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Man'yōgana (万葉仮名) is an ancient writing system which 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.

Principles

Man'yōgana usually uses kanji for their phonetic value (shakuon 借音 "borrowed sound") rather than their meaning (shakkun 借訓 "borrowed meaning"). Several kanji could be used to represent the same sound, and they are often chosen for stylistic reasons. For example, Man'yōshū poem 17/4025 was written thus:

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 for tada, 安佐 for asa), the words umi (海) and funekaji (船梶) are rendered semantically.

In some cases, particular syllables in particular words are consistently represented by particular characters. This kind of usage is known as Jōdai Tokushu Kanazukai. It has led historical linguists to the belief that some distinct sounds in Old Japanese, as represented by different sets of characters in man'yōgana, have merged since that period of time.

Types of man'yōgana

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 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 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 mora: 蟻 (あり), 巻 (まく), 鴨 (かも)
  • One character represents three mora: 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 mora: 八十一 (くく), 神楽声 (ささ)

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).

Table of man'yōgana

Katakana (grouped vertically).

Syllables in parentheses are archaic or proposed in Meiji era.

	vowel	k	s	t	n	h	m	y	r	w
a	a 阿 ア	ka 加 カ	sa 散 サ	ta 多 タ	na 奈 ナ	ha 八 ハ	ma 末 マ	ya 也 ヤ	ra 良 ラ	wa 和 ワ
i	i 伊 イ	ki 機 キ	shi 之 シ	chi 千 チ	ni 仁 ニ	hi 比 ヒ	mi 三 ミ	(yi) 以	ri 利 リ	(wi) 井 ヰ
u	u 宇 ウ	ku 久 ク	su 須 ス	tsu 川 ツ	nu 奴 ヌ	fu 不 フ	mu 牟 ム	yu 由 ユ	ru 流 ル	(wu) 宇 于
e	e 江 エ	ke 介 ケ	se 世 セ	te 天 テ	ne 祢 ネ	he 部 ヘ	me 女 メ	(ye) 衣	re 礼 レ	(we) 恵 ヱ
o	o 於 オ	ko 己 コ	so 曽 ソ	to 止 ト	no 乃 ノ	ho 保 ホ	mo 毛 モ	yo 與 ヨ	ro 呂 ロ	(w)o 乎 ヲ
consonant					n 尓 ン

See also

• Idu

External links

• Template:Ja List of man'yōgana

• Kana
• Kanji