Kana

Kana
Kana;
Script type	Syllabary
Time period	c. 800 CE to the present
Direction	Vertical right-to-left, left-to-right
Region	Japan
Languages	Japanese, Ryukyuan languages, Hachijō, Ainu, Palauan
Related scripts
Parent systems	Oracle bone script Seal script Clerical script Regular script (Chinese characters) Kanji Kana; ; ; ; ;
ISO 15924
ISO 15924	Hrkt (412), Japanese syllabaries (alias for Hiragana + Katakana)
Unicode
Unicode alias	Katakana or Hiragana
Unicode range	U+3040 – U+309F Hiragana; U+30A0 – U+30FF Katakana;
	This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

Kana (仮名, Japanese pronunciation: [kana]) are syllabaries used to write Japanese phonological units, morae. Such syllabaries include (1) the original kana, or magana (真仮名, literally 'true kana'),^[2] which were Chinese characters (kanji) used phonetically to transcribe Japanese, the most prominent magana system being man'yōgana (万葉仮名); the two descendants of man'yōgana, (2) hiragana (平（ひら）仮（が）名（な）),^[3] and (3) katakana (片（カタ）仮（カ）名（ナ）). There are also hentaigana (変体仮名, literally 'variant kana'), which are historical variants of the now-standard hiragana. In current usage, 'kana' can simply mean hiragana and katakana.

Katakana, with a few additions, are also used to write Ainu. A number of systems exist to write the Ryūkyūan languages, in particular Okinawan, in hiragana. Taiwanese kana were used in Taiwanese Hokkien as glosses (ruby text or furigana) for Chinese characters in Taiwan when it was under Japanese rule.

Each kana character (syllabogram) corresponds to one sound or whole syllable in the Japanese language, unlike kanji regular script, which corresponds to a meaning (logogram). Apart from the five vowels, it is always CV (consonant onset with vowel nucleus), such as ka, ki, sa, shi, etc., with the sole exception of the C grapheme for nasal codas usually romanised as n. The structure has led some scholars to label the system moraic, instead of syllabic, because it requires the combination of two syllabograms to represent a CVC syllable with coda (e.g. CVn, CVm, CVng), a CVV syllable with complex nucleus (i.e. multiple or expressively long vowels), or a CCV syllable with complex onset (i.e. including a glide, CyV, CwV).

The limited number of phonemes in Japanese, as well as the relatively rigid syllable structure, makes the kana system a very accurate representation of spoken Japanese.

^ Thomas E. McAuley, Language change in East Asia, 2001:90
^ スーパー大辞林 [Super Daijirin].
^ Hatasa, Yukiko Abe; Kazumi Hatasa; Seiichi Makino (2010). Nakama 1: Introductory Japanese: Communication, Culture, Context 2nd ed. Heinle. p. 2. ISBN 978-0495798187.

[1] Thomas E. McAuley, Language change in East Asia, 2001:90

[daijirin-2] スーパー大辞林 [Super Daijirin].

[3] Hatasa, Yukiko Abe; Kazumi Hatasa; Seiichi Makino (2010). Nakama 1: Introductory Japanese: Communication, Culture, Context 2nd ed. Heinle. p. 2. ISBN 978-0495798187.

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