Early Middle Japanese

Early Middle Japanese(Trung cổ nhật bổn ngữ,Chūko-Nihongo)is a stage of theJapanese languagebetween 794 and 1185, which is known as theHeian period(Bình an thời đại). The successor toOld Japanese(Thượng đại nhật bổn ngữ), it is also known asLate Old Japanese.However, the term "Early Middle Japanese" is preferred, as it is closer toLate Middle Japanese(Trung thế nhật bổn ngữ,after 1185) than to Old Japanese (before 794).

Early Middle Japanese
Nhật bổn ngữ
The oldestcursive kanawritten in earlyHeian period,indicating the birth ofhiraganafromMan'yōgana
Region	Japan
Era	Evolved intoLate Middle Japaneseat the end of the 12th century
Language family	Japonic Japanese Early Middle Japanese
Early form	Old Japanese
Writing system	Hiragana,Katakana,andHan
Language codes
ISO 639-3	ojp(Old Japanese)
Linguist List	ojpDescribed as "The ancestor of modern Japanese. 7th–10th centuries AD." The more usual date for the change from Old Japanese to Middle Japanese is ca. 800 (end of the Nara era).
Glottolog	None

Background

Old Japanese had borrowed and adapted the Chinese script to write Japanese. In Early Middle Japanese, two new scripts emerged: the kana scriptshiraganaandkatakana.That development simplified writing and brought about a new age in literature, with many classics such asThe Tale of Genji,The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter,andThe Tales of Ise.

Writing system

Early Middle Japanese was written in three different ways. It was first recorded inMan'yōgana(Vạn diệp 仮 danh), literally "ten thousand leaves borrowed labels", in reference to theMan'yōshūpoetry anthology and the "borrowing" of thekanjicharacters as "labels" for the sounds of Japanese. CertainChinesecharacters were borrowed to phonetically spell out Japanese sounds.Cursive handwritinggradually gave rise to thehiragana(Bình 仮 danh,"flat/simple borrowed labels" ) and Buddhist shorthand practices of using pieces of kanji to denote the sounds then developed into thekatakana(Phiến 仮 danh,"partial/piece borrowed labels" ).

Phonemeand Kana of Early Middle Japanese

phoneme Man'yō, hira, kata	Ø ア hành	カ hành		サ hành		タ hành		/n/ ナ hành	ハ hành		/m/ マ hành	/j/ ヤ hành	/r/ ラ hành	/w/ ワ hành
		/k/	/g/	/s/	/z/	/t/	/d/		/ɸ/	/b/
/a/ ア đoạn	/a/ An, あ, ア	/ka/	/ga/	/sa/	/za/	/ta/	/da/	/na/ Nại, な, ナ	/ɸa/	/ba/	/ma/ Mạt, ま, マ	/ja/ Dã, や, ヤ	/ra/ Lương, ら, ラ	/wa/ Hòa, わ, ワ
		Gia, か, カ		Tả, さ, サ		Thái, た, タ			Ba, は, ハ
/i/ イ đoạn	/i/ Dĩ, い, イ	/ki/	/gi/	/si/	/zi/	/ti/	/di/	/ni/ Nhân, に, ニ	/ɸi/	/bi/	/mi/ Mỹ, み, ミ	Ø	/ri/ Lợi, り, リ	/wi/ Vi, ゐ, ヰ
		Kỉ, き, キ		Chi, し, シ		Tri, ち, チ			Bỉ, ひ, ヒ
/u/ ウ đoạn	/u/ Vũ, う, ウ	/ku/	/gu/	/su/	/zu/	/tu/	/du/	/nu/ Nô, ぬ, ヌ	/ɸu/	/bu/	/mu/ Võ, む, ム	/ju/ Do, ゆ, ユ	/ru/ Lưu, る, ル	Ø
		Cửu, く, ク		Thốn, す, ス		Xuyên, つ, ツ			Bất, ふ, フ
/e/ エ đoạn	/e/ Y, え,	/ke/	/ge/	/se/	/ze/	/te/	/de/	/ne/ Di, ね, ネ	/ɸe/	/be/	/me/ Nữ, め, メ	/je/ Giang, 𛀁, エ	/re/ Lễ, れ, レ	/we/ Huệ, ゑ, ヱ
		Kế, け, ケ		Thế, せ, セ		Thiên, て, テ			Bộ, へ, ヘ
/o/ お đoạn	/o/ Ô, お, オ	/ko/	/go/	/so/	/zo/	/to/	/do/	/no/ Nãi, の, ノ	/ɸo/	/bo/	/mo/ Mao, も, モ	/jo/ Dữ, よ, ヨ	/ro/ Lữ, ろ, ロ	/wo/ Viễn, を, ヲ
		Kỷ, こ, コ		Tằng, そ, ソ		Chỉ, と, ト			Bảo, ほ, ホ

It is worth noting that theman'yōganain each cell only indicates one possible option for spelling each Japanesemora– in the table above, each chosen character is the direct origin of the corresponding modernhiragana.See alsoHentaiganafor a fuller description of how multiplehiraganacould be used to spell a single sound. Also note that hiragana forms were not standardized at that time.

