Man'yōgana

Man'yōgana is an early Japanese writing practice that used Chinese characters primarily for their sounds, rather than their meanings. It was used to write Japanese before the development of kana.

Ateji: The use of kanji for their sounds or meanings without regard to their usual semantic or phonetic role. Man'yōgana is an early, systematic use of characters for sound, while ateji names the broader practice.
Old Japanese: The earliest attested stage of the Japanese language, documented chiefly from the eighth century. Man'yōgana records Old Japanese and offers evidence for its vocabulary and sounds.
Kanji: Chinese characters used in the Japanese writing system for meanings and sounds. Man'yōgana draws its character shapes and readings from the kanji tradition.
Hentaigana: Historical variant hiragana forms derived from different cursive simplifications of Chinese characters. These competing forms preserve the range of character shapes that developed from man'yōgana.
Kana: The Japanese syllabic writing systems hiragana and katakana, historically developed from forms of Chinese characters. Kana streamlined the character forms that man'yōgana had used to write Japanese sounds.
Kojiki: A Japanese chronicle completed in 712, containing myths, genealogies, and early historical narratives. Its songs and names use phonetic Chinese characters to represent Japanese words.
On'yomi: A Japanese reading of a kanji based on a pronunciation associated with Chinese borrowing. Many man'yōgana signs used character readings derived from Chinese pronunciations.
Kana orthography: Conventions governing how kana represent and spell Japanese words. The later standardization of kana replaced the flexible character choices found in man'yōgana.
Hiragana: A Japanese syllabary whose cursive forms developed from Chinese characters used phonetically. Hiragana arose through cursive simplification of characters used in man'yōgana.
Nihon Shoki: A Japanese chronicle completed in 720, recounting the country's myths and history. Its early Japanese poems and names provide another important setting for phonetic character use.

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