Early Middle Japanese

Formerly spoken in

  • Altaic language family (disputed ) Japonische languages

Classical Japanese (Japanese中古 日本语, Chuko nihongo ), and late - Altjapanisch called, was the Japanese language and writing, during the Heian period ( 794-1185 ), with the exception of InseI period, ie from the beginning of the 9th was spoken and written by the end of the 11th century. It was the direct successor of Old Japanese and the predecessor of the Central Japanese the Japanese Middle Ages.

While the old Japanese used Chinese writing, to write Japanese, taken during the time of the classical Japanese two new fonts: Hiragana and Katakana. This writing has been simplified, literature flourished and brought classics like Genji Monogatari, Ise Monogatari Taketori Monogatari and forth.

Classic Japanese was also the basis for the classicist style of written language Bungo, which was used in the early 20th century as a literary language until the early Shōwa period.

  • 2.1 verbs 2.1.1 conjugation
  • 2.1.2 Thematic and athematic strains
  • 2.1.3 Irregular Verbs
  • 4.1 sources
  • 4.2 Notes and references

Phonetics and phonology

Phonemes

While the ancient Japanese 88 different syllables, there was in the classic Japanese only 66:

Developments

Large phonological changes were characteristic of this period.

The most important was the loss of Jodai Tokushu Kanazukai, the distinction between two types of -i,- e and- o. While the beginnings of this loss can be seen already at the end of Old Japanese, the complete loss took place at the beginning of Classical Japanese. Finally, the distinction was between / ko1 / and / ko2 / lost.

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

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

  • The uvular nasal [ ɴ ]
  • The length was a phonetic feature with the development of long vowels and long consonants,
  • The development of uvular nasal and long consonants took place at the late Heian period and resulted in closed syllables (CVC ) a.

Vowels

Consonants

Grammar

Verbs

Classic Japanese inherited all 8 verb conjugations of Old Japanese and added a new one: lower stage (下 一段, shimo Ichidan ).

Conjugation

Thematic and athematic strains

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

Verbs whose stem ends in a vowel are called thematic. These follow an upper -stage conjugation.

Irregular Verbs

There are some verbs with irregular conjugations:

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

The conjugacy classes are named after the last root consonant.

Adjectives

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

The regular adjectives are again divided into two types: those in which the Renyōkei on -ku and those on which it ends in- siku. Thus, there are two inflectional:

The -kar - and - sikar forms are derived from the verb ar - ( "to be" ). The Renyōkei flexion ( -ku or - siku ) gets ar - as a suffix. The flexion is followed by the R- irregular conjugation of this. Because as the old Japanese vocal groups is avoided, the resulting -ua -to -a- round.

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

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

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

Writing system

Classic Japanese was written in three different ways. The first was recorded in Man'yōgana, were used in Chinese characters as phonetic transcription as early Altjapanisch.

These uses later led to the syllabic scripts hiragana and katakana, derived from simplifications of Chinese characters.

Sources and References

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. Hoso Daigaku Kyoiku Shinkokai, 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: Koza Kokugoshi: Dai -2 -kan: On'inshi, Mojishi. Taishukan Shoten, 1972
  • Masayoshi Shibatani: The languages ​​of Japan. Cambridge University Press, 1990, ISBN 0-521-36918-5.
  • Akiho Yamaguchi, Hideo Suzuki, Ryuzo 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.
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