Old Japanese: a phonetic reconstruction

t d n r

Palatal

s z

Velar

Glottal

k g

($ )

y

(2) -y- after any consonant except y or w and before non-palatal vowels (a, u, o):
Go-on syau ‘sound,’
Go-on syu ‘hand,’
Go-on syo ‘book.’ The pre-1945 SJ orthography has only one true ‘final’ consonant, the mora nasal -n, which corresponds to both m and n in SX and other Chinese languages. Note that non-SJ palatal and velar nasals ( ã, Y) do not correspond to SJ -n. The early OJ equivalents of MC *-m and *-n merged into the mora nasal -n /N/ by the late Heian Period (Martin 1987: 75). Prior to this merger, MC *-m was written with kana for mu. Although both MC *-m and MC *-n words are written with -n in the standardized pre-1945 SJ orthography, Tôdô’s (1978) SJ dictionary, the source of most of the SJ readings in this book, distinguishes them by using SJ -mu for MC *-m words and SJ -n for MC *-n words. The vowel inventory of SJ (Table 5.2) is as minimal as the consonant inventory. The pre-1945 kana orthography for SJ readings reflects the fivevowel system of EMJ and subsequent stages of Japanese, not the earlier ‘eight-vowel’ system of OJ. These five vowels combine to form a few orthographic diphthongs. Most of these diphthongs are pronounced as long vowels or glide-long vowel combinations in MSJ (Table 5.3). Notice that I have placed the diphthong oi in parentheses. When checking through the reading indexes of three large SJ dictionaries (Tôdô 1978, Morohashi et al. 1981–82, Morohashi et al. 1992), I found only one SJ reading with -oi, Tô-Sô-on (p. 107) boi for
Go-on bai < EMC *bRyh / Kan-on hai < *p®ayh ‘dry over heat’ in Morohashi et al. (1981–82). Apparently there are no Go-on or Kan-on readings with -oi. This gap in the Go-on and Kan-on inventory of finals will turn out to be helpful later on when I reconstruct the phonetic value of OJ ey on p. 227. Table 5.2 The vowels of pre-1945 SJ orthography Front High Mid Low

Central

i e

Back u o

a

102

OLD CHINESE, MIDDLE CHINESE, AND SINOXENIC

Table 5.3 The diphthongs of pre-1945 SJ orthography i a i u e o

ai

u MSJ [ai]

ui MSJ [ui] ei MSJ [ee]~[ei] (oi) MSJ [oi]

au iu uu eu ou

MSJ MSJ MSJ MSJ MSJ

[oo] [yuu] [uu] [yoo] [oo]

None of the diphthongs in Table 5.3 can appear before SJ renderings of MC final consonants (-hu, -ti/tu, -n, -ki/ku, -i/u). SJ readings have the following structure: (5.3) C1(G)V(C 2) C1 = initials G = glides V = vowels C 2 = the various SJ counterparts of MC final consonants: (a) the mora nasal n (b) the vowels {i, u} (forming the diphthongs in Table 5.3) (c) the CV sequences {hu, (mu), ti/tu, ki/ku} Although the above discussion may imply that SJ is but a pale reflection of Chinese, one must realize that the SJ of pre-1945 orthography is not the same as the SJ of the OJ period. Go-on and Kan-on did not always render multiple Chinese finals with a single Japanese final. The pre-1945 kana orthography I use for SJ reflects the five-vowel system of post-OJ, not the vowel systems of the Japanese who borrowed Go-on and Kan-on. We do not know for certain when the pre-OJ six-vowel system became the OJ ‘eight-vowel’ system, but it is possible that Go-on was borrowed by fifthand sixth-century Japanese who distinguished between eight ‘vowels.’ We do know that the OJ of the seventh and eighth century had an ‘eight-vowel’ system, so the Japanese of that period must have used some or all of their eight ‘vowels’ to imitate the vowels of Chang’an LMC. Unfortunately, we have no dictionaries of SJ compiled during the OJ period. We cannot assume that OJ phonogram readings and OJ Go-on or OJ Kan-on readings were the same. OJ phonogram writing was an attempt to write the syllables of one language (OJ) with symbols originally meant to represent the syllables of another language (Chinese). There is no guarantee that each OJ syllable had an approximate equivalent in the syllabic inventory of OJ period SJ, System D (Sino-Paekche), or System E (Chang’an LMC). Even if we did know OJ period SJ readings, we could not solve the problem of the reconstruction of OJ by reading phonograms in OJ period SJ. There 103

