かな. Covers both Japanese syllabaries, hiragana (ひらがな) and katakana (カタカナ).
Questions tagged [kana]
182 questions
86
votes
4 answers
What are the differences between じ and ぢ, and ず and づ?
The Japanese hiragana and katakana syllabaries can mostly be described as phonetic. But there are two exceptions, the two pairs of syllables modified to be voiced with the dakuten diacritic which turns them into homophones:
す (su) → ず (zu); つ (tsu)…
hippietrail
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64
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1 answer
Why were ゐ and ゑ eliminated?
Sometime in the early 20th century, usage of the now-historical kana ゐ and ゑ (and their katakana equivalents) dropped off, being replaced with い and え in modern Japanese. What exactly happened here and why?
bdonlan
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42
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5 answers
Why was both katakana and hiragana created?
Nowadays, katakana tends to be used for gairaigo and onomatopoeia, while hiragana tends to be used for native Japanese words. This is a slight simplification - more information is available here.
However, English loanwords weren't a major concern…
Andrew Grimm
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41
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4 answers
How did "little tsu" become a lengthener?
How did it come about historically that っ preceding a sound would geminate it? Is it really a little つ or are they just near homomorphs?
WAF
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38
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2 answers
Why is は pronounced as わ when used as a topic particle?
The particle は is pronounced similarly to わ (unlike the rest of the ハ行 kana) when used as a particle; why is this? What historical shifts went on to cause this irregularity?
bdonlan
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37
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4 answers
What is the equivalent of "alphabetical order" in Japanese?
I know there's あいうえお, but what about at the consonant level? Also, are there any common mnemonics used by Japanese children to remember these?
zakvdm
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32
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4 answers
What are the origins of ヶ?
The ヶ in e.g. 一ヶ月 is a bit of an odd character - it looks a lot like a small version of the katakana ケ, but is it derived from that katakana originally? Or is it a normal kanji? Or is it something else entirely?
bdonlan
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32
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6 answers
Do Japanese people see ツ as a smiling face?
Tsu (ツ) kana is sometimes used on the internet as a smiling face, such as in the emoticon ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. I'm wondering if Japanese people notice it or is just another character for them?
The reason I'm asking is that my native language is Arabic, and it…
imgx64
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30
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3 answers
What does the use of a dash (instead of a character) to extend a sound mean?
I came across the sentence 混乱する気持ちもよーくわかる in my manga. I have translated it, but the use of the dash (which was vertical in the actual vertical text) stumped me for a bit (I thought it was よう at first, not よお). I was under the impression that a dash…
AlbeyAmakiir
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29
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4 answers
Distinguishing certain characters in handwriting and print (Similar-looking Kana and Kanji)
Japanese has some sets of characters which look very similar or even identical. Obviously, context is usually more than enough to distinguish which character is intended, but I'm wondering if there are subtle differences which can be used to…
Zhen Lin
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22
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1 answer
Why is English "ka" and "ca" sometimes rendered as キャ (kya) instead of カ (ka)?
I sometimes see that English ka and ca are rendered キャ (kya) instead of カ (ka). Why is this?
Do English ka and ca really sound more like kya than ka, at least to Japanese listeners? (I know it doesn't to me.)
Petruza
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21
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2 answers
When did the "wu" character drop out of use?
In the last century, the ゐ and ゑ characters were eliminated from common use. But it seems like there used to also be a "wu" character that has since been lost. Given that it's a lot harder to find information about "wu", I assume it vanished much…
Troyen
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18
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2 answers
Are bookshelves in alphabetical (kana) order in Japanese bookshops and libraries?
How are fiction books such as novels sorted on the shelves at Japanese bookshops? Kana order seems to play a small part but not the whole part.
(I'm not asking about nonfiction books since those are ordered by category and are much easier to find)
hippietrail
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17
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2 answers
In which dialects have the sounds "ゐ" (wi) and "ゑ" (we) been preserved, and are their kana still occasionally seen?
In Nate Glenn's answer to bdonlan's qestion "Why were ゐ and ゑ eliminated?" he states:
"Wi" and "we" are still in some dialects, but standard Japanese does not have those sounds.
My question is which dialects are they which preserve these sounds?…
hippietrail
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16
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1 answer
Can I insert hiragana in words I only know partially how to write?
This is a problem I encountered today. I had no idea how to decide what was the best course of action, and I only got the advice of a classmate (You're doing it WRONG) to confirm.
As I am still learning, I often stumble upon words that I only…
Urukann
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