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Man'yōgana ( 万葉仮名, Japanese pronunciation: [maɰ̃joꜜːɡana] or [maɰ̃joːɡana]) 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.
Man'yōgana is the oldest known sound-based writing system used for the Japanese language. When kanji, or Chinese characters used to write Japanese, first came to Japan in around the 4th century AD through the Korean Peninsula, it was only used to write the Chinese language.
Man'yōgana (万葉仮名), also known as shakuji (借字), 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 to circa 759.
One such adaptation was man’yōgana, a phonetic syllabary that came into use in the 8th century. This system used Chinese characters whose Chinese pronunciation sounded similar to Japanese syllables, rather than using the ideas that the characters represented.
Japanese language writing development. In Japanese art: Calligraphy and painting. …of Chinese characters, known as man’yōgana, were employed to represent Japanese phonetic sounds, and two even more abbreviated phonetic writing systems, hiragana and katakana, were known in nascent form.
An ancient form of Japanese kana which uses Chinese characters to represent Japanese sounds. Their earliest attestation is not clear, but they seem to have been in use since at least the sixth century. The name man'yōgana is from the Man'yōshū (Anthology of Myriad Leaves), a Japanese poetry anthology from the Nara period written in man ...
