese, such as nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. There are thousands of kanji characters, each of which represents a whole concept or meaning, and many have more than one pronunciation depending on the context.

Kanji were borrowed from Chinese around the 5th century AD. Although the characters and their meanings are similar to Chinese, the pronunciation is different. Each kanji character has a ‘meaning’, an ‘on’yomi’ (a reading based on the original Chinese pronunciation), and a ‘kun’yomi’ (a reading based on the Japanese pronunciation). Some kanji only have one of these readings, and some have several of each.

Kanji can be quite daunting for beginners due to the sheer number of characters and the complexity of their shapes. However, they are essential for reading and understanding Japanese, and learning them also gives insight into aspects of Japanese culture and thought.

To be literate in Japanese, one needs to know about 2,000 kanji, but there are many more in existence. Japanese school children spend years learning kanji, gradually increasing their knowledge throughout their education.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the Japanese writing system is a fascinating mix of hiragana, katakana, and kanji. Each script has a specific role, from representing the sounds of the language (hiragana and katakana), to conveying meaning (kanji), to transcribing foreign words (katakana). They are used in combination to write Japanese, providing richness and depth to the language.

For those embarking on the journey of learning Japanese, understanding the roles and uses of hiragana, katakana, and kanji is the first big step. It may seem daunting at first, but with patience, practice, and dedication, you’ll be able to navigate through the complexities of these scripts and begin to appreciate the beauty of the Japanese language.