Althoughman'yōganaspecify differentkanjito represent voiced phonemes versus unvoiced phonemes, it is not until theMeiji periodthat we see standardized usage of thedakutendiacritic゛to explicitly mark voicing for hiragana and katakana.

Japan officially adopted simplifiedshinjitai(Tân tự thể,"new character forms" ) in 1946 as part of a round oforthographicreforms intended to improve literacy rates. The so-calledkyūjitai(Cựu tự thể,"old character forms" ) are equivalent toTraditional Chinese characters,and these forms were the ones used in historicalman'yōgana.Modern transcriptions of classical texts are predominantly written inshinjitai.To avoid unnecessary ambiguity, quotes from classical texts would be written inkyūjitai.

Additionally, there are many spelling differences betweenModern Japaneseand Early Middle Japanese even for the same word. For example,Vạn diệp tậpis spelled in modern Japanese hiragana asまんようしゅう(man'yōshū), while in Early Middle Japanese, this would have beenまんえふしふ(man'yefushifu). Details on these spelling rules are helpful for understandinghistorical kana usage.

Phonology

Developments

Major phonological changes were characteristic of the period.

The most prominent difference was the loss of certain spelling distinctions found in theJōdai Tokushu Kanazukai( "Ancient Special Kana Usage" ), which distinguished two types of/i/,/e/,and/o/.While these distinctions had begun to blur already at the end of theOld Japanesestage, they were completely lost in Early Middle Japanese. The final distinction to be lost was /ko₁,go₁/ vs. /ko₂,go₂/.For example, around the year 800 in very early Early Middle Japanese, in the same text /ko₁/ was still represented by cursive “Cổ”,while /ko₂/ was represented by cursive “Dĩ”.

In the 10th century,/e/and/je/progressively merged into/je/,and/o/and/wo/had merged into /wo/ by the 11th century.

An increase inChineseloanwords had a number of phonological effects:

• Introduction ofpalatalandlabialconsonant clusters such as /kw/ and /kj/
• Introduction of theuvular nasal/ɴ/
• Lengthbecoming a phonemic feature with the development of bothlong vowelsandlong consonants

The development of the uvular nasal and geminated consonants occurred late in the Heian period and brought about the introduction ofclosed syllables(CVC).

Phonetics

Vowels

• /a/:[a]
• /i/:[i]
• /u/:[u]
• /e/:[je]
• /o/:[wo]

Consonants

Consonant phonemes

	Bilabial		Alveolar		Palatal		Velar
Nasal		m		n
Stop	(p)	b	t	d			k	ɡ
Fricative	ɸ		s	z
Liquid				r
Approximant						j		w

Phonetic realization

/s,z/

Theories for therealizationof/s,z/include[s,z],[ts,dz],and[ɕ,ʑ].It may have varied depending on the following vowel, as in Modern Japanese.

/ɸ/

By the 11th century,/ɸ/had merged with/w/between vowels.

Grammar

Syntactically, Early Middle Japanese was asubject-object-verblanguage with atopic-commentstructure. Morphologically, it was anagglutinative language.

Phrase

A paragraph of Early Middle Japanese can be divided into the following units from large to small.

• Sentence(Văn(ぶん)): A series of meaningful words divided from a paragraph by “.” (period).

Kim はTích(むかし),Trúc(たけ)Thủ(とり)のÔng(おきな)といふGiả(もの)ありけり.

(fromThe Tale of the Bamboo Cutter)

Romanization:ima wa mukasi, taketori no okina to ifu mono arikeri.

Modern Japanesetranslation:Kim からみるともう tích のことだが, trúc thủ の ông という giả がいた.

English translation: Long before the present, it is said that there was someone called Old Man Bamboo Cutter.

It is to be noted that the noun “Tích(むかし)”( "long past" ) is actually apredicate(means "is long past" ). The predicate is not necessarily a verb in Early Middle Japanese.

• Phrase(Văn(ぶん)Tiết(せつ)): The smallest unitnaturallydivided from the rest of a sentence by its meaning.

Kim は

Tích

,

Trúc thủ の

Ông と

いふ

Giả

ありけり

.

The function of theauxiliary particle“は”is to highlight the noun “Kim”(now), which cannot be separately explained, so they should be in the same phrase. Similarly, the particle “の”represents the relation between the modifier “Trúc thủ”( "bamboo cutter", a compound noun) and the modified noun “Ông”(old man), like the preposition "of". Additionally, the particle “と”connects the called name “Ông”(modified by “Trúc thủ”) to the verb “いふ”( "call" ), just like a preposition. As for theauxiliary verb“けり”,it further clarifies that what the verb “あり”( "be, exist" ) describes isa rumor about the past,but not a direct experience (i.e.Gian(かん)Tiếp(せつ)Quá(か)Khứ(こ)), so it should be included in the same phrase as “あり”.In contrast, even if the verb “いふ”does modify the noun “Giả”( "someone" ), its meaning can still be realizednaturallywithout any help from other words.

