is an ancient

writing system A writing system is a method of visually representing verbal communication, based on a script and a set of rules regulating its use. While both writing and speech are useful in conveying messages, writing differs in also being a reliable for ...

that uses

Chinese characters Chinese characters () are logograms developed for the writing of Chinese. In addition, they have been adapted to write other East Asian languages, and remain a key component of the Japanese writing system where they are known as '' kan ...

to represent the

Japanese language is spoken natively by about 128 million people, primarily by Japanese people and primarily in Japan, the only country where it is the national language. Japanese belongs to the Japonic or Japanese- Ryukyuan language family. There have been ...

. It was the first known

kana The term may refer to a number of syllabaries used to write Japanese phonological units, morae. Such syllabaries include (1) the original kana, or , which were Chinese characters (kanji) used phonetically to transcribe Japanese, the most pr ...

system to be developed as a means to represent the Japanese language phonetically. The date of the earliest usage of this type of kana is not clear, but it was in use since at least the mid-7th century. The name "man'yōgana" derives from the ''

Man'yōshū The is the oldest extant collection of Japanese (poetry in Classical Japanese), compiled sometime after AD 759 during the Nara period. The anthology is one of the most revered of Japan's poetic compilations. The compiler, or the last in ...

'', a

Japanese poetry Japanese poetry is poetry typical of Japan, or written, spoken, or chanted in the Japanese language, which includes Old Japanese, Early Middle Japanese, Late Middle Japanese, and Modern Japanese, as well as poetry in Japan which was written ...

anthology from the

Nara period The of the history of Japan covers the years from CE 710 to 794. Empress Genmei established the capital of Heijō-kyō (present-day Nara, Nara, Nara). Except for a five-year period (740–745), when the capital was briefly moved again, it remai ...

written with ''man'yōgana.'' Texts using the system also often use Chinese characters for their meaning, but ''man'yōgana'' refers to such characters only when used to represent a phonetic value. The values were derived from the contemporary Chinese pronunciation, but native Japanese readings of the character were also sometimes used. For example, (whose character means 'tree') could represent either (based on

Middle Chinese Middle Chinese (formerly known as Ancient Chinese) or the Qieyun system (QYS) is the historical variety of Chinese recorded in the ''Qieyun'', a rime dictionary first published in 601 and followed by several revised and expanded editions. The ...

) or or (meaning 'tree' in Old Japanese). Simplified versions of ''man'yōgana'' eventually gave rise to both the

hiragana is a Japanese language, Japanese syllabary, part of the Japanese writing system, along with ''katakana'' as well as ''kanji''. It is a phonetic lettering system. The word ''hiragana'' literally means "flowing" or "simple" kana ("simple" ori ...

and

katakana is a Japanese syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system along with hiragana, kanji and in some cases the Latin script (known as rōmaji). The word ''katakana'' means "fragmentary kana", as the katakana characters are derived f ...

scripts, which are used in Modern Japanese.

Origin

A possible oldest example of Man'yōgana is the iron Inariyama Sword that was excavated at the Inariyama Kofun in 1968. In 1978,

X-ray X-rays (or rarely, ''X-radiation'') are a form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation. In many languages, it is referred to as Röntgen radiation, after the German scientist Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen, who discovered it in 1895 and named it ' ...

analysis revealed a gold-inlaid inscription consisting of at least 115 Chinese characters and this text, written in Chinese, included Japanese personal names which were supposedly phonetically written. This sword is thought to have been made in the year (471 A.D. in commonly accepted theory). There is a possibility that the inscription of the Inariyama sword may be written in a version of the Chinese language used in the Korean-peninsula kingdom of

Baekje Baekje or Paekche (, ) was a Korean kingdom located in southwestern Korea from 18 BC to 660 AD. It was one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea, together with Goguryeo and Silla. Baekje was founded by Onjo of Baekje, Onjo, the third son of Gogurye ...

