ABSTRACT
Japanese sentences are written by combining three types of script: kanji (Chinese characters), hiragana, and katakana. Kanji are logographic, and each kanji has its own meaning. Most kanji have more than one way of reading, and often more than one on-reading or kun-reading. In the on-reading, kanji are read with pronunciations deriving from their original Chinese pronunciations. Unlike kanji, hiragana and katakana are syllabaries which represent sound units rather than meanings. Therefore, people can use them to write out almost anything, whether they want to do so for aesthetic reasons or otherwise. Katakana is mostly used to represent words of foreign origin. They are also used to give a lively impression to onomatopoeic words. Hiragana and katakana were created when Japanese had simpler syllable structures than today. A number of orthographic conventions have since developed to cope with newer and more complex sound combinations.
