A brief history of the Japanese writing system < Skritter Blog

History | Ancient History on Instagram: "Old Japanese, spoken roughly during the Nara period in the 8th century, represents the earliest stage of the language for which substantial written records exist, preserved mainly in texts like the Kojiki and Man’yōshū. It used a writing system adapted from Chinese characters, which were initially employed for their meanings and later for their phonetic value, shaping the earliest form of kana. Old Japanese had a simpler vowel system and a more limited se