Hiragana

Hiragana is wan o the three alphabets o Japanese. It is easier tae read nor the kanji (the sýstem thit came fae Chínese chairacters) this haes tae be lairnt wird bi wird, acause ance the 46 hiragana seembols haes been lairnt, the reader kens whit wey tae pronoonce thaim.

Hiragana an katakana is baith sýllabaries. In Scots we uise the letters o the alphabet. In maist wirds ilka maks a soond (a phoneme). In a sýlabary, ilka sýmbol staunds fyr a sýlable. Fur esuample: in Scots we scrieve “Wagamama” (selfish): ilka ane o the aicht letters maks a soond. The wird “Wagamama” is splít intae 4 sýlable (blocks o soond): Wa-ga-ma-ma. In hiragana it is scrieved wi fower seembols: わがまま.

Katakana wirks in the same wey, but the sýmbols isna the same. Katakana is a puckle easier tae learn nor Hiragana acause the seembols is mair semple an mair “squared aff”. Katakana an hiragana thegither is cawed “kana”.