Danieru Wrote:INterestingly, this poem also has corresponding kanji for each syllable ('wi' is 為 and 'we' is 恵). I was told - although I can't verify if it is true or not, maybe someone could help me out here - that there was a period that Japan only used the 48 kanji that corresponded to this poem, as a sort of Kanji alphabet. It seems improbable to me...Yes, the syllabary was originally written with kanji using only their reading and ignoring their meaning (this system is called 万葉仮名、まにょうがな), but it wasn't as neat & tidy as a 48-kanji alphabet. There were actually several possible kanji in use for each syllable (although this was also true for kana, before the 1900 reforms). They also mixed in occasional "real" kanji meant to be understood according to meaning. I think there was also some "cheating" with regard to long/short vowels, small/big や & つ, and the maru/tenten alterations (ie ひ・び・ぴ). Sounds like fun to read, doesn't it? After a few hundred years they got sick of it & developed the kana.
Of course, kanji were already being used in Japan before any of this, but only by the educated for studying Chinese, rather than writing Japanese. But that was the only writing system around, so they just made it work for Japanese as best they could.
