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MAN’YŌGANA 万葉仮名
The table presented below contains Chinese characters (or their combina-
tions) used phonetically in Old Japanese texts (eighth century). It includes both
readings based on Middle Chinese morphemes (called ongana, or phonograms)
and those based on Old Japanese ones (called kungana, and being a kind of
simple rebus writing, “logo-phonograms”, or “pseudo-logograms”), as well as
some playful notations (called gisho, and being rather elaborate rebuses). The
following sources have been utilised during compilation: Arisaka 1957, 59-61;
Hashimoto 1976, 196-199; Igarashi 1969, 159-163; JKD-J, 890-903; KD,
1837-1841; Ōno 1961, 255-258; 1966, 56-119; 1982, 65-68, 153-158. Several
other lists have also been scrutinised but revealed nothing new.
All characters are classified and arranged according to the traditional
system of radicals (“R”) and the number of strokes in the non-radical part of a
character (“S”), as it is found, for instance, in KG, KMK or Tōdō 2001. The
form of characters was in many instances determined by technical limitations of
the software used, but the most common variants are usually given after the
“standard” form of the character.
In citing Middle Chinese (“MC”) and Old Chinese (“OC”) reconstructions,
Tōdō 2001 is followed whenever possible; in several cases, however, it had to
be supplemented with suppositions based on the characters given in square
brackets after the reconstruction. Meanings of the characters are quoted after
BKRS. Old Japanese morphemes are taken from JKD-J, and sometimes marked
with a Roman numeral in order to indicate which of the several homonyms
listed there is meant.
Other works occasionally consulted are to be found in the Bibliography.
Bibliography