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TAKANORI TOMITA's
Japanese tips
[Topic for Today: "Japanese Characters:
HIRAGANA"]
Issued by http://www.DSFY.com
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Hello
This is Takanori Tomita
from DSFY.com:
Japanese symbol Kanji/Web Translation.
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What is hiragana (hee-rah-gah-nah)?
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The word HIRAGANA means cursive rounded easy
to use and indicates both the shape and relative
simplicity of the script. The hiragana symbols
were developed by simplifying the man'yogona
kanji which represents the sounds of the Japanese
language.
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An Example: Hiragana
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For example, when writting verbs, the kanji
expresses the main idea or meaning and hiragana
are used to indicate the tense or function
of the verbs.
Five Hiragana Symbols:
A I U E O
You can pronounce them:
A I U E O from left to right.
They are first five hiragana words.
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When do Japanese people use Hiragana?
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Hiragana was necessary in order to adapt the
Chinese writing system to the Japanese language.
As I said in the last newsletter, today, hiragana
symbols are used to write the grammatical
parts of words and setences and Japanese words
which don't have a kanji.
We also use hiragana for naming children as
well, but it is usually kanji symbols are
main characters.
For example, my name (Takanori Tomita) is
written in Japanese kanji with only kanji.
Some people use only hiragana, especially
with old Japanese people. |
