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'Man'yōgana' (万葉仮名) is an ancient form of Japanese kana which uses Chinese characters to represent Japanese sounds. The date of its earliest usage is not clear, but it seems to have been in use since at least the sixth century. The name ''man'yōgana'' is from the Man'yōshū (万葉集, "Anthology of Myriad Leaves"), a Japanese poetry anthology from the Nara period written in ''man'yōgana''.
Man'yōgana usually uses kanji for their phonetic value or , rather than their meaning or . Several kanji could be used to represent the same sound, and in practice writers would often choose kanji with felicitous associations. For example, Man'yōshū poem 17/4025 was written thus:

''Man'yōgana''	之乎路可良	多太古要久礼婆	波久比能海	安佐奈藝思多理	船梶母我毛
''Katakana''	シヲヂカラ	タダコエクレバ	ハクヒノウミ	アサナギシタリ	フネカヂモガモ
''Modern''	志雄路から	ただ越え来れば	羽咋の海	朝凪したり	船梶もがも

Note how the sounds ''mo'' (母, 毛) and ''shi'' (之, 思) are written with multiple characters. However, instead of this being the artistic choice of the author or scribe, these different man'yōgana represent different sounds, an example of Jōdai Tokushu Kanazukai. Also, while all particles and most words are written phonetically (多太 for ''tada'', 安佐 for ''asa''), the words ''umi'' (海) and ''funekaji'' (船梶) are written by meaning.
Kanji used as Man'yōgana eventually gave rise to hiragana and katakana. Hiragana developed from man'yōgana written in the highly cursive, flowing ''sōsho'' style; katakana is based on pieces of man'yōgana, and was developed by Buddhist monks as a form of shorthand. In some cases, one man'yōgana character for a given syllable gave rise to the current hiragana equivalent, and a different one gave rise to the current katakana equivalent; for example, the hiragana る (ru) is derived from the man'yōgana 留, the katakana ル (ru) is derived from the man'yōgana 流. The study of man'yōgana revealed a special kind of usage known as Jōdai Tokushu Kanazukai which distinguished between more syllables than later forms of Japanese.
The use of multiple kanji for a single syllable also led to hentaigana (変体仮名), alternate letterforms for hiragana. Hentaigana were officially discouraged in 1900.
Man'yōgana continue to appear in some regional names of present-day Japan, especially in Kyūshū. A phenomenon similar to man'yōgana, called ateji (当て字), still occurs, where words (including loanwords) are spelled out using kanji for their phonetic value: for example, 倶楽部 (''kurabu'', club), or 珈琲 (''kōhii'', coffee).

'Table of the Japanese Man'yōgana'
Katakana (grouped vertically).
Syllables in parentheses are archaic or proposed in Meiji era.

vowel	k	s	t	n	h	m	y	r	w
a ア	ka カ	sa サ	ta タ	na ナ	ha ハ	ma マ	ya ヤ	ra ラ	wa ワ
i イ	ki キ	shi シ	chi チ	ni ニ	hi ヒ	mi ミ	(yi)  イ	ri リ	(wi) ヰ
u ウ	ku ク	su ス	tsu ツ	nu ヌ	fu フ	mu ム	yu ユ	ru ル	(wu) 于
e エ	ke ケ	se セ	te テ	ne ネ	he ヘ	me メ	(ye)  ヱ	re レ	(we) ヱ
o オ	ko コ	so ソ	to ト	no ノ	ho ホ	mo モ	yo ヨ	ro ロ	(w)o ヲ
				n ン

'Table of the Japanese Man'yōgana'
Hiragana (grouped vertically).
Syllables in parentheses are archaic or proposed in Meiji era.

vowel	k	s	t	n	h	m	y	r	w
a あ	ka か	sa さ	ta た	na な	ha は	ma ま	ya や	ra ら	wa わ
i い	ki き	shi し	chi ち	ni に	hi ひ	mi み		ri り	(wi) ゐ
u う	ku く	su す	tsu つ	nu ぬ	fu ふ	mu む	yu ゆ	ru る
e え	ke け	se せ	te て	ne ね	he へ	me め		re れ	(we) ゑ
o お	ko こ	so そ	to と	no の	ho ほ	mo も	yo よ	ro ろ	(w)o を
				n ん

Contents

Types of Man'yōgana

Shakukun

See also

External links

Types of Man'yōgana

In man'yōgana, kanji mapped to sounds in a number of different ways, some of which were straightforward, others less so.

★ Based on reading/on'yomi (Shakuon kana 借音仮名)

★
★ One character represents one mora

★
★
★ Used in whole: 以 (い), 呂 (ろ), 波 (は)

★
★
★ Used in part: 安 (あ), 楽 (ら), 天 (て)

★
★ One character represents two mora: 信 (しな), 覧 (らむ), 相 (さが)

★ Based on meaning/kun'yomi (Shakkun kana 借訓仮名)

★
★ One character represents one mora

★
★
★ Used in whole: 女 (め), 毛 (け), 蚊 (か)

★
★
★ Used in part: 石 (し), 跡 (と), 市 (ち)

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★ One character represents two mora: 蟻 (あり), 巻 (まく), 鴨 (かも)

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★ Two characters represent one mora: 嗚呼 (あ), 五十 (い), 可愛 (え)

Shakukun

Shaku-''kun'', or 'Shakukun', is a Japanese linguistics term describing the use of Chinese characters in writing Japanese particles by phonetics only.
For example, the Kanji 庭 reads "niwa" or "garden." Since the writing system for Japanese (hiragana, katakana) wasn't fully developed in 8th century Japan, particles such as "ni" and "wa" were expressed by using a Chinese character's ''kun'' reading which sounded the same, regardless of semantics (ie. UCLA 庭　= UCLAにわ).

See also

★ Gugyeol

External links

★ List of Man'yōgana (Japanese)