Gojuon
Encyclopedia
The is a Japanese
ordering of kana
.
It is named for the 5×10 grid in which the characters are displayed, but the grid is not completely filled, and, further, there is an extra character added outside the grid at the end: with 5 gaps and 1 extra character, the current number of distinct kana in a syllabic chart is therefore 46. Some of these gaps have always existed as gaps in sound: there was no yi or wu in Old Japanese
, and ye disappeared in Late Old Japanese
, predating the kana: the kana for e, i, and u double up for those phantom values. Also, with the spelling reforms after World War II
, the kana for we and wi were replaced with e and i, the sounds they had developed into. The kana for syllabic n (ん) is not part of the grid, as it was introduced long after gojūon ordering was devised (previously む was used for this sound).
The gojūon contains all the basic kana, but it does not include:
The gojūon order is the prevalent system for collating
Japanese in Japan. For example, dictionaries are ordered using this method.
Other systems used are the iroha
ordering, and, for kanji, the radical
ordering.
, as well as a means for expressing the hansetsu
of Chinese characters.
In a quip, it uses Sanskrit organization (grid, with order of consonants and vowels), and Chinese writing (in columns, right-to-left).
The order of consonants and vowels, and the grid layout, originates in Sanskrit shiksha
(śikṣā, Hindu phonetics and phonology), and Brāhmī script
, as reflected throughout the Brahmic family of scripts
. In this vein, the monk Kūkai
introduced the Siddhaṃ script to Japan in 806 on his return from China.
Note however that the Sanskrit was written left-to-right, with vowels changing in rows, not columns; writing the grid vertically follows Chinese writing convention.
, and some sounds have changed in the interim.
s/さ: What is now s/さ was previously pronounced [ts], hence its location; in Sanskrit /s/ is near the end of the list.
h/は: h/b/p (はばぱ) are placed where p/b are in Sanskrit (in Sanskrit, h is at the end) and the diacritics do not follow the usual pattern: p/b (as in Sanskrit) is the usual unvoiced/voiced pattern, and [h] has different articulation.
N/ん: This was not present in Old Japanese (it developed following Chinese borrowings), does not fit with other characters, and thus is attached at the end of the grid, as in Sanskrit treatment of miscellaneous characters.
ordering is from the 1079 text .
Gojūon ordering was first used for a dictionary in the 1484 ; following this use, gojūon and iroha were both used for a time, but today gojūon is more prevalent.
Today the gojūon form the basis of input methods for Japanese mobile phones – each key corresponds to a column in the gojūon (5 row × 10 column grid of kana), while the number of presses determines the row. For example, the '2' button corresponds to the ka-column (ka, ki, ku, ke, ko), and the button is pressed repeatedly to get the correct kana.
of the kana, and the fourth entry is the pronunciation written in the International Phonetic Alphabet
(IPA). Please see Japanese phonology
for more details on the individual sounds.
Voiced versions of the kana (those with a dakuten
) are placed after the kana, and classified under their unvoiced versions; handakuten are placed after dakuten. For example,
and
and
and
and also
The first letters in these phrases give the ordering of the non-voiced initial sounds.
For vowel ordering, the vowel sounds in the following English phrase may be used as a mnemonic:
The vowel sounds in the English words approximate the Japanese vowels: a, i, u, e, o.
One can also use
to remember the order of the vowels.
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
ordering of kana
Kana
Kana are the syllabic Japanese scripts, as opposed to the logographic Chinese characters known in Japan as kanji and the Roman alphabet known as rōmaji...
.
It is named for the 5×10 grid in which the characters are displayed, but the grid is not completely filled, and, further, there is an extra character added outside the grid at the end: with 5 gaps and 1 extra character, the current number of distinct kana in a syllabic chart is therefore 46. Some of these gaps have always existed as gaps in sound: there was no yi or wu in Old Japanese
Old Japanese
is the oldest attested stage of the Japanese language.This stage in the development of Japanese is still actively studied and debated, and key Old Japanese texts, such as the Man'yōshū, remain obscure in places.-Dating:...
, and ye disappeared in Late Old Japanese
Late Old Japanese
is a stage of the Japanese language used between 794 and 1185, a time known as the Heian Period. It is the successor to Old Japanese. It is also known as Late Old Japanese, but the term "Early Middle Japanese" is preferred, as it is closer to Late Middle Japanese than to Old Japanese...
, predating the kana: the kana for e, i, and u double up for those phantom values. Also, with the spelling reforms after World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, the kana for we and wi were replaced with e and i, the sounds they had developed into. The kana for syllabic n (ん) is not part of the grid, as it was introduced long after gojūon ordering was devised (previously む was used for this sound).
The gojūon contains all the basic kana, but it does not include:
- versions of kana with a dakutenDakuten, colloquially ten-ten , is a diacritic sign most often used in the Japanese kana syllabaries to indicate that the consonant of a syllable should be pronounced voiced. Handakuten , colloquially maru , is a diacritic used with the kana for syllables starting with h to indicate that they should...
such as が or だ, or kana with handakuten such as ぱ or ぷ, - smaller kana, such as the sokuonSokuonThe is a Japanese symbol consisting of a small hiragana or katakana tsu. In less formal language it is called or , meaning "little tsu". Compare to a full-sized tsu:The sokuon is used for various purposes...
(っ) or yōonYoonis a feature of the Japanese language in which a mora is formed with an added sound.Yōon are represented in hiragana using a kana ending in i, such as き , plus a smaller-than-usual version of one of the three y kana, ya, yu or yo. For example kyō, "today", is written きょう, using a small version of...
(ゃ,ゅ,ょ).
The gojūon order is the prevalent system for collating
Collation
Collation is the assembly of written information into a standard order. One common type of collation is called alphabetization, though collation is not limited to ordering letters of the alphabet...
Japanese in Japan. For example, dictionaries are ordered using this method.
Other systems used are the iroha
Iroha
The is a Japanese poem, probably written in the Heian era . Originally the poem was attributed to the founder of the Shingon Esoteric sect of Buddhism in Japan, Kūkai, but more modern research has found the date of composition to be later in the Heian Period. The first record of its existence...
ordering, and, for kanji, the radical
Radical (Chinese character)
A Chinese radical is a component of a Chinese character. The term may variously refer to the original semantic element of a character, or to any semantic element, or, loosely, to any element whatever its origin or purpose...
ordering.
History
The gojūon is an ancient convention, originating in the character ordering in SanskritSanskrit
Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...
, as well as a means for expressing the hansetsu
Fanqiè
In Chinese phonology, fanqie is a method to indicate the pronunciation of a character by using two other characters.-The Origin:...
of Chinese characters.
In a quip, it uses Sanskrit organization (grid, with order of consonants and vowels), and Chinese writing (in columns, right-to-left).
The order of consonants and vowels, and the grid layout, originates in Sanskrit shiksha
Shiksha
Shiksha is one of the six Vedangas, treating the traditional Hindu science of phonetics and phonology of Sanskrit.Its aim is the teaching of the correct pronunciation of the Vedic hymns and mantras...
(śikṣā, Hindu phonetics and phonology), and Brāhmī script
Brāhmī script
Brāhmī is the modern name given to the oldest members of the Brahmic family of scripts. The best-known Brāhmī inscriptions are the rock-cut edicts of Ashoka in north-central India, dated to the 3rd century BCE. These are traditionally considered to be early known examples of Brāhmī writing...
, as reflected throughout the Brahmic family of scripts
Brahmic family of scripts
The Brahmic or Indic scripts are a family of abugida writing systems. They are used throughout South Asia , Southeast Asia, and parts of Central and East Asia, and are descended from the Brāhmī script of the ancient Indian subcontinent...
. In this vein, the monk Kūkai
Kukai
Kūkai , also known posthumously as , 774–835, was a Japanese monk, civil servant, scholar, poet, and artist, founder of the Shingon or "True Word" school of Buddhism. Shingon followers usually refer to him by the honorific titles of and ....
introduced the Siddhaṃ script to Japan in 806 on his return from China.
Note however that the Sanskrit was written left-to-right, with vowels changing in rows, not columns; writing the grid vertically follows Chinese writing convention.
