Man'yōgana

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Japanese writing

Uses

Rōmaji ローマ字

Man'yōgana (万葉仮名) is an ancient form of Japanese kana which uses Chinese characters to represent Japanese sounds. The date of its earliest usage is not clear, but it seems 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 (ru) is derived from the man'yōgana 留, the katakana ル (ru) is derived from the man'yōgana 流. The study of man'yōgana revealed a special kind of usage known as Jōdai Tokushu Kanazukai which distinguished between more syllables than later forms of Japanese.

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 continue 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 shown in red)

Development of hiragana from man'yōgana

[edit] Types of 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/on'yomi (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/kun'yomi (Shakkun kana 借訓仮名)
- 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), 五十 (い), 可愛 (え)