Page:An elementary grammar of the Japanese language.djvu/15

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JAPANESE GRAMMAR.

I. THE ALPHABET,
OR
The Iroha.

The letters used in Japanese are forty-seven. They have two different forms, one of which is called Katakana, and the other Hiragana. We give the Katakana, as under:—

These letters are called in Japanese:—

The whole system of the letters is called Iroha, from イロハ, the names of these first three letters.