In the Japanese writing system, are variant forms of hiragana.
Description In contrast to modern Japanese, hiragana historically had several distinct forms representing a single sound. For example, while the hiragana reading ha has only one form in modern Japanese (は), until the Meiji era (1868–1912) it was written in various forms, including , , and . The shift to using only one character for each sound occurred as part of the 1900 script reform,, 1900 revision which also included other changes to the written language to standardize spelling (and was part of a larger project to westernize the country).
As a result of this state-mandated standardization of hiragana, variant kana have fallen into disuse in modern Japan, save for limited situations such as signboards, calligraphy, place names, and personal names.#築島1981、pp.352-353。 Today, those hiragana glyphs not used in school education since 1900 as a result of the script reform are called hentaigana.
History
Hiragana, the main Japanese syllabic writing system, derived from a cursive form of man'yōgana, a system where Chinese ideograms (kanji) were used to write sounds without regard to their meaning. Originally, the same syllable (more precisely, mora) could be represented by several more-or-less interchangeable kanji, or different cursive styles of the same kanji. However, the 1900 script reform determined that only one specific character be used for each mora, with the rest being called hentaigana ("variant characters").
The 1900 standard included the hiragana ゐ, ゑ, and を, which historically stood for the phonetically distinct moras /wi/, /we/, and /wo/ but are currently pronounced as /i/, /e/, and /o/, identically to い, え, and お. These characters were deprecated by the 1946 spelling reform, except for the character を, which is still used in the Japanese writing system for the direct object particle /-o/.
Hentaigana are still used occasionally today in some contexts, such as store signs and logos, to achieve the "old-fashioned" or "traditional" look.
Katakana also has variant forms, such as (ネ) and (ヰ).『小学略則教授法』「五十音図」 However, katakana's variant forms are fewer than hiragana's. Katakana's choices of man'yōgana segments had stabilized early on and established – with few exceptions – an unambiguous phonemic orthography (one symbol per sound) long before the 1900 script regularization.
Standardized hentaigana Before the proposal which led to the inclusion of hentaigana in Unicode 10.0, they were already standardized into a list by Mojikiban, part of the Japanese Information-technology Promotion Agency (IPA). aiueoひ∅kstnhmyrwIannacone, Jake (2020). "Reply to The Origin of Hiragana /wu/ 平仮名のわ行うの字源に対する新たな発見"N To view hentaigana, special fonts need to be installed that support Hentaigana such as:
BabelStone Han IPA MJ Mincho (Version 5.01 and later) Hanazono Mincho Hanazono Mincho AFDKO UniHentaiKana Nishiki-teki Noto Serif Hentaigana
The glyph for example Hiragana wu (𛄟) also needs a special font to display such as
Uraniwa Mincho X
Sources Hentaigana are adapted from the reduced and cursive forms of the following man’yōgana (kanji) characters.伊地知, 鉄男 (1966). 仮名変体集. 新典社. Source characters for the kana are not repeated below for hentaigana even when there are alternative glyphs; some are uncertain. +Kanji origins of kanaHiraganaKatakanaHentaigana∅あ安阿安悪亜阿い以伊以伊意移異夷う宇宇有雲憂羽于え衣江江盈衣要得縁延お於於隱Kか加佳加閑可我駕賀歌哥香家嘉歟謌佳き機幾幾支起貴喜祈季木く久久倶具求九供け計介介家遣氣 (気) 希个こ己許故古期興子Sさ左散佐斜沙差乍狭散し之之志四新事斯師す寸須受須春數壽爪せ世世勢聲瀬そ曽 (曾)曾所楚處蘇Tた太多多當堂田佗ち知千千知地遲治致智池馳つ川川州川徒都津頭て天停亭轉弖帝傳偏氐低而と止東登度等斗刀戸土砥徒Nな奈奈那難名南菜に仁仁二仁爾耳二児 (兒) 丹尼而ぬ奴怒努駑ね祢 (禰)年子熱念音根寢禰の乃乃能濃農廼野Hは波八八者盤半葉頗婆芳羽破ひ比日比飛悲非火避備妣ふ不不婦布風へ部旁倍遍弊邊閉敝幣反變 (変) 辨經部ほ保保寶 (宝) 本報奉穂豊 (豐)Mま末万万満萬眞馬間麻摩漫み美三三微美見微身民む武牟武無 (无) 牟舞務夢め女免面馬目妻も毛毛母裳茂无蒙藻Yや也也夜耶屋哉𛀆以以ゆ由由遊 (游)𛀁江衣江よ與 (与)代與餘余世夜Rら良羅良蘭落等り利利梨里離理李る留流流留累類れ礼 (禮)礼 (禮) 連麗豊 (豐)ろ呂婁呂 (娄) 樓路露侶廬魯論Wわ和和王倭ゐ為井井居為委遺𛄟汙宇ゑ恵 (惠)恵衛 (衞) 彗を遠乎乎越尾緒遠Nん无无尓 (爾)无
In Unicode
286 hentaigana characters are included in the Unicode Standard in the Kana Supplement and Kana Extended-A blocks. One character was added to Unicode version 6.0 in 2010, 𛀁 (U+1B001 HIRAGANA LETTER ARCHAIC YE which has the formal alias HENTAIGANA LETTER E-1), and the remaining 285 hentaigana characters were added in Unicode version 10.0 in June 2017.
The Unicode block for Kana Supplement is U+1B000–U+1B0FF:
The Unicode block for Kana Extended-A is U+1B100–U+1B12F:
Modern usage
While hentaigana started out as handwritten cursive variants of hiragana, they were used well into the modern era in printed books during the Meiji era, albeit with inconsistency. They occur sporadically in hiragana-heavy text. Some books were typeset with regular hiragana and their hentaigana variants on the same line. Here is a text sample from an 1893 book:
In this sample, is a variant of , and of , of , and of . Another book was typeset with two different spellings for the same phrase tatoe-ba: and . The same word, nashi, can be spelt with regular hiragana () and hentaigana () on the same page.
The choice between different hiragana and hentaigana could be contextual. For example, , and may be used at the beginning of a word, while , and may be used elsewhere, while was used extensively specifically for the topic particle.
Hentaigana are now considered obsolete, but a few marginal uses remain. For example, otemoto (chopsticks), is written in hentaigana on some wrappers and many soba shops use hentaigana to spell kisoba on their signs. (See also: "Ye Olde" for "the old" on English signs.)
Hentaigana are used in some formal handwritten documents, particularly in certificates issued by classical Japanese cultural groups (e.g., martial arts schools, etiquette schools, religious study groups, etc.). Also, they are occasionally used in reproductions of classic Japanese texts, akin to blackletter in English and other Germanic languages to give an archaic flair. Modern poems may be composed and printed in hentaigana for visual effect.
However, most Japanese people cannot read hentaigana that are not different cursive styles of the original kanji of their standard Hiragana or Katakana nowadays, only recognizing a few from their common use in shop signs, or figuring them out from context.
Gallery Some of the following hentaigana are cursive forms of the same kanji as their standard hiragana counterparts, but simplified differently. Others descend from unrelated kanji that represent the same sound.
See also Furigana Romaji
Notes
References
External links
Chart of hentaigana calligraphy from O'Neill's A Reader of Handwritten Japanese A chart of hentaigana hosted by Jim Breen of the WWWJDIC Chart of kana from Engelbert Kaempfer circa 1693
L2/15-239 Proposal for Japanese HENTAIGANA - Unicode