Old Japanese language

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Old Japanese is the oldest attested stage of the Japanese language. The period is generally dated between 710 when the capital became Heijōkyō to 794 when the capital moved to Heiankyō. This dating also corresponds with the Nara period.

The oldest literary sources include Kojiki (712), Fudoki (720), Nihonshoki (720), and Man'yōshū (after 771).

Much Japanese writing at the time was done using Chinese characters for their sound value and not their meaning—called Man'yōgana—thus it is possible to describe the approximate sounds of the language but not to derive any certain conclusions. However, recent research has brought us to a much better understanding of what the sounds of Old Japanese probably were, largely through 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 Nara court in 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.

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 Phonemes section for more details.

The transcriptions of Old Japanese words given in Kojiki differ from those found in Nihonshoki and Man'yōshū in that it distinguished 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 Nihonshoki, and thus preserved an older distinction that soon vanished.

The Modern Japanese syllable [tsu] derives from affrication of [t] before [u] in the Old Japanese [tu], and Modern [zu] arises by the same process from Early Modern [dzu] and Old [du]. Certain modern dialects preserve the distinction between [z] and [dz], for instance in the Nagoya dialect [midzu] for mizu "water". A similar process of palatalization resulted in Modern [tɕi] from Classical and Old [ti]. However, it cannot be ascertained when /ti/ was palatalized; it may have already been an affricate in Old Japanese.

Other characteristic differences of Old Japanese as compared with its modern counterpart include:

• no long vowels or diphthongs;
• words do not begin with /r/ or voiced plosives;
• no syllable-final consonants of any kind.

Some scholars have suggested there is a link between Old Japanese and some of the extinct languages of the Korean peninsula, including the Goguryeo (a.k.a. Koguryo) language, but the relation of Japanese to any language other than Ryukyuan remains undemonstrated. See the Japanese language classification page for more.

Contents 1 Phonemes 1.1 Transcription 2 Phonological Rules 3 Phonetics 3.1 Vowels 3.2 Consonants 3.2.1 /k, g/ 3.2.2 /s, z/ 3.2.3 /t, d/ 3.2.4 /n/ 3.2.5 /h/ 3.2.6 /m/ 3.2.7 /y/ 3.2.8 /r/ 3.2.9 /w/ 4 Syllable structure 5 Pronouns 6 Verbs 6.1 Conjugation 6.2 Consonant / Vowel Stem 6.3 Irregular Verbs 7 Adjectives 8 Grammar 9 Dialects 10 Proto Japanese 10.1 Four-vowel system 10.2 /h/ < *[p] 10.3 Co1 as Cwo 11 References

[edit] Phonemes

Old Japanese distinguished between 88 syllables.

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
ha	hi1	hi2	hu	he1	he2	ho
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 previous constant
• a six-vowel system

This issue is still strongly argued, and there is no general consensus.

[edit] Transcription

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] Phonological Rules

There were phonological restrictions on the vowel types permitted in a single morpheme.

• -o₁ and -o₂ do not co-exist
• -u and -o₂ generally do not co-exist
• -a and -o₂ generally do not co-exist

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] Phonetics

[edit] Vowels

A phonetic description of the vowels depends on the hypothesis being followed.

[edit] Consonants

[edit] /k, g/

/k, g/: [k, g]

[edit] /s, z/

Theories for /s, z/ include [s, z], [ts, dz], and [ʃ, ʒ]. It may have varied depending on the following vowel, as it does with modern Japanese.

[edit] /t, d/

/t, d/: [t, d]

[edit] /n/

/n/: [n]

[edit] /h/

/h/ was phonetically realized as [ɸ]. 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, g/, /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 labial fricative sound, i.e. [ɸ].
• The oldest evidence is from 9th century. In 842, the monk Ennin wrote an entry in his Diary, in which he states that Sanskrit "p" is more labial than Japanese. This is taken as evidence that Japanese /h/ was already pronounced [ɸ] rather than [p] by that time.

Thus, between the 9th and 17th century, it can be stated with a high degree of certainty that /h/ was at least [ɸ]. The dialectal and distributional evidence suggest that at some point it must have been [p]. However, it most likely was prior to the Old Japanese period.

