Q. How many letters does Hiragana have?
The answer is… 50! Katakana also has 50 letters. Both Hiragana and Katakana express just the sound, which means they don’t have any meanings.
What are Hiragana letters?
These are the letters of Hiragana. The sound is just the same as Katakana.
あ(a) い(i) う(u) え(e) お(o)
か(ka) き(ki) く(ku) け(ke) こ(ko)
さ(sa) し(shi) す(su) せ(se) そ(so)
た(ta) ち(chi) つ(tsu) て(te) と(to)
な(na) に(ni) ぬ(nu) ね(ne) の(no)
は(ha) ひ(hi) ふ(fu) へ(he) ほ(ho)
ま(ma) み(mi) む(mu) め(me) も(mo)
や(ya) ゆ(yu) よ(yo)
ら(ra) り(ri) る(ru) れ(re) ろ(ro)
わ(wa) を(wo) ん(nn)
History of Hiragana（ひらがな）
The exact year of the creation of Hiragana is still unveiled but it is generally said that the first version of Hiragana appeared around 8th or 9th century.
Katakana was created to describe the things belonging to “kanji（漢字）”, which means to express the words come from Chinese, whereas Hiragana was for the Japanese words the people had already had in Japan.
Who originally used ひらがな？
Hiragana was used mainly by women,or by men but in unofficial or private situation. Katakana was used officially or in business situation but Hiragana was often seen in diaries written by women in ancient times. “Tosa-nikki（土佐日記）” which was written by Kino Tsurayuki（紀貫之） in Heian era is a remarkable diary because it’s the first literature written in Hiragana by a man. It is said that Kino wrote the diary pretending to be a woman.
How and when to use Hiragana?
Since Hiragana is the first Japanese language taught at schools in Japan, it can be used in almost all situations. In Japan, young children learn Hiragana first, then Katakana, and kanji.
Supposing people have already learned Hiragana, Katakana, and kanji, there are some situations people must use Hiragana, such as;
- to describe the things or words came from Japan
- just to express sounds, with no meanings
- to complete the words with kanji, which is called “okuri-gana（送り仮名）” kanji has two types of sounds and in many situations it needs okuri-gana to apply the word into a sentence.
- to write words which has difficult or uncommon kanji, to make readers understand the word easily
Japanese is a really unique language especially in terms of letters and writing system. I hope you’ll get interested in Japanese language and I can help you learn it!
