Japanese writing

Kanji

Kana

• Hiragana
• Katakana
• Hentaigana
• Man'yōgana

Uses

• Furigana
• Okurigana

Rōmaji

Man'yōgana (万葉仮名^?) is an ancient writing system that employs Chinese characters to represent the Japanese language. The date of the earliest usage of this type of kana is not clear, but it was in use since at least the mid seventh century. The name "man'yōgana" is from the Man'yōshū, a Japanese poetry anthology from the Nara period written in man'yōgana.

[edit] Origin

According to ancient Japanese legend, Manyogana was from Baekje, and it is generally accepted by scholars. When people of Baekje transferred Buddism and Kanji, Manyogana came along into Japan. ^[1]

[edit] Principles

Man'yōgana usually employ kanji for their phonetic value (借音 shakuon; "borrowed sound") rather than their meaning (借訓 shakkun; "borrowed meaning"). Several kanji can represent the same sound, the choice of which to use often being decided for stylistic reasons. For example, the Man'yōshū poem 17/4025 was written as follows:

The sounds mo (母, 毛) and shi (之, 思) are written with multiple characters. While all particles and most words are represented phonetically (多太 tada, 安佐 asa), the words umi (海) and funekaji (船梶) are rendered semantically.

In some cases, specific syllables in particular words are consistently represented by specific characters. This usage is known as Jōdai Tokushu Kanazukai. It has led historical linguists to conclude that certain sounds in Old Japanese, represented by differing sets of man'yōgana characters, may have merged since then.

[edit] Types

In man'yōgana, kanji map to sounds in a number of different ways, some of which were straightforward, others less so.

Shakuon kana (借音仮名)

based on Sino-Japanese on'yomi reading

One character represents one mora:

• Used in whole: 以 (い), 呂 (ろ), 波 (は)
• Used in part: 安 (あ), 楽 (ら), 天 (て)

One character represents two mora: 信 (しな), 覧 (らむ), 相 (さが)

Shakkun kana (借訓仮名)

based on native kun'yomi reading

One character represents one mora:

• Used in whole: 女 (め), 毛 (け), 蚊 (か)
• Used in part: 石 (し), 跡 (と), 市 (ち)

One character represents two morae: 蟻 (あり), 巻 (まく), 鴨 (かも)

One character represents three morae: 慍 (いかり), 下 (おろし), 炊 (かしき)

Two characters represent one mora: 嗚呼 (あ), 五十 (い), 可愛 (え), 二二 (し), 蜂音 (ぶ)

Three characters represent two morae: 八十一 (くく), 神楽声 (ささ)

[edit] Development

Kanji used as man'yōgana eventually gave rise to hiragana and katakana. Hiragana developed from man'yōgana written in the highly cursive, flowing sōsho style; katakana is based on pieces of man'yōgana, and was developed by Buddhist monks as a form of shorthand. In some cases, one man'yōgana character for a given syllable gave rise to the current hiragana equivalent, and a different one gave rise to the current katakana equivalent; for example, the hiragana る (ru) is derived from the man'yōgana 留, the katakana ル (ru) is derived from the man'yōgana 流.

The use of multiple kanji for a single syllable also led to hentaigana (変体仮名), alternate letterforms for hiragana. Hentaigana were officially discouraged in 1900.

Man'yōgana continues to appear in some regional names of present-day Japan, especially in Kyūshū. A phenomenon similar to man'yōgana, called ateji (当て字), still occurs, where words (including loanwords) are spelled out using kanji for their phonetic value: for example, 倶楽部 (kurabu, club), or 珈琲 (kōhii, coffee).

Katakana with man'yōgana equivalents (segments of man'yōgana adapted into katakana highlighted)

Katakanas' Man'yōgana
including archaic and proposed syllabograms

	V	k		s	t		n	h	m	y	r	w
a	阿	加		散	多		奈	八	末	也	良	和
	ア	カ		サ	タ		ナ	ハ	マ	ヤ	ラ	ワ
i	伊	機	幾	之	千		仁	比	三	以	利	井
	イ	キ		シ	チ		ニ	ヒ	ミ		リ	ヰ
u	宇	久		須	州	川	奴	不	牟	由	流	宇
	ウ	ク		ス	ツ		ヌ	フ	ム	ユ	ル	于
e	江	介		世	天		祢	部	女	衣	礼	恵
	エ	ケ		セ	テ		ネ	ヘ	メ		レ	ヱ
o	於	己		曽	止		乃	保	毛	與	呂	乎
	オ	コ		ソ	ト		ノ	ホ	モ	ヨ	ロ	ヲ
C							尓
							ン

Development of hiragana from man'yōgana

[edit] See also

Look up man'yōgana in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Idu

[edit] External links

• (Japanese) List of man'yōgana

[edit] references

1. ^ [1] John R. BENTLEY, "The origin of Manyogana", Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies (2001), 64: 59-73, Cambridge University Press.