10
votes
How difficult is the 万葉集 to read?
As others have noted, there are multiple parts to the Man'yōshū.
The commentary, prefaces, and various other bits of text were written in a version of Classical Chinese, known as [漢文]{kanbun}, and ...
- 38.1k
10
votes
Accepted
What kind of Japanese "dialect" is this?
The origins of Buddhist sutra are compilicated, but they are generally based on the transliterated Sanskrit/Pali or their Chinese translations. See Lotus Satra on Wikipedia. Although they might have ...
- 331k
7
votes
Accepted
Is there a reason why the passive and the potential form are identical (at least for える/いる verbs)?
Etymologically, various usages of れる/られる derived from one base meaning, "without someone's will". In modern Japanese, れる/られる is still sometimes used in this sense (known as 自発【じはつ】 or "...
- 331k
7
votes
Is this an old, alternate or incorrect way of writing 考?
Glyphwiki has as an alternative glyph of 考󠄂, so it looks like more than one person write the character that way. I have never seen that, but perhaps it might not be so rare in calligraphy? (Bear in ...
- 5,543
6
votes
What kind of Japanese "dialect" is this?
Yes, this is not Japanese at all. It's not even kanbun in the sense of "Chinese text read as if it were stilted Japanese." It is medieval Buddhist Chinese read character-by-character as Chinese but ...
- 10.2k
6
votes
Accepted
aru Kanji confusion
有る is for possession; 在る is for existence. Though there can be some overlap. And 或る (even though you didn't ask) is actually an adjective for "a particular/certain", like in ある日に....
So in this ...
- 44.5k
6
votes
Accepted
Old Japanese vowels in kana
Good question. The poster is referring to the reconstructed 8-vowel system for Old Japanese (上代特殊仮名遣) which is inferred from the presence of two ways of transcribing /e/ and two ways of transcribing /...
- 6,910
6
votes
Accepted
About ancient pronunciation on dictionaries
There are at least two ways that the difference between "voiceless" and "voiced"¹ pronunciation can be ascertained.
First, through the 日葡辞書, the Japanese-Portuguese dictionary of ...
- 2,398
5
votes
Accepted
Historical use of さん
First, according to Wikipedia, this 宮さん is not Emperor but Prince Arisugawa. The most formal and polite way to address him is 有栖川親王殿下{ありすがわしんのうでんか} ("His Imperial Highness Prince Arisugawa"), or 殿下{...
- 331k
5
votes
aru Kanji confusion
Just a little bit of background on this:
As you mentioned, it is generally written as ある these days. In the past, there was a clearer differentiation based on grammatical properties, i.e. that 有る was ...
- 11.6k
5
votes
Accepted
Why did 黄 not have an adjectival form in Old Japanese?
While it may normally be fair to say that 黄 is a "very old" word, whether it's as old as 赤 and 青 is a different problem. Even if a word existed at some point, whether it was common or ...
- 331k
4
votes
The difference between もう and まふ
I would say this is a problem of both "the old grammar/words" and "the old orthography". A spelling reform (such as the German orthography reform of 1996) and archaic word usage are two different ...
- 331k
4
votes
Accepted
Is there a historical explanation why verbs fall into two categories of pitch accent?
The distinction goes as far back as we have data. Already in Middle Japanese (MJ, Heian period) the verbs were divided into two classes, one with the stem melody LL…LH-, the other HH…HL-;¹ that is, ...
- 5,469
4
votes
Why did です eventually overtake なり？
です did not overtake なり. だ did.
なり is merely a basic connective, "A is B," without any specific implications for the formality level or politeness of speech. Etymologically, it is a fusion of に+あり "...
- 2,398
4
votes
鵺 Chimera Bird in Making of Cyborg and Reincarnation
The Question
In an earlier version of your post, you had asked:
I've seen two different English translations and I'm wondering which one is more correct.
Other users commented and linked through to ...
- 38.1k
4
votes
Accepted
What's the etymology of まほし?
The -(a)maposi optative auxiliary adjective is indeed connected with ほし "want," but the first part is different. It is derived from the simplification of -(a)maku [nö] posi, where:
-(a)m- ...
- 2,398
4
votes
Accepted
我が道に 足りぬを探し たたかへど
Not a native speaker, so take this with a grain of salt. :)
First, let's look at your bolded piece.
Understanding 足りぬを探し
I came across two possible interpretations of this phrase. The first is where ...
- 38.1k
4
votes
Accepted
Is this an old, alternate or incorrect way of writing 考?
考(father) has similar meaning and pronunciation with 老(old men in family) in its original usage in Chinese. It's written like or in 《說文解字》. The ㄎ part is a cane or walking STICK supporting an old ...
- 184
4
votes
Accepted
When (or how) were simplified numbers in Japanese used e.g. mi = 3, na = 7, etc
The following Wikipedia article should help:
語呂合わせ#数字の暗記
Reading 7 as な is not exactly a 'reading'. It is just shortened for the resulting reading to make sense. In case you are not aware, 3776 is ...
- 37.6k
4
votes
Is sire (しれ) attested in Old Japanese texts as a pronoun?
(o2 is reconstructed phonetically by Bjarke Frellesvig as /o/ and by Alexander Vovin as /ǝ/.)
Alexander Vovin (2020, "A Descriptive and Comparative Grammar of Western Old Japanese", page ...
- 1,946
3
votes
Accepted
だ versus な in causal subordinate clauses
This explanation is tautological but I just have to say it's because から follows a terminal form, which of the copula is だ while の is a kind of noun, which needs an attributive form to be modified, ...
- 16.6k
3
votes
Accepted
Is there a good explanation for the forms 大きな, 小さな and 多くの?
大きな is the 連体形 (attributive form) of an old na-adjective おおきなり, and only the attributive form is used in the present day. 小さな, おかしな are also the same thing. They are analyzed as pre-noun adjectivals.
...
- 24.3k
3
votes
If it's okay to remove the punctuation in a modern text format of Kojiki (古事記)
I am mystified why this wasnot mentioned before, but the first challenge to read the Kojiki in the original is that the original is not any stage of Japanese at all. The book is made in Classical ...
- 2,398
3
votes
Question about verbs in Old Japanese
The capitalized Old Japanese (上代日本語) certainly has two vowel-stem types of verbs that yield today's -eru/-iru verbs respectively. However, it's not accurate to say they end in -e/-i because the ...
- 52.3k
3
votes
Etymological Connection Between 帽子, 眸子 and 牟子
牟子(むし) is a conical hat of straw or reeds with a gauze veil hanging from the brim. The veil is the defining feature: in the story the priest says 「女は牟子を垂れて居りましたから、顔はわたしにはわかりません」 "The woman was wearing ...
- 3,051
3
votes
Older Japanese had much fewer particles (助詞)? -- The modern "use ALL the particles" written style
When did we start wanting to put particles on everything ?
In the context of "proper writing" I think the push for precision and predictability is a common feature that many written ...
- 7,431
3
votes
What kind of Japanese "dialect" is this?
Many Buddhist prayers and chants aren't really understood by most Japanese people (except perhaps monks and scholars). I've attended Buddhist temples and ceremonies in Japan and Taiwan and they use ...
- 1,378
3
votes
3
votes
Accepted
五 without the top stroke in Edo period Japanese
This is an alternative form of the character 五【ご】 ("five"), as you correctly surmised. The entry at the English Wiktionary currently only lists this as used in Chinese, but the ...
- 38.1k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible