What is Kana?
{{For|[[Shogi]] player|Kana Satomi}} '''Kana''' {{Nihongo|2=仮名}} is the name for [[syllable]]-based [[Writing system|writing systems]] used in the [[Japanese language]]. There are three types of kana:<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://nihongomousou.wordpress.com/2013/07/11/history-of-kanamoji-katakana-hiragana/|title=History of Kanamoji (Katakana and Hiragana)|date=2013-07-11|newspaper=Nihongo Mousou Project|access-date=2018-01-08|language=en-US}}</ref> * [[Manyogana]] {{Nihongo|2=万葉仮名}} is the use of [[Chinese characters]] (or [[kanji]]) to represent each sound in spoken Japanese. * [[Hiragana]] {{Nihongo|2=ひらがな}} is the script used to write native Japanese words and [[Grammar|grammatical]] elements. * [[Katakana]] {{Nihongo|2=カタカナ}} is the script used to write [[Loanword|loanwords]] (or [[gairaigo]]) and [[onomatopoeia]]. Although manyogana is the oldest of the three types of kana, being used as early as the seventh [[century]], it was soon replaced by hiragana and katakana. Both of these characters came from the kanji characters that made up manyogana.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.sljfaq.org/afaq/manyougana.html|title=What is man'yōgana?|website=www.sljfaq.org|language=en|access-date=2018-01-08}}</ref> Today, there are 46 basic sounds in Japanese that are each represented by a hiragana and a corresponding katakana character as seen in the chart below. (The characters for the sounds ''wi'' and ''we'' are no longer used.) There are 25 other sounds that can be made by adding one of two [[Diacritic|diacritics]]: a [[dakuten]] or a [[handakuten]]. Also, 12 of the kana come in a smaller size to make other [[Combination (mathematics)|combinations]] of syllables.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.hadamitzky.de/english/lp_kana.htm|title=Kana|last=Hadamitzky|first=Wolfgang|website=www.hadamitzky.de|access-date=2018-01-08}}</ref> Japanese sentences are usually written using a mix of hiragana, katakana, and kanji. Although it is possible to write a sentence in only hiragana or katakana characters, it is hard for most [[Japanes