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THE ALPHABET and kunten, using Japanese numerals beside the Chinese characters to show the order in which they should be read, are used more seldom.
However, the Japanese syllabaries could be used independently, and for this reason they are dealt with in this chapter. The various attempts to adopt the kana signs as a complete script, thus discarding the ideograms, have not, as yet, succeeded. Nevertheless, various texts printed in kana
Phonetic
value
Kata kana
Hira gana
Phonetic
value
Kata kun
Hira ana
Phonetic
valum
Kataka
Hira gana
Phonetic
value
Kata kans
suu
はいは自よ・・ユゆ
(ha)
fe
()
(he)
イロハニホヘトチリヌルヲ 「いろはにほへとちりぬるを
ワカヨタレンツネナラムウ わかよたれそつねならむ5
年ノオクヤマケフコエテア みのたくやまけふこねてあ
サキユメミシエヒモセスン さきゆめみ~ひもせすん
we)
t0
()
(chỉ)
mo
Fig. ge--The Japanese syllabaries
signs only, were laid before the Congress of Orientalists in Paris, in 1888. The Kana no kai Society was founded, which published the magazine Kana no tekagami, "The Mirror of the Kana," and set out to purify the kana scripts and encourage the disuse of the ideograms.
Both kata kana and hira gana contain the traditional early Japanese forty-seven syllables. These constitute the iroha or irofa order of the characters (the term iroha or irofa is based on the acrological principle),
