Old Japanese

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Old Japanese
上古日本語
Spoken in	Japan
Language extinction	Evolved into Early Middle Japanese during the Heian period
Language family	Japonic Old Japanese
Writing system	Chinese characters and Man'yōgana
Language codes
ISO 639-1	None
ISO 639-2	`–`
ISO 639-3	`ojp` – but see caveat^[1]
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

Old Japanese (上古日本語, jōko nihongo^?) is the oldest attested stage of the Japanese language.

Dating

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 upper bound^{[clarification needed]} for Old Japanese is 794 A.D.^[2], when the capital Heijōkyō moved to Heiankyō. However, the lower bound is more difficult. A limited number of Japanese words, mostly personal names and place names, are recorded phonetically in ancient Chinese texts such as the "Wei Zhi" portion of the Sanguo Zhi. Wooden tablets and relics with fragments of text written on them have also been excavated. However, the first extant written text of substantial length is the Kojiki of 712. Without necessarily excluding such fragmentary early evidence, the lower bound is generally discussed as from circa 712 for practical reasons. This coincides well with the Nara period (710-794). A more formal dating would not recognize a lower bound and merely date it as through 794. Besides Kojiki, the other oldest literary sources include Fudoki (720), Nihon Shoki (720), and Man'yōshū (c. 759).

Writing system

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 the word order (for example, placing the verb after the object). 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 in the non-prose part of Kojiki, and was used in a highly sophisticated manner in Man'yōshū.

Phonology

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 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.^{[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
words do not begin with /r/ or voiced plosives
open syllables: no syllable-final consonants of any kind.

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.

Syllables

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
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.

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.

Vowels

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

Consonants

Old Japanese had the following reconstructed consonant inventory^[3]:

	Labial	Coronal			Palatal	Velar
Voiceless obstruent	*p	*t		*s		*k
Prenasalized voiced obstruent	*^mb	*ⁿd		*ⁿz		*^ŋɡ
Nasal	*m		*n
Approximant/Flap	*w		*r		*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^[4] this as *[p] for Old Japanese.

Phonological rules

In 1934, Arisaka Hideyo proposed a set of phonological restrictions permitted in a single morpheme. These are known as the "Arisaka Laws".

-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.

Syllable structure

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:

Initial vowel is dropped: /hanare/ + /iso₁/ → /hanareso₁/
Post vowel is dropped: /ara/ + /umi₁/ → /arumi₁/
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/)

Grammar

Pronouns

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

Verbs

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.^[5]^[6]^[7]

Conjugation

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

Consonant / vowel stem

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.

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.

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	-ke₁	-ku	-si	-ki₁	-ke₁ -ke₁re
-ku	-kara	-kari	-si	-karu	-kare	-kare
-siku	-sike₁	-siku	-si	-siki₁	-sike₁ -sike₁re
-siku	-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

Dialects

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

Proto-Japanese

Four-vowel system

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/.

Co₁ as Cwo

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/.

Notes

^ 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)
^ 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

References

Kondō, Yasuhiro; Masayuki Tsukimoto, Katsumi Sugiura (2005) (in Japanese). Nihongo no Rekishi. Tōkyō: Hōsō Daigaku Kyōiku Shinkōkai. ISBN 4-595-30547-8.
Martin, Samuel E. (1987). The Japanese Language Through Time. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-03729-5.
Miyake, Marc Hideo (2003). Old Japanese: A Phonetic Reconstruction. London; New York: RoutledgeCurzon. ISBN 0-415-30575-6.
Omodaka, Hisataka (1967) (in Japanese). Jidaibetsu Kokugo Daijiten: Jōdaihen. Tōkyō: Sanseidō. ISBN 4-385-13237-2.
Ōno, Susumu (2000) (in Japanese). Nihongo no Keisei. Tōkyō: Iwanami Shoten. ISBN 4-00-001758-6.
Shibatani, Masayoshi (1990). The Languages of Japan. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-36918-5.
Yamaguchi, Akiho; Hideo Suzuki, Ryūzō Sakanashi, Masayuki Tsukimoto (1997) (in Japanese). Nihongo no Rekishi. Tōkyō: Tōkyō Daigaku Shuppankai. ISBN 4-13-082004-4.