Region Japan | Glottolog None | |
Era Evolved into Modern Japanese in the mid-19th century Language family Japonic
Japanese
Early Modern Japanese Early forms Old Japanese
Early Middle Japanese
Late Middle Japanese
Early Modern Japanese Writing system Hiragana, Katakana, and Han | ||
Early Modern Japanese (近世日本語, kinsei nihongo) is a stage of the Japanese language following Middle Japanese and preceding Modern Japanese. It is a period of transition in which the language sheds many of its medieval characteristics and becomes closer to its modern form.
Contents
- Background
- Vowels
- Long vowels
- Consonants
- Labialization
- Palatalization
- Prenasalization
- Verbs
- Adjectives
- References
The period spanned roughly 250 years extending from the 17th century through half of the 19th century. Politically, this generally corresponds with the Edo period.
Background
At the beginning of the 17th century, the center of government moved to Edo from Kamigata under the control of the Tokugawa shogunate. Until the early Edo period, the Kamigata dialect, the ancestor of the modern Kansai dialect, was the most influential dialect. However, since the late Edo period, the Edo dialect, the ancestor of the modern Tokyo dialect, became the most influential dialect, during the time in which the country closed its borders to foreigners. Compared to the previous centuries, the Tokugawa rule brought about much stability. The newfound stability made the importance of the warrior class gradually fall, to be replaced by the merchant class. There was much economic growth, and new forms of artistic developments appeared such as Ukiyo-e, Kabuki, and Bunraku. This included new literary genres such as Ukiyozōshi, Sharebon (pleasure districts), Kokkeibon (commoners), and Ninjōbon developed. Major authors included Ihara Saikaku, Chikamatsu Monzaemon, Matsuo Bashō, Shikitei Sanba, and Santō Kyōden.
Vowels
There were five vowels: /i, e, a, o, u/.
During Middle Japanese, word-initial /e/ and /o/ were realized with the semivowels [j] and [w] preceding the vowel, respectively. Both were realized as simple vowels by the middle of the 18th century.
The high vowels /i, u/ become voiceless [i̥, ɯ̥] between voiceless consonants or the end of the word. This is noted in a number of foreign texts:
Long vowels
Middle Japanese had two types of long o: [ɔː] and [oː]. During this period, both of these merged into [oː] by first half of the 17th century. During the transition, instances of ɔː temporarily had a tendency to become short in Kamigata dialect
In addition, each of the other vowels could be lengthened because of various contractions in Edo dialect. Most continue to be used in Modern Japanese of both Tokyo and the rest of the Kanto region but are not part of Standard Japanese.
The long /uː/ was developed during Middle Japanese and remains unchanged.
Consonants
Middle Japanese had the following consonant inventory:
/t, s, z, h/ each have a number of allophones found before the high vowels [i, ɯ]:
Several major developments occurred:
Middle Japanese had a syllable final -t. This is gradually replaced with the open syllable /tu/.
Labialization
The labial /kwa, gwa/ merge with their non-labial counterparts into [ka, ga].
Palatalization
The consonants /s, z/, /t/, /n/, /h, b/, /p/, /m/, and /r/ could be palatalized.
Depalatalization may also be seen in the Edo dialect:
Prenasalization
Middle Japanese had a series of prenasalized voiced plosives and fricatives: [ŋɡ, nz, nd, mb]. During this stage they lose their prenasalization resulting in ɡ, z, d, b.
Verbs
Early Modern Japanese has five verbal conjugations:
As already had already begun during Middle Japanese, the verbal morphology system continues to evolve. The total number of verb classes is reduced from nine to five. Specifically, the r-irregular and n-irregular regularize as quadrigrade, and the upper and lower bigrade classes merge with their respective monograde. This leaves the quadrigrade, upper monograde, lower monograde, k-irregular, s-irregular.
Adjectives
There were two types of adjectives: regular adjectives and adjectival nouns.
Historically the adjective was sub-classified into two types: those where the adverbial form ends in -ku and those that end in –siku. That distinction is lost during this stage.
Historically the adjectival noun was sub-classified into two categories: -nar and -tar. During this stage, -tar vanishes leaving only -na.