Jōdai Tokushu Kanazukai

is an archaic kanazukai used to write Japanese during the Nara period. Its primary feature is to distinguish between two groups of syllables as discussed below that later merged together.

yllables

Following are the syllabic distinctions made in Old Japanese.

It should be noted that before the "Jōdai Tokushu Kanazukai" discovery, it was thought that nihongo|Quadrigrade|四段 nihongo|Realis|已然形 and nihongo|Imperative|命令形 shared the same form: -e. However, after the discovery, it became clear that nihongo|Realis|已然形 was -e₂ while nihongo|Imperative|命令形 was -e₁.

Also, "Jōdai Tokushu Kanazukai" has a profound effect on etymology. It was once thought that /kami/ "above" and /kami/ "god" shared the same etymology, a god being an entity high above. However, after the discovery, it is known that "above" is /kami₁/ while "god" is /kami₂/. Thus, they are distinct words.

Man'yōgana chart

Following is a chart listing syllable and man'yōgana correspondences.

Development

The distinction between /mo₁/ and /mo₂/ is only made in the oldest text: "Kojiki". After that, they merged into /mo/.

In later texts, confusion between type A and B can be seen. Nearly all of the A/B distinctions had vanished by the Classical Japanese period. As seen in early Heian Period texts such as "Kogo Shūi", the final syllables to be distinguished were /ko₁, go₁/ and /ko₂, go₂/. After the merger, CV₁ and CV₂ became CV.

Bibliography

* cite book
last = Omodaka
first = Hisataka
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = Jidaibetsu Kokugo Daijiten: Jōdaihen
publisher = Sanseidō
year = 1967
location =
pages =
url =
language = Japanese
doi =
id = ISBN 4-385-13237-2
* cite book
last = Ōno
first = Susumu
authorlink = Susumu Ōno
coauthors =
title = Kanazukai to Jōdaigo
publisher = Iwanami Shoten
date =
location =
pages =
url =
language = Japanese
doi =
id =