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Early Middle Japanese

Early Middle Japanese
中古日本語
Region Japan
Era Evolved into Late Middle Japanese at the end of the 12th century
Japonic
Early forms
Old Japanese
  • Early Middle Japanese
Hiragana, Katakana, and Han
Language codes
ISO 639-3 (Old Japanese)
Linguist list
ojp Described as "The ancestor of modern Japanese. 7th–10th centuries AD." The more usual date for the change from Old Japanese to Middle Japanese is ca. 800 (end of the Nara era).
Glottolog None
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters.

Early Middle Japanese (中古日本語 chūko nihongo?) is a stage of the Japanese language used between 794 and 1185, a time known as the Heian Period. It is the successor to Old Japanese. It is also known as Late Old Japanese, but the term "Early Middle Japanese" is preferred, as it is closer to Late Middle Japanese (after 1185) than to Old Japanese (before 794).

Whereas Old Japanese borrowed and adapted the Chinese script to write Japanese, during the Early Middle Japanese period two new scripts emerge: kana scripts hiragana and katakana. This development simplified writing and brought about a new age in literature with such classics as Genji Monogatari, Taketori Monogatari, Ise Monogatari and many others.

Major phonological changes are a characteristic of this period.

The most prominent difference is the loss of Jōdai Tokushu Kanazukai, which distinguished between two types of -i, -e, and -o. While the beginnings of this loss can already be seen at the end of Old Japanese, it is completely lost early in Early Middle Japanese. The final phonemes to be lost are /ko1/ and /ko2/.

During the 10th century, /e/ and /je/ merge into /je/ while /o/ and /wo/ merge into /wo/ by the 11th century.

An increase in Chinese loanwords had a number of phonological effects:

The development of the uvular nasal and geminated consonants occurred late in the Heian period and brought about the introduction of closed syllables (CVC).

Other changes include:


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Wikipedia

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