The Periodic Table of Kana

I began to learn hiragana (one of three writing systems in Japanese) a month or so ago, and after finishing my online Chemistry class decided to organize the two phonetic alphabets of the Japanese language (together called kana) into my version of the periodic table.

 

The Periodic Table of Kana, read from right to left. (double click to enlarge photo)

Japanese has the most complex writing system in use today. It uses hiragana, a phonetic alphabet for Japanese words, katakana, a phonetic alphabet for borrowed words (like hanbaagaa and conpyuutaa) and to top it off over 2,000 kanji, or Chinese characters. 

Before arriving in Japan, I figured that since Japanese has 114 phonetic letters to choose from, they would primarily use the phonetic alphabets and I wouldn’t see much kanji (which all have the same meaning and written character as in Chinese, but use multiple totally unrelated pronunciations depending on context). However, cracking open my copy of “Practical Japanese for Beginners” I learned that kanji is merely used for all those inconsequential words like nouns, verbs, and adjectives. Hiragana is generally for grammatical particles. 

Yes, 71 phonetic letters purely for grammar. And then another 71-letter alphabet to spell foreign words because the Japanese would do anything rather than accept words like “coffee” and “soccer” into their traditional writing system. I should also mention that hiragana (for native words) and katakana (solely for the purpose of designating foreign words as foreign) both contain the exact same core 46 sounds. 

So, it should be clear that cracking the code of reading and writing Japanese is no simple feat. Even if you are born in Japan, Japanese students still spend about a decade of their childhood studying kanji, and it is only through countless hours of brute memorization that any Japanese citizen is remotely literate. A few days ago I saw an elementary school kid on the subway with his mom. They were practicing identifying hiragana on the subway signs and writing the symbols on eachothers hands. I felt immensely validated, even Japanese people need to learn to write! They’re not born with it, even though it feels like something you could only achieve if it was simply in your DNA from the start.

I don’t remember learning to read. Its a skill that is as natural to me as breathing. I can’t help but read words! And you, reading this, can’t help but see these nonsensical symbols and instantly translate them into sounds and meaning. Even seeing letters upside down, or words spelled wrong or in ridiculous fonts, our brains automatically decode those letters into words and sentences. 

Attempting to learn to read a little Japanese has been both frustrating and extremely interesting. It’s unfathomable to me that there was ever a time I couldn’t read English, and being able to watch myself decode these foreign symbols and sounds has been a fascinating window into a process I know I went through as a little kid but simply don’t remember.

Learning to read and write hiragana and katakana have also helped my pronunciation immensely. Despite there being over 100 phonetic characters, Japanese actually has quite a limited set of possible sounds. But, its far easier to pronounce than many English words. “KA” sounds like “KA” no matter what other sounds its surrounded by or what word it's in. The vowels are always the same, and its been helpful to learn what sounds are actually possible in Japanese. For example, you can’t end a word in any consonant except “N”. And while “SHI” is a sound, “SI” is not. 

The Periodic Table of Kana shows important data on each hiragana such as stroke order, pronunciation, any dakuten variations, and the corresponding katakana. This alone will not teach you to read hiragana, if that’s what you were hoping, but it may be a nice introduction to what the Japanese alphabets even are, and a glimpse into how my brain likes to organize things (with logical grids and pretty colors!) If you do feel like learning hiragana and/or katakana, check out THIS website. Please bear with the corny mnemonics and you’ll be shocked at how quickly you begin to recognize the letters.

Try to decode the title using the rest of the table, and maybe give writing your name in kana a shot (it will sound very different, and automatically Japanese!)

どうもありがとうございます
-  ざで