Old Japanese
| Old Japanese | |
|---|---|
| 上代日本語 | |
| Region | Japan |
| Era | Evolved into Early Middle Japanese during the Heian period |
|
Japonic
|
|
| Chinese characters and Man'yōgana | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | |
|
Linguist list
|
ojp |
| Glottolog | oldj1239 |
Old Japanese (上代日本語 Jōdai Nihon-go?) is the oldest attested stage of the Japanese language. It was spoken by the Japanese ethnic group from an unknown beginning point until it evolved into Early Middle Japanese in the eighth century, during the Heian period, although the precise separation of these two languages is controversial. Old Japanese was an early member of the Japonic family; no conclusive links to other language families have been drawn.
Old Japanese was written using Chinese characters, using an increasingly standardized and phonetic form that eventually evolved into man'yōgana. Typically for a Japonic language and for a step in the evolutionary line of modern Japanese, Old Japanese was a primarily agglutinative language with subject–object–verb word ordering. However, the language was marked by a few phonemic differences from later forms of Japanese, such as an eschewing of diphthongs. It distinguished between a few pairs of syllables with identical pronunciations—a phenomenon known as Jōdai Tokushu Kanazukai—but the function of this differentiation is not known.
Linguistic changes are gradual, and the periodization of Japanese is "both delicate and controversial", with multiple competing methods and criteria for division. For both practical and conventional reasons, these divisions often correlate to political events.
The lower boundary, i.e. the latest possible date for the end of the Old Japanese period, is AD 794, when the capital Heijōkyō moved to Heiankyō. However, the upper boundary is more difficult. A limited number of Japanese words, mostly personal names and place names, are recorded phonetically in ancient Chinese texts such as the "Wei Zhi" portion of the Records of the Three Kingdoms (3rd century AD). Wooden tablets and relics with fragments of text written on them have also been excavated. However, the first extant written text of substantial length is the Kojiki of 712. Without necessarily excluding such fragmentary early evidence, the upper boundary is generally discussed as from circa 712 for practical reasons. This coincides well with the Nara period (710-794). A more formal dating would not recognize an upper boundary and merely date it as through 794.
...
Wikipedia