Here's a breakdown:
* Early Stages (8th-10th centuries):
* Manyōgana: Early forms of kana emerged as simplified ways of writing Japanese words using existing kanji. This was done by choosing a kanji based on its sound or meaning.
* Hiragana: By the 10th century, cursive forms of manyōgana characters began to evolve into a more fluid script, eventually becoming hiragana. This script was primarily used by women and in private correspondence.
* Development of Katakana (10th-13th centuries):
* Katakana developed as a more angular and simplified script from abbreviated forms of manyōgana characters. It was often used by Buddhist monks and in scholarly texts.
While we can trace the origins of kana back to the 8th and 9th centuries, the evolution continued for several hundred years, with different forms and scripts emerging before settling into the modern hiragana and katakana we know today.
It's important to note that kana didn't replace kanji entirely. Instead, they complemented it, creating a unique writing system where kanji are used for core concepts and words, while kana are used for grammatical elements, verb endings, and words without a kanji representation.