Imatto-canna

Imatto-canna (also written "Imatto canna" or "Jamatto canna") is a nonexistent Japanese syllabary reported by the German traveller Engelbert Kaempfer in his book "Amoenitatum exoticarum politico-physico-medicarum fasciculi V." (1712).

He wrote that Japan had three syllabaries: "firo-canna" (hiragana) and "catta-canna" (katakana), both used by commons, and "imatto-canna", used by nobles. However, the "imatto-canna" he believed to exist were just variant forms of hiragana called hentaigana. The only other Japanese syllabary besides hiragana and katakana is their precursor man'yōgana, use of which had died out well before 1712. "Imatto-canna" was probably his transliteration of the word "yamato-gana", which actually means kana in general, both hiragana and katakana.

External links

* [http://www.raccoonbend.com/languages/canna.html Chart of kana from Engelbert Kaempfer]