Japanese writing system terms

is a Japanese syllabary, part of the Japanese writing system, along with katakana as well as kanji (Chinese characters).

Kanji (; , hiragana: かんじ, Katakana: カンジ, , ) are logographic Chinese characters, historically adapted from Chinese writing scripts, used in the writing of Japanese. They comprised a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese and are still used today, along with the subsequently derived syllabic (phonographic) scripts of and . Most Kanji characters have two pronunciations: ''kun'yomi, based on the sounds of vernacular Japanese, where the Kanji is often phonetically transcribed with furigana; and on'yomi, based on the imitation of the original Middle Chinese sound

is a Japanese syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system along with hiragana, kanji and in some cases the Latin script (known as rōmaji).

thumb|Each of the most popular emoji from the 9 major emoji categories according to the Unicode Emoji Frequency study from 2021, rendered in the Noto Color Emoji font

are syllabaries used to write Japanese phonological units, morae. In current usage, kana most commonly refers to hiragana and katakana. It can also refer to their ancestor , which were Chinese characters used phonetically to transcribe Japanese (e.g. ''man'yōgana); and hentaigana'', which are historical variants of the now-standard hiragana.

is a Japanese reading aid consisting of smaller kana (syllabic characters) printed either above or next to kanji (logographic characters) or other characters to indicate their pronunciation. It is one type of ruby text. Furigana is also known as and in Japanese. In modern Japanese, it is usually used to gloss rare kanji, to clarify rare, nonstandard or ambiguous kanji readings, or in children's or learners' materials. Before the post-World War II script reforms, it was more widespread.

are the simplified forms of kanji used in Japan since the promulgation of the tōyō kanji list in 1946. Some of the new forms found in shinjitai are also found in simplified Chinese characters, but shinjitai is generally not as extensive in the scope of its modification.

or is a way of homophonically reading kanji (Chinese characters) in Japanese. The here are the approximated , using Japanese consonants and vowels, of historical Chinese words. In contrast, the "readings" acquired from the of those same Chinese words into Japanese are known as ''kun'yomi''.

loanwords in Japanese

thumb| form of as , using the form of (, "trash"), which literally translates as "protect beauty" In modern Japanese, principally refers to kanji used to phonetically represent native or borrowed words with less regard to the underlying meaning of the characters. This is similar to in Old Japanese. Conversely, also refers to kanji used semantically without regard to the readings.

or is the way of reading kanji characters using the native Japanese word that matches the meaning of the Chinese character when it was introduced. This pronunciation is contrasted with ''on'yomi'', which is the reading based on the original Chinese pronunciation of the character.

thumb|190px|The word (, ) written vertically with vertical chōonpu The , also known as , , , or Katakana-Hiragana Prolonged Sound Mark by the Unicode Consortium, is a Japanese symbol that indicates a , or a long vowel of two morae in length. Its form is a horizontal or vertical line in the center of the text with the width of one kanji or kana character. It is written horizontally in horizontal text and vertically in vertical text (ー). The is usually used to indicate a long vowel sound in katakana writing, rarely in hiragana writing, and never in romanized Japanese. The is a distinct mark from

Kyūjitai () are the traditional forms of kanji (Chinese written characters used in Japanese writing). Their simplified counterparts are shinjitai (). Some of the simplified characters arose centuries ago and were in everyday use in both China and Japan, but they were considered inelegant, even uncouth. After World War II, simplified character forms were made official separately in Japan and mainland China, with Japan adopting fewer and less drastic changes. For example, () remains unchanged, whereas it was simplified to () on the mainland.

is a pronunciation change seen in some compound words in Japanese. Rendaku modifies the consonant at the start of the second (or later) part of the compound, replacing a voiceless consonant, such as , with a voiced consonant, such as . For example, the morpheme starts with the voiceless consonant , which is replaced with the corresponding voiced consonant in the compound word , from + .

The is a Japanese symbol in the form of a small hiragana or katakana , as well as the various consonants represented by it. In less formal language, it is called or , meaning "small ". It serves multiple purposes in Japanese writing.

thumb|The kanji for Tasuki (sash)|tasuki, a kokuji, with [[furigana above.]] In Japanese, or are kanji created in Japan rather than borrowed from China. Like most Chinese characters, they are primarily formed by combining existing characters—though using combinations that are not used in Chinese.

thumbnail|upright=1.4|, meaning "revere heaven, love people". Calligraphy by Saigō Takamori. A is a Japanese lexeme consisting of four kanji (Chinese characters). English translations of include "four-character compound", "four-character idiom", "four-character idiomatic phrase", and "four-character idiomatic compound". It is equivalent to the Chinese , from which it is derived.

The is a feature of the Japanese language in which a mora is formed with an added sound, i.e., palatalized, or (more rarely in the modern language) with an added sound, i.e. labialized.

thumb|upright|Sign reading "umbrella stand" (, kasa-oki, standard form , showing ryakuji form of : ( + ), with inner omitted. Compare simplified Chinese . thumb|240px|Price tag reading ¥400, (bargain item), showing ryakuji form of , with bottom squares connected

are the often non-standard kanji character readings (pronunciations) found almost exclusively in Japanese names.

Japanese diacritic signs used with Kana characters to modify the voicing of consonants

forms of kanji particular to the Asahi Shimbun newspaper

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