Kanazukai
Encyclopedia
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 spelling
s. 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.
in the early Edo period, it is also known as the Kenchū Kanazukai. It was the mainstream kanazukai until the Gendai Kanazukai was introduced in 1946.
There were other minor systems throughout history that are now defunct:
s.
Orthography
The orthography of a language specifies a standardized way of using a specific writing system to write the language. Where more than one writing system is used for a language, for example Kurdish, Uyghur, Serbian or Inuktitut, there can be more than one orthography...
rules for spelling Japanese
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
in kana
Kana
Kana are the syllabic Japanese scripts, as opposed to the logographic Chinese characters known in Japan as kanji and the Roman alphabet known as rōmaji...
. All phonographic systems (of which kana is an example) attempt to account accurately the pronunciation
Pronunciation
Pronunciation refers to the way a word or a language is spoken, or the manner in which someone utters a word. If one is said to have "correct pronunciation", then it refers to both within a particular dialect....
in their spelling
Spelling
Spelling is the writing of one or more words with letters and diacritics. In addition, the term often, but not always, means an accepted standard spelling or the process of naming the letters...
s. 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
Written language
A written language is the representation of a language by means of a writing system. Written language is an invention in that it must be taught to children, who will instinctively learn or create spoken or gestural languages....
and spoken
Spoken language
Spoken language is a form of human communication in which words derived from a large vocabulary together with a diverse variety of names are uttered through or with the mouth. All words are made up from a limited set of vowels and consonants. The spoken words they make are stringed into...
versions of Japanese.
Historical systems
The former mainstream kana usage, or the Kyū-Kanazukai (旧仮名遣, "old kanazukai"), is based on classical texts, especially man'yōgana. Created by KeichūKeichu
Keichu may refer to:* Keichu Do, a modern branch of the martial arts.* Keichū, a Japanese scholar of the Edo period....
in the early Edo period, it is also known as the Kenchū Kanazukai. It was the mainstream kanazukai until the Gendai Kanazukai was introduced in 1946.
There were other minor systems throughout history that are now defunct:
- Jōdai Tokushu KanazukaiJodai Tokushu Kanazukaiis an archaic kanazukai used to write Japanese during the Nara period. Its primary feature is to distinguish between two groups of syllables as discussed below that later merged together.-Syllables:Following are the syllabic distinctions made in Old Japanese....
: a modified Man'yōgana where /e, ye/ are distinct. - Teika Kanazukai: created by Fujiwara no TeikaFujiwara no TeikaFujiwara no Teika , also known as Fujiwara no Sadaie or Sada-ie, was a Japanese poet, critic, calligrapher, novelist, anthologist, scribe, and scholar of the late Heian and early Kamakura periods...
, it distinguishes between /wo, o/, /i, hi, wi/, /e, we, he/, and also (to a lesser degree) /e, ye/. /wo, o/ were used to express high and low accent, respectively. - Gyōa Kanazukai (Kanamojizukai): created by Minamoto no Chikayuki and Gyōa, 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, ye/ is obliterated.
Gendai Kanazukai
Derived from the Kyū-Kanazukai, it is a revision to better approximate modern pronunciation that is still used currently. As an adaption of the Kyū-Kanazukai, it is still not entirely phonetic, especially in respect to long vowels and particleGrammatical particle
In grammar, a particle is a function word that does not belong to any of the inflected grammatical word classes . It is a catch-all term for a heterogeneous set of words and terms that lack a precise lexical definition...
s.