Iroha Uta: The Traditional Japanese Syllable Chart 2

The reading is:

Character reading:            Reading for meaning:
i ro ha ni ho he to                iro wa nio e do
chi ri nu ru o                       chi ri nu ru o
wa ka yo ta re so                 waga yo tare zo
tsu ne na ra mu                   tsune na ra mu
u i no o ku ya ma                 u i no oku yama
ke fu ko e te                        (kyoh) ko e te
a sa ki yu me mi shi              asa ki yume mi shi
e hi mo se su n                    e hi mo se zu n

In the reading for meaning, there are some irregularities. へ is given the sound of “e”. In modern Japanese too, there are cases whereへshould be pronounced as “e”. But in this case えshould be used in modern Japanese.
けふis given the sound of “kyoh”. This is the typical of the peculiarity of the so-called “historical kana usage”. There are others. せうis given the sound of “shoh”, てふis given the sound of “choh”. ひis given the sound of “i”. This “historical kana usage” was the standard until 1946. One more to add, “　゛” was not used in more old time. The reading should be judged from the context.

Tags: Japanese grammar