sci.lang.japan FAQ / 1. Writing / 1.3. Other questions on writing

1.3.10. What is man'yougana?

Man'yougana (万葉仮名) is an obsolete form of kana in which kanji were used for their sounds rather than their meanings. It is the oldest native Japanese writing system, dating back more than 1,000 years. In this system, kanji were used for their pronunciation. The name man'yougana comes from an ancient book of poetry, the man'youshuu (万葉集), which was written in the mid-eighth century using this kana system.

In the Nara era , when the man'yōgana were invented, there were no yōon (i kana plus small ya, yu, or yo representing a glide ) or sokuon (small tsu representing a doubled consonant ) sounds, so these symbols do not have any man'yōgana equivalents. Also, there were more vowels than there are currently, so the man'yōgana below have two vowels where present-day Japanese has only one. This is called the kōotsu (甲乙) distinction.

The man'yougana system was extremely complex, with some kanji being used for their meaning, some kanji used to represent a single mora (see 7.6. What is the difference between a mora and a syllable?), some kanji used to represent two moras, and yet more used to create puns and complex wordplay.

The man'yougana system formed the basis of the hiragana and katakana. See 1.1.1. How did katakana and hiragana originate?

Web links

A partial list of man'yougana from Tanoshii Man'youshuu.

References

Seeley, Christopher, A History of Writing in Japan

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