Questions tagged [old-japanese]
上代日本語. A historical stage of Japanese which has the oldest attestation in documents currently known. Typically seen in 万葉集 (Man'yōshū; late 8c).
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When (or how) were simplified numbers in Japanese used e.g. mi = 3, na = 7, etc
There seems to be a cultural convention in Japanese that allows for "old" (simplified) versions of numbers to be used. An example of this would be the idol group 3776 which is known as "...
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What does わせ in this sentence mean?
なぜ死なしてしもたか、人生を狂るわせたのか
Does this sentence contain typo? I guess 狂るわせ should be 狂わせ.
What do you guys think?
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About ancient pronunciation on dictionaries
In large dictionaries like 広辞苑 or 大辞林, there are some entries tagged with "ancient pronunciations" which are almost identical to the modern ones but with a voiced consonant voiceless (or ...
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五 without the top stroke in Edo period Japanese
While looking at an antique, I noticed that what I assume is the character 「五」is missing the top stroke. It's written this way three times. Below are two examples, which I think read 十五人 and 明和五. The ...
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Is this an old, alternate or incorrect way of writing 考?
Is this form of writing 考える correct? It has an extra stroke which turns the bottom portion into 与. I haven't seen it before and haven't been able to find it after searching. If it is correct, what ...
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我が道に 足りぬを探し たたかへど
我が道に 足りぬを探し たたかへど 散る間際こそ ビューティフルと知る
This is coming from a character parodying a samurai. The English voice-over for the first half says "Battle after battle I sought to attain the glorious path.....
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What's the etymology of まほし?
What's the etymology of まほし? Considering it goes after the 未然形, is it something like む -> ま (未然形) + [欲]{ほ}し, or is it a totally different etymology altogether?
Thanks in advance.
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Can "のたもうて" be the て−form of のたもう?
I just learned that the て/た form of the verb たまう can be たまうて/たまうた. Is this the same for the verb のたもう? I am trying to translate a song and this て construction seems to appear in it. If this is the ...
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Where does the -a stem come from with auxiliary-constructed transitive/intransitive verb pairs if the base verb is a 二段活用 (or カ行変格活用)?
It seems to be generally understood that transitive/intransitive verb pairs, when they are not a 四段活用 and a 二段活用 that share the same 終止形, were created by taking a base verb, whether transitive or ...
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How to write and sing Shigin (Japanese way of chanting poem) properly?
1, Should Shigin be written in Yamato (old Japanese language)? Or an even older version of Japanese? Can I write it in modern Japanese?
2, Are there rules for Shigin? Such as setting rhythms, melodies,...
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龍 安 寺 蹲 踞 『吾唯足知』 [closed]
¿ Can you trace the ancient Chinese roots of the sentence
吾
唯
足
知
。
In the 茶の湯 garden of 龍安寺 🇯🇵 there's a stone dubbed 蹲踞〔つくばい〕where there it's written on it :
五
矢 囗 隹
止
and the 囗 is a basin of ...
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How do you read these two Japanese documents on Wikisource given the formatting?
The two documents are:
万葉集
古今和歌集/巻一
I am not a reader of Japanese yet, I am more gathering some literature I can use for learning. But these have some strange formatting not being familiar with the ...
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Why did です eventually overtake なり？
More of a history question... I understand です became more commonly used in late Edo, but before that (as I understand) it was commonly associated with low-society life, such as prostitutes and thieves ...
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If it's okay to remove the punctuation in a modern text format of Kojiki (古事記)
The original version of the Kojiki looks like it has no punctuation whatsoever.
I found a more recent text version of Kojiki online though, which has all kinds of punctuation and formatting.
It has ...
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aru Kanji confusion
In the sentence:
今日は宿題があります。
would I use
在る or 有る?
(I know that today it's almost always written in Kana)
Thanks in advance :)!
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Old Japanese vowels in kana
The modern Japanese vowels /e,o/ each represent two Old Japanese vowels, arbitrarily written e ë o ö in romaji. I assume that Japanese philologists don't all use romaji, so is there a convention for ...
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Historical use of さん
In the song 宮さん宮さん (明治時代)
宮さん宮さん お馬の前に
ひらひらするのは 何じゃいな
As far as I can see it is referring to the emperor using さん、has its formality changed since that era? Or is it being ironic
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鵺 Chimera Bird in Making of Cyborg and Reincarnation
This question is related to my Sci-fi Fantasy question "Japanese Wedding Chant from Ghost in the Shell". That question is concerned with Japanese folk traditions and mythology, and please ...
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How difficult is the 万葉集 to read?
From my understanding, the 万葉集 is written in 万葉仮名 which uses a limited set of characters solely for their 音読み reading rather than for their semantic meaning.
In light of this, I am curious how ...
