is an ancient Japanese writing system that uses Chinese characters to phonetically represent Old Japanese. It was the first known kana system to be developed as a means to phonetically transcribe the Japanese language. Dating of the earliest man'yōgana usage is not clear, but it was in use at least since the mid-7th century, during the Nara period. The name derives from Man'yōshū, a Japanese poetry anthology written in man'yōgana, which was compiled after 759 AD.

Although Japanese texts have always used imported Chinese characters (kanji) logographically for semantic expressions, man'yōgana only borrows the characters' on'yomi pronunciations as an approximate syllabary to represent Japanese syllabuses. The phonetic values were derived from the Middle Chinese variants of Jianghuai Mandarin (i.e. the go-on pronunciations), but native Japanese readings (kun'yomi) of the character were also sometimes used. For example, (whose character means 'tree') could represent (based on Middle Chinese ), , or (meaning 'tree' in Old Japanese).

The complexity of learning and writing Chinese characters eventually gave rise to simplified versions of man'yōgana, namely the hiragana (derived from cursive calligraphy) and the katakana (derived from Chinese character components), both of which are used extensively in Modern Japanese alongside a set of 2,136 commonly used kanji.

Origin

Sinicized scholars from the Korean kingdom of Baekje are believed to have introduced the Chinese writing system to the Japanese archipelago, as the chronicles Kojiki and the Nihon Shoki, both written in Classic Chinese, have both stated so. Although direct evidence of this is hard to come by, scholars tend to accept the idea.

A possible oldest example of man'yōgana is the Inariyama Sword, a 5th-6th century iron sword from the Kofun period that was excavated at the Inariyama Kofun in 1968. In 1978, X-ray analysis revealed a gold-inlaid inscription consisting of at least 115 Chinese characters, and this Chinese text included Japanese personal names, which were written for names in a phonetic language. This sword is thought to have been made in the year (471 AD in the commonly accepted theory). There is a strong possibility that the inscription of the Inariyama Sword may be written in a version of the Chinese language used in Baekje.

Principles

Man'yōgana uses kanji characters for their sounds, not their meanings. There was no standard system for choice of kanji, and different ones could be used to represent the same sound, with the choice made on the whims of the writer. By the end of the 8th century, 970 kanji were in use to represent the 90 morae of Japanese. For example, the Man'yōshū poem 17/4025 was written as follows:

Man'yōgana Katakana Modern Romanized Translation From the Shiotsu road, As I simply cross over, The sea of Hakui Is calm in the morning stillness. Oh, if only I had a ship's rudder.

In the poem, the sounds mo () and shi () are written with multiple, different characters. All particles and most words are represented phonetically ( tada, asa), but the words ji (), umi () and funekaji () are rendered semantically.

In some cases, specific syllables in particular words are consistently represented by specific characters. That usage is known as Jōdai Tokushu Kanazukai and 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 reading, in which one character represents either one mora or two morae. + Shakuon kana 借音仮名 Morae 1 character, complete 1 character, partial 1 2

Shakkun kana () are based on a native kun'yomi reading, one to three characters represent one to three morae. + Shakkun kana 借訓仮名 Morae 1 character, complete 1 character, partial 2 characters 3 characters 1 2 3

+Table of man'yōganaone character represents one mora –KSTNPMYRWGZDBai1i2ue1e2o1o2

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. To alleviate the confusion and to save time writing, kanji that were used as man'yōgana eventually gave rise to hiragana, including the now-obsolete alternatives, alongside a separate system that became katakana. Hiragana developed from man'yōgana written in the highly cursive 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 is derived from the man'yōgana , whereas the katakana 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 hentaigana.

Man'yōgana continues to appear in some regional names of present-day Japan, especially in Kyūshū. A phenomenon similar to man'yōgana, called , still occurs, where words (including loanwords) are spelled out using kanji for their phonetic value. Examples include , , and .

+Katakana's man'yōganaincluding obsolete syllabogramsMan'yōgana which are a common source for Hiragana and Katakana are highlighted –KSTNHMYRWa阿加散多奈八末也良和アカサタナハマヤラワi伊機幾之千仁比三 利井イキシチニヒミ リヰu宇久須州川奴不牟由流ウクスツヌフムユルe江介世天祢部女江礼恵エケセテネヘメエレヱo於己曽止乃保毛與呂乎オコソトノホモヨロヲ– 尓 ン

+Hiragana's man'yōganaincluding obsolete syllabogramsMan'yōgana which are a common source for Hiragana and Katakana are highlighted –KSTNHMYRWa安加左太奈波末也良和あかさたなはまやらわi以機幾之知仁比美 利爲いきしちにひみ りゐu宇久寸川奴不武由留うくすつぬふむゆるe衣計世天祢部女江礼恵えけせてねへめ𛀁れゑo於己曽止乃保毛与呂遠おこそとのほもよろを– 无 ん

Example The following example is from the second chapter of Nihon Shoki, one of two songs associated with the Emishi people written in Western Old Japanese.Levchenko-Shmaevskaia E.N. Romanization systems, text segmentation and morphemic analysis in the study of Old Japanese texts. Vestnik of Saint Petersburg University. Asian and African Studies, 2018, vol. 10, issue 2, pp. 176–186. https://doi.org/10.21638/11701/spbu13.2018.203 比佐迦多能 ひさかたの pîsa kata n-ö

阿麻遅波等保斯 あまぢはとほし ama-N-ti pa töpo-si

奈保奈保爾 なほなほに napo napo n-i

伊弊爾可弊利提 いへにかへりて ipê-ni kapêr-i-te

奈利乎斯麻佐爾 なりをしまさに nari-wo s-i-[i] mas-an-i

See also Ateji Syllabogram

Idu script, Korean analogue

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 ".