Central Japanese language

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Central Japanese
Period 12-16 Century ( Insi , Kamakura and Muromachi periods )

Formerly spoken in

Japan
Linguistic
classification

Central Japanese ( Japanese 中 世 日本語 chūsei nihongo ) was a level of the Japanese language between Classical Japanese and Early New Japanese . It was a transition period in which the language shed many of its ancient features and moved closer to its modern form.

Their period spanned approximately 500 years from the 12th to the 16th centuries. Usually it is further divided into an early and a late phase. From a political perspective, Early Central Japanese existed at the end of the Heian Period - more precisely during the Insi period - as well as the Kamakura Period and Late Central Japanese during the Muromachi Period .

background

The end of the 12th century was a time of transition from the aristocratic society of the Heian period to a feudal society of samurai . These changes were accompanied by a shift of the political center through the establishment of various shogunates to the east.

Various new Buddhist movements sprang up and literacy levels increased as a result.

Portuguese missionaries arrived in Japan in the middle of the 16th century. These introduced Western concepts and technologies, but also shared their language, which means that various loan words were incorporated into Japanese.

In order to spread Christianity ( kirishitan ), the Portuguese missionaries studied and learned Japanese. They created a large number of linguistic grammar and dictionaries and translated their literature. These sources are extremely valuable in researching Central Japanese.

Phonology

Vowels

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

  • / i /: [⁠ i ⁠]
  • / e /: [ je ], [ e ]?
  • / a /: [ a ]
  • / o /: [ where ], [ o ]?
  • / u /: [ u ]

Originally, / e / and / o / as semivowels [ j ] or [⁠ w ⁠] realized. This is a result of previous amalgamations inherited from Classical Japanese. However, it is debatable how they were realized after a consonant.

There were also two types of a long o : [ ɔː ] and [ oː ]. The vowel sequence / au / was contracted to [ ɔː ] and / ou / and / eu / to [ oː ] and [ joː ]. Examples are:

  • / hayaku / "quickly"> / hayau /: [ ɸajaku ]> [ ɸajau ]> [ ɸajɔː ]
  • / omou / "think": [ womou ]> [ womoː ]

Consonants

Central Japanese had the following set of consonants:

bilabial alveolar postalveolar palatal velar uvular
Plosives p   b t   d     k   g  
Affricates   t͡s   d͡z t͡ʃ   d͡ʒ      
Nasals m n       ɴ
Fricatives ɸ s   z ɕ   ʑ      
Flaps     ɺ      
Approximants       j ɰ  

There were also the two phonemes / N / and / Q /. Before a pause, / N / is a uvular [ ɴ ]. It is assimilated to the place of articulation of a following plosive, affricate, or nasal. / Q / becomes a phonetic copy of one of the following obstruents .

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

The labial consonants / kw, gw / appeared during Classical Japanese. During this period, labial consonants before -i and -e merged with their non-labial counterparts, specifically:

  • / kwi /> / ki /
  • / gwi /> / gi /
  • / kwe /> / ke /
  • / gwe /> / ge /

The difference between / ka / and / kwa / was retained.

The sibilants / s, z / were palatized in front of / i / and / e /. These had the following distribution:

  • / sa, za /: [ sa, za ]
  • / si, zi /: [ ɕi, ʑi ]
  • / su, to /: [ su, to ]
  • / se, ze /: [ ɕe, ʑe ]
  • / so, zo /: [ so, zo ]

João Rodrigues noted in Arte da Lingoa de Japam [sic] that the eastern dialects are known to realize / se / as [ se ] instead of [ ɕe ]. In modern Japanese, / se, ze / became [ se, ze ] while / si, zi / remained as [ ɕi, ʑi ].

/ t / and / d / are distinguished from the sibilants in all positions. Nevertheless, you undermine an affriction in front of / i, u /:

  • / ti, di /: [ tʃi, dʒi ]
  • / do, you /: [ tsu, dzu ]

Prenasalization

Voiced plosives and fricatives were prenasalized:

  • / g /: [ n g ]
  • / z /: [ n z ]
  • / d /: [ n d ]
  • / b /: [ m b ]

João Rodrigues made this observation in Arte da Lingoa de Japam . In addition, the Korean text Chephay gives sine / b, d, z, g / with the Hangeul sequences -mp-, -nt-, -nz- and -ngk-, which indicates prenasalization.

