Syllabary 音節文字 (音节文字)

yīnjié wénzì · from Greek

What is a syllabary?

A syllabary is a writing system where each symbol stands for a syllable (or mora), such as Japanese hiragana and katakana.

Japanese kana write sounds like ka, shi or n, not single consonants or vowels. Cherokee and Cree are other syllabaries. Because each symbol is a whole syllable, syllabaries are quick to learn for languages with simple syllable structure.

Examples

か ka, き ki, く ku (hiragana); カ ka (katakana); Cherokee Ꮳ tsa

Kungfucius says: Japanese kana: 46 symbols, learnable in a week, and then kanji arrives to ruin the party.