Questions tagged [history]

歴史. The origins and changes over time of the features and characteristics of Japanese in its spoken and written forms.

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Iterative / repetitive る evolving from classical 連体形【れんたいけい】

This is somewhat related to the discussion of classical auxiliary verb ふ, mentioned in the answer to snailboat's question, What is the わ in 忌まわしい and 嘆かわしい?. Another apparent iterative / repetitive ...
Eiríkr Útlendi's user avatar
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日(ひ) は大昔からdayの意味持っていたのか

日本は漢人に接触し漢字と漢語を輸入した前に大和言葉はもう存在していたから、きっとその時にもうdayを指す語はもうあった。現代の視点から見ると、和語のdayの意味の言葉は「日(ひ)」なんですけど(例えば その日、あの日、出会った日)、これも漢語の影響なんですか? 詳細に言うと、昔の大和言葉の一日を指す語は「日(か)」だったと思うのは正しいですか。一ヶ月の中の日付も(二日ふつか、三日みっか等)、暦(...
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What is the origin and meaning of the street names 一年坂, 二年坂 and 三年坂 in Higashiyama, Kyoto?

Obviously "1-year hill", etc., but what is the context of that? And sometimes we see it spelled with 念 (nen) or 寧 (nei) instead of 年 (nen). Why is that, and which one would be correct?
mwt's user avatar
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な vs の classes of nouns

Based on my understanding, it seems that "な-adjectives" and "nouns" both function as nouns in the grammatical sense with the exception that "な-adjectives" are linked to other nouns with な and "nouns" ...
Trevor Kafka's user avatar
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Why are there no unique voiced kana?

If one were to look at the 万葉仮名 article on Wikipedia, they would find that no specific marks were added to represent the bunch, that is, the ザダガバ 行, with there having been different representations ...
John's user avatar
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Is the name Takahashi no Kaedemaro 高橋 楓麻呂 realistic for a seventh century man?

I’m writing a short novel set in Seventh-century China (Tang Dynasty). One of the characters is a Japanese musician who travels to the Tang Empire in 653, and I desperately need a historically-...
Baize's user avatar
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Form of address for a medical doctor in Edo and Sengoku eras

I know that nowdays 先生 is used as the honorific for medical doctors (among others), but I'm curious what honorific was used in older periods, Edo and Sengoku specifically. Also if this usage of 先生 is ...
ash's user avatar
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What do we know about vowel variations such as 雨 read as あめ/あま

There are several words which have vowel variations. This seems like it could be a fossilization of morphological processes in an older version of Japanese. How much do we know about these processes? ...
HAL's user avatar
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Historical meaning of an army's name in Sengoku era 美濃八千騎

美濃八千騎 I read a historical novel with Sengoku era setting , and there's a character mentioned about this name of an army. If you know about it's historical meaning please explain. Context is an enemy's ...
4chan user's user avatar
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How long has へ been a replacement for に in indicating direction? Is it similar to を in that context?

After reading an answer on this site about some particulars of particle usage, I recently got a copy of The Structure of the Japanese Language by Kuno. It has been an interesting read, although the ...
Max Candocia's user avatar
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Why do Latin letters have English pronunciations in Japanese?

The Latin letters A–Z are used in Japan today and they each have a name just like in English. Take the first five Latin letters, A–E. Source: https://jisho.org A 【エイ】【エー】 B 【ベー】【ビー】 C 【シー】 D【ディ】【ディー】 ...
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Sleeping verbs and まで vs までに

So I was wondering, pretty much all of the sleep related verbs switch meaning with まで and までに. Was it always like that? Or was there a time when 8時まで寝る meant "going to bed at 8"? Or take the even ...
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