The Origin of the Japanese Hiragana Writing System
The Japanese language is woven with various linguistic elements, among which the hiragana writing system holds a significant place. Hiragana, one of the three scripts used in Japanese writing alongside katakana and kanji, has a fascinating history rooted in cultural and linguistic evolution. This blog post delves into the origins of hiragana, exploring its development, purpose, and significance in Japanese society.
The story of hiragana begins with the introduction of Chinese characters, known as kanji, to Japan, which occurred around the 5th century AD. At this time, Japan did not have a writing system of its own and so borrowed the complex writing system of its neighbour. As a result, the educated elite of Japan began to adopt kanji for both administrative and scholarly purposes. However, kanji was not perfectly suited to the phonetic structure of the Japanese language. To first ‘read’ texts written in kanji, people had to understand both the meaning and pronunciation of each character. This led to the need for a more adaptable script to better represent the Japanese language.
The Emergence of Man'yōgana
By the mid-7th century, a phonetic use of kanji known as man'yōgana began to emerge as a method to adapt Chinese characters to the Japanese language. Since Chinese kanji characters were primarily ideograms (a picture or symbol used in a system of writing to represent a thing or an idea), early Japanese scholars began to repurpose kanji characters to represent the phonetic sounds of Japanese syllables instead.
Sound complicated? In essence, kanji represent the concepts they describe in the same way that Arabic numerals use symbols (for example, "7" ) to represent the concepts they describe (in this case, the value of seven ). Man'yōgana, on the other hand, were created to associate the symbol with a sound rather than an idea. Although man'yōgana represented a step towards a more phonetic script, it was still cumbersome. Due to the nature of the Japanese language, this method resulted in very long sentences. Additionally, some characters were too complex to represent single phonemes (sounds), making both reading and writing excessively time-consuming. That said, man'yōgana are ocassionally still used to write some modern Japanese words, called ateji.
Here are a few examples to illustrate how Man'yōgana works:
The syllable "ka" could be represented by characters such as 加, 可, or 架.
The syllable "mo" could be represented by characters like 藻, 母, or 喪.
The syllable "yu" could be represented by characters such as 由, 喩, or 愉.
This flexibility allowed poets and writers to choose characters based on aesthetic preferences, such as the visual appearance of the characters or their associations with particular themes or ideas.
Fun Fact:
The name 'Man'yōgana' is derived from Japan’s oldest existing poetry anthology, 'Man'yōshū' (万葉集, lit. Collection of Ten Thousand Leaves) which was compiled in the 8th century. This anthology extensively uses Man'yōgana, however the script itself predates the compilation of the Man'yōshū.
Birth of Hiragana: Simplifying the Script
Hiragana evolved from man'yōgana during the Heian period (794-1185 AD) when courtiers and noblewomen (who were often excluded from the formal education that focused on kanji) began to simplify the strokes of man'yōgana characters. This simplification process, acting as a kind of shorthand, gradually led to the creation of a more cursivised and flowing script known as hiragana. Each hiragana character was derived from a kanji, but it represented a specific syllable of sound rather than a complex ideogram.
Hiragana quickly infiltrated the writings of women across Japan, who began to use it for personal correspondence, poetry, and literature. Heian sources sometimes even referred to hiragana as “the woman’s hand” (onna-de) and to kanji based scripts as “the man’s hand” (otoko-de). The hiragana script's ease of use and adaptability made it an ideal medium for ease of writing. One of the most famous early examples of hiragana literature is 'The Tale of Genji' (源氏物語, Genji monogatari), written by Murasaki Shikibu in the early 11th century. This epic novel, often considered the world's first novel, was written primarily in hiragana and exemplifies the script’s literary significance. The term 'hiragana' literally means 'simple' and 'kana' (仮名) means 'temporary names'. This differs from kanji, which were called 'mana' (lit. real names). Why were kana temporary names? To answer that question, we need to explore the topic of hentaigana.
What are Hentaigana?
Before the standardization of hiragana, multiple variants of these cursive forms were in use, now collectively known as Hentaigana, lit.'non-standard kana'. These variant kana were used interchangeably with standard hiragana, especially in handwritten texts, poetry, and personal correspondence. The choice of hentaigana often depended on the writer's stylistic preference, the context of the writing, and regional practices. In other words, they were almost transient, or temporary, representations of the real name. For example, the hiragana reading for "ha" has only one symbol, which is written as "は". However, until the Meiji era (1868–1912), "ha" was written in a variety of forms; This includes the following three kana, each of which derived from different kanji cursive forms:
The use of hentaigana began to decline during the Meiji period (1868–1912) when Japan underwent significant modernization and westernization. As part of these reforms, there was a push for the standardization of the Japanese writing system to improve literacy and streamline communication. This led to the adoption of a standardized set of hiragana characters, reducing the use of hentaigana to a few specialized contexts, leaving us with the standard hiragana of today.
Despite its decline, hentaigana is studied by linguists, calligraphers, and enthusiasts who appreciate its historical and aesthetic value in modern times. It occasionally appears in traditional arts, such as tea ceremony calligraphy and in the decoration of historical sites, offering a glimpse into Japan's fascinating linguistic journey. Scholars and students of Japanese language and history often study these variant kana to gain deeper insights into the evolution of Japanese script and its cultural contexts. If you're interested in learning hentaigana yourself, there are some great apps – such as The Hentaigana App by Waseda University and University of California Los Angeles – online to delve into.
Hiragana in the Modern Age
Today, hiragana is an essential component of the Japanese writing system. It is primarily used for native Japanese words and grammatical elements, and is taught to children between the ages of 3 and 5 years in Japanese schools. Hiragana characters serve various functions, including:
1. Okurigana: Hiragana characters that follow kanji to indicate inflectional endings of verbs and adjectives.
2. Particles: Grammatical markers such as は (wa), が (ga), and を (wo) are written in hiragana.
3. Furigana: Small hiragana characters placed above or beside kanji to indicate pronunciation, especially useful for learners and in children’s books.
Hiragana plays a crucial role in maintaining the phonetic integrity of the Japanese language. Its development marked a significant step towards a more accessible and inclusive written culture, enabling a broader range of people to engage with written texts.
The evolution of hiragana from complex kanji, to the man'yōgana system, to a streamlined and versatile script highlights the dynamic nature of language adaptation. Hiragana's origins reflect the intersection of Chinese influence and indigenous innovation, resulting in a uniquely Japanese script that has stood the test of time. As an integral part of the Japanese writing system, hiragana remains a testament to the ingenuity and cultural richness of Japan’s linguistic history, and has certainly made an impact on our lives and the lives of our students!
Did you like this blog post? Leave us a comment and stay tuned to learn more about the origin of Katakana in our next blog post! ;)
Comments