Kana
The Japanese writing system consists of three scripts: Hiragana (ひらがな), Katakana (カタカナ), and Kanji (漢字). Hiragana and Katakana are phonetic syllabaries, meaning each character represents a distinct sound.
Sounds with dakuten (゛) or handakuten (゜). Represents voiced or plosive sounds.
Sounds combined with small "ya", "yu", or "yo". Two characters form one beat.
Double consonants. Indicated by a small 'tsu' (っ / ッ). Pause for a beat before pronouncing the next consonant. In Romaji, it is represented by doubling the following consonant.
Elongated vowels. Sounds are held for two beats. In Romaji, it is represented by a macron over the vowel (ā, ī, ū, ē, ō).
In addition to the syllables introduced above, the following syllables have been created and used in Japanese due to the influence of foreign languages, specifically for representing loanwords.
When used as particles (grammar markers), the following characters are read differently.