Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word 変体仮名. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word 変体仮名, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say 変体仮名 in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word 変体仮名 you have here. The definition of the word 変体仮名 will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition of変体仮名, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
Compound of 変体(hentai, “variant form”) + 仮名(kana, “the hiragana or katakana syllabaries; a syllabary character”). The kana changes to gana as an instance of rendaku (連濁).
万葉仮名(man'yōgana): Man'yō characters, the ancestors of modern kana as derived from cursive forms of kanji used phonetically in the Man'yōshū collection of poetry