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Man'yougana (万葉仮名) is the oldest native Japanese writing system, dating back more than 1,000 years, where 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.
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?
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