Gojūon

The "gojūon" (五十音) is a Japanese ordering of kana. "Gojū" (五十) means "fifty", and "on" (音, as in "on'yomi)" means "sound", so "gojūon" is "fifty-sound" ordering. It is so named from the 10-by-5 grid commonly used to display the kana.

(Note that there never were distinct kana for "ye, yi," or "wu"; the kana for "e, i," and "u" double up for those values. Also, with the spelling reforms after WWII, the kana for "we" and "wi" were replaced with "e" and "i" as well. The kana for syllabic "n" (ん) is not part of the grid, as it was introduced long after "gojūon" ordering was devised. The current number of distinct kana in a syllabic chart is therefore 46.)

The "gojūon" contains all the basic kana, but it does not include
*versions of kana with a dakuten such as が or だ,
*smaller kana, such as っ for つ,
*kana with one of the three small y kana, ya, yu or yo, the yōon forms, such as きょ or しゃ.

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.

History

The "gojūon" is an ancient convention, originating in the consonant order of Sanskrit as well as a means for expressing the hansetsu of Chinese characters. The earliest example of a "gojūon"-style layout dates from a manuscript known as Nihongo|"Kujakukyō Ongi"|孔雀経音義| dated c. 1004-1028. [Mabuchi (1993: 169-174)] In contrast, the earliest example of the alternative iroha ordering is from the 1079 text Nihongo|"Konkōmyō Saishōōkyō Ongi"|金光明最勝王経音義| . [Kubota (2007: 26)]

Table

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.

# These kana are no longer in common use. They, and the three empty cells, 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.

Ordering

In the ordering based on the gojuon, smaller versions of kana are treated in the same way as full size versions:
*the sokuon, the small kana "tsu", is ordered in the same way as the large "tsu", and after them. Thus, for example,
*:まつ　まったく　まつば　まとう (matsu, mattaku, matsuba, matou)
*yōon sounds are ordered in the same way as the full sized sounds, and before them, thus, for example,
*:きょ　きよ　きょい　きよい　きょう (kyo, kiyo, kyoi, kiyoi, kyou)

Voiced versions of the kana (those with a dakuten) are placed after the kana, and classified under their unvoiced versions. Thus, for example,:すすき　すずき　すずしい　すすむ　(susuki, suzuki, suzushii, susumu).

Mnemonics

In order to remember the gojuon, various mnemonics have been devised. For example,:"Ah, Kana Symbols: Take Note How Many You Read Well."and:"Ah, Kana. Surely Take Note How Many You Read Well."and:"Kana Signs, Think Now How Much You Really Want" (to learn them).and also:"A Kind Samurai Told Naomi How My Yak Ran Wild.

The first letters in these phrases give the ordering of the non-voiced initial sounds.

For vowel ordering, the vowel sounds in the following English phrase may be used as a mnemonic::"Ah, we soon get old."

The vowel sounds in the English words approximate the Japanese vowels: a, i, u, e, o.

Notes

References

* cite book
last = Kubota
first = Jun
title = Iwanami Nihon Koten Bungaku Jiten
publisher = Iwanami Shoten
date = 2007
id = ISBN 978-4-00-080310-6
*cite book
last = Mabuchi
first = Kazuo
title = Gojūonzu no Hanashi
publisher = Taishūkan Shoten
language = Japanese
date = 1993
id = ISBN 4-469-22093-0
*"The Japanese language", Roy Andrew Miller, ISBN 0226527182, describes the origin of gojūon in Sanskrit.
*"Gendai Kokugo Reikai Jiten", ISBN 4095010428, used to obtain examples of dictionary ordering.

External links

* [http://www.sljfaq.org/w/Goj%C5%ABon sci.lang.japan FAQ on the origin of kana order] contains the relevant quote from the above reference.
* [http://brng.jp/benri50on.pdf Kana Table (PDF)]