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

• 当(あ)て字(じ) (ateji)