Late Old Japanese

Late Old Japanese

Infobox Language
name=Late Old Japanese
nativename=中古日本語
familycolor=Isolate
region=Japan
extinct=Evolved into Early Middle Japanese at the end of the 12th century
fam1=Japonic
script=Hiragana, Katakana, and Han
iso3=ojp

nihongo|Late Old Japanese|中古日本語|chūko nihongo 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.

Background

Whereas Old Japanese borrowed and adapted the Chinese script to write Japanese, during the Late Old 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.

Phonemes

Whereas Old Japanese made 88 syllabic distinctions, Late Old reduces that count to 66.

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-:

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-.

Writing system

Late Old 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.

Notes

References

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


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