Hiragana and Katakana

Origin

Japanese has 2 syllabaries, hiragana and katakana with their origin dating back to the 8th and 9th centrury A.D.. The systematic arrangement of these alphabets is similar, but the use and the graphic representation of the syllables are different. The source and the time of origin are different, too. Hiragana was created by simplifying whole Chinese characters, whereas katakana comes from simplifying parts of characters.

The basic function of these alphabets is to adapt texts written in Chinese characters to the Japanese grammar and word order. Kanji alone proved not to be enough for written Japanese, so the origin of the Japanese syllabaries is the product of a long historical process that resulted in a unique graphic system. It was not officially codified until 1946.

Use

Hiragana is used for writing grammatical affixes and particles. Simply put, everything that cannot be written by kanji is written by hiragana. We also use it to indicate how to read complicated or lesser-known kanji (in this case, small hiragana symbols are written above the kanji in horizontal texts and on the right in vertical texts; this is called furigana). If the writer or the intended reader does not know the proper kanji for certain words, hiragana can be used instead. For instance, books for small children have mostly hiragana in them.

On the other hand, katakana is mainly for writing foreign loan words, which cannot be written in kanji, or for phonetic transcription of foreign geographical names or people’s names. Katakana is also used to write onomatopoeic interjections. Apart from these uses, katakana can also distinguish words in the text, just as the cursive does.