All Questions
11 questions
3
votes
1
answer
180
views
How were specific hentaigana selected for writing?
I've been learning how to read older documents and trying to familiarize myself with hentaigana, but as I've started this, I've began to wonder if there is any rhyme or reason to the choices writers ...
- 103
5
votes
2
answers
177
views
Special Kana in Man'yōgana?
Probably a dumb question, but I'm wondering how certain sounds would be represented in Man'yōgana. Places like Wikipedia have charts that show the normal Kana and their kanji equivalents, but they don'...
- 93
3
votes
1
answer
544
views
How difficult is the 万葉集 to read?
From my understanding, the 万葉集 is written in 万葉仮名 which uses a limited set of characters solely for their 音読み reading rather than for their semantic meaning.
In light of this, I am curious how ...
- 193
2
votes
1
answer
1k
views
How would I write the name Zuko in Japanese
I'm ordering some wall-size prints of me and my dog Zuko (instagram @zukoandspock) and would like his name on it in Japanese characters.
Can someone provide me examples of writing this name out in ...
- 131
12
votes
2
answers
635
views
Why was 邪 chosen to spell the names of 伊邪那岐神 and 伊邪那美神 in the 古事記?
I had been wondering about this for a while. Consider the spelling of he names of Izanagi and Izanami in the 古事記:
伊邪那岐神【いざなぎのかみ】 and (妹【いも】)伊邪那美神【いざなみのかみ】
(source)
Both of their names ...
- 4,611
9
votes
1
answer
265
views
Why is 左必之佐 read as サビシサ in 万葉集 entry 3734?
Entry 3734 of the 万葉集 reads as follows1:
等【ト】保【ホ】伎【キ】山【やま】 世【セ】伎【キ】毛【モ】故【コ】要【エ】伎【キ】奴【ヌ】 伊【イ】麻【マ】左【サ】良【ラ】尓【ニ】 安【ア】布【フ】倍【ベ】伎【キ】与【ヨ】之【シ】能【ノ】 奈【ナ】伎【キ】我【ガ】佐【サ】夫【ブ】之【シ】佐 【サ】
Transcribed in more modern ...
- 7,689
9
votes
1
answer
592
views
Origin of katakana ン (カタカナの「ン」の字源)
Looking on various pages, the origin of ン seems to be very confused. Most lists either don't include ン, or list one theory. So far I've found the following options:
一
爾
无
尓
二
冫
Wikipedia also ...
- 48.4k
4
votes
1
answer
265
views
Are 万葉仮名 (man'yōgana) chosen consistently?
This answer got me wondering how relevant the presentation in 万葉仮名 is to finding a 漢字 for a given word.
As far as I understand, 万葉仮名 are used largely for phonetic value. Knowing that some word was ...
- 48.4k
4
votes
1
answer
634
views
Pre-Kana Kanji readings
How did Japanese know how to read kanji before invention of kana? (having only kanji to write a language)
Without kana and romaji, if they heard a new word - how could they look it up in a dictionary?
- 397
7
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Was the の particle sometimes written in katakana?
In "Maiko Haaaan!!!", a bridge going over Yumekawa (a fictional river in Kyoto) apparently has "夢ノ橋" written on it, rather than "夢の橋". I had two theories about why that may be the case. One was that ...
- 16.3k
9
votes
1
answer
374
views
Was "乎" the man'yōgana spelling of the accusative/object particle "を"?
In the English Wiktionary entry for "を" there is a quote or example sentence using the character "乎" with no explanation seemingly where the particle "を" would normally occur.
Now I couldn't find ...
- 15.4k