Japanese Weekly Volume 3 - Basics - Hiragana

Welcome to the second volume of Japanese Weekly. Through this series, plan to learn new vocabulary, grammar points and Japanese culture each volume. In this volume, you'll learn all the hiragana characters.

Hiragana developed from man'yōgana, Chinese characters used for their pronunciations, a practice which started in the 5th century. The forms of the hiragana originate from the cursive script style of Chinese calligraphy.

Hiragana are used for words for which there are no kanji. Hiragana are also used in words for which the kanji form is not known to the writer or readers, or is too formal for the writing purpose. Hiragana are also used to give the pronunciation of kanji in a reading aid called furigana.

Next Week: Japanese Weekly Volume 4 - Basics - Katakana