Classical Japanese language

Classic Japanese
Period	9-11 Century ( Heian period without Insi period)
Formerly spoken in	Japan
Linguistic ; classification	Tai-Kadai (controversial); Austronesian (controversial); Altaic language family (controversial) Japanese languages; Classic Japanese ;
Language codes
ISO 639-3	ojp (together with Old Japanese)

Classical Japanese ( Japanese中古日本語 chūko nihongo ), also called Late Old Japanese , was the Japanese language and script that was used during the Heian period ( 794 - 1185 ), with the exception of the Insi period, i.e. from the beginning of the 9th to the Late 11th century, was spoken and written. It was the direct successor of Old Japanese and the predecessor of Middle Japanese of the Japanese Middle Ages .

While Old Japanese used the Chinese script to write Japanese, two new scripts emerged during the Classical Japanese period: Hiragana and Katakana . This made writing easier, literature flourished, and produced classics such as Genji Monogatari , Taketori Monogatari, and Ise Monogatari .

Classical Japanese was also the basis for the classifying written language style Bungo , which was used as a literary language until the early Shōwa period , at the beginning of the 20th century.

Phonetics and Phonology

Phonemes

While Old Japanese differentiated 88 syllables, Classical Japanese only had 66:

a	i	u	e	O
ka	ki	ku	ke	ko
ga	gi	gu	ge	go
sa	si	see below	se	so
za	zi	to	ze	zo
ta	ti	do	te	to
there	di	you	de	do
n / A	ni	nu	no	no
Ha	Hi	hu	hey	ho
ba	bi	bu	be	bo
ma	mi	must	me	mo
ya		yu		yo
ra	ri	ru	re	ro
wa	wi		we

developments

Great phonological changes were characteristic of this period.

The most important was the loss of the Jōdai Tokushu Kanazukai , who 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, the complete loss occurred at the beginning of Classical Japanese. Finally, the distinction between / ko ₁ / and / ko ₂ / was lost.

During the 10th century / e / and / ye / merged to / e / and during the 11th century / o / and / wo / to / o /.

An increased influence of Chinese loanwords led to a number of phonological changes:

palatal and labial and consonant groups such as / kw / and / ky /,
the uvular nasal [ ɴ ],
the length became a phonetic characteristic with the development of long vowels and long consonants ,
the development of the uvular nasal and long consonants took place in the late Heian period and introduced closed syllables (CVC).

Vowels

/ a /: [⁠ a ⁠]
/ i /: [ i ]
/ u /: [ u ]
/ e /: [ ever ]
/O/: [ where ]

Consonants

/ k, g /: [ k, g ]
/ s, z /: Theories for / s, z / include [ s, z ], [ ts, dz ], and [ ʃ, ʒ ]. As in modern Japanese, pronunciation may depend on the following vowel.
/ t, d /: [ t, d ]
/ n /: [ n ]
/H/: / h / was realized phonetically as [ ɸ ], in old Japanese probably still [ p ]. An exception existed in the 11th century, when it was realized as [ w ] between two vowels .
/ m /: [ m ]
/ y /: [ j ]
/ r /: [ r ]
/ w /: [ w ]

grammar

Verbs

Classical Japanese inherited all 8 verb conjugations of Old Japanese and added a new one: the lower one-step ( 下一段 , shimo ichidan ).

conjugation

Verb class	Mizenkei 未然形 unrealis form	Renyōkei 連用形 conjunctive form	Shūshikei 終止形 final form	Rentaikei 連体形 attributive form	Izenkei 已然形 Realisform	Meireikei 命令形 imperative form
four-stage	-a	-i	-u	-u	-e	-e
upper single stage	-	-	-ru	-ru	-re	- (yo)
upper two-stage	-i	-i	-u	-uru	-ure	-i (yo)
lower single stage	-e	-e	-eru	-eru	-ere	-e (yo)
lower two-stage	-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

Thematic and athematic stems

Verbs whose stem ends in a consonant are called athematic. These follow a four-step, upper two-step, lower one-step, lower two-step, S-, R-, K- or N-irregular conjugation.

Verbs whose stem ends in a vowel are called thematic. These follow a one-step conjugation above.

Irregular verbs

There are some verbs with irregular conjugations:

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

The conjugation classes are named after the last stem consonant.