Principles

''Man'yōgana'' uses

kanji are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese and are still used, along with the subse ...

characters for their phonetic rather than semantic qualities—in other words, they are used for their sounds and not their meanings. There was no standard system for choice of kanji; different kanji could be used to represent the same sound, the choice being made on the whims of the writer. By the end of the 8th century, 970 kanji were in use to represent the 90

morae A mora (plural ''morae'' or ''moras''; often symbolized μ) is a basic timing unit in the phonology of some spoken languages, equal to or shorter than a syllable. For example, a short syllable such as ''ba'' consists of one mora (''monomoraic''), ...

of Japanese. For example, the ''Man'yōshū'' poem 17/4025 was written as follows: In the poem, the sounds ''mo'' () and ''shi'' () are written with multiple, different characters. While all particles and most words are represented phonetically (e.g., ''tada'', ''asa''), the words ''ji'' (), ''umi'' () and ''funekaji'' () 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 is an archaic kana orthography system used to write Japanese during the Nara period. Its primary feature is to distinguish between two groups of syllables that later merged. The existence and meaning of this system is a critical point of sch ...

. This usage has led historical linguists to conclude that certain disparate sounds in Old Japanese, consistently represented by differing sets of ''man'yōgana'' characters, may have merged since then.

Types

In writing which utilizes ''man'yōgana,'' kanji are mapped to sounds in a number of different ways, some of which are straightforward and others which are less so. ''Shakuon kana'' () are based on a Sino-Japanese

on'yomi are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese and are still used, along with the subseq ...

reading, in which one character represents either one mora or two morae. ''Shakkun kana'' () are based on a native

kun'yomi are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese and are still used, along with the subseq ...

reading, one to three characters represent one to three morae.

Development

Due to the major differences between the Japanese language (which was polysyllabic) and the Chinese language (which was monosyllabic) from which kanji came, ''man'yōgana'' proved to be very cumbersome to read and write. As stated earlier, since kanji has two different sets of pronunciation, one based on Sino-Japanese pronunciation and the other on native Japanese pronunciation, it was difficult to determine whether a certain character was used to represent its pronunciation or its meaning, i.e., whether it was ''man'yōgana'' or actual kanji, or both. On top of that, Buddhist monks found recording oral teachings time-consuming, since every syllable would need to be written using an entire kanji. To alleviate the confusion and to save time writing, kanji that were used as ''man'yōgana'' eventually gave rise to

, including the now-obsolete

hentaigana In the Japanese writing system, are variant forms of hiragana. History Today, with few exceptions, there is only one hiragana for each of the forty-five moras that are written without diacritics or digraphs. However, traditionally ther ...

() alternatives, alongside a separate system that became

. Hiragana developed from ''man'yōgana'' written in the highly

cursive Cursive (also known as script, among other names) is any style of penmanship in which characters are written joined in a flowing manner, generally for the purpose of making writing faster, in contrast to block letters. It varies in functional ...

'' sōsho'' () style popularly used by women; meanwhile, katakana was developed by Buddhist monks as a form of shorthand, utilizing, in most cases, only fragments (for example, usually the first or last few strokes) of ''man'yōgana'' characters. In some cases, one ''man'yōgana'' character for a given syllable gave rise to a hentaigana that was simplified further to result in the current hiragana character, while a different ''man'yōgana'' character was the source for the current katakana equivalent. For example, the hiragana (ru) is derived from the ''man'yōgana'' , whereas the katakana (ru) is derived from the ''man'yōgana'' . The multiple alternative hiragana forms for a single syllable were ultimately standardized in 1900, and the rejected variants are now known as

. ''Man'yōgana'' continues to appear in some regional names of present-day Japan, especially in Kyūshū. A phenomenon similar to ''man'yōgana,'' called ateji (), still occurs, where words (including

loanword A loanword (also loan word or loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language. This is in contrast to cognates, which are words in two or more languages that are similar because t ...

s) are spelled out using kanji for their phonetic value. Examples include (''kurabu'', club), (''Furansu'', France), (''Afurika'', Africa) and (''Amerika,'' America).

References

Citations

Works cited

* *

External links

An extensive list of man’yōgana arranged according to the characters, and not their readings
* Tomasz Majtczak:
How are we supposed to write with something like that? Early employment of the Chinese script to write Japanese as exemplified by the Man’yōshū
'. {{DEFAULTSORT:Man'yogana Manyogana Manyogana Man'yōshū Nara period Asuka period Archaic Japanese language Japanese writing system