Why do hiragana and katakana have the same form for "ใธ"?
When you start studying Japanese, you first learn hiragana and katakana, right?๐คญ
Then, you may have noticed that hiragana and katakana have some similarities.
Among them, you may have wondered why only โใธโ is the same in hiragana and katakana.
Today, Iโm gonna briefly explain about that!โ๏ธ
Originally, hiragana and katakana were created based on kanji during the Heian period (794 - 1185).๐ธ
Hiragana was originally used by women to write down spoken words, but its formation was based on a breakdown of the entire kanji.
For example, โใโ was created by changing the kanji character for โๅฎโ.
Katakana, on the other hand, is a character used by men to add furigana (phonetic guides to tell you how to read) to kanji, but its origins are made by omitting parts of kanji.
For example, โใขโ was created by taking out only the left part of the kanji โ้ฟโ and changing it.
Similarly, the hiragana โใโ is made by changing the entire kanji โๅฉโ, while the katakana โใชโ is made by taking only the right part of the kanji โๅฉโ and changing it.
Because of the different origins, the hiragana โใโ has a โhaneโ(An upward turn at the bottom of a stroke) part and a wider middle.
However, in the case of โใธ,โ both hiragana and katakana are based on "้จ".
Since many people in ancient Japan had the surname "โโ้จโ and used a writing system in which the left side was omitted, the hiragana โใธโ was not formed from the entire "้จ" but only the right side of "้จ" was broken down. Also, the katakana โใธโ was similarly formed from the right side of "้จ".๐ณ
In other words, hiragana was created based on a portion of the kanji, not the entire kanji, since abbreviations were used in the first place.
Moreover, the base of the character was the same as katakana, which is why the characters look so similar.
Learning the origin of hiragana and katakana in this way also makes studying the Japanese language fun!โบ๏ธ
Sayuri