From "Feminine Hand" to National Voice: Hiragana, Hangul, and Nüshu in the Paradigm of Gender Linguoculturology of East Asia

The subject of the research is a comparative analysis of three gender-marked writing systems of East Asia: Japanese Hiragana (平仮名), Korean Hangul (한글), and Chinese Nüshu (女书). The object of the study is the socio-cultural prerequisites for the formation of these writing systems and their functioning within the framework of the dominant Confucian patriarchal tradition. The article discusses the historical transformation of their status – from gender segregation to markers of national and regional identity. The author details the following aspects of the topic: 1) the role of Hiragana, Hangul, and Nüshu in the context of the dominant hieroglyphic tradition; 2) their influence on the formation of national literary languages; 3) the evolution of social functions – from marginalized "women's" scripts to elements of cultural heritage. Special attention is given to the typology of the interaction of these writing systems with patriarchal language norms, their contribution to the development of women's written culture, and national and regional identity. The research methodology includes comparative-historical, linguocultural, sociolinguistic, and typological methods. These allowed for the comparison of Hiragana, Hangul, and Nüshu in their historical development, to identify the interconnection of writing with culture and gender relations, to describe the social functions of the writing systems, and to determine the typological differences between the systems. As a result of the study, a comparative analysis of Hiragana, Hangul, and Nüshu was conducted in the context of their gender marking and functioning within the framework of the "sinographic cosmopolis." The main conclusions of the study are: Hiragana, Hangul, and Nüshu represent three typologically different responses to the dominance of hieroglyphics – an italic-syllabic adaptation, an artificially created alphabet (phonetic letter-syllabic writing), and a local syllabic cipher; gender marking turned out to be a consequence of the social distribution of writing practices, Hiragana and Hangul evolved into markers of national identity, while Nüshu remained a local phenomenon. The novelty of the research lies in the comprehensive comparison of three heterogeneous writing systems based on unified criteria (origin, geography, social status, users of the writing, literary genres, writing materials, contemporary status, impact on literature, relationship to hieroglyphics) and in identifying the patterns of transition from "women's" writing to a cultural-forming symbol. A special contribution of the author is the development of a typology of the interaction of alternative writing systems with the hieroglyphic tradition, as well as a visual-graphic analysis of the graphic features of these systems.