OLD JAPANESE

is no guarantee that all native OJ syllables occurred in OJ period SJ. Furthermore, to read phonograms in OJ period SJ, we would have to know the phonetic values of OJ consonants and ‘vowels.’ It would be circular to use ‘OJ period SJ readings’ based on our assumptions about OJ phonetics to reconstruct OJ phonetics. We must reconstruct OJ before we can reconstruct OJ period SJ. We have to know what sounds the ancient Japanese had at their disposal in order to figure out how they pronounced SJ. To avoid circularity, we can use only Go-on and Kan-on readings which have been attested in kana after the OJ period to aid us in the reconstruction of OJ. SJ will not play a major role in my reconstruction because SV and SK preserved more MC phonological distinctions than either Go-on or Kan-on. Hence SV and SK are better approximations of MC than SJ. Furthermore, as I will demonstrate in the following sections, SJ, SK, and SV share many features but also have several differences which are not the result of Vietnamese, Korean, or Japanese-internal sound changes. They reflect similar but not identical dialects of Chinese from various regions and periods. Among the branches of SX, only SJ ‘descends’ from Systems D and E, the foundations of OJ orthography. Thus we cannot ignore SJ if we are to understand the orthography of Kojiki and Shoki poetry. Go-on ‘Go-on’ literally means ‘sounds of Wu.’ ‘Wu’ refers to Jiankang (modern Nanjing), the capital of several states during the Six Dynasties period (Pulleyblank 1991a: 3). The term may imply that Go-on – and Systems B through D – derive from southern LOC and EMC. Although Go-on consists of the earliest surviving strata of SJ, it probably does not constitute the earliest layer of loans in Japanese. I have already dealt with the phonology of these ‘pre-Sino-Japanese’ (PSJ) loans in pre-OJ in depth in Miyake (1997), so I will not say anything more about them here. The earliest layer of true SJ loans according to the definition in Section 5.3 may date from the fifth century, when Paekche scholars such as ‘Achiki’ and ‘Wani’ taught System B to the early Japanese (p. 9). I suspect that System B was actually early Sino-Paekche based on Middle Late Old Chinese (MLOC) rather than MLOC itself (pp. 9 and 11). Thus this first layer may have been a Japanese attempt to imitate Paekche imitations of Chinese. Later layers of Go-on may have been imitations of newer versions of SinoPaekche and/or EMC (i.e., Systems C and D). Many Go-on readings were lost after the importation of Kan-on (p. 105). Yet we find Go-on readings for every single character in SJ dictionaries (kanwa jiten). Lexicographers have invented what I call ‘pseudo-Go-on’ on the basis of fanqie (Miller 1967: 106, Tôdô 1980: 168). Go-on readings in today’s SJ dictionaries are a mix of genuine borrowings from Systems B through D and what Miller (1967: 106) calls “linguistic ghosts.” It is often 104