• Word(単(たん)Ngữ(ご)): The smallest grammatical unit.

Kim

は

Tích

,

Trúc thủ

の

Ông

と

いふ

Giả

あり

けり

.

Although “Trúc thủ”is a combination of the noun “Trúc(たけ)”and the verb “Thủ(と)り”( "get",infinitive), any compound noun, verb, or adjective should be considered as a single grammatical unit.

Classes of words

Words were classified as follows:

• Cannotstand alone as a phrase
  • (Auxiliary) particle(Trợ(じょ)Từ(し)):Withoutinflection. Has various functions like emphasis, acting like apostposition,hinting about the subject or expressing interrogative mood.
  • Auxiliary verb(Trợ(じょ)Động(どう)Từ(し)):Withinflection. Describes additional information ofYougenlike tense, aspect, mood, voice, andpolarity.Alternate descriptions includegrammaticalized verborVerb-like ending.
• Canstand alone as phrase
  • Withoutinflection
    • Cannotbe subject
      • Adverb(Phó(ふく)Từ(し)): mainly modifiesYougen.
      • Conjunction(Tiếp(せつ)続(ぞく)Từ(し))
      • Interjection(Cảm(かん)Động(どう)Từ(し))
      • Rentaisi(Liên(れん)Thể(たい)Từ(し)): mainly modifiesTaigen.
    • Canbe subject:Taigen(Thể(たい)Ngôn(げん),the words that are the main body of the sentence)
      • Noun(Danh(めい)Từ(し))
      • Pronoun(Đại(だい)Danh(めい)Từ(し))
      • Number(Sổ(すう)Từ(し))
  • Withinflection:Yougen(Dụng(よう)Ngôn(げん),the words to predicate or to "use" other words)
    • Verb(Động(どう)Từ(し))
    • Adjective(Hình(けい)Dung(よう)Từ(し)): actually thestative verbs.
    • Adjective verb(Hình(けい)Dung(よう)Động(どう)Từ(し)): a different kind of "adjective", which is derived from a noun. Hence also referred to asadjectival nounin English.

Auxiliary particle

(Auxiliary) Particles had various functions, and they can be classified as follows:

Class of particle	Functions	Example (Particle is labeled inred.)
Case particles Cách(かく)Trợ(じょ)Từ(し)	indicating the relationship between a phrase and its following phrase. (i.e. not limited to nouns, so slightly differs from "case" in English)	いづ Phương(かた)へか Bãi(まか)りぬる (The Tale of Genji) Inwhich direction of escapehas gone(the bird)? (The verb “Bãi る”is the polite form, i.e. “Đinh ninh ngữ”,of the verb “Hành(い)く”"go" )
Conjunctive particles Tiếp(せつ)続(ぞく)Trợ(じょ)Từ(し)	indicating the relationship between clauses.	Văn(ふみ)をThư(か)きてやれどもPhản(かへ)りSự(こと)もせず.(The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter) Even though“Văn を thư きてやれ”,but“Phản り sự もせず”. ( “ども”has to be preceded by therealis mood,e.g., “やれ”is the realis mood of the verb “やる”, to express the appropriate meaning.)
Adverbial particles Phó(ふく)Trợ(じょ)Từ(し)	mainly modifying its following yougen.	ただ lãng のBạch(しろ)きのみぞKiến(み)ゆる(Tosa Nikki) ...can only see (exactly)thewhite wave (actually, “のみ”limits the expressive range of “Kiến ゆる”) (The verb “Kiến ゆ”is "bound" by the binding particle “ぞ”,so it occurs in the attributive form “Kiến ゆる”.)
Binding particles Hệ(かかり)Trợ(じょ)Từ(し)	emphasizing its phrase or making it interrogative, and limiting the inflection form of the ending yougen or auxiliary verb.	いづ Phương へか Bãi りぬる Inwhichdirection of escapehasgone (the bird)? (The perfect auxiliary verb “ぬ”is "bound" by the binding particle “か”,so it occurs in the attributive form “ぬる”.)
Final particles Chung(しゅ)Trợ(じょ)Từ(し)	mainly at the end of sentence, indicating many kinds of moods (e.g. interrogative mood, emotive assertion)	Ngã(われ)はこのBỉ(ごろ)Ác(わろ)きぞかし(Sarashina Nikki) At that time I'mdefinitelynot good! (Although the binding particle “ぞ”is at the end of sentence, it still requires its preceding words to beattributive.)
Interjectory particles Gian(かん)Đầu(とう)Trợ(じょ)Từ(し)	similar to final particle, but occurs more freely, and is often used as a short stop between sentences.	Triều(あ)Thần(そん)や.さやうのLạc(お)ちDiệp(ば)をだにThập(ひろ)へ(The Tale of Genji) (Yugiri) Ason!At leastpick these kinds of falling leaves up!