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Is there a good reason why I can use a polite form before から but not before ので? [duplicate]
Does anybody know why - historically, etymologically or logically - one can use polite forms (e.g. -ます) in causal subordinate clauses before から, while one must use the plain form before ので?
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だ versus な in causal subordinate clauses
Why do causal subordinate clauses ending in -から take だ as a means to connect nouns and な adjectives (e.g. 日本人だから), whereas causal subordinate clauses ending in -ので take な (e.g. 日本人なので)?
I read that だ ...
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Is there a good explanation for the forms 大きな, 小さな and 多くの?
Is there a good historical/etymological explanation why 大きい and 小さい can take the な ending in attributive position?
Also, is there a good historic/etymological explanation why 多い in attributive use ...
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Is there a historical explanation why verbs fall into two categories of pitch accent?
Is there a good historical or logical explanation why all verbs fall into two categories of pitch accent: either accentless (such as 買う, 浴びる) or accented (such as 食べる, 書く)?
I am having a hard time ...
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Is there a good historical explanation why we cannot generally use 言う in the 3rd person in the past tense?
Is there a good historical or logical explanation why we cannot generally use 言う in the 3rd person in the past tense? Why do we have to resort to 言っている for the 3rd person part tense (言っていた), unless it ...
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Is there a reason why the passive and the potential form are identical (at least for える/いる verbs)?
Is there a reason why the passive and the potential form in Japanese are identical (at least for える/いる verbs)? I mean, does one etymologically derive from the other? Or were they perhaps modelled on a ...
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Question about verbs in Old Japanese
Does anybody with in-depth knowledge of Old Japanese know why vowel-based verbal stems could only end in -e or -i (leading to the える/いる or type 2 class of verbs in Modern Japanese)? Why are there no ...
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Word lists/sources for pitch accent in Middle Japanese
Is there anywhere I can find a list of words and what their reconstructed pitches were in Middle Japanese? Or especially what words we have tone dot information on (with a preference for the oldest ...
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The difference between もう and まふ
I have seen the poem title 君死にたまふことなかれ spelled 君死にたもうこと勿れ. I'm assuming given the poet's reputation, that まふ is some antiquated word analogous to the modern もう. What is it's use and meaning?
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Etymological Connection Between 帽子, 眸子 and 牟子
In Ryunosuke Akutagawa's short story "In a Grove", the monk talks about the girl on the horse wearing a type of hat called a 牟子 with the furigana むし. However, this word is not in the dictionary. But I ...
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Are the province names of Japan translatable into English?
When I travelled, I found I could translate the regions or cities into names in English,
like in German Burg is "castle" so Hamburg might be "Castle of Ham",
Novi Sad in Serbia is "New Farmland",
...
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What is the grammar behind this sentence in old Japanese
Here's the first sentence from the song Reincarnation from Kenji Kawai, part of the OST of Ghost in the Shell (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z64HCi2rQkE)
A ga maeba, kuwashime yoinikeri
...
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What kind of Japanese "dialect" is this?
In a Japanese translation of exerpts of the Lotus Sutra, there is kanji which is used that is to varying degrees still used today. Some of them are relatively common in normal speech or writing, ...
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Older Japanese had much fewer particles (助詞)? -- The modern "use ALL the particles" written style
. . . A perhaps pedantic comment: The idea that everything has a particle in theory, which is either "dropped" or not, is actually relatively modern. In earlier forms of Japanese, there were ...
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What is japanese? [closed]
I'm mostly a self-learner, i have never learned anything from taking courses or educational institutions. But instead, i have always managed to figure out "how to learn things" by either asking or ...
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What search term(s) should I use when looking for a pronunciation guide of ancient kanji?
I've recently developed interest in reading/studying the 古事記{こじき}, and simply searching for the term「古事記」gives plenty of results with the original text. However, I am having trouble finding any ...
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Why were Chinese readings imported along with kanji?
I have been studying Japanese for a little more than a year now,and I've been learning kanji for a few months.
I understand the basics about readings, but I don't really get the historic reason of ...
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What is つ in 中つ国 and why is it equivalent to の?
According to Wikipedia:
中つ国（なかつくに）とは中間の国、中央の国を意味し、「つ」は現代語の「の」に相当する。中津国、中国とも書く。
I looked for 津 in a dictionary but it seems to be an 当て字 so I did not get new information. But I can't get why の was ...
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What does 花つ月 mean?
緋【あか】色【いろ】の花【はな】つ月【づき】
I'm trying to figure out the meaning for this part of kanji in a title for a series. The red flower month? The red flower moon? The month of blossoming red flowers? I'm totally ...
user7541
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What is the correct veritable meaning of 水無月 and 神無月?
This question is the result of a conversation with Chocolate in chat, and also this Japanese calendar I have that lists the months according to the traditional Japanese names.
For some reason, there ...
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