Discrepancies
There are three ways in which the grid does not exactly accord with Sanskrit ordering of Modern Japanese; that is because the grid is based on Old JapaneseOld Japanese
is the oldest attested stage of the Japanese language.This stage in the development of Japanese is still actively studied and debated, and key Old Japanese texts, such as the Man'yōshū, remain obscure in places.-Dating:...
, and some sounds have changed in the interim.
s/さ: What is now s/さ was previously pronounced [ts], hence its location; in Sanskrit /s/ is near the end of the list.
h/は: h/b/p (はばぱ) are placed where p/b are in Sanskrit (in Sanskrit, h is at the end) and the diacritics do not follow the usual pattern: p/b (as in Sanskrit) is the usual unvoiced/voiced pattern, and [h] has different articulation.
- In brief, this is because /h/ was previously [p], and pronouncing /h/ as [h] is recent.
- This is discussed in more detail at Old Japanese: /h/; in brief: prior to Old Japanese, modern /h/ was presumably [p], as in Ryukyuan languagesRyukyuan languagesThe Ryukyuan languages are spoken in the Ryukyu Islands, and make up a subgroup of the Japonic, itself controversially a subgroup of Altaic....
. Proto-Japanese is believed to have split into Old Japanese and the Ryukyuan languages in the Yamato periodYamato periodThe is the period of Japanese history when the Japanese Imperial court ruled from modern-day Nara Prefecture, then known as Yamato Province.While conventionally assigned to the period 250–710 , the actual start of Yamato rule is disputed...
(250–710). In Old Japanese (from 9th century) and on to the 17th century, /h/ was pronounced [ɸ], with the earliest evidence from the start of the period being from 842, by the monk EnninEnninEnnin , who is better known in Japan by his posthumous name, Jikaku Daishi , was a priest of the Tendai school.- Birth and origin :...
, writing in Zaitōki that Sanskrit "p" is more labial than Japanese, and with late evidence being that Portuguese transcribed the は row as fa/fi/fu/fe/fo.
N/ん: This was not present in Old Japanese (it developed following Chinese borrowings), does not fit with other characters, and thus is attached at the end of the grid, as in Sanskrit treatment of miscellaneous characters.
Examples
The earliest example of a gojūon-style layout dates from a manuscript known as dated c. 1004-1028. In contrast, the earliest example of the alternative irohaIroha
The is a Japanese poem, probably written in the Heian era . Originally the poem was attributed to the founder of the Shingon Esoteric sect of Buddhism in Japan, Kūkai, but more modern research has found the date of composition to be later in the Heian Period. The first record of its existence...
ordering is from the 1079 text .
Gojūon ordering was first used for a dictionary in the 1484 ; following this use, gojūon and iroha were both used for a time, but today gojūon is more prevalent.
Today the gojūon form the basis of input methods for Japanese mobile phones – each key corresponds to a column in the gojūon (5 row × 10 column grid of kana), while the number of presses determines the row. For example, the '2' button corresponds to the ka-column (ka, ki, ku, ke, ko), and the button is pressed repeatedly to get the correct kana.
Table
This table uses the vertical system of Japanese writing, and should be read from the top down, starting from the rightmost column, then to the left. In each entry, the top entry is the hiragana, the second entry is the corresponding katakana, the third entry is the Hepburn romanizationHepburn romanization
The is named after James Curtis Hepburn, who used it to transcribe the sounds of the Japanese language into the Latin alphabet in the third edition of his Japanese–English dictionary, published in 1887. The system was originally proposed by the in 1885...
of the kana, and the fourth entry is the pronunciation written in the International Phonetic Alphabet
International Phonetic Alphabet
The International Phonetic Alphabet "The acronym 'IPA' strictly refers [...] to the 'International Phonetic Association'. But it is now such a common practice to use the acronym also to refer to the alphabet itself that resistance seems pedantic...
