Man'yōgana

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Japanese writing

Kanji

Kana

Hiragana
Katakana
Hentaigana
Man'yōgana

Uses

Rōmaji

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 usually uses kanji for their phonetic value or "borrowed sound" (借音, shakuon^?), rather than their meaning or "borrowed reading" (借訓, shakkun^?). Several kanji could be used to represent the same sound, and in practice writers would often choose kanji with felicitous associations. For example, Man'yōshū poem 17/4025 was written thus:

Man'yōgana	之乎路可良	多太古要久礼婆	波久比能海	安佐奈藝思多理	船梶母我毛
Katakana	シヲヂカラ	タダコエクレバ	ハクヒノウミ	アサナギシタリ	フネカヂモガモ
Modern	志雄路から	ただ越え来れば	羽咋の海	朝凪したり	船梶もがも

Note how the sounds mo (母, 毛) and shi (之, 思) are written with multiple characters. However, instead of this being the artistic choice of the author or scribe, these different man'yōgana represent different sounds, an example of Jōdai Tokushu Kanazukai. Also, while all particles and most words are written phonetically (多太 for tada, 安佐 for asa), the words umi (海) and funekaji (船梶) are written by meaning.

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 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)

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

Development of hiragana from man'yōgana

**Table of the Japanese Man'yōgana**
Hiragana (grouped vertically).
Syllables in parentheses are archaic or proposed in Meiji era.
vowel	k	s	t	n	h	m	y	r	w
安	加	左	太	奈	波	末	也	良	和
a あ	ka か	sa さ	ta た	na な	ha は	ma ま	ya や	ra ら	wa わ
以	機	之	和	仁	比	美		利	為
i い	ki き	shi し	chi ち	ni に	hi ひ	mi み		ri り	(wi) ゐ
宇	久	寸	川	奴	不	武	由	留
u う	ku く	su す	tsu つ	nu ぬ	fu ふ	mu む	yu ゆ	ru る
衣	計	世	天	祢	部	女		礼	恵
e え	ke け	se せ	te て	ne ね	he へ	me め		re れ	(we) ゑ
於	己	曽	止	乃	保	毛	与	呂	遠
o お	ko こ	so そ	to と	no の	ho ほ	mo も	yo よ	ro ろ	(w)o を
				尓
				n ん

1 Types of Man'yōgana
2 Shakukun
3 See also
4 External links

[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)

[edit] Shakukun

Shaku-kun, or Shakukun, is a Japanese linguistics term describing the use of Chinese characters in writing Japanese particles by phonetics only.

For example, the Kanji 庭 reads "niwa" or "garden." Since the writing system for Japanese (hiragana, katakana) wasn't fully developed in 8th century Japan, particles such as "ni" and "wa" were expressed by using a Chinese character's kun reading which sounded the same, regardless of semantics (ie. UCLA 庭　= UCLAにわ).