kana
9.1
A Japanese way of writing sounds using hiragana and katakana symbols
- noun
- /ˈkɑːnə/
- Specialized
:
kana
- In Japanese, children learn to read using kana before progressing to more complex characters.
Examples
-
It'd be even worse if they used the Latin alphabet instead of kana.
Blog text (25) -
The word 'sushi' can be written in kana to help beginners understand its pronunciation.
-
Hiragana and katakana are the two forms of kana used in the Japanese writing system.
Synonyms
1
9.9
A set of written symbols where each symbol shows a syllable like ka or mi
is the Japanese system that uses two separate syllable symbol sets
8.0
A writing system where each symbol stands for a syllable like "ka" or "mo"
is the Japanese example of that system using two distinct syllable sets
Surface Forms
Etymology
Kana comes from two Japanese characters, 仮 meaning 'temporary' and 名 meaning 'name'. It was the name for simple phonetic signs used next to Chinese characters, so kana now means the syllabic Japanese writing system including hiragana and katakana.