[edit] /m/

/m/: [m]

[edit] /y/

/y/: [j]

[edit] /r/

/r/: [r]

[edit] /w/

/w/: [w]

[edit] Syllable structure

The Old Japanese syllable was CV (consonant-vowel).

• The initial C could be zero.
• A bare vowel does not occur except for word-initial
• /r/ is not found word-initial (with the exception of two foreign loans: /rikizimahi₁/ and /rokuro/)
• A voiced consonant does not occur word-initial

Vowel elision occurred to prevent vowel clusters:

• Initial vowel is dropped: /ara/ + /umi₁/ → /arumi₁/
• Post vowel is dropped: /hanare/ + /iso₁/ → /hanareso₁/
• Two continuous vowels merge into a separate vowel: i₁ + a → e₁, a + i₁→e₂, o₂ + i₁→i₂
• /s/ is inserted between the two vowels: /haru/ + /ame₂/→/harusame₂/ (It is possible that /ame₂/ was once */same₂/)

[edit] Pronouns

First person: wa, a, ware, are Second person: na, nare, masi, mimasi, imasi, ore Third person: Proximal: ko, kore, koko, koti Non-proximal: so, si, soko Distant: ka, kare Interrogative: ta, tare, idu, idure, iduti, iduku, idura

[edit] Verbs

Old Japanese distinguished between eight verbal conjugations: Quadrigrade (四段), Upper Monograde (上一段), Upper Bigrade (上二段), Lower Bigrade (下二段), K-irregular (カ変), S-irregular (サ変), N-irregular (ナ変), and R-irregular (ラ変). Lower Monograde (下一段) does not exist yet.

[edit] Conjugation

Verb Class	Irrealis 未然形	Adverbial 連用形	Conclusive 終止形	Attributive 連体形	Realis 已然形	Imperative 命令形
Quadrigrade (四段)	-a	-i1	-u	-u	-e2	-e1
Upper Monograde(上一段)	-	-	-ru	-ru	-re	-(yo2)
Upper Bigrade (上二段)	-i2	-i2	-u	-uru	-ure	-i2(yo2)
Lower Bigrade (下二段)	-e2	-e2	-u	-uru	-ure	-e2(yo2)
K-irregular (カ変)	-o2	-i1	-u	-uru	-ure	-o2
S-irregular (サ変)	-e	-i	-u	-uru	-ure	-e(yo2)
N-irregular (ナ変)	-a	-i	-u	-uru	-ure	-e
R-irregular (ラ変)	-a	-i	-i	-u	-e	-e

[edit] Consonant / Vowel Stem

Verb having a base that ends in a consonant are known as consonant-stem. These are exhibited by the following conjugation classes: Quadrigrade, Upper Bigrade, S-irregular, R-irregular, K-irregular, and N-irregular.

Verbs having a base that ends in a vowel are known as vowel-stem. These are exhibited by the following conjugation classes: Upper Monograde.

[edit] Irregular Verbs

There are several verbs with irregular conjugations.

• K-irregular: k- "come"
• S-irregular: s- "do"
• N-irregular: sin- "die", in- "go, die"
• R-irregular: ar- "be, exist", wor- "be, exist"

The conjugation class for each is named after the final stem consonant.

[edit] Adjectives

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. This creates two different types of conjugations:

Adjective Class	Irrealis 未然形	Adverbial 連用形	Conclusive 終止形	Attributive 連体形	Realis 已然形	Imperative 命令形
-ku	-ke1	-ku	-si	-ki1	-ke1 or -ke1re
	-kara	-kari	-si	-karu	-kare	-kare
-siku	-sike1	-siku	-si	-siki1	-sike1 or -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 未然形	Adverbial 連用形	Conclusive 終止形	Attributive 連体形	Realis 已然形	Imperative 命令形
Adjectival noun	-nara	-nari	-nari	-naru	-nare	-nare

[edit] Grammar

[edit] Dialects

The Man’yōshū includes poems written in an eastern dialect.

[edit] Proto Japanese

[edit] Four-vowel system

The following contractions took place:

• *ia > /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] /h/ < *[p]

While Old Japanese /h/ was pronounced as [ɸ], it most likely was once *[p].

[edit] Co₁ as Cwo

Distributionally, there may have once been *ho₁, *ho₂ 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 combinations except for /wo/. Some take this as support that Co₁ may have represented Cwo.

[edit] References