OLD CHINESE, MIDDLE CHINESE, AND SINOXENIC

difficult if not impossible to sort out which readings are real and which readings are imaginary. I have yet to see two SJ dictionaries whose Go-on readings match completely. I have relied mostly upon Tôdô (1978) for the SJ readings of the Kojiki and Shoki phonograms in Appendices C and D. The great Japanese Sinologist Tôdô (1978: 1) openly admits in his introduction that some of his SJ readings are artificial: “Even in cases whenever readings are not found in Japanese language data, I have indicated them, inferring the Go-on and Kan-on readings from homophonous characters in Guangyun and Yunjing.” Unfortunately, he does not indicate which readings in the body of his dictionary were inferred from homophones in Guangyun or Yunjing. If I could not find Go-on readings in Tôdô (1978), I obtained them from Morohashi (1955– 60), Morohashi et al. (1981–82), or Morohashi et al. (1992), knowing that all of these dictionaries contained pseudo-Go-on readings. A truly honest SJ dictionary would have many sinographs listed without Go-on and/or Kan-on readings. Tôdô (1980: 168) himself gives some good advice about how to avoid pseudo-Go-on and pseudo-Kan-on: “To use Kan-on and Go-on as data for the history of Chinese phonology, it is best for us to limit ourselves to old materials with glosses for character readings or specific vocabulary items which have been transmitted such as
 tousai ‘east and west,’
 kyaudai ‘brothers,’ and
 rokusyau ‘green rust on copper.’ ” I agree with Tôdô. I believe that a comprehensive study of the Japanese lexicon through time as well as the study of old SJ glosses would be necessary to determine the true SJ readings of characters. But since SJ plays a limited role in my reconstruction, for the time being I will use the SJ readings of Tôdô (1978), Morohashi (1955–60), Morohashi et al. (1981–82), and Morohashi et al. (1992). Kan-on ‘Kan-on’ literally means ‘sounds of Han’ or ‘Chinese sounds.’ After the Sui unified China in 581, they and their Tang successors ruled the country from Chang’an. The once marginal dialect of Chang’an in the northwest rose to prominence while the once prestigious dialect of Jiankang (modern Nanjing) in the east declined. This shift of status was not immediate. Intellectuals from the east and south came to the new capital during the Sui Dynasty, bringing their dialects with them (Pulleyblank 1984: 61; Coblin 1994: 9–10). Although Lu Fayan compiled Qieyun (p. 93) in Chang’an, neither he nor the scholars who discussed rhyming with him were natives of the northwest (Pulleyblank 1962: 64, Malmqvist 1973: 14, Coblin 1994: 9–10). Thus the Japanese missions who began to arrive in Chang’an in the early seventh century encountered not only the local dialect but also transplanted 105

OLD JAPANESE

dialects from other regions. The Japanese initially had no motivation to adopt the local dialect as a new basis for their sinograph pronunciations. They could still hear the ‘sounds of Wu’ in the speech of upper-class immigrants. Perhaps the Japanese learned the last stratum of Go-on in Chang’an. But eventually the ‘sounds of Wu’ lost their former lustre. As previously mentioned, Yan Shigu made a distinction between ‘light lip sounds’ and ‘heavy lip sounds’ in the fanqie glosses of his commentary to the Han shu (History of the Han), completed in 641 CE (Coblin 1994: 34–35). The ‘sounds of Wu’ brought to Chang’an by the first generation of eastern and southern scholars were being rejected or even forgotten by later generations who regarded them as “provincial and substandard” (Pulleyblank 1991a: 3). The term ‘sounds of Wu’ was “somewhat pejorative” (Pulleyblank 1984: 154). Tôdô (1980: 166) notes that even Qieyun was “slandered” because it represented the old-fashioned ‘sounds of Wu.’ Oddly, the Japanese did not use the term current in China itself for the speech of Chang’an, ‘sounds of Qin,’ which would have been Sin-in in Kan-on. ‘Qin’ referred to the extremely short-lived but also extremely infamous Qin Dynasty (221–206 BCE) that had unified the ‘warring states’ of China. The Qin capital was in Xianyang, only ten kilometers away from Chang’an (Tôdô 1978: 1663). I suspect that ‘Kan-on’ (‘sounds of Han’) may have been a reference to the Western Han Dynasty (202 BCE– 8 CE), whose capital had been in Chang’an itself. ‘Han’ could also refer to China as a whole, so the