-----Wiadomo=B6=E6 orginalna-----
Od: Christophe Grandsire <Christophe.Grandsire@...>
Do: Multiple recipients of list CONLANG <CONLANG@...>
Data: 10 listopada 1998 11:14
Temat: Re: Orthography Question
> As far as I know of the origin of katakana and hiragana, there h=
as
>always been an important distinction between katakana and hiragana. It's
>just the kind of distinction that changed.
>
> In the 10th century, the Japanese (only men) used Chinese ideogr=
ams
>to write Japanese words. They used them only with their phonetic value
>(actually approximately as Japanese phonetics are very different from
>Chinese phonetics). Then a "female" literature began to appear. Women
didn't
>have the right to write and read, but they passed through it inventing f=
rom
>some Chinese ideograms the first syllabary which was hiragana. At that
time,
>it was called "women's writing" (I don't remember the expression in
>Japanese).
wasn't it 'onna-no'