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In Classical Japanese (correct me if I'm wrong; all my CJ was from Wikipedia and linguistic papers), the 已然形 could attach a lot of things: ど, ば, ども, etc. So I would be able to say 会へども話せず rather than 会うけれど話せない?

Anyways, where does the ker- part come from in all these supplanted forms of the 已然形? Is there once some helping 四段 verb ける? If so, what would it mean?

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  • I think I know what you are talking about, but can you clarify what ければ is? Oct 20, 2013 at 1:11
  • The suffix ければ on 形容詞.
    – ithisa
    Oct 20, 2013 at 1:22
  • I was not clear enough. By “clarify”, I meant “clarify by editing the question.” By the way, I hope that by now you understand that けれど and ければ are syntactically quite different in Modern Japanese. Oct 20, 2013 at 1:28
  • @user54609 〜けれ on adjectives is just the usual 已然形 suffix.
    – Zhen Lin
    Oct 20, 2013 at 8:20
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    会うけれど話せない=>会ふが話せず。会へども話せず=>会っても話せない。-- though I'm not certain.
    – jovanni
    Oct 20, 2013 at 10:21

2 Answers 2

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They are conjugational endings from (sh)i-Adjectives:

We can derive verbs from adjectives by adding あり:

赤し -> 赤く+あり -> 赤かり

And conjugate them further:

  • 赤かれ+ば
  • 赤けれ+ど(も)
  • 赤からず (negation)
  • ...

This conjugational suffix got reanalyzed as a word on its own, yielding けれども, which was shortened to けれど, けども, and けど.

Even けれ by itself was used in the meaning of けれども by the same process.

日本国語大辞典

けれ:この助詞が現れたのは、文語の形容詞の「数こそ多けれ、すぐれたるは少し」の_「多けれ」のような用法から、「けれ」そのものに「が」「けれども」の意がある_と考えたためであろうといわれる。〔徳川時代言語の研究=湯沢幸吉郎〕

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  • Why is it 赤けれど rather than 赤かれば? あれど あれば seem to be the forms for あり, not えれど and あれば.
    – ithisa
    Oct 20, 2013 at 23:06
  • 赤く+あり->赤かり, but 赤く+あれど -> 赤けれど and 赤く+あれば-> 赤ければ
    – blutorange
    Oct 21, 2013 at 6:37
  • Yeah, why. Is there some sort of a/e alternation in Old Japanese?
    – ithisa
    Oct 21, 2013 at 10:48
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    Since no one has addressed the disagreement between the two answers, I'll try my best. There are two similar looking things here, 形容詞活用の已然形語尾「けれ」 (described in this answer, apparently derived from く+あれ, from which modern けれども・けれど and ultimately けど are derived) and 助動詞「けり」の已然形「けれ」 (mentioned in Tokyo Nagoya's answer, derived from き+あり). According to Wikipedia, 「く+あれ」 also contracted to 「かれ」 in pre-Edo era Japanese.
    – user1478
    Oct 22, 2013 at 20:18
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    @user54609 One book blutorange often quotes, Sansom's 1928 An Historical Grammar of Japanese, says on page 205: "This change is easy to understand, for the final e of kare influences the preceding vowel a, by a tendency which is common in Japanese." (That's the only explanation I've found for けれ so far.)
    – user1478
    Oct 30, 2013 at 9:31
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It should be the auxiliary verb けり that you are discussing, not ける. Or is it the origin of けり that you are trying to find out? If so, I do not think anyone could answer.

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  • What does けり mean? Sorry, as I said, I've never systematically learned CJ.
    – ithisa
    Oct 20, 2013 at 1:52
  • けり can express a few different things. 1. Restrospective heresay "Once upon a time, there lived a ~~~." 2. Equivalent of the present perfect progressive in English. "(Something) has been done this way for centuries." 3. Exclamatory. "Oh, what a fool I have become!" 4. Objective statement of a fact.
    – user4032
    Oct 20, 2013 at 3:00
  • Regarding けり, I believe there are two theories for its etymology: (1) The kahen verb ku "to come" in 連用形 plus ari, or (2) the recollective ki plus ari. (きあり⇒けり in both cases.) My understanding is that theory 1 is much accepted than 2. Oct 20, 2013 at 4:30
  • And since it was not mentioned, けり is in its 已然形 for けれど, and ど is the concessive conjunctive particle. Oct 20, 2013 at 4:38
  • @DariusJahandarie, FWIW Shogakukan's Kokugo Dai Jiten lists the recollective き + あり as the first explanation, and 来{き} + あり as the second. May 17, 2014 at 8:19

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