Late Old Japanese
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Early Middle Japanese | ||
|---|---|---|
| 中古日本語 | ||
| Spoken in | Japan | |
| Language extinction | Evolved into Late Middle Japanese at the end of the 12th century | |
| Language family | Japonic
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| Writing system | Hiragana, Katakana, and Han | |
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639-1 | None | |
| ISO 639-2 | – | |
| ISO 639-3 | ojp | |
| Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. | ||
Early Middle Japanese (中古日本語 chūko nihongo)[1] is a stage of the Japanese language used between 794 and 1185, a time known as the Heian Period. It is the successor to Old Japanese.
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[edit] Background
Whereas Old Japanese borrowed and adapted the Chinese script to write Japanese, during the Early Middle Japanese period two new scripts emerge: Hiragana and Katakana. This development simplified writing and brought about a new age in literature with such classics as The Tale of Genji, The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter, The Tales of Ise and many others.
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This section requires expansion. |
[edit] Phonemes
Whereas Old Japanese made 88 syllabic distinctions, Early Middle reduces that count to 66.
| a | i | u | e | o |
| ka | ki | ku | ke | ko |
| ga | gi | gu | ge | go |
| sa | si | su | se | so |
| za | zi | zu | ze | zo |
| ta | ti | tu | te | to |
| da | di | du | de | do |
| na | ni | nu | ne | no |
| ha | hi | hu | he | ho |
| ba | bi | bu | be | bo |
| ma | mi | mu | me | mo |
| ya | yu | yo | ||
| ra | ri | ru | re | ro |
| wa | wi | we |
[edit] Phonological developments
Major phonological changes are a characteristic of this period.
The most prominent difference is the loss of Jōdai Tokushu Kanazukai, which distinguished between two types of -i, -e, and -o. While the beginnings of this loss can already be seen at the end of Old Japanese, it is completely lost early in Early Middle Japanese. The final phonemes to be lost are /ko1/ and /ko2/.[2]
During the 10th century, /e/ and /ye/ merge into /e/ while /o/ and /wo/ merge into /o/ by the 11th century.[3][4][5]
An increase in Chinese loanwords had a number of phonological effects:
- Palatal and labial consonant clusters such as /kw/ and /ky/
- Uvular nasal [ɴ]
- Length became a phonetic feature with the development of both long vowels and long consonants
The development of the uvular nasal and geminated consonants occurred late in the Heian period and brought about the introduction of closed syllables (CVC). [6]
Other changes include:
- The change of the prenasalized consonants to voiced consonants[citation needed]
- The change in timing from syllable-timing to mora-timing[citation needed]
[edit] Phonetics
[edit] Vowels
[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/ continues to be phonetically realized as [ɸ] . With one exception: By the 11th century, Intervocalic /h/ is realized as [w].
[edit] /m/
/m/: [m]
[edit] /y/
/y/: [j]
[edit] /r/
/r/: [r]
[edit] /w/
/w/: [w]
[edit] Syllable structure
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This section requires expansion. |
[edit] Grammar
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This section requires expansion. |
[edit] Verbs
Early Middle Japanese inherits all eight verbal conjugations from Old Japanese and adds one new one: Lower Monograde.
[edit] Conjugation
| Verb Class | Irrealis | Adverbial | Conclusive | Attributive | Realis | Imperative |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Quadrigrade | -a | -i | -u | -u | -e | -e |
| Upper Monograde | - | - | -ru | -ru | -re | -(yo) |
| Upper Bigrade | -i | -i | -u | -uru | -ure | -i(yo) |
| Lower Monograde | -e | -e | -eru | -eru | -ere | -e(yo) |
| Lower Bigrade | -e | -e | -u | -uru | -ure | -e(yo) |
| K-irregular | -o | -i | -u | -uru | -ure | -o |
| S-irregular | -e | -i | -u | -uru | -ure | -e(yo) |
| N-irregular | -a | -i | -u | -uru | -ure | -e |
| R-irregular | -a | -i | -i | -u | -e | -e |
[edit] Consonant / Vowel Stem
Verbs having a base that ends in a consonant are known as consonant-stem. These are exhibited by the following conjugation classes: Quadrigrade, Upper Bigrade, Lower Monograde, Lower 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 | Adverbial | Conclusive | Attributive | Realis | Imperative |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| -ku | -ku | -si | -ki | -kere | ||
| -kara | -kari | -si | -karu | -kare | ||
| -siku | -siku | -si | -siki | -sikere | ||
| -sikara | -sikari | -si | -sikaru | -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-. The resulting -ua- elides into -a-.
The adjectival noun retains the original nar- conjugation and adds a new tar-:
| Type | Irrealis | Adverbial | Conclusive | Attributive | Realis | Imperative |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nar- | -nara | -nari -ni |
-nari | -naru | -nare | -nare |
| Tar- | -tara | -tari -to |
-tari | -taru | -tare | -tare |
The nar- and tar- forms share a common etymology. The nar- form is a contraction of case particle ni and r-irregular verb ar- "is, be": ni + ar- > nar-. The tar- form is a contraction of case particle to and r-irregular verb ar- "is, be": to + ar- > tar-. Both derive their conjugations from the verb ar-.
[edit] Writing system
Early Middle Japanese was written in three different ways. It was first recorded in Man'yōgana, Chinese characters used as a phonetic transcription as in Early Old Japanese. This usage later produced the hiragana and katakana syllabic scripts which were derived from simplifications of the original Chinese characters.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Martin (1987:77)
- ^ Yoshida, 2001: 64
- ^ a b Kondō, Nihongo no Rekishi, pages 67-71
- ^ a b Yamaguchi, Nihongo no Rekishi, pages 43-45
- ^ a b Frellesvig, page 73
- ^ Nakata, pages 26-29
[edit] References
- Frellesvig, Bjarke (1995). A Case Study in Diachronic Phonology: The Japanese Onbin Sound Changes. Aarhus University Press. ISBN 87-7288-489-4.
- Kondō, Yasuhiro; Masayuki Tsukimoto, Katsumi Sugiura (2005). Nihongo no Rekishi. Hōsō Daigaku Kyōiku Shinkōkai. ISBN 4-595-30547-8.
- Ōno, Susumu (2000). Nihongo no Keisei. Iwanami Shoten. ISBN 4-00-001758-6.
- Martin, Samuel E. (1987). The Japanese Language Through Time. Yale University. ISBN 0-300-03729-5.
- Nakata, Norio (1972) (in Japanese). Kōza Kokugoshi: Dai 2 kan: On'inshi, Mojishi. Taishūkan Shoten.
- Shibatani, Masayoshi (1990). The languages of Japan. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-36918-5.
- Yamaguchi, Akiho; Hideo Suzuki, Ryūzō Sakanashi, Masayuki Tsukimoto (1997). Nihongo no Rekishi. Tōkyō Daigaku Shuppankai. ISBN 4-13-082004-4.
- Yoshida, Kanehiko; Hiroshi Tsukishima, Harumichi Ishizuka, Masayuki Tsukimoto (2001) (in Japanese). Kuntengo Jiten. Tōkyō: Tōkyōdō Shuppan. ISBN 4-490-10570-3.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
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