Gojūon

Japanese ordering of kana

+ Gojūon ordering(hiragana) a i u e o∅あいうえおKかきくけこSさしすせそTたちつてとNなにぬねのHはひふへほMまみむめもYや𛀆 ゆ𛀁 よRらりるれろWわゐ𛄟 ゑを Additional kanaん unused extinct obsolete

In the Japanese language, the is a traditional system ordering kana characters by their component phonemes, roughly analogous to alphabetical order. The "fifty" (gojū) in its name refers to the 5×10 grid in which the characters are displayed. Each kana, which may be a hiragana or katakana character, corresponds to one sound in Japanese. As depicted at the right using hiragana characters, the sequence begins with あ (a), い (i), う (u), え (e), お (o), then continues with か (ka), き (ki), く (ku), け (ke), こ (ko), and so on and so forth for a total of ten rows of five columns. Although nominally containing 50 characters, 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 in modern Japanese is therefore 46. Some of these gaps have always existed as gaps in sound: there was no yi or wu even in Old Japanese, with the kana for i and u doubling up for those phantom values. Ye persisted long enough for kana to be developed for it, but disappeared in Early Middle Japanese, having merged with e. Much later, with the spelling reforms after World War II, the kana for wi and we were replaced with i and e, the sounds they had merged with. The kana for syllabic n (hiragana ん) is not part of the grid, as it was introduced long after the gojūon ordering was devised. (Previously mu (hiragana む) was used for this sound.) The gojūon contains all the basic kana, but it does not include:
versions of kana with a dakuten such as が (ga) or だ (da), or kana with handakuten such as ぱ (pa) or ぷ (pu),
smaller kana (sutegana), such as the sokuon (っ) or in the yōon (ゃ,ゅ,ょ). 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.

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 Japanese, and some sounds have changed in the interim.

What is now s/さ was previously pronounced either or , hence its location corresponding to Sanskrit ; in Sanskrit appears towards the end of the list.

Kana starting with h (e. g. は), b (e. g. ば) and p (e. g. 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 has different articulation. This is because was previously , and pronouncing as is recent. (More detail at Old Japanese: Consonants; in brief: prior to Old Japanese, modern was presumably , as in Ryukyuan languages. Proto Japanese is believed to have split into Old Japanese and the Ryukyuan languages in the Yamato period (250–710). In Old Japanese (from 9th century) and on to the 17th century, was pronounced The earliest evidence was from 842, by the monk Ennin, writing in the Zaitōki that Sanskrit is more labial than Japanese. The Portuguese later transcribed the は row as fa/fi/fu/fe/fo.)

Syllable final n (ん) was not present in Old Japanese (it developed following Chinese borrowings), does not fit with other characters due to having no vowel, and thus is attached at the end of the grid, as in Sanskrit treatment of miscellaneous characters.

The earliest example of a gojūon style layout dates from a manuscript known as Kujakukyō Ongi (孔雀経音義) dated c. 1004–1028. In contrast, the earliest example of the alternative iroha ordering is from the 1079 text Konkōmyō Saishōōkyō Ongi (金光明最勝王経音義). Gojūon ordering was first used for a dictionary in the 1484 Onkochishinsho (温故知新書); following this use, gojūon and iroha were both used for a time, but today gojūon is more prevalent. Today the gojūon system forms the basis of input methods for Japanese mobile phones – each key corresponds to a column in the gojūon, 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 intended kana.

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 romanization 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. Ø /k/ /s/ /t/ /n/ /h/ /m/ /y/ /r/ /w/ /N/ /a/あアaかカkaさサsaたタtaなナnaはハhaまマmaやヤyaらラraわワwaんンnetc. /i/いイiきキkiしシshiちチchiにニniひヒhiみミmi りリriwi /u/うウuくクkuすスsuつツtsuぬヌnuふフfuむムmuゆユyuるルru /e/えエeけケkeせセseてテteねネneへヘhe めメme れレrewe /o/おオoこコkoそソsoとトtoのノnoほホhoもモmoよヨyoろロroをヲwo

^ These kana are no longer in common use. Wi and we kana were included in the 1900 standard for kana but removed by subsequent orthographic reforms. Kana for writing explicit yi, ye and wu sounds were given by some nineteenth century textbooks but were not included in the 1900 standard. Since e and ye existed as different phonemes in historic Japanese literature (having since merged), some specialised scholarly works use え/𛀀 (from the man'yōgana character 衣) to transcribe e and 𛀁/エ (from man'yōgana 江, where エ is the modern Katakana e) to transcribe ye. These five 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. The rows are referred to as 段; dan, and the columns as 行; gyō. They are named for their first entry, thus the rows are (top to bottom) あ段、い段、う段、え段、お段 while the columns are (right to left) あ行、か行、さ行、た行、な行、は行、ま行、や行、ら行、わ行. These are sometimes written in katakana, such as ア行, and conspicuously used when referring to Japanese verb conjugation – for example, the verb "read"; 読む; yomu is of "ma column godan verb; 5 class conjugation"; マ行[[:ja:五段活用 type.