Hacker Timesnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

In the case of Japanese they went through two phases. First they developed a phonetic alphabet specifically for Japanese

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiragana

then in the next 30-50 years or so they developed the system that we know today which use the kana in a secondary role. In Japanese, for instance, you tend to put the verb at the end of the sentence and the “stem” of the verb is usually written in Chinese characters which often mean the same thing they would in Chinese, but a few kana are added at the end to specify the tense of the verb and similar attributes. I think a Chinese speaker would recognize many characters which basically mean the same thing as in Chinese but Japanese adds new characters which are important grammatically.

The character の for instance can be used in spelling out bigger words phonetically but it is usually used for the word “no” which roughly means “of”. (It’s good to know because any substantial Japanese text will use it so it’s an easy tell of what language you’re looking at)

Chinese does have its own characters that play a similar particle role though

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_particles

the one that sticks out to me is 了 which is pronounced “le” and is used in sentences that are describing a change in a situation as opposed to describing an unchanged situation.



> First they developed a phonetic alphabet specifically for Japanese

No. First they used a set of existing Chinese characters that matched the syllables of Japanese - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man%27y%C5%8Dgana

It took several hundred years until Hiragana developed from the cursive writing style of the Chinese characters.


Thanks for the correction!




Consider applying for YC's Summer 2026 batch! Applications are open till May 4

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: