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| Dating | |
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Linguistic changes are gradual, and the periodization of Japanese is "both delicate and controversial", with multiple competing methods and criteria for division.[2]
For both practical and conventional reasons, these divisions often correlate to political events. As such, the accepted upper bound (end date) for Old Japanese is 794 CE,[2] when the capital Heijō-kyō moved to Heian-kyō. However, it is difficult to fix a lower bound. A limited number of Japanese words, mostly personal names and place names, are recorded phonetically in ancient Chinese texts such as the Book of Wei in the Records of Three Kingdoms (3rd century CE). Wooden tablets and relics with fragments of text written on them have also been excavated.
However, without discounting this fragmentary early evidence, the lower bound is generally placed circa 712 for practical reasons: 712 is the traditional date of composition of the Kojiki, the oldest extant written OJ text of substantial length. A lower bound circa 712 also coincides well with the Nara period (710-794). A more formal dating methodology might simply date OJ as "through 794", without recognizing a lower bound at all.
Besides the Kojiki, some other literary sources include the songs of the various Fudoki (713-737), the songs of the Nihon Shoki (720), and many poems from the Man'yōshū (ca. 759), and portions of the Senmyō (679-789).[3]
[edit] Tags:Japan,Man'yōshū,Heijō-kyō,Heian-kyō,Kojiki,Nara Period,Fudoki,Nihon Shoki,Senmyō,Chinese,Nara,P,T,K, | |
| Writing system | |
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Japanese words written in Chinese characters are attested as early as the latter half of the 5th century CE (see Inariyama Kofun). However, most of the earliest texts found in Japan are written in Classical Chinese, although they may have been meant to be read as Japanese by the kanbun method. Some of these Chinese texts show the influences of Japanese grammar, such as word order placing the verb after the object (as in Japanese) rather than before (as in Chinese). In these "hybrid" texts, Chinese characters are occasionally used phonetically to represent Japanese particles.
Over time, the phonetic usage of Chinese characters became more and more prevalent, until Man'yōgana, a system of using the Chinese characters phonetically to record Japanese, was born. This system was already in use for poems and some proper nouns in Kojiki, and was used in a highly sophisticated manner in Man'yōshū.
On the other hand, Chinese characters were also used semantically to represent Japanese words with no phonetic connection to the Chinese. For example, 谷 was used to represent the Japanese word /tani/ ("valley"). Later, this extended to using the same Chinese characters to represent Japanese words with the same (or closely related) pronunciations as the semantically related Japanese words originally represented by the character. For example, using 谷 to represent the particle /dani/ ("even", "at least").
Consider the following example from the Man'yoshu:
夢尓谷 不見在之物乎
yume ni dani/ mizu arishi mono wo
"A thing unseen even in dreams"
Here, /yume/ ("dream") is represented by 夢 (semantic but no phonetic relationship), /ni/ and /-si/ and /wo/ by 尓 and 之 and 乎 (phonetic but no semantic relationship), and /dani/ by 谷 (semantic but no direct phonetic relationship; however, there is a secondary phonetic relationship via /tani/ meaning "valley", which is in turn connected to 谷 by semantics.)
Furthermore, /mizu/ ("see" + NEG) is represented as 不見 (NEG + "see"); the two-character compound as a whole is semantically equivalent to the Japanese, but the order of the characters is different.
More extreme examples of compound semantic relationships include such representations as 八十一 ("eighty-one") for the Japanese phrase /kuku/ ("nine nines"), and, similarly, 十六 ("sixteen") for /sisi/ ("four fours" but meaning "animal (獣, sisi, kemono?)").
[edit] Tags:Chinese Characters,Man'yōgana,Inariyama Kofun,Classical Chinese,Kanbun,Word Order,Japanese Particles, | |
| Limitations of Writing system | |
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Using Chinese characters to write other languages created the following limitations.
Only one liquid consonant: /l/
Limited ability to represent closed syllables
Middle Chinese allowed open syllables and the codas /p/, /t/, /k/, /m/, /n/ and /ŋ/. Old Chinese had more closed syllables (some reconstructions, such as Li Fang-Kuei's and Akiyasu Tōdō's, eliminate open syllables entirely).
However, some written Old Japanese seems to include attempts to represent closed syllables. For example, sö (so2) and its vowel alternation sa, originally a binding particle (係助詞), are often written as 曽 (tsǝŋ) and 左 (tsar), suggesting a final consonant sound at the end of the syllable. (Etymologically those are thought as same as demonstrative söre (so2re) and saru.[4])[citation needed]
Another example of evidence for closed syllables (although not necessarily in Old Japanese) is the fact that 原 ("plain, field") is read hara (or bara) in standard Japanese, but paru/baru in southwestern and far western Japan. Combined with words like harappa, which has been analyzed as a reduplication: par(ar)par, this suggests that there may have been a proto-Japanese */par/ or */pal/.[citation needed]
In the opposite case, speakers of Old Chinese heard and wrote proto-Japanese. For example, in 3rd century, there was a queen named 卑弥呼 /pieg miěr hag/.
The word kana(-gana)(仮名) itself came from kari-na(loan-name/character) > karna > kanna > kana.
[edit] Tags:Middle Chinese,Old Chinese,Li Fang-kuei,Open Syllables,Consonant,Kana, | |
| Phonology | |
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The study of Old Japanese phonology is based on the comparative study of synchronous pronunciation of Chinese, reverse analysis of diachronic change in Japanese pronunciation, and comparative study of the Ryukyuan languages. Although the majority of Old Japanese writing represents the language of the Asuka and the Nara court in the then central Japan, some poems in the Man'yōshū are from southern and eastern Japan, and represent different dialects of Old Japanese. Some of these dialectical differences are still found today.[citation needed]
Old Japanese differed phonetically from later periods of the language. An analysis of Man'yōgana reveals a peculiar system known as Jōdai Tokushu Kanazukai. See the Syllables section for details.
The transcriptions of Old Japanese words given in Kojiki (712) differ from those found in Nihon Shoki (720) and Man'yōshū (c. 759) in that it distinguishes the syllables /mo1/ and /mo2/ whereas the latter two do not. This has been correlated with the historical record of Kojiki being compiled earlier than Nihon Shoki, and thus preserved an older distinction that soon vanished.
Other characteristic differences of Old Japanese as compared with its modern counterpart include:
no long vowels or diphthongs (criticized, see #Limitations of Writing system)
words do not begin with /r/ or voiced plosives
open syllables: no syllable-final consonants of any kind (criticized, see #Limitations of Writing system)
Some scholars have suggested that there might be a link between Old Japanese and some of the extinct languages of the Korean peninsula, including the Goguryeo language, but the relation of Japanese to any language other than Ryūkyūan remains undemonstrated. See Classification of Japanese for details.
[edit] Tags:Writing System,Ryukyuan Languages,Asuka,Jōdai Tokushu Kanazukai,Goguryeo Language,Ryūkyūan,Classification Of Japanese,Voiced,Ryukyuan Language,Korean, | |
| Syllables | |
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Old Japanese distinguished between 88 syllables.
Sokuon (促音), that is a long/double/geminated consonant represented as /Q/, and hatsuon (撥音), that is independent /ɴ/, were not (or could not be) written. However, 奈能利曽-奈能僧 pair (762CE) suggested nanössö(nano2sso2), 意芝沙加-於佐箇 pair (720CE) and a middle-heian copy's boukun(傍訓) オムサカ suggested össaka(o2ssaka) or öɴsaka(o2ɴsaka).
Neither sokuon nor hatsuon represented morae yet.
a
i
u
e
o
ka
ki1
ki2
ku
ke1
ke2
ko1
ko2
ga
gi1
gi2
gu
ge1
ge2
go1
go2
sa
si
su
se
so1
so2
za
zi
zu
ze
zo1
zo2
ta
ti
tu
te
to1
to2
da
di
du
de
do1
do2
na
ni
nu
ne
no1
no2
pa
pi1
pi2
pu
pe1
pe2
po
ba
bi1
bi2
bu
be1
be2
bo
ma
mi1
mi2
mu
me1
me2
mo1
mo2
ya
yu
ye
yo1
yo2
ra
ri
ru
re
ro1
ro2
wa
wi
we
wo
Shortly after the Kojiki, the distinction between mo1 and mo2 is quickly lost reducing the total syllable count to 87.
Many hypotheses have been proposed to explain the syllable doublets, including:
an eight-vowel system
palatalization of the initial consonant
a six-vowel system
This issue is still hotly debated, and there is no general consensus.
[edit] Tags:Sokuon,Geminated,Palatal, | |
| Transcription | |
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Keep in mind that the transcription does not necessarily represent either hypothesis and that the subscript 1 or 2 could apply to either the consonant or the vowel.
There are several competing transcription systems. One popular system places a dieresis above the vowel: ï, ë, ö. This typically represents i2, e2, and o2, and assumes that unmarked i, e, and o are i1, e1, and o1. There are several problems with this system.
It implies a particular pronunciation, indirectly on the vowel.
it neglects to distinguish between words where the 1 / 2 distinction is not clear, such as the /to/ in /toru/ as well as in /kaditori/.
Another system uses superscripts instead of subscripts.
[edit] Tags: | |
| Vowel alternation | |
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/a/ ↔ /o2/ (not allomorphic)
/i1/ ↔ /u/
There was an affix 斎 i- or yu- (sacred). This supposes that there was /*yi/.
[edit] Tags: | |
| Consonants | |
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Old Japanese had the following reconstructed consonant inventory[5]:
Labial
Coronal
Palatal
Velar
Voiceless obstruent
*p
*t
(*t͡s)
*s
*k
Prenasalized voiced obstruent
*ᵐb
*ⁿd
*ⁿz
*ᵑɡ
Nasal
*m
*n
Approximant/Flap
*w
*ɾ
*j
Obstruent
The voiceless obstruents /p, t, s, k/ had corresponding voiced consonants which were prenasalized. This prenasalization is seen through Late Middle Japanese.
Voiceless labial obstruent
Modern Japanese /h/ was phonetically realized as [p] in Old Japanese. This assumption is predicated upon the following textual and phonological analyses:
The modern /h/ causes a discrepancy in the pairing of voiceless vs. voiced consonants. Thus, /k, ɡ/, /s, z/, /t, d/, and finally /h, b/. The pair /h, b/ does not fit. The voiceless version of /b/ is /p/.
Comparison with Ryukyuan language shows [p] where mainland Japanese has [h]. As these two languages split at some point in history, this can be taken as evidence that the Japanese [h] was once pronounced identically to the Ryukyuan [p] (although the comparison alone does not directly address the issue of what its pronunciation was in Old Japanese).
A look at /h/ in modern Japanese shows that it becomes [ɸ] when followed by /u/. Looking further back, Portuguese missionaries visiting Japan in the early 17th century wrote the entire /h/-row of kana as "fa, fi, fu, fe, fo". Korean visitors in the same century suggested a voiceless bilabial fricative sound, i.e. [ɸ].
In 842, the monk Ennin writes in Zaitōki a description in which he states that Sanskrit "p" is more labial than Japanese. This is taken as evidence that Japanese /h/ was pronounced [ɸ] rather than [p] by that time. This was after the Old Japanese period, however.
There is general agreement that between the 9th and 17th century /h/ was [ɸ]. The dialectal and distributional evidence suggest that at some point it must have been [p]. Recent scholarship reconstructs[6] this as *[p] for Old Japanese.
Voiceless coronal obstruents
synchronical allophone
/s/ = [s, ʃ, t͡ʃ, t͡s, c] in western
/t/ as /ts/ = [t, t͡s, c] in eastern
diachronical allophone
/s/ = [t͡s] > [t͡ʃ] > [ʃ] > [s]
Approximant/Flap
diachronical allomorph
/ju/ > /ru/
synchronical allomorph
/wo/ = /pa/
[edit] Tags:Labial,Coronal,Velar,Voiceless,Obstruent,T͡s,Prenasalized,Nasal,Approximant,Flap, | |
| Phonological rules | |
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In 1934, Arisaka Hideyo(有坂秀世) and Ikegami Teizou(池上禎造) independently proposed a set of phonological restrictions permitted in a single morpheme. These are known as the "Arisaka-Ikegami Laws".
in a word root, -o1 and -o2 do not co-exist (5 instances)
in two syllable words, -u and -o2 generally do not co-exist (13 instances)
-a and -o1 co-exist more frequently than -a and -o2.
These rules suggest two groups of vowels: /-a, -u, -o1/ and /o2/. Vowels from either group do not mix with each other; -i1 and -i2 can co-exist with either group. Some take this phenomenon as evidence that Old Japanese had vowel harmony as found in Altaic languages.
[edit] Tags: | |
| Syllable structure | |
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The Old Japanese syllable was CV (consonant-vowel).
A bare vowel does not occur except for word-initially.
/r/ is not found word-initially (with the exception of two foreign loans: /rikizimahi1/ and /rokuro/).
Voiced plosives do not occur word-initially.
Vowel elision occurred to prevent vowel clusters:
Second vowel is dropped: /hanare/ + /iso1/ → /hanareso1/
First vowel is dropped: /ara/ + /umi1/ → /arumi1/
Two continuous vowels merge into a separate vowel: i1 + a → e1, a + i1 → e2, o2 + i1 → i2, u + i1 → i2 and probably a + u → o1, u + a → o1
/s/ is inserted between the two vowels: /haru/ + /ame2/→/harusame2/ (It is possible that /ame2/ was once */same2/)
[edit] Tags: | |
| Grammar | |
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Old Japanese was more synthetic than 20th century Japanese, and was both agglutinative and incorporative like the neighboring Ainu language. For example, na...mo2 or na...so2 pair could contain a very long phrase:
na omopitokimipaipedo mo2
pito na itakuwabisasemawirasetamapi so2
The e...zu pair survived in the western dialect as yō...(se)ɴ as of 20th century.
Typologically, Old Japanese was similar in word order (and some aspects of phonology) to Ainu and, according to some scholars, to Tamil.
Old Japanese had a canonical word order SOV, though the subject was often omitted. Plurals were indicated by a suffix. There was no grammatical gender. Sex could be explicitly marked with the suffixes -mi (female) and -ki (male) in the early language; later these became me1 (female) and -ko2, wo- (male), suffixed for humans and prefixed for animals or plants.
[edit] Tags:Ipa, | |
| Numbers | |
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0(zero) is adjective nasi. From 1 to 10 has banalism of vowel alternation:
1 pito2
3 mi1 (*mi1t)
4 yo2 (*yo2t)
5 itu (*ta)
2 puta
6 mu (*mut)
8 ya (*yat)
10 to2wo2
Odd number 7 is nana, 9 is ko2ko2-no2.
20 has a special name pata. 30 is mi-so2, 40 yo2-so2, 50 i1-so2 or i1(*i1s), 60 mu-so2(-di), 70 nana-so2(-di), 80 ya-so2(-di), 90 ko2ko2-no2-so2-di and 100 is mo2mo2.
99 has a special name tuku-mo2.
800 is ya-po2 (< *yat-mo2), 1,000 is ti1, 10,000 is yo2ro2du [1].
82 is read ya-so2 amari puta.
Sacred number is 4 and 8 (cf. FYI: Ainu's is 6).
[edit] Tags: | |
| Pronouns | |
| 3>
First person: wa, a, ware, are
Second person: na, nare
beloved: mo, i-mo, i-mo-ko2; se, se-ko2
lower to higher: masi, mi-masi, i-masi
higher to lower/vulgar: o2re
Third person:
proximal: ko2, ko2re, ko2-ko2, ko2-ti
mesial: so2, sa, si, so2-ko2
distal: ka, kare
Interrogative:
living: ta, tare
neutral: na, na-ni, ika, ika-ni, ika-na, iku-da
unliving: idu, idure, idu-ti, idu-tsi, idu-ku, idu-pe1, idu-ku-pe1, idura(interj.)
Ta(re) is who. Na(-ni) is why. Ika(-ni/na) is how, what way. Iku-da is how many. idu-(re/ti/tsi/ku/pe1/ra) is generally where. Idure is which. Idu-ti/tsi is which direction. Idu(-ku)-pe1 is around where. Itu(when) is attested middle-old, idure-no2-to2ki, instead.
This section requires expansion.
[edit] Tags: | |
| Verbs | |
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Old Japanese distinguished between eight verbal conjugations: quadrigrade, upper monograde, upper bigrade, lower bigrade, k-irregular, s-irregular, n-irregular, and r-irregular. Lower monograde does not exist yet.[7][8][9]
[edit] Tags: | |
| Conjugation | |
| 4>
Verb Class
Irrealis
Adverbial
Conclusive
Attributive
Realis
Imperative
Quadrigrade
-a
-i1
-u
-u
-e2
-e1
Upper monograde
-
-
-ru
-ru
-re
-(yo2)
Upper bigrade
-i2
-i2
-u
-uru
-ure
-i2(yo2)
Lower bigrade
-e2
-e2
-u
-uru
-ure
-e2(yo2)
K-irregular
-o2
-i1
-u
-uru
-ure
-o2
S-irregular
-e
-i
-u
-uru
-ure
-e(yo2)
N-irregular
-a
-i
-u
-uru
-ure
-e
R-irregular
-a
-i
-i
-u
-e
-e
[edit] Tags: | |
| Consonant / vowel stem | |
| 4>
Verbs having a base that ends in a consonant are known as consonant-stem. These are exhibited by the Quadrigrade, the R-irregular and N-irregular verb classes.
There are only three N-irregular verbs, which were originally verbs in the Adverbial conjugation combined with the negative auxiliary -nu, but which were later reinterpreted as verbs in their own right.
Verbs having a base that ends in a vowel are known as vowel-stem. Upper Monograde represents monosyllabic vowel stems ending in -i.
Upper Bigrade is made up of polysyllabic roots ending in the vowel -i, while Lower Bigrade represents polysyllabic roots ending in -e. This ending vowel was elided in the conclusive, attributive, and realis conjugations.
K-irregular and S-irregular represent verbs whose stems appear to be composed of only one consonant each. These verbs behave as verbs with consonant stems, but they are originally vowel stems whose irregular conjugations are the result of vowel mutation and elision.
[edit] Tags: | |
| Irregular verbs | |
| 4>
There are several verbs with irregular conjugations.
K-irregular: k- "come"
S-irregular: s- "do, make"
N-irregular: i-n- "go away, die; pass away", sin- (< *si (死?)+(i)n-) "die"
R-irregular: ar- "be, exist", wor- "be, exist"
The conjugation class for each is named after the final stem consonant.
[edit] Tags: | |
| Adjectives | |
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There were two types of adjectives: regular adjectives and adjectival nouns.
The regular adjective is sub-classified into two types: those where the adverbial form (連用形) ends in -ku and those that end in -siku. However, note that -si of -siku is the part of stem.
-ku is objective
-siku is subjective
This creates two different types of conjugations:
Adjective Class
Irrealis
Adverbial
Conclusive
Attributive
Realis
Imperative
-ku
-ke1
-ku
-si
-ki1
-ke1
-ke1re
-kara
-kari
-si
-karu
-kare
-kare
-siku
-sike1
-siku
-si
-siki1
-sike1
-sike1re
-sikara
-sikari
-si
-sikaru
-sikare
-sikare
The -kar- and -sikar- forms are derived from the verb ar- "be, exists". The adverbial conjugation (-ku or -siku) is suffixed with ar-. The conjugation yields to the R-irregular conjugation of ar-. As Old Japanese avoids vowel clusters, the resulting -ua- elides into -a-.
The adjectival noun has a single conjugation:
Irrealis
Adverbial
Conclusive
Attributive
Realis
Imperative
Adjectival noun
-nara
-nari
-nari
-naru
-nare
-nare
Do not confuse this with the main verb naru (naturally become). Naru never takes the particle tu(*ntu) but takes nu(*nnu) after itself. However, this -nari sometimes takes tu. It is similar to the R-irregular ari. This peculiarity suggests that etymologically -nari came from -n-ari.
[edit] Tags: | |
| Dialects | |
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The Man'yōshū includes poems written in dialects in eastern Japanese (present Shizuoka, Nagano, Kantō region and southern Tōhoku region). For example, the imperative form of verbs -ro instead of -yo; the attributive form of the Quadrigrade and R-irregular verbs -o instead of -u; the negative verb ending -napu instead of -zu; the attributive form of adjectives -ke instead of -ki.
[edit] Tags: | |
| Ryukyu | |
| 3>
The Ryukyuan languages and Japanese diverged "not long before the first written evidences of Japanese appeared, that is to say, at some point before the 7th century" (See Ryukyuan languages). The following list shows an example of comparison between Old Japanese and Modern Okinawan language.
Old Japanese
Modern Okinawan
Modern Japanese
North
kita
nisi
kita
West
nisi
iri
nishi
South
(mi)nami
(mi)nami
minami
East
pimukasi
agari
higashi
Nisi means where we passed away, where we came from (N-irregular (i)nu+si ("past tense, where"). Agari means (the sun) rose, and iri means (the sun) set. Pimukasi means pi1 ("the sun") + muku ("look (forward)") + si [> fimgasi > higashi].
[edit] Tags: | |
| Four-vowel system | |
| 3>
The following fusional reductions (in most instances these are monophthongizations) took place:
*i1a > /e1/
*ai1 > /e2/
*ui1 > /i2/
*o2i1 > /i2/
*au > /o1/
*ua > /o1/
Thus, the proto vowel system can be reconstructed as /*a, *i, *u, *o2/.
[edit] Tags: | |
| Co | |
| 3>
Distributionally, there may have once been *po1, *po2 and *bo1, bo2. Note that the distinction between /mo1/ and /mo2/ is only seen in Kojiki and vanished afterwards. If this is true, then a distinction was made between Co1 and Co2 for all consonants C except for /w/. Some take this as support that Co1 may have represented /Cwo/.
However, this hypothesis has some unreasonability. For example, Old Chinese study shows that one of ko1 古 had old – middle-old pronunciation /kag – ko/. It was kaikō(開口) and was not gōkō(合口). Gōkō means that there is /u/ before main vowel.
[edit] Tags: | |
| Notes | |
| 2>
^ While the code ojp corresponds to the name "Old Japanese", the description is "The ancestor of modern Japanese. 7th-10th centuries AD." This is a problematic and controversial division, with the more usual change from Old Japanese to Middle Japanese being 794 (end of Nara) – see #Dating; the next division is 1185 (end of Heian). Further, the direct ancestor of modern Japanese is Middle Japanese, specifically Late Middle Japanese, not Old Japanese. See further discussion at Talk:Old Japanese#ISO 639-3.
^ a b Shibatani (1990:119)
^ Vovin (2005:2-6, 15)
^ Ōno (2000:639)
^ Miyake (2003:196)
^ Miyake (2003:164-166)
^ Yamaguchi, Nihongo no Rekishi, page 18
^ Kondō, Nihongo no Rekishi, page 41
^ Omodaka, Jidaibetsu Kokugo Daijiten: Jōdaihen, pages 37-38
[edit] Tags: | |
| References | |
| 2>
This article includes a list of references, but its sources remain unclear because it has insufficient inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (July 2009)
Frellesvig, Bjarke (2010). A History of the Japanese Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0521653206. Tags:Japanese Language, | |
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