仮名 - Japanese syllabary or a character of such, but what is behind this 熟語 spelling?


What is the etymology of 仮名? It is known as Japanese syllabary character, but
how are the meanings of each kanji in this kanji compound related to the sense
of "kana"?




## Etymology

Addressing the specific etymology of 仮名{かな}, this comes from earlier reading
かんな, itself a shift from earlier かりな, of the same kanji spelling. 仮{かり} here
is cognate with 借{か}りる "to borrow", and 名{な} can mean "name", and by
extension, "label" or "designation", or even (in specific contexts)
"character". The sense arose from the idea of Chinese **characters** that were
**borrowed** for their phonetic value, as opposed to 真名{まな} (literally "real
names / labels / characters"), which described the use of Chinese
**characters** that were used for their **real** meanings.

## History

The literal senses of _kana_ vs. _mana_ as in "borrowed" vs. "real" were used
to distinguish how Chinese characters were used when Japanese was written
entirely in Chinese characters, in works such as the
[_Kojiki_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kojiki), [_Nihon
Shoki_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nihon_Shoki), or the
[_Man'yōshū_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man%27y%C5%8Dsh%C5%AB). This kind
of writing is difficult to write and difficult to read, as it isn't always
clear if a given kanji is being used phonetically for its sound, or
semantically for its meaning.

By way of example, have a look at some of [the text of the _Man'yōshū_
here](http://jti.lib.virginia.edu/japanese/manyoshu/AnoMany.html). This layout
gives the text as written in full kanji (the lines marked 原文{げんぶん}, "original
text, source text"), mixed kanji/kana similar to modern Japanese writing (the
lines marked 訓読{くんどく}, literally "meaning reading" in reference to how the
text would sound when read intelligibly in Japanese, as opposed to reading it
as all _on'yomi_ or essentially borrowed Chinese), and in pure kana (the lines
marked 仮名{かな}).

This early poetry anthology was an important enough text in the history of
Japanese writing that it lent its name to this writing system: another name
for these kanji used phonetically was
[万葉仮名{まんようがな}](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man%27y%C5%8Dgana), "borrowed
characters as used in the _Man'yōshū_ ". Over time, the modern kana (the
characters that have no meaning and only represent sound values) developed out
of the cursive forms of the man'yōgana that were used for those sounds.
[Murasaki Shikibu](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murasaki_Shikibu) is notable
for writing in kana, such as her book [_The Tale of
Genji_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tale_of_Genji), indicating that the
phonetic symbols had developed and been adopted for common use by the early
1000s.

There were multiple man'yōgana used to represent each of the syllables of
Japanese. There were 29 different characters that could be used to spell し,
for instance. As man'yōgana writing developed, these different kanji were
cursive-ized and abbreviated into kana forms. [Kana standardization didn't
happen until 1900](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kana#History), with further
reforms in 1946. Prior to these changes, each sound could have umpteen
different kana. The kana that were removed from regular use by these spelling
reforms are now called
[変体仮名{へんたいがな}](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hentaigana). You might still
encounter these from time to time, mainly just in business signs or
deliberately old-fashioned writing.




## Etymology

Addressing the specific etymology of 仮名{かな}, this comes from earlier reading
かんな, itself a shift from earlier かりな, of the same kanji spelling. 仮{かり} here
is cognate with 借{か}りる "to borrow", and 名{な} can mean "name", and by
extension, "label" or "designation", or even (in specific contexts)
"character". The sense arose from the idea of Chinese **characters** that were
**borrowed** for their phonetic value, as opposed to 真名{まな} (literally "real
names / labels / characters"), which described the use of Chinese
**characters** that were used for their **real** meanings.

## History

The literal senses of _kana_ vs. _mana_ as in "borrowed" vs. "real" were used
to distinguish how Chinese characters were used when Japanese was written
entirely in Chinese characters, in works such as the
[_Kojiki_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kojiki), [_Nihon
Shoki_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nihon_Shoki), or the
[_Man'yōshū_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man%27y%C5%8Dsh%C5%AB). This kind
of writing is difficult to write and difficult to read, as it isn't always
clear if a given kanji is being used phonetically for its sound, or
semantically for its meaning.

By way of example, have a look at some of [the text of the _Man'yōshū_
here](http://jti.lib.virginia.edu/japanese/manyoshu/AnoMany.html). This layout
gives the text as written in full kanji (the lines marked 原文{げんぶん}, "original
text, source text"), mixed kanji/kana similar to modern Japanese writing (the
lines marked 訓読{くんどく}, literally "meaning reading" in reference to how the
text would sound when read intelligibly in Japanese, as opposed to reading it
as all _on'yomi_ or essentially borrowed Chinese), and in pure kana (the lines
marked 仮名{かな}).

This early poetry anthology was an important enough text in the history of
Japanese writing that it lent its name to this writing system: another name
for these kanji used phonetically was
[万葉仮名{まんようがな}](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man%27y%C5%8Dgana), "borrowed
characters as used in the _Man'yōshū_ ". Over time, the modern kana (the
characters that have no meaning and only represent sound values) developed out
of the cursive forms of the man'yōgana that were used for those sounds.
[Murasaki Shikibu](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murasaki_Shikibu) is notable
for writing in kana, such as her book [_The Tale of
Genji_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tale_of_Genji), indicating that the
phonetic symbols had developed and been adopted for common use by the early
1000s.

There were multiple man'yōgana used to represent each of the syllables of
Japanese. There were 29 different characters that could be used to spell し,
for instance. As man'yōgana writing developed, these different kanji were
cursive-ized and abbreviated into kana forms. [Kana standardization didn't
happen until 1900](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kana#History), with further
reforms in 1946. Prior to these changes, each sound could have umpteen
different kana. The kana that were removed from regular use by these spelling
reforms are now called
[変体仮名{へんたいがな}](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hentaigana). You might still
encounter these from time to time, mainly just in business signs or
deliberately old-fashioned writing.