Adjectives

There were 2 types of adjectives: regular adjectives and adjectival nouns .

The regular adjectives are divided into 2 types: those with Renyōkei ending in -ku and those with -siku . There are two types of inflection:

Adjective class	Mizenkei	Renyōkei	Shushikei	Rentaikei	Izenkei	Meireikei
-ku		-ku	-si	-ki	-kere
-ku	-kara	-kari	-si	-karu		-kare
-siku		-siku	-si	-siki	-sikere
-siku	-sikara	-sikari	-si	-sikaru		-sikare

The -kar and -sikar forms are derived from the verb ar- ("to be"). The Renyōkei inflection ( -ku or -siku ) gets ar- as a suffix. The inflection follows the R-irregular conjugation of this. Since vowel groups are avoided like the old Japanese, the resulting -ua- changes to -a- .

The adjectival noun got the original nar- conjugation with a new tar :

Type	Mizenkei	Renyōkei	Shushikei	Rentaikei	Izenkei	Meireikei
nar-	-nara	-nari -ni	-nari	-naru	-nare	-nare
tar-	-tare	-tari -to	-tari	-taru	-tare	-tare

The nar and tar forms share a common etymology. The nar- form is a contraction of the fall particles ni and the R-irregular verb ar- (“to be”): ni + ar- → nar- .

The tar form is a contraction of the case particles to and the R-irregular verb ar- : to + ar- → tar- .

Writing system

Classical Japanese was written in three different ways. The first was recorded in Man'yōgana , in which Chinese characters were used as a phonetic transcription like in early Old Japanese.

These uses later led to the syllabary scripts hiragana and katakana , which came from simplifications of Chinese characters.

swell

Bjarke Frellesvig: A Case Study in Diachronic Phonology. The Japanese Onbin Sound Changes. Aarhus University Press, 1995, ISBN 87-7288-489-4 .
Yasuhiro Kondō, Masayuki Tsukimoto, Katsumi Sugiura: Nihongo no Rekishi. Hōsō Daigaku Kyōiku Shinkōkai, 2005, ISBN 4-595-30547-8 .
Susumu Ōno: Nihongo no Keisei. Iwanami Shoten, 2000, ISBN 4-00-001758-6 .
Samuel E. Martin: The Japanese Language Through Time. Yale University, 1987, ISBN 0-300-03729-5 .
Norio Nakata: Kōza Kokugoshi: Dai-2-kan: On'inshi, Mojishi. Taishūkan Shoten, 1972
Masayoshi Shibatani: The languages of Japan. Cambridge University Press, 1990, ISBN 0-521-36918-5 .
Akiho Yamaguchi, Hideo Suzuki, Ryūzō Sakanashi, Masayuki Tsukimoto: Nihongo no Rekishi. Tōkyō Daigaku Shuppankai, 1997, ISBN 4-13-082004-4 .
Kanehiko Yoshida, Hiroshi Tsukishima, Harumichi Ishizuka, Masayuki Tsukimoto: Kuntengo Jiten. Tōkyōdō Shuppan, Tōkyō 2001, ISBN 4-490-10570-3 .

Individual evidence

↑ Roland Schneider: Chapter VII. History of language. In: Bruno Lewin (Ed.): Language and writing of Japan. EJ Brill, Leiden 1989, ISBN 90-04-08775-3 , pp. 119-120.
↑ Yoshida (2001): p. 64.
↑ ^a ^b Kondō: Nihongo no Rekishi. Pp. 67-71.
↑ ^a ^b Yamaguchi: Nihongo no Rekishi. Pp. 43-45.
↑ ^a ^b Frellesvig (1995): p. 73.
↑ Nakata (1972): pp. 26-29.

[1] Roland Schneider: Chapter VII. History of language. In: Bruno Lewin (Ed.): Language and writing of Japan. EJ Brill, Leiden 1989, ISBN 90-04-08775-3 , pp. 119-120.

[Kuntengo-2] Yoshida (2001): p. 64.

[kondō-3] Kondō: Nihongo no Rekishi. Pp. 67-71.

[Yamaguchi-4] Yamaguchi: Nihongo no Rekishi. Pp. 43-45.

[Frellesvig-5] Frellesvig (1995): p. 73.

[Nakata-6] Nakata (1972): pp. 26-29.