man'yōgana
is an ancient writing system that uses Chinese characters to represent the Japanese language. It was the first known kana 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, a Japanese poetry anthology from the Nara period written with man'yōgana.''
Key facts
- Writing system.sample
- File:Toganoo-gire (Miho Museum).jpg
- Writing system.caption
- A page from ''Katsura-bon Man'yōshū'' with poems written with man'yōgana and accomplished by hiragana transcription
- Writing system.imagesize
- x250px
- Writing system.name
- Man'yōgana
- Writing system.type
- Syllabary
- Writing system.languages
- Japanese and Okinawan
- Writing system.time
- c. 650 CE to Meiji era
- Writing system.fam1
- Oracle bone script
- Writing system.fam2
- Seal script
- Writing system.fam3
- Clerical script
- Writing system.fam4
- Regular script
- Writing system.sisters
Article
9 sectionsContents
- Origin
- Principles
- Types
- Development
- See also
- References
- Citations
- Works cited
- External links
is an ancient writing system that uses Chinese characters to represent the Japanese language. It was the first known kana 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, a Japanese poetry anthology from the Nara period 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 they are 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 (based on Middle Chinese ), , or (meaning 'tree' in Old Japanese).