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The Origin of Japanese Writing

How Japanese characters developed from Classical Chinese

For non Japanese or Chinese speakers, it may be hard to differentiate the two languages by their writing. Many of the characters appear to be similar, yet the two languages sound completely different!

Well, where does the Japanese writing system come from anyway?

First, let’s break down what the Japanese writing system entails:

Hiragana ひらがな

• Syllabary used for:
• inflections after verbs and adjectives
• grammar words (prepositions etc.)
• to clarify pronunciation of Kanji

Katakana カタカナ

• Syllabary used for:
• foreign words and names
• some plants and animal names
• onomatopoeia

Kanji 漢字

• Logographs used for:
• nouns
• stems of verbs, adjectives, and adverbs
• people’s names, and location names