Manyogana
Man'yōgana (万葉仮名) is an ancient form of
Japanese kana which uses
Chinese characters to represent Japanese sounds. Their earliest attestation is not clear, but they seem to have been in use since at least the sixth century. The name
man'yōgana is from the
Man'yōshū (万葉集, Anthology of Myriad Leaves), a
Japanese poetry anthology from the
Nara period written in
man'yōgana.
Man'yōgana uses kanji for their phonetic value, rather than their meaning. Several kanji could be used to represent the same sound, and in practice writers would often choose kanji with felicitous associations. Kanji used in 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 is derived from the man'yōgana 留, the katakana ル is derived from the man'yōgana 流. The study of man'yōgana reveals that it can represent sounds not represented by hiragana and katakana, including eight vocalic sounds, as opposed to the present day usage of five
vowels only.
The use of multiple kanji for a single syllable also led to
hentaigana (変"仮名), alternate letterforms for hiragana. Hentaigana were officially discouraged in
1900.
Man'yōgana continue to appear in some regional names of present-day Japan, especially in
Kyushu. A phenomenon similar to man'yōgana, called
ateji ("て字), still occurs, where words (including
loanwords) are spelled out using kanji for their phonetic value: for example, 倶楽部 (
kurabu, club).
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Katakana with man'yōgana equivalents (segments of man'yōgana adapted into katakana shown in red) |
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Development of hiragana from man'yōgana |
In man'yōgana, kanji mapped to sounds in a number of different ways, some of which were straightforward, others less so.
* Based on reading/
onyomi (Shakuon kana 借音仮名)
** 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)
* Based on meaning/
kunyomi (Shakkun kana 借"仮名)
** 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 mora: 蟻 (あり), 巻 (まく), 鴨 (かも)
** Two characters represent one mora: 嗚呼 (あ), "十 (い), 可愛 (え)
*
List of Man'yōgana (Japanese)