(IPA). Please see Japanese phonology
Japanese phonology
This article deals with the phonology of the Japanese language.-Consonants:The Japanese vowels are pronounced as monophthongs, unlike in English; except for , they are similar to their Spanish or Italian counterparts....
for more details on the individual sounds.
| /N/ | /w/ | /r/ | /y/ | /m/ | /h/ | /n/ | /t/ | /s/ | /k/ | Ø | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ん ン n [ɴ] etc. |
わ ワ wa [w͍a] |
ら ラ ra [ɽa] |
や ヤ ya [ja] |
ま マ ma [ma] |
は ハ ha [ha] |
な ナ na [na] |
た タ ta [ta] |
さ サ sa [sa] |
か カ ka [ka] |
あ ア a [a] |
/a/ |
| ゐ1 ヰ wi [i] |
り リ ri [ɽi] |
み ミ mi [mi] |
ひ ヒ hi [çi] |
に ニ ni [ni] |
ち チ chi [tɕi] |
し シ shi [ɕi] |
き キ ki [ki] |
い イ i [i] |
/i/ | ||
| る ル ru [ɽu͍] |
ゆ ユ yu [ju͍] |
む ム mu [mu͍] |
ふ フ fu [ɸu͍] |
ぬ ヌ nu [nu͍] |
つ ツ tsu [tsu͍] |
す ス su [su͍] |
く ク ku [ku͍] |
う ウ u [u͍] |
/u/ | ||
| ゑ1 ヱ we [e] |
れ レ re [ɽe] |
め メ me [me] |
へ ヘ he [he] |
ね ネ ne [ne] |
て テ te [te] |
せ セ se [se] |
け ケ ke [ke] |
え エ e [e] |
/e/ | ||
| を ヲ wo [o] |
ろ ロ ro [ɽo] |
よ ヨ yo [jo] |
も モ mo [mo] |
ほ ホ ho [ho] |
の ノ no [no] |
と ト to [to] |
そ ソ so [so] |
こ コ ko [ko] |
お オ o [o] |
/o/ |
- These kana are no longer in common use. They, and the three empty cells, are normally replaced with the plain vowel kana いうえ (イウエ) in the charts that Japanese use, but that has not been done here to avoid confusion.
Ordering of variant kana
In the ordering based on the gojūon, smaller versions of kana are treated in the same way as full size versions:- the sokuonSokuonThe is a Japanese symbol consisting of a small hiragana or katakana tsu. In less formal language it is called or , meaning "little tsu". Compare to a full-sized tsu:The sokuon is used for various purposes...
, the small kana tsu, is ordered in the same way as the large tsu, and after them. For example,- まつ まったく まつば まとう (matsu, mattaku, matsuba, matou)
- yōonYoonis a feature of the Japanese language in which a mora is formed with an added sound.Yōon are represented in hiragana using a kana ending in i, such as き , plus a smaller-than-usual version of one of the three y kana, ya, yu or yo. For example kyō, "today", is written きょう, using a small version of...
sounds are ordered in the same way as the full sized sounds, and after them. For example,- きや きゃ きやく きゃく きゆ (kiya, kya, kiyaku, kyaku, kiyu).
Voiced versions of the kana (those with a dakuten
Dakuten
, colloquially ten-ten , is a diacritic sign most often used in the Japanese kana syllabaries to indicate that the consonant of a syllable should be pronounced voiced. Handakuten , colloquially maru , is a diacritic used with the kana for syllables starting with h to indicate that they should...
) are placed after the kana, and classified under their unvoiced versions; handakuten are placed after dakuten. For example,
- すすき すずき すずしい すすむ (susuki, suzuki, suzushii, susumu).
and
- は ば ぱ (ha, ba, pa)
Mnemonics
In order to remember the gojūon, various mnemonics have been devised. For example,- Ah, Kana Symbols: Take Note How Many You Read Well.
and
- Ah, Kana. Surely Take Note How Many You Read Well.
and
- Kana Signs, Think Now How Much You Really Want (to learn them).
and also
- A Kind Samurai Told Naomi How My Yak Ran Wild.
The first letters in these phrases give the ordering of the non-voiced initial sounds.
For vowel ordering, the vowel sounds in the following English phrase may be used as a mnemonic:
- Ah, we soon get old.
The vowel sounds in the English words approximate the Japanese vowels: a, i, u, e, o.
One can also use
- HAIL UNESCO
to remember the order of the vowels.
External links
- sci.lang.japan FAQ on the origin of kana order contains the relevant quote from the above reference.
- Kana Table (PDF)