The effects of this prenasalization can also be seen in the transcription of words like muma </ uma / "horse" and mube </ ube / "really".

/ h / and / p /

Although Proto- Japanese and probably also Old Japanese had a * [ p ], it became [ ɸ ] in Classical Japanese and finally today's [ h ] in Early New Japanese . Central Japanese reintroduced [ p ]. [ p ] stood in contrast to [ ɸ ] and is therefore regarded as a new phoneme. It can be found in words like pinpin and patto as well as in Chinese loan words like sampai and nippon .

The medial / h / became after / a / to [ w ] and before all other vowels to Ø:

  • / -ha /: [ wa ]
  • / -hi /: [ i ]
  • / -hu /: [ u ]
  • / -he /: [ each ]
  • / -ho /: [ where ]

Sliding sounds

/ w / had the following distribution:

  • / wa /: [ wa ]
  • / wi /: [ i ]
  • / we /: [ je ]
  • / where /: [ where ]

The previous amalgamation in Old Japanese of / o / and / wo / to [ wo ] continues in 12th century Central Japanese with / e / and / we / to [ je ].

/ y / had the following distribution:

  • / ya /: [ yes ]
  • / yu /: [ ju ]
  • / ye /: [ je ]
  • / yo /: [ jo ]

Because of various amalgamations, / e /, / we / and / ye / were all realized as [ je ] and therefore not differentiated.

Syllable structure

Traditionally, syllables followed a (C) V structure. This made it unnecessary to distinguish between mores and syllables. Chinese loanwords introduced a new type of sound that could end in -m, -n or -t. These (C) V (C) structure were therefore the new syllables, while the Mores continued to be based on the traditional (C) V structure.

During this period the syllable ends -m and -n were initially distinguished. With the end of early-middle Japanese, however, both merged into / N /.

liaison

The syllable ends -m, -n, -t followed by a vowel or half-vowel were subject to a liaison and became the consonant clusters -mm-, -nn- and -tt-.

-m> -mm-:

  • samwi> sammi "third rank"

-n> -nn-:

-t> -tt-:

  • set'in> settin " toilet "
  • konnitwa> konnitta "what concerns today" (cf. konnichi wa )
  • but'on> button "Grace of the Buddha"

Onbin

Onbin ( 音 便 , dt. " Euphonie ") were sporadic sound changes. These were not automatic or without exceptions, and the exact cause is still debatable. Although they also appear in earlier language levels, onbin was particularly prevalent during Central Japanese and had a major impact on the morphology of verbs and adjectives.

Verbs:

  • yom- "read": / yomite /> / yoNde / [ joɴde ]
  • cow "eat": / kuhite /> / kuute / [ kuːte ] :: / kuQte / [ kutte ]

With the cow example there are two possible outcomes: the former is a peculiarity of the western dialects, while the latter is one of the eastern dialects.

Adjectives:

  • / hayaku / "quickly"> / hayau /: [ ɸajaku ]> [ ɸajau ]> [ ɸajɔː ]
  • / kataki / "hard"> / katai /: [ katai ]

The medial -k- is omitted for both words.

grammar

Many archaic grammatical forms are discarded and bring the language closer to its current form.

The most prominent development is the replacement of the Shūshikei with the Rentaikei. This had the following effects:

  • It helped to switch from two to one stage verbs.
  • It caused a number of changes in the two adjective classes, in the course of which the two merged.
  • It weakened the kakarimusubi system.
  • The once irregular verb ar- “to be” begins to become a regular four-stage.

Verbs

Central Japanese adopted all 9 conjugations from Classical Japanese .

Verb class Mizenkei
未然 形
unrealis form 		Ren'yōkei
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 -i -i -iru -iru -Irishman -i (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

Over the entire language period, the two-stage verbs became one-stage. This process ended in early New Japanese. This is part of the result of the merger of the Shūshikei with the Rentaikei.

Adjectives

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

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

Adjective class Mizenkei Ren'yōkei Shushikei Rentaikei Izenkei Meireikei Remarks
-ku   -ku -si -ki      
  -u -ki -i     early
  -u -i -i     Late
-kara -kari   -karu -kere -kare  
-siku   -siku -si -siki      
  -siu -sisi -sii     early
  -siu -sii -sii     Late
-sikara -sikari   -sikaru -sikere -sikare  

There were three notable changes that unified this twofold distinction:

  • In early Central Japanese, the Shūshikei -siku develops a -sisi form.
  • The Shūshikei and the Rentaikei merge.
  • In Late Middle Japanese, the adjectival suffix -ki is shortened to -i .

The adjectival nouns adopted the two classes -nar and -tar from Classical Japanese.

Type Mizenkei Ren'yōkei Shushikei Rentaikei Izenkei Meireikei Remarks
nar- -nara -nari
-ni 		-nari -naru
-na 		-nare   early
-nara -ni
-de 		-dya
-na 		-naru
-na
-no 		-nare   Late
tar-   -to -tari -taru     early
  -to   -taru     Late

The most prominent development was the shortening of the attributive -naru to -na . When the Shūshikei and Rentaikei merged, both shared the new -na . The tar type continued to become obsolete and fell out of use.

Cateikei

The izenkei developed into the cateikei ( 仮 定形 , dt. "Hypothetical form"). The izenkei as a realis was used to describe something that has already happened. This usage slowly disappeared and resulted in the cateikei, which is used to describe something hypothetical that has not yet happened. Today's Japanese only has the cateikei.

Meireikei

The imperative was traditionally ended without a suffix or with -yo. In Central Japanese, the suffix -i was added to the lower two-stage, K- and S-irregular verbs:

  • kure + i: kurei "give"
  • ko + i: koi "come"
  • se + i: be "do"

João Rodrigues noted in Arte da Lingoa de Japam that -yo could be replaced with -ro as in miyo> miro "look". The Eastern dialects of Old Japanese of the 8th century also had this -ro imperative. This is also the standard imperative form of today's Japanese.

Tense and aspect

The tense and aspect systems underwent radical changes. The perfective n-, t- and r-, as well as the past tense k- / s- and ker- were obsolete. In their place, tar- evolved from a perfect aspect to a normal past tense. This eventually became the modern day ta .

Particles

A new case particle de developed from ni te .

The presumptive suffix -mu underwent a number of phonological changes: mu> m> N> ũ. In combination with the vowel of the mizenkei to which it was appended, it became a long vowel after a preceding -y-.

swell

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  • Yoshiki Tsuboi ( 坪井 美 樹 ): Nihongo Katsuyō Taikei no Hensen (Zōteiban) . Kasama Shoin, 2007, ISBN 978-4-305-70353-8 (Japanese: 日本語 活用 体系 の 変 遷 (単 行 本) .).
  • Akiho Yamaguchi ( 山口 明 穂 ), Hideo Suzuki ( 鈴木 英 夫 ), Ryūzō Sakanashi ( 坂 梨 隆 三 ), Masayuki Tsukimoto ( 月 本 雅 幸 ): Nihongo no Rekishi . Tōkyō Daigaku Shuppankai, 1997, ISBN 4-13-082004-4 (Japanese: 日本語 の 歴 史 .).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Shibatani (1990): 119.
  2. ^ Nakata (1972): p. 175.
  3. ↑ Kondō (2005): p. 97.
  4. ↑ Shibatani (1990): p. 121.
  5. ↑ Nakata (1972): p. 181.
  6. ↑ Yamaguchi (1997): pp. 86-87.
  7. ^ Miyake (2003): pp. 76-77.
  8. ↑ a b Kondō (2005): p. 103.
  9. ↑ a b Miyake (2003): p. 75.
  10. ↑ Yamaguchi (1997): pp. 87-88.
  11. ↑ Ōno (2000): pp. 53-54.
  12. ↑ Nakata (1972): pp. 197-198.
  13. ↑ Kondō (2005): p. 71.
  14. ↑ Miyake (2003): pp. 74-75.
  15. ↑ Kondō (2005): p. 102.
  16. ↑ Frellesvig (1995): p. 21.
  17. ↑ Kondō (2005): p. 128.
  18. ↑ Yamaguchi (1997): pp. 95-96.
  19. ↑ a b Tsuboi (2007): pp. 14-30.
  20. ↑ Matsumura (1971): pp. 961, 966-967.
  21. ↑ Kondō (2005): p. 113.
  22. ↑ Yamaguchi (1997): p. 96.
  23. ↑ Yamaguchi (1997): p. 97.
  24. ↑ Yamaguchi (1997): pp. 97-98.
  25. ↑ Shibatani (1990): p. 123.
  26. ↑ Kondō (2005): pp. 113-114.