Hiragana

Hiragana is 46 signs and each one is a syllable, not a letter: か is “ka”, always. They sit in a table of five vowels (あいうえお) down columns of consonants (か・さ・た…), and learning it by rows saves weeks. Two marks change the sound without changing the drawing: the quotes ゛ voice it (か ka → が ga, は ha → ば ba) and the circle ゜ turns は into ぱ pa. A small つ (っ) is not read: it doubles the following consonant, きって kitte. And the three eternal traps: the particle は is read “wa”, を is read “o” and へ is read “e”, even though everywhere else they are ha, wo and he.