Case particle

• “が”(ga)and “の”(no): "of,...'s". It hints the present of subject, relation of modification between phrases or nouns.
• “を”(wo)(accusative). Optional.
• “に”(ni)(dative/locative). It had a wide range of functions ('to' or 'for' a person; 'by' an agent'; 'at' or 'to' a place; 'at' a time), and in some uses, especially when indicating time, it was optional.
• “より”(yori)(ablative).
• “まで”(made)(terminative: 'until'; 'as far as').
• “と”(to)(comitative: 'with'; essive 'as').
• “へ”(fe)(allative: 'to'). “へ”was derived from the noun “Biên(へ)”'vicinity; direction', which “わ”occasionally found in the location noun structure Noun + “の”+ Location Noun to mean 'near', or in the noun-deriving suffix “べ”(< “のへ”) in such words asThủy(みづ)べ'beside the water'.

The nominative function was marked by the absence of a particle in main clauses and by the genitive particles in subordinate clauses. The dative/locative particle-niwas homophonous with the simple infinitive form of the copula-ni,with verbal suffixes supplies more complex case markers-ni-te('at' a place) and-ni si-teor-ni-te('by means of'). A number of particle + verb +-tesequences provided other case functions:-ni yori-te'due to' (fromyor- 'depend'), -ni tuki-te'about, concerning' (fromtuk- 'be attached'), and -to si-te'as' (fromse-'do'). More complex structures were derived from genitive particle + Location Noun + appropriate case particle (typically locative-ni) and were used particularly to express spatial and temporal relations. Major location nouns weremafe'front' (Noun-no mafe-ni'in front of Noun'),ufe'top' (Noun-no ufe-ni'on top of Noun' ~ 'above Noun'),sita'under' (Noun-no sita-ni'under Noun),saki'ahead' (Noun-no saki-ni'ahead of Noun)', etc.

Conjunctive particle

• Infinitive + “て”(te): 'and (then/so), when, because'. It usually expressed a close sequential link between the predicates that it connects. The subjects of the two verbs connected by “て”were usually the same.
• Realis+ “ば”(ba): 'and (then/so), when, because'. It usually expressed a looser sequential link between the predicates that it connected. The subject of both verbs connected by “ば”was usually different.
• Irrealis+ “ば”(ba): 'if...', It usually expressed a unreal condition.
• Irrealis + “で”(de):negative 'and', 'without... ing', 'rather than... ', derived fromoldinfinitive of negative auxiliary verb “ず”(i.e. “に”) + the particle “て”with sound change.
• Various forms + “と/とも”(do /domo):'even if, even though'. Most yougens and auxiliary verbs took theconclusiveform, bigrade verbs take theinfinitivein earlier texts, r-irregular verbs took theattributiveform,and some auxiliary verbs inflecting like adjective and negative auxiliary verbs “ず”also took theattributive.
• Infinitive + “つつ”(tutu): 'while (at the same time)'.
• Infinitive of verb / stem of adjective + “ながら”(nagara):'while, while still' or 'despite'.

Binding particle

There were some special particles that limited the inflectional form of the yougen or auxiliary verb at the end of a sentence. These particles are calledbinding particles(Hệ(かかり)Trợ(じょ)Từ(し)). These limitations are calledbinding rules(Hệ(かか)りKết(むす)びのPháp(ほう)Tắc(そく)).

Binding particle	Meaning	Ending form	Example
ぞ	emphasis on its phrase	attributive	ふるさとは hoaぞTích(むかし)のHương(かおり)にHung(にほ)ひける(Kokin Wakashū,42th) attributiveof “けり”(Auxiliary verb of unwitnessed past or emotive assertion)
なむ			もと quang るTrúc(たけ)なむNhất(ひと)Cân(すぢ)ありける(The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter) attributiveof “けり”
や(やは)	question, or rhetorical question		Xuân(はる)やときHoaやおそきと văn きわかむ(Kokin Wakashū,10th) attributiveof adjectives “Tật(と)し”and “Trì(おそ)し”
か(かは)			Sinh きとし sinh けるもの いづれかCa をVịnh(よ)まざりける(Kokin Wakashū,Kana preface) attributiveof “けり”
こそ	strong emphasis on its phrase	realis	Nam はこの nữ をこそĐắc(え)めと tư ふ(The Tales of Ise) realisof modal auxiliary verb “む”

Note that the case particle “と”indicates a preceding quote, and when it is used, a quote should be considered anindependentsentence when using the linking rule.

Susumu Ōnoassumed that these binding particles originally acted asfinal particles.For example:

Man'yōgana:Khổ mao linhLaiVũKhả(fromMan'yōshū,265th)

Modern transliteration:Khổ(くる)しくもHàng(ふ)りLai(く)るVũ(あめ)か

Notice that “Lai る”isattributive(Due to the modification to the noun “Vũ”). According toSusumu Ōno's assumption, if we want to emphasize the noun in question(i.e. “Vũ”), we can invert the whole sentence as the following:

VũかHàng りLai る

Obviously, this gives birth tothe binding rule.Since other binding particles can also be considered final particles inOld Japanese,this assumption is reasonable.

Verbs

Early Middle Japanese verb inflection wasagglutinative.Most verbs were conjugated in6 formsand could be combined with auxiliary verbs to express tense, aspect, mood, voice, andpolarity.Several of the auxiliary verbs could be combined in a string, and each component determined thechoice of formof the preceding component.

In Japanese there are many different yougens with the same pronunciation, or the same yougen has various meanings. To distinguish, modern transliteration usesKanjito highlight these differences. For example, the lower bigrade verbs “Quán(な)る”means "get used to", but its also means "become familiar" which is represented by “Tuần(な)る”.Meanwhile, the quadrigrade verb “Thành(な)る”has the same pronunciation with “Quán(な)る”but it actually means "become".

Conjugation

Early Middle Japanese inherited all eight verbal conjugations class from Old Japanese and added new one:Lower Monograde,but there's only “Xúc(け)る”( "kick by foot" ) classified as Lower Monograde in Early Middle Japanese.

Early Middle Japanese Verbs were divided into5class of regular conjugations:

Quadrigrade (Tứ đoạn,yodan), Upper monograde (Thượng nhất đoạn,kami ichidan), Lower monograde (Hạ nhất đoạn,shimo ichidan), Upper bigrade (Thượng nhị đoạn,kami nidan), Lower bigrade (Hạ nhị đoạn,shimo nidan).

There were also4"irregular" (変 cách) conjugations:

K-irregular (カ変,kahen), S-irregular (サ変,sahen), N-irregular (ナ変,nahen), R-irregular (ラ変,rahen).

The conjugation of each is divided into 6 Inflectional forms(Hoạt(かつ)Dụng(よう)Hình(けい)):

• Irrealis (Vị nhiên hình,mizenkei,"imperfect form" )
• Infinitive (Liên dụng hình,ren'yōkei,"form linking to Yougen" )
• Conclusive (Chung chỉ hình,shūshikei,"form to end [a sentence]" )
• Attributive (Liên thể hình,rentaikei,"form linking to Taigen" )
• Realis (Dĩ nhiên hình,izenkei,"perfect form" )
• Imperative (Mệnh lệnh hình,meireikei,"form to give order" )

The English names for the irrealis and the realis differ from author to author, including negative and evidential, or imperfective and perfective.

In following table, red part meansstem,while blue part meansInflectional suffix.

• Inflectional form = (stem) +Inflectional suffix(Hoạt(かつ)Dụng(よう)Hình(けい)=Ngữ(ご)Càn(かん)+Hoạt dụngNgữ(ご)Vĩ(び))
• Inflectional suffix= root consonant + real suffix (root consonant isuniqueto every verb.)

Inflectional class Hoạt dụng の chủng loại	stem Ngữ càn	Inflectional form Hoạt dụng hình						Translation
		Irrealis Vị nhiên hình	Infinitive Liên dụng hình	Conclusive Chung chỉ hình	Attributive Liên thể hình	Realis Dĩ nhiên hình	Imperative Mệnh lệnh hình
Quadrigrade Tứ đoạn	Văn(き)	きか(-a)	きき(-i)	きく(-u)		きけ(-e)		'hear'
Upper Monograde Thượng nhất đoạn	-	み(-i)		Kiến(み)る(-iru)		みれ(-ire)	みよ(-i[yo])	'see'
	Dụng(もち)	もちゐ		もちゐる		もちゐれ	もちゐよ	'use'
Lower Monograde Hạ nhất đoạn	-	け(-e)		Xúc(け)る(-eru)		けれ(-ere)	けよ(-e[yo])	'kick'
Upper Bigrade Thượng nhị đoạn	Quá(す)	すぎ(-i)		すぐ(-u)	すぐる(-uru)	すぐれ(-ure)	すぎよ(-iyo)	'pass'
Lower Bigrade Hạ nhị đoạn	Thụ(う)	うけ(-e)		うく(-u)	うくる(-uru)	うくれ(-ure)	うけよ(-e[yo])	'receive'
K-irregular カ変	-	こ(-o)	き(-i)	Lai(く)(-u)	くる(-uru)	くれ(-ure)	こ(-o)	'come'
S-irregular サ変	-	せ(-e)	し(-i)	Vi(す)(-u)	する(-uru)	すれ(-ure)	せよ(-e[yo])	'do'
	Kỳ(き)	きせ	きし	きす	きする	きすれ	きせよ	'set the date' *
N-irregular ナ変	Tử(し)	しな(-a)	しに(-i)	しぬ(-u)	しぬる(-uru)	しぬれ(-ure)	しね(-e)	'die'
R-irregular ラ変	Hữu(あ)	あら(-a)	あり(-i)		ある(-u)	あれ(-e)		'be, exist'

*Noted that most S-irregular is the combination of a noun and “Vi(す)”,for example, “Kỳ(き)す”is a combination of the noun “Kỳ(き)”('date') and “Vi(す)”.

The “よ”at the end of the imperative forms is optional, although exceedingly common.

The system of 9 conjugation classes appears to be complex. However, all nine conjugations can be subsumed into variations of two groups:

• the consonant-root verbs (quadrigrade, N-irregular and R-irregular verbs)
• the vowel-root verbs (others)

The irregularity of N-irregular verbs occurred only in the conclusive and the attributive, and as there are no quadrigrade verbs withn-roots, quadrigrade and N-irregular verb patterns may be treated as being incomplementary distribution.Vowel-root verbs consist of bigrade verbs (the majority), a few monograde verbs (especiallyKiến(み)る'see' andCư(ゐ)る'sit'), the K-irregular verbLai(く)'come', and the S-irregular verbse- 'do' (or -ze- in some compounds).The difference between 'upper' and 'lower' bigrade or monograde verbs is whether the vowel at the end of the root wasiore.The difference between bigrade and monograde was whether in the conclusive, attributive, and realis, the initialuof the ending elided the vowel of the root or the vowel of the roots elides the initialuof the ending.

There are some questions about this arrangement of forms:

• The irrealis is not used as an independent verb form: it must be followed by an auxiliary.

  That said, there is a limited set of nouns appearing in Old Japanese and ending in-a,that appear to overlap phonetically and semantically with the irrealis form of certain verbs. These could be analyzed as resultative deverbal nouns.

• The classicalpassiveauxiliary verb “る”( “ゆ”inOld Japanese) attaches to the irrealis stemwithan-aending (i.e. quadrigrade, N-irregular and R-irregular), while the other classical passive auxiliary “らる”( “らゆ”inOld Japanese) attaches to the irrealis stemwithoutan-aending (i.e. for the bigrade verbs, whose stems end in either-eor-i). This raises theassumptionthat this-aending appears to be part of the auxiliary verb, but not part of the verb conjugation stem. (Thecausativeauxiliary verbs “す”and “さす”have same distribution and vowel arrangement.) According to this assumption, some scholars like Nicolas Tranter argue that the irrealis does not exist, per se, interpreting this instead as a more primitive "stem" plus an-aelement that is the start of a following word. However, this rejection of the irrealis cannot explain the attested forms seen where the irrealis stem ending in-ais followed by the conditional particle “ば”( "if" ), expressing anunreal condition(i.e.subjunctive mood) in classical Japanese.In actuality, the Japanese term “Vị nhiên hình”(mizenkei), while often translated as "irrealis", literally means "imperfect form", and it is named after this kind of usage. Additionally, the rejection cannot explain the modal auxiliary verb “む”( "seems as if, looks like, as though it should/could..." ), which also attaches to the irrealis.Various examples:

Quadrigrade verb:Vật(もの)にTập(おそ)はるるTâm(ここ)Địa(ち)して(The Tale of Genji)

Quadrigrade verb:Danh(な)にしPhụ(お)はばいざNgôn(こと)Vấn(と)はむ(Kokin Wakashū,411th)

Lower Bigrade:Cữu(しうと)にDự(ほ)めらるるTế(むこ)(The Pillow Book)

K-irregular:Nguyệt(つき)のĐô(みやこ)のNhân(ひと)まうでLai(こ)ばBộ(と)らへさせむ(The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter)

Note that auxiliary verbs have their own inflections. For example, “るる”is theattributiveof passive / spontaneous / potential auxiliary “る”,while “らるる”is theattributiveof synonymous “らる”(the form attaching to bigrade verbs, whose stems end in vowels-eor-i). Additionally, both of these auxiliaries inflect according to thelower bigradeconjugation paradigm.

• The infinitive had two functions: a linking function with anotheryougenorauxiliary verb,and a nominal function as a deverbal noun, but these two functions have different pitch patterns.
• Generally, Theyougenorauxiliary verboccurred before conjunction particle “とも”( "even if" ) in the conclusive form, but in some instances inOld Japanesepoetry, the upper monograde verb “Kiến(み)る”appears in the infinitive form instead before “とも”:

Man'yōgana:Chi bà chi bàMỹĐẳng mẫuAn gia vô kĩ di gia mao (Man'yōshū,4503th)

Modern transliteration:しばしばKiến(み)とも,Bão(あ)かむQuân(きみ)かも

It is possible that the monograde verb infinitive formmiabove that was used before “とも”was the earlier true conclusive form. Alternatively, the form above may have been an instance ofpoetic contractionto limit the number ofmoraeon the line to the expected seven.

• Additionally, before auxiliary verb “べし”(beshi,"should/could" ), any yougen should generally use the conclusive, while R-irregular verbs use the attributive instead ( “あり”ari,'be' at the end of a sentence but “あるべし”aru beshi,'should be').With endings such as “べし”(beshi), there is strong evidence that this word was originally the adverb “Nghi(うべ)し”(ubeshi,"certainly" ),and thus the observed combination ofaru beshiisprobablya fusion of the rootar-of the verb with the initialusound of the auxiliary — suggesting that, in “あるべし”(aru beshi), when we would expectari beshi,the apparently anomalousuwas actually part of the following word, and not part of the verb form.

Auxiliary verbs

Auxiliary verbs are attached to the various forms of yougen, and a yougen could be followed by several such endings in a string. Auxiliary verbs are classified into many inflectional class like verbs.

Generally, To learn how to use a Auxiliary verb, we need to know (1)its inflection, (2)required forms of its preceding word, and (3) various function. The following is a detail example about “る”and “らる”.

Inflectional Class Hoạt dụng の chủng loại	Irrealis Vị nhiên hình	Infinitive Liên dụng hình	Conclusive Chung chỉ hình	Attributive Liên thể hình	Realis Dĩ nhiên hình	Imperative Mệnh lệnh hình
Lower Bigrade Hạ nhị đoạn	れ(-e)		る(-u)	るる(-uru)	るれ(-ure)	れよ(-u[yo])
	られ(-e)		らる(-u)	らるる(-uru)	らるれ(-ure)	られよ(-u[yo])

“る”requires to be preceded byirrealiswith-aending (i.e. quadrigrade, N-irregular and R-irregular), while “らる”requiresirrealiswithout-aending(i.e. other classes).

They have 4 different functions.

1. Representing passive mood:
   Nhân(ひと)にあなづらるるもの(The Pillow Book)
   translation: thing thatisdespisedbypeople
2. Representing slight respect to someone (by means of passive mood):
   Mẫu のBi(かな)しがらるること(Tosa Nikki)
   translation: the thing that make the mother (author's wife) sad (i.e. representing slight respect to his own wife)
3. Expressing possibility or potential.
   Cung(ゆみ)Thỉ(や)してXạ(い)られじ(The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter)
   translation:It doesn't seembow and arrowcanshoot(it down). (Noted that “じ”is a modal auxiliary verb that requires to be preceded byirrealis)
4. Representing a spontaneous voice(i.e. withoutvolitionalcontrol).
   Phong(かぜ)のÂm(おと)にぞKinh(おどろ)かれぬる(Kokin Wakashū,169th)
   translation: the sound of wind (exactly)hasmademestartled.
   (Noted that “ぬる”isattributiveof perfect auxiliary verb “ぬ”.Since it's "bound" bybinding particle“ぞ”,it has to occur asattributive.)

Rough classification

Voice: 'passive' and 'causative':

• Consonant-stem verbs + “る”,vowel-stem verbs + “らる”(lower bigrade): passive voice; spontaneous voice (expressing lack of volitional control); honorific; potential ('can').
• Consonant-stem verbs + “す”,vowel-stem verbs + “さす”(lower bigrade): causative; honorific.
• Any verb + “しむ”(lower bigrade): causative; honorific. It often occurs inKanbun.

Tense/Aspect:

• Irrealis + “り”(R-irregular): progressive or perfect aspect. Only attached to quadrigrade or S-irregular verbs.
• Infinitive + “たり”(R-irregular): progressive or perfect aspect. Attached to any verbs.
• Infinitive + “ぬ”(N-irregular): perfective aspect.
• Infinitive + “つ”(lower bigrade): perfective aspect.
• Infinitive + “き”(uniqueconjugation): witnessed past tense.
• Infinitive + “けり”(R-irregular): unwitnessed past tense, or emotive assertion.
• Irrealis + “まし”(uniqueconjugation): counterfactual ('would have... ed'). The combination “ましかば”(Irrealis +ば) expresses a counterfactual condition ('if... had... ed').

Mood:

• “む”(quadrigrade): tentative mood, expressing among other functions uncertainty ('maybe', 'shall I?'), intention ('I shall'), and hortative ('let's').
• “べし”(siku-adjective): debitive mood, expressing 'can', 'should', or 'must'.
• “なり”(R-irregular): hearsay mood.

Polarity:

• “ず”(unique conjugation): negative.
• “じ”(uninflected): negative of the tentative mood (not seem...).
• “まじ”(siku-adjective): negative of the dubitative mood.

Adjectives

There were two types of adjectives: regularadjectivesandadjectival nouns.

The regular adjective was subdivided into two types: those for which the adverbial form ended in “-く”(-ku)and those that ended in “-しく”(-siku).

Class of inflection	subclass	stem Ngữ càn	Irrealis Vị nhiên hình	Adverbial Liên dụng hình	Conclusive Chung chỉ hình	Attributive Liên thể hình	Realis Dĩ nhiên hình	Imperative Mệnh lệnh hình	meaning
-ku ク hoạt dụng	(main) Bổn hoạt dụng	Cao(たか)	(たかく/たかけ)	たかく(-ku)	たかし(-si)	たかき(-ki)	たかけれ(-kere)		'be high'
	(-kari) カリ hoạt dụng		たかから(-kara)	たかかり(-kari)		たかかる(-karu)		たかかれ(-kare)
-siku シク hoạt dụng	(main) Bổn hoạt dụng	Mỹ(うつく)	(うつくしく/うつくしけ)	うつくしく(-siku)	うつくし(-si)	うつくしき(-siki)	うつくしけれ(-sikere)		'be beautiful'
	(-kari) カリ hoạt dụng		うつくしから(-sikara)	うつくしかり(-sikari)		うつくしかる(-sikaru)		うつくしかれ(-sikare)

The class of siku-adjectives included a few adjectives that had “-じ”(-z), rather than “-し”:

Class of inflection	subclass	stem Ngữ càn	Irrealis Vị nhiên hình	Adverbial Liên dụng hình	Conclusive Chung chỉ hình	Attributive Liên thể hình	Realis Dĩ nhiên hình	Imperative Mệnh lệnh hình	meaning
-siku シク hoạt dụng	main Bổn hoạt dụng	Đồng(おな)	(-じく)	-じく	-じ	-じき	-じけれ		'be the same'
	kari カリ hoạt dụng		-じから	-じかり		-じかる		-じかれ

They usually had “-じ”rather than “-じき”in itsattributiveform.

The -kar- and -sikar- forms (カリ hoạt dụng) were derived from the verb “Hữu(あ)り”"be, exists.":

Man'yōgana:Khả nại chiCửu an líGia mưu (Man'yōshū,4333th)

Modern transliteration:Bi(かな)しくありけむ

Since the auxiliary verb of pass tentative mood “けむ”needs to be preceded by infinitive, “あり”is in infinitive form. And then naturally, the adjective “Bi(かな)し”links to “あり”by infinitive (Liên dụng hình). InMan'yōshūthere's also example of “-かり”.

Man'yōgana:Gia nại chiKhả lợiGia lý (Man'yōshū,793th)

Modern transliteration:Bi(かな)しかりけり

Since the auxiliary verb of unwitnessed past “けり”needs to be preceded by infinitive, “Bi(かな)し”is in infinitive form.

So it's reasonable to assume that the infinitive suffix “-かり”is derived from “-くあり”that had lost its initial u-sound(i.e. sound change of infinitive suffix + “あり”). There's also similar example about other forms inMan'yōshū.

From above paragraph, we can realize that kari inflectionis generally used to link to a auxiliary verbs(so it's also called “Bổ(ほ)Trợ(じょ)Hoạt(かつ)Dụng(よう)”,"complement and auxiliary inflection" ), but there's an example to show that the imperative form of kari inflection is an exception of this rule:

はげしかれとは(Senzai Wakashū,708th)

That is, the imperative form of kari inflectionis independently used without linking to any auxiliary verb.(However, it actually expresses a wish but not a order.)

Adjectival noun

Class of inflection	stem Ngữ càn	Irrealis Vị nhiên hình	Adverbial Liên dụng hình	Conclusive Chung chỉ hình	Attributive Liên thể hình	Realis Dĩ nhiên hình	Imperative Mệnh lệnh hình	meaning
Nari ナリ hoạt dụng	Tĩnh(しづ)か	しづかなら(-nara)	しづかなり(-nari)	しづかなり(-nari)	しづかなる(-naru)	しづかなれ(-nare)		'be static'
			しづかに(-ni)
Tari タリ hoạt dụng	Tiễu(せう)Nhiên(ぜん)*	Tiễu nhiênたら(-tara)	Tiễu nhiênたり(-tari)	Tiễu nhiênたり(-tari)	Tiễu nhiênたる(-taru)	Tiễu nhiênたれ(-tare)		''be quiet, soft "
			Tiễu nhiênと(-to)

*The Japanese termTiễu nhiên(seuzen,modernshōzen) is a borrowing fromMiddle ChinesewordTiễu nhiênwith reconstructed pronunciation/tsʰjɑunʑǐɛn/,meaning ‘quietly, softly’. LikeTiễu nhiên(seuzen), mosttariadjectives are derived from Chinese borrowings.

Thenariandtariinflections shared a similar etymology. Thenariform was a contraction of the adverbial particle “に”and the-rirregular verb “Hữu(あ)り”"be, exist":に+あり→なり,while thetariinflection was a contraction of the adverbial particleとandHữu(あ)り:と+あり→たり.

Yougen in auxiliary form

• “Cư(を)り”(R-irregular): progressive aspect. 'sit; live; be'.
• “Cư(ゐ)る”(Upper monograde): progressive aspect. 'continue,…ing'.
• “Trí(お)く”(Quadrigrade): preparative aspect, expressing an action performed in readiness for some future action. 'put'.
• “Kiến(み)る”(Upper monograde): speculative aspect, expressing an action performed experimentally, to 'see' what it is like. 'see'.

See also

• Bungo

Sources

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