Is there any rhyme or reason to hiragana?


I'm just beginning to learn Japanese. The grammar and kanji I can follow along
thanks to similarities with Korean, but the hiragana is confusing the heck out
of me. There seems to be no pattern at all whatsoever, even in letters that
look very similar:

ね (ne), れ (re), わ (wa)

こ (ko), た (ta), に (ni)

ち (chi), さ (sa), き (ki)

Is there any rhyme or reason to how the hiragana letters are shaped? Or do
Japanese speakers just memorize them growing up?




I assume you mean to ask whether or not there is a pattern so that you can
easily remember them. As far as I know, the answer is "no".

However, a little historical context wouldn't hurt. The very short,
superficial story is that hiragana and katakana were derived from the Chinese
characters as simplified writing systems. If you look at the characters from
which they were derived, perhaps it could help them stick in your mind,
especially if you can follow kanji. For the benefit of future readers, I also
mention katakana. Below, I quote from Wikipedia.

> ### [Hiragana: History](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiragana#History)
>
> The forms of the hiragana originate from the cursive script style of Chinese
> calligraphy. The figure below shows the derivation of hiragana from
> manyōgana via cursive script. The upper part shows the character in the
> regular script form, the center character in red shows the cursive script
> form of the character, and the bottom shows the equivalent hiragana. Note
> also that the cursive script forms are not strictly confined to those in the
> illustration.
>
> [![enter image description
> here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/HlkYU.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/HlkYU.png)
>
> ### [Katakana: History](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katakana#History)
>
> Katakana was developed in the 9th century (during the early Heian period) by
> Buddhist monks by taking parts of man'yōgana characters as a form of
> shorthand, hence this kana is so-called kata (片, ‘partial, fragmented’).
>
> For example, ka (カ) comes from the left side of ka (加, literally ‘increase’,
> but the original meaning is no longer applicable to kana). The adjacent
> table shows the origins of each katakana: the red markings of the original
> Chinese character (used as man'yōgana) eventually became each corresponding
> symbol.
>
> [![enter image description
> here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/wyhTC.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/wyhTC.png)

For more historical context, see this related post: [Why was both katakana and
hiragana created?](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/4281/why-was-
both-katakana-and-hiragana-created)

To further help the reader, I provide some mnemonic devices in place of a hard
and fast rule to easily writing hiragana and katakana. Below I have reproduced
just one set I found at kidspicturedictionarycom: [Hiragana – Katakana Picture
Mnemonics](http://kidspicturedictionary.com/japanese/hiragana-katakana-
mnemonics/). However, there should be dozens more if you search online.

> [![enter image description
> here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/V2N7S.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/V2N7S.jpg)
> [![enter image description
> here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/Xg6oa.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/Xg6oa.jpg)
> [![enter image description
> here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/fmrXK.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/fmrXK.jpg)

Two more resources:

  1. Japanese Language Course Support Site at Georgia Tech 
    1. [Hiragana](http://japanese.gatech.edu/WebCTVista/JAPN1001/contents/Lesson02/hiragana/mnemonic-hiragana.html)
    2. [Katakana](http://japanese.gatech.edu/WebCTVista/JAPN1001/contents/Lesson02/katakana/mnemonic-katakana.html)
  2. Tofugu.com 
    1. [Hiragana](https://www.tofugu.com/japanese/learn-hiragana/)
    2. [Katakana](https://www.tofugu.com/japanese/learn-katakana/)




I assume you mean to ask whether or not there is a pattern so that you can
easily remember them. As far as I know, the answer is "no".

However, a little historical context wouldn't hurt. The very short,
superficial story is that hiragana and katakana were derived from the Chinese
characters as simplified writing systems. If you look at the characters from
which they were derived, perhaps it could help them stick in your mind,
especially if you can follow kanji. For the benefit of future readers, I also
mention katakana. Below, I quote from Wikipedia.

> ### [Hiragana: History](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiragana#History)
>
> The forms of the hiragana originate from the cursive script style of Chinese
> calligraphy. The figure below shows the derivation of hiragana from
> manyōgana via cursive script. The upper part shows the character in the
> regular script form, the center character in red shows the cursive script
> form of the character, and the bottom shows the equivalent hiragana. Note
> also that the cursive script forms are not strictly confined to those in the
> illustration.
>
> [![enter image description
> here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/HlkYU.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/HlkYU.png)
>
> ### [Katakana: History](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katakana#History)
>
> Katakana was developed in the 9th century (during the early Heian period) by
> Buddhist monks by taking parts of man'yōgana characters as a form of
> shorthand, hence this kana is so-called kata (片, ‘partial, fragmented’).
>
> For example, ka (カ) comes from the left side of ka (加, literally ‘increase’,
> but the original meaning is no longer applicable to kana). The adjacent
> table shows the origins of each katakana: the red markings of the original
> Chinese character (used as man'yōgana) eventually became each corresponding
> symbol.
>
> [![enter image description
> here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/wyhTC.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/wyhTC.png)

For more historical context, see this related post: [Why was both katakana and
hiragana created?](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/4281/why-was-
both-katakana-and-hiragana-created)

To further help the reader, I provide some mnemonic devices in place of a hard
and fast rule to easily writing hiragana and katakana. Below I have reproduced
just one set I found at kidspicturedictionarycom: [Hiragana – Katakana Picture
Mnemonics](http://kidspicturedictionary.com/japanese/hiragana-katakana-
mnemonics/). However, there should be dozens more if you search online.

> [![enter image description
> here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/V2N7S.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/V2N7S.jpg)
> [![enter image description
> here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/Xg6oa.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/Xg6oa.jpg)
> [![enter image description
> here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/fmrXK.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/fmrXK.jpg)

Two more resources:

  1. Japanese Language Course Support Site at Georgia Tech 
    1. [Hiragana](http://japanese.gatech.edu/WebCTVista/JAPN1001/contents/Lesson02/hiragana/mnemonic-hiragana.html)
    2. [Katakana](http://japanese.gatech.edu/WebCTVista/JAPN1001/contents/Lesson02/katakana/mnemonic-katakana.html)
  2. Tofugu.com 
    1. [Hiragana](https://www.tofugu.com/japanese/learn-hiragana/)
    2. [Katakana](https://www.tofugu.com/japanese/learn-katakana/)

