Kanazukai

Kanazukai (仮(か)名(な)遣(づか)い, ‘kana usage’) are the orthographic rules for spelling Japanese in kana. All phonographic systems (of which kana is an example) attempt to account accurately the pronunciation in their spellings. However, pronunciation and accents change over time and phonemic distinctions are often lost. Various systems of kanazukai were introduced to deal with the disparity between the written and spoken versions of Japanese.

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The former mainstream kana usage, or the Kyū-Kanazukai (旧(きゅう)仮(か)名(な)遣(づかい), ‘old kana usage’), is based on classical texts, especially man'yōgana. Created by Keichū in the early Edo period, it is also known as the Keichū Kanazukai. It was the mainstream kanazukai until the Gendai Kanazukai was introduced in 1946.^[1]

There were other minor systems throughout history that are now defunct:

Jōdai Tokushu Kanazukai (Japanese: 上代特殊仮名遣い): a modified Man'yōgana where /e, je/ are distinct.
Teika Kanazukai (Japanese: 定家仮名遣い): created by Fujiwara no Teika, it distinguishes between /wo, o/, /i, hi, wi/, /e, we, he/, and also (to a lesser degree) /e, je/. /wo, o/ were used to express high and low accent, respectively.
Gyōa Kanazukai (Japanese: 行阿仮名遣い), also known as Kanamojizukai (Japanese: 仮名文字遣い): created by Minamoto no Chikayuki [ja] and his grandson Gyōa [ja], which expanded on the Teika Kanazukai by distinguishing between /ho/, /wa, ha/, /u, hu/, and /mu/. /wo, o/ are still used to distinguish between high and low accent. However, the distinction between /e, je/ is obliterated.

Derived from the Kyū-Kanazukai, gendai kanazukai is a revision to more approximate modern pronunciation that is still used currently.^[2] As an adaption of the Kyū-Kanazukai, it is still not entirely phonetic, especially in respect to long vowels and particles.

[1]
Konno, Shinji; 今野真二 (2014). Kanazukai no rekishi : Nihongo o kaku to iu koto. Tōkyō-to Chūō-ku. ISBN 978-4-12-102254-7. OCLC 871234246.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
[2]
Kindaichi, Kyōsuke; 金田一京助. (1992–1993). Kindaichi Kyōsuke zenshū. Kindaichi Kyōsuke Zenshū Henshū Iinkai, 金田一京助全集編集委員会. Tōkyō: Sanseidō. ISBN 4-385-40801-7. OCLC 26841665.

Yotsugana

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You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in Japanese. (June 2022) Click [show] for important translation instructions.

Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia.
Consider adding a topic to this template: there are already 1,225 articles in the main category, and specifying|topic= will aid in categorization.
Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article.
You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing Japanese Wikipedia article at [[:ja:仮名遣い]]; see its history for attribution.
You may also add the template {{Translated|ja|仮名遣い}} to the talk page.
For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

There were other minor systems throughout history that are now defunct:

Jōdai Tokushu Kanazukai (Japanese: 上代特殊仮名遣い): a modified Man'yōgana where /e, je/ are distinct.
Teika Kanazukai (Japanese: 定家仮名遣い): created by Fujiwara no Teika, it distinguishes between /wo, o/, /i, hi, wi/, /e, we, he/, and also (to a lesser degree) /e, je/. /wo, o/ were used to express high and low accent, respectively.
Gyōa Kanazukai (Japanese: 行阿仮名遣い), also known as Kanamojizukai (Japanese: 仮名文字遣い): created by Minamoto no Chikayuki [ja] and his grandson Gyōa [ja], which expanded on the Teika Kanazukai by distinguishing between /ho/, /wa, ha/, /u, hu/, and /mu/. /wo, o/ are still used to distinguish between high and low accent. However, the distinction between /e, je/ is obliterated.

[1]
Konno, Shinji; 今野真二 (2014). Kanazukai no rekishi : Nihongo o kaku to iu koto. Tōkyō-to Chūō-ku. ISBN 978-4-12-102254-7. OCLC 871234246.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
[2]
Kindaichi, Kyōsuke; 金田一京助. (1992–1993). Kindaichi Kyōsuke zenshū. Kindaichi Kyōsuke Zenshū Henshū Iinkai, 金田一京助全集編集委員会. Tōkyō: Sanseidō. ISBN 4-385-40801-7. OCLC 26841665.

Yotsugana

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Kanazukai

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Historical systems

Gendai Kanazukai

References

See also