Historical kana usage

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The historical kana usage (歴史的仮名遣 rekishiteki kanazukai?) refers to a kanazukai (system of spelling the Japanese syllabary) that is antiquated, because it is no longer in accord with the Japanese pronunciation nowadays. It differs from modern usage (Gendai Kanazukai) in the number of characters and the way those characters are used.

Historical kana spellings were widely used until after World War II. The modern system was adopted by Cabinet order in 1946. Now also known as the Kyū-Kanazukai (旧仮名遣 "old kanazukai?), it was known as the Sei-Kanazukai (正仮名遣 "proper kana usage"?) during the time it was employed.

The historical kana for words can be found in most Japanese dictionaries such as Kōjien. In the current edition of Kōjien, if the historical kana usage is different, it is printed in tiny katakana between the modern kana and kanji forms of the word. Previous editions of the dictionary gave priority to the historical kana usage.

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[edit] General differences

This section uses Nihon-shiki romanization for づ, ず, ぢ, and じ.

In historical kana usage:

  • Two kana are used that are obsolete today: ゐ/ヰ wi and ゑ/ヱ we. These are pronounced as i and e. Words that formerly contained those characters are now written using い i and え e respectively.
  • Outside of its use as a particle, the を wo kana is used to represent the o sound.
  • Yōon sounds, such as しょう shō or きょう kyō, are not written with a small kana (ゃ, ゅ, ょ), but a full sized one (や, ゆ, よ).
  • The series of kana ha hi hu he ho are used to represent the sounds wa, i, u, e, o, respectively.
  • Precedence is given to grammar over pronunciation. For example, the verb warau (to laugh), is written わらふ warahu, and in accordance with Japanese grammar rules, waraou, the volitional form of warau, is written わらはう warahau.
  • The kana づ du and ぢ di, which are mostly only used in rendaku in modern kana usage, are more common. Modern kana usage replaces them with the identically pronounced ず zu and じ zi in most cases. For example ajisai (hydrangea) is written あぢさゐ adisawi.

Most of the historical kana usage has been found to accurately represent the way words sounded during the Heian era. As the spoken language has continued to develop, some orthography looks odd to the modern eye. As these peculiarities follow fairly regular patterns, they are not difficult to learn. However, some of the historical kana usages are simply mistakes. For example,

或いは / 或ひは / 或ゐは aruiwa (or) should be 或いは,
用ゐる / 用ひる mochiiru (use) should be 用ゐる, and
つくえ / つくゑ tsukue (desk, table) should be つくえ, according to the old pronunciations.

Some forms of unusual kana usage are not, in fact, historical kana usage. For example, writing どじょう dojō (loach, a sardine-like fish) in the form どぜう dozeu is not historical kana usage (which was どぢやう dodiyau), but a kind of slang writing originating in the Edo period.

[edit] Examples

Here are some representative examples showing the historical and modern spellings and the kanji representation.

historical usage romaji current usage romaji (kanji) Translation
けふ kefu きょう kyō (今日) today
てふ tefu ちょう chō (蝶) butterfly
ゐる wiru いる iru (居る) to be, exist
あはれ ahare あわれ aware (哀れ) to be helpless, sad
かへる kaheru かえる kaeru (帰る) to return home
ゑびす webisu えびす ebisu (夷) barbarian, savage
くわし kuwashi かし kashi (菓子) sweets
とうきやう toukyau とうきょう Tōkyō (東京) Tokyo, the city of

The table at the bottom gives a more complete list of the changes in spelling patterns.

Historical kana usage can be used to look up words in larger dictionaries and dictionaries specializing in old vocabulary, which are in print in Japan. Because of the great discrepancy between the pronunciation and spelling and the widespread adoption of modern kana usage, historical kana usage is almost never seen, except in a few special cases. Companies, shrines and people occasionally use historical kana conventions such as ゑびす (Ebisu).

In addition, alternate kana letterforms, known as hentaigana (変体仮名), have nearly disappeared. A few uses remain, such as kisoba, often written using obsolete kana on the signs of soba shops.

The use of を (historically pronounced /wo/), へ, and は for sentence particles instead of お, え, and わ is a remnant of historical kana usage.

[edit] Romanization

Readers of English occasionally encounter words romanized according to historical kana usage, although we is typically rendered ye. Here are some examples, with modern romanizations in parentheses:

[edit] External links