Questions tagged [classical-japanese]
文語（古文）. The classical literary form of the language based on Early Middle Japanese.
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The origins of なんだ as in 飲まなんだ or せなんだ
Even here in Osaka I don't hear it very often among anyone even remotely young, but where does this come from originally? Does anyone have a reference on hand?
If I myself had to guess from what I ...
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What's this -れり ending?
I'm really a 初心者 when it comes to Classical Japanese, and I guess that is what I have here...
一日の苦労は一日にて足れり. 【聖】
Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
Please, can someone tell me what ...
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Do 形容詞 have a 未然形 in Classical Japanese?
I was reading Eiríkr Útlendi's answer about -い vs. -き in 形容詞 and noticed that he identified -く as the 未然形 of 形容詞. When I studied classical Japanese, though, I was taught that 形容詞 lack a 未然形 (and also ...
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What is the difference between 美しき and 麗しき？
What is the difference between 美しき and 麗しき and what is the difference between 美しい and 美しき?
I know that both 美しい女性 and 美しき女性 are correct. But what is the difference between these two?
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Mora count for 思ふ in Classical Japanese?
During an analysis I was performing of the poems contained in the 古今集 I noticed a curious pattern. Otherwise perfectly-formed poems included in the collection seemed to ignore the morae-count on a ...
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「の」followed by 「...なき」
In the lyrics of a song by Utada Hikaru I came across two lines (starting from 0:40) saying:
開いたばかりの花が散るのを
見ていた木立の遣る瀬無きかな
My questions:
How to explain the 「の」 in the second line?
I guess the 「かな」at ...
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Why do 為る【する】 and 為す【なす】 use the same kanji as 為【ため】?
Why do the verbs 為る【する】 and 為す【なす】 ("to do") use the same kanji as 為【ため】 ("because of", "for the sake of", etc.)? I'm not seeing any obvious connection between the meanings of する・なす and ため that would ...
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Apparent reversals of conjugation patterns in classical 形容詞 and 動詞, origin?
We observe the following peculiar apparent relations between the conjugation patterns of 形容詞 and 動詞 (using 赤し and 行く as examples):
連体形: 赤き / 行きし (past recollective)
終止形: 赤し / 行きき (past recollective)
...
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Why is an anachronistic modern conjugation thrown into the lyrics of 軍艦行進曲?
軍艦行進曲 seems to be written mostly using Classical Japanese grammar. Here's the first stanza:
守るも攻むるも黒鐵{くろがね}の
浮かべる城{しろ}ぞ頼{たの}みなる
浮かべるその城{しろ}日{ひ}の本{もと}の
皇國{みくに}の四方{よも}を守{まも}るべし
眞鐵{まがね}のその艦{ふね}日の本に
仇{あだ}...
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What is an example of how the 推量の助動詞 「む」 can be used to mean 反語?
One of the listed meanings of the 推量の助動詞 「む」 on Wikipedia is that of 反語, which I understand to mean "saying the opposite of what one means for rhetorical emphasis" in this context (as opposed to just ...
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What old Japanese texts can be used in the same fashion as the latin "Lorem Ipsum"?
"Lorem Ipsum" is used as a place holder when creating designs or formatting media that will have actual text and functionality.
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I would like to know what the Japanese equivalent is of this ...
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Difference between ～ざる and ～ぬ
A sentence from 五輪書:
おのづから道の器用有りて、天理をはなれざる故か。
I found a question about ～ざる and ～ぬ on 知恵袋. The only answer claims that ～ぬ and ～ざる are both the 連体形 of ～ず and ～ざる is a "complementary" conjugation, to ...
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Grammar of (verb)し(noun) such as in 選ばれし者
Is there a grammatical explanation for this pattern, which I have seen a couple times in writing? I'm guessing it comes from classical grammar.
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Differences between なし and あらず?
At some point in history, ない replaced *あらない as the negative of ある, at least in the Kantō dialect (Kansai seems to have あらへん; あらん is also apparently attested in some dialects).
When did this happen? ...
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Why is する considered irregular?
Yes, this sounds like a really confusing question. But I suddenly realized that する seemed to be a perfectly regular 上二段活用 (kami nidan; upper bigrade) verb with a stem of s-:
未然形: し (as in しない)
連用形: し ...
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Haphazard usage of katakana and hiragana for particles and okurigana
I'm looking at this picture of the 日米和親条約 (Kanagawa convention) from the late Edo period and it seems rather strange:
It looks like the non-kanji parts are rather haphazardly written in katakana and ...
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Does the たり in Modern Japanese come from the Classical たり?
For example, in the sentence 飲んだり食べたりした. Does this たり have anything to do with the -(i)tari ending in Classical Japanese that meant the present progressive (and later semantically shifted to past, and ...
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What is the origin of けれど, ければ, けど, etc?
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 ...
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History and Meaning of Soran Bushi
Recently I've found several versions of Soran Bushi, and this puzzles me-I don't understand why it would be different in different places. Moreover, I don't understand some of the vocabulary in it:
...
user3457
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Why does the 文語 version of the Bible have so many nonstandard readings?
For example in Genesis 1:
元始{はじめ}に神{かみ} 天地{てんち}を創造{つくり}たまへり
Why are the kanji 元始 and 創造 given the interesting readings? Moreover, they seem to be given the readings of the less specific words 始め ...
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Etymology of transitive/intransitive verb pairs
Many verbs come in pairs, frequently but not always transitive/intransitive pairs. These verbs generally have multiple okurigana characters, but according to my dictionary one of the pair was formerly ...
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心は出血している - what exactly the Japanese idiom for it?
is there the same expression in Japanese for good russian idiom 'Сердце кровью обливается'?
｢心は出血している｣?
'My heart is bleeding' is not very accurate, not really verbatim.
This idiom in Russian ...
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Hyakunin Isshu pronunciation; ちはやふる vs. ちはやぶる?
In the Hyakunin Isshu, the 17th poem (found here) has me stumped. In the manga/anime ちはやふる, the title is written and pronounced as ちはやふる, but on the card for the game the manga revolved around (also ...
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桜桜ーいざや and ゆかん meanings
In 桜桜 what do "いざや" and "見に行かん" mean, or rather why do they mean what they mean.
I've never heard a term like いざや, and I've never seen 行く written as ゆく, nor have I seen an あん ending unless it was ...
user3457
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Past tense of なし in Classical Japanese?
Is it なしかりたらず as a usual し adjective? Or is it something weirder? I need this for a skit.
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Casual Speech Particles in Classical Japanese
I'm writing a simple Japanese skit for my class and there is a place where an ancient samurai needs to speak a few sentences of Classical Japanese.
I can mostly make the sentences, but it seems weird ...
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What function did あり perform in classical Japanese 形容詞?
In classical Japanese, many uses of 形容詞{けいようし} had あり "embedded" in them, e.g.:
熱からず = 「熱し」の連用形＋「あり」の未然形{みぜんけい}＋「ず」
熱かりたり = 「熱し」の連用形＋「あり」の連用形{れんようけい}＋「たり」
熱かれ = 「熱し」の連用形＋「あり」の命令形{めいれいけい}
熱かる人 = 「熱し」...
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How wrong is my constructed poem?
I tried writing a classical Japanese poem:
赤き空
青かりたり根
夢がごとし
元を返るべし
汚さざらまし
And here is a rough literal translation:
The red sky,
The origin that was once blue,
Like seeing a dream,
It would be best ...
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Why do Japanese people read Classical Japanese with a set of weird sound shifts?
I'm learning a bit of Classical Japanese recently, and of course the spelling of words is pretty different, due to sound changes over the centuries. For example, きょう was spelled けふ. That I can ...
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What does the ぬ in 詰まぬ mean?
I encountered a Shogi saying:
三桂あって詰まぬこと無し
And I'm pretty confused about the ぬ there. If it was る I'd expect the meaning to be something like:
"If you have 3 knights, you can't be mated"
But ...
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Do Japanese study classical Chinese? [closed]
Kinda out-of-topic.
I know that old Japanese books are written in Classical Chinese (or Written Chinese), like 日本書紀/Nihon Shoki. As I have known, Chinese people learn Classical Chinese quite well and ...
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What does 見ぬ/minu mean in this sentence?
The phrase is: mada minu kimi e tsudzuku. I believe the kana is: まだ見ぬきみへつづく。
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不被下候: When was it common, and what were the rules?
In a shrine graffito written in 1559, two carpenters complain:
其時座主ハ大キナコスデオチヤリテ一度モ焼酎ヲ不被下候
'At that time, the high priest (stingy bugger!) gave us not even a drop of shochu to drink.'
The form ...
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Use of kana iteration marks (ゝ, ゞ, ヽ, ヾ)
Kana iteration marks are are rarely used today, and hence there is not much online information on it besides this Wikipedia article, which leaves me with a couple questions.
Is there any kana that ...
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Does the verb 死ぬ has a 死ぬる form?
I have come across a conjugation of 死ぬ verb which I've never heard before. It is 死ぬる, I have heard it in a TV show, you can see the relevant part in this video.
Is this a depreciated form? If so, ...
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Did standalone noun “好き” mean a person in classical Japanese?
In classical Japanese, did standalone noun “好き” mean a person who likes something? I do not think that it does in modern Japanese, although it sometimes means a person when used as a suffix (e.g. ...
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Help for this expression: 猿は人間に毛が[三筋]{みすじ}足らぬ
I read this expression in a text. It seems to be an old proverb about monkeys. But I am not sure about its meaning. Why 筋, for instance? Does it mean muscle? reasoning faculty? Why would they be ...
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