Hiragana etymology
 

I decided to create a series of posts on our blog (beyond-calligraphy.com) about etymology of both kana's that are in everyday use in modern Japanese language (hiragana and katakana). I believe that it is much easier to learn those syllabaries if one understands their origin.

I will begin with hiragana and then move to katakana. I will also add my calligraphy to the posts to explain the text better. This way, those who base their learning of Japanese language exclusively on the 活字 (printed font), will have a chance to see a proper written forms of those characters. Link to the first post is below:

平仮名 (ひらがな, hiragana): あ (a). | Beyond Calligraphy

Coments / suggestions are welcome!

It's actually pretty cool to see how different characters developed over time! :cool:
And it might be useful for learning indeed :O

Cheers V1nn1, I am really busy recently, but I should be able to write up to 3 posts a week about kana, so there should be the whole set for studying it soon.

Okay, sounds good!

thankyou for all the trouble you are going to. I am sure your efforts will be well appreciated.

Oh that is no trouble at all, I really enjoy it :) And, you're welcome!

Indeed they are, but aiding in the learning process, I still think this is a good approach
Amazon.com: Remembering the Kana: A Guide to Reading and Writing the Japanese Syllabaries in 3 Hours Each (Manoa) (part 1) (Japanese Edition) (9780824831646): James W. Heisig, Kazue Kurebayashi, Helmut Morsbach: Books

If what I just said sounds arrogant or something like that (sorry I have no empathy, e.g. sometimes I can say some cruel and gruesome things without even noticing), I apologize.

Also, Will you do the same with the most common kanji?

Not at all, everyone learns the way it suits them best.

I am already doing this with kanji, but they take much more time and research. I plan to do this with all 常用漢字.

Beyond Calligraphy | Blog | Categories | Kanji-etymology

sorry, i removed the link as i need to fix one picture

I don't always respond here after each of your new posts, but I wanted to mention that this is a great thread full of great stuff!

Thanks, Kyle, I really appreciate it. I need to think of some sort of search function to make it easy to look up given character. Next is katakana.