Early Modern Japanese

Early Modern Japanese (近世日本語, kinsei nihongo) is a stage of the Japanese language following Middle Japanese and preceding Modern Japanese.^[1] It is a period of transition in which the language sheds many of its medieval characteristics and becomes closer to its modern form.

The period spanned roughly 250 years extending from the 17th century through half of the 19th century. Politically, this generally corresponds with the Edo period.

Background

At the beginning of the 17th century, the center of government moved to Edo from Kamigata under the control of the Tokugawa shogunate. Until the early Edo period, the Kamigata dialect, the ancestor of modern Kansai dialect, was the most influential dialect. However, since the late Edo period, the Edo dialect - the ancestor of modern Tokyo dialect - became the most influential dialect, during the time in which the country closed its borders to foreigners. Compared to the previous centuries, the Tokugawa rule brought about much stability. Due to ths newfound stability, the importance of the warrior class gradually fell, to be replaced by the merchant class. There was much economic growth and new forms of artistic developments appeared such as Ukiyo-e, Kabuki, and Bunraku. This included new literary genres such as Ukiyozōshi, Sharebon (pleasure districts), Kokkeibon (commoners), and Ninjōbon developed. Major authors included Ihara Saikaku, Chikamatsu Monzaemon, Matsuo Bashō, Shikitei Sanba, and Santō Kyōden.

Phonology

Vowels

There were five vowels: /i, e, a, o, u/.

• /i/: [i]
• /e/: [e]
• /a/: [a]
• /o/: [o]
• /u/: [ɯ]

During Middle Japanese, word-initial /e/ and /o/ were realized with the semivowels [j] and [w] preceding the vowel, respectively . Both are realized as simple vowels by the middle of the 18th century.^[2]

The high vowels /i, u/ become voiceless [i̥, ɯ̥] between voiceless consonants or the end of the word. This is noted in a number of foreign texts:^[3]

• Diego Collado Ars Grammaticae Iaponicae Lingvae (1632) gives word final examples: gozàru > gozàr, fitòtçu > fitòtç, and àxi no fàra > àx no fàra.
• E. Kæmpfel's "Geschichte und Beschreibung Von Japan" (1777-1779) and C. P. Thunberg's "Resa uti Europa, Africa, Asia" (1788-1793) list word-medial examples: kurosaki > krosaki, atsuka > atska.

Long vowels

Middle Japanese had two types of long o: [ɔː] and [oː]. During this period, both of these merged into [oː] by first half of the 17th century.^[4] During the transition, instances of ɔː had a tendency to temporarily became short in Kamigata dialect^[5][6]

• nomɔː > nomo "drink"
• hayɔː > hayo "quickly"

In addition, each of the other vowels could be lengthened due to various contractions in Edo dialect.^[7][8]

• /ai/ > [eː]: sekai > sekeː "world", saigo > seːgo "last"
• /ae/ > [eː]: kaeru > keːru "frog", namae > nameː "name"
• /oi/ > [eː]: omoɕiroi > omoɕireː
• /ie/ > [eː]: oɕieru > oɕeːru "teach"
• /ui/ > [iː]: warui > wariː
• /i wa/ > [jaː]: kiki wa > kikjaː "listening"
• /o wa/ > [aː]: nanzo wa > nanzaː (grammar)

The long /uː/ developed during Middle Japanese and remains unchanged.

Consonants

Middle Japanese had the following consonant inventory:

/t, s, z, h/ each have a number of allophones found before the high vowels [i, ɯ]:

• t -> t͡ʃ / __i
• t -> t͡s / __ɯ
• z -> d͡ʒ / __i
• z -> d͡z / __ɯ
• h -> ç / __i
• h -> ɸ / __ɯ

Several major developments occurred:

• /zi, di/ and /zu, du/, respectively, no longer contrast
• /h/ partially develops from [ɸ] into [h, ç]
• /se/ loses its palatalization and becomes [se]

Middle Japanese had a syllable final -t. This is gradually replaced with the open syllable /tu/.

Labialization

The labial /kwa, gwa/ merge with their non-labial counterparts into [ka, ga].^[9]

Palatalization

The consonants /s, z/, /t/, /n/, /h, b/, /p/, /m/, and /r/ could be palatalized.

Depalatalization may also be seen in the Edo dialect:

• hyakunin issyu > hyakunisi
• /teisyu/ > /teisi/ "lord"
• /zyumyoː/ > /zimyoː/ "life"

Prenasalization

Middile Japanese had a series of prenasalized voiced plosives and fricatives: [ⁿg, ⁿz, ⁿd, ^mb]. During this stage they lose their prenasalization resulting in g, z, d, b.

Grammar

Verbs

Early Modern Japanese has five verbal conjugation:

As already begun during Middle Japanese, the verbal morphology system continues to evolve. The total number of verb classes is reduced from nine to five. Specifically, the r-irregular and n-irregular regularize as quadrigrade, and the upper and lower bigrade classes merge with their respective monograde. This leaves the quadrigrade, upper monograde, lower monograde, k-irregular, s-irregular.^[10]

Adjectives

There were two types of adjectives: regular adjectives and adjectival nouns.

Historically the adjective was sub-classified into two types: those where the adverbial form ends in -ku and those that end in –siku. That distinction is lost during this stage.

Historically the adjectival noun was sub-classified into two categories: -nar and -tar. During this stage, -tar vanishes leaving only -na.

Notes

References