真仮名

Japanese

Kanji in this term
真 仮 名
ま
Grade: 3
かり > が
Grade: 5
な
Grade: 1
kun’yomi irregular kun’yomi
Alternative spelling
眞假名 (kyūjitai)

Etymology

真 (“true”) +‎ 仮名. It is called "true", as opposed to hiragana and katakana which no longer retain the original shape of the Han characters (kanji) they derive from, even though it is still "false" as a type of 仮名 (kana, literally “false name”) because it is used phonetically. See also 真名 (mana, “non-phonetic kanji”, literally “true name”) and 真片仮名 (shinkatakana, “non-phonetic kanji and katakana”).

Pronunciation

  • (Tokyo) ま​がな [máꜜgànà] (Atamadaka – [1])
  • (Tokyo) まがな [màgáná] (Heiban – [0])
  • IPA(key): [ma̠ɡa̠na̠]

Noun

真(ま)仮(が)名(な) • (magana) 

  1. (history) a syllabary with characters drawn from kanji, such as the 万葉仮名 (Man'yōgana), that is the precursor to hiragana and katakana

See also

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