Introduction to Japanese Characters: Extended Kana

The Japanese writing system is made up of three main scripts: Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji. Among these, Hiragana and Katakana are known as kana, which are syllabic characters that represent distinct sounds. Mastering these two alphabets is essential for anyone beginning to learn Japanese, as they form the foundation of the language's written and spoken structure.

Extended Characters: Expanding the Soundscape

In addition to the base set, diacritical marks (called dakuten and handakuten) and small kana are used to modify or combine sounds for expanded pronunciation. These extended characters allow Japanese to express additional sounds not found in the basic syllabary, including voiced consonants, plosives, and contracted syllables.

Dakuten and Handakuten

Dakuten (゛), also known as a "voicing mark," is added to certain characters to change unvoiced consonants into voiced ones. You convert the characters to the extended form by adding dakuten to the top right corner of the character. For example, the Hiragana character か (ka) becomes が (ga) when dakuten is added. This change is also reflected in Katakana, where カ (ka) becomes ガ (ga). Not all consonants are modified by dakuten, but the following are:

Handakuten (゜), or "half-voicing mark," is used only with the H-row to create P-sounds. You convert the characters to the extended form by adding handakuten to the top right corner of the character:

Small Kana and Contracted Sounds (Yōon)

Another form of character extension involves using small versions of や (ya), ゆ (yu), and よ (yo) (written as ゃ, ゅ, and ょ in Hiragana or ャ, ュ, and ョ in Katakana). When combined with i (い / イ) consonant-vowel kana like き (ki) or し (shi), they form contracted sounds, known as yōon. For example:

• き (ki) + ゃ (ya) → きゃ (kya)
• し (shi) + ゅ (yu) → しゅ (shu)
• ち (chi) + ょ (yo) → ちょ (cho)

These combinations allow for more nuanced pronunciation and are especially common in names and native Japanese words.

Additionally, the small versions of や (ya), ゆ (yu), and よ (yo) can also be used with the extended characters to create contracted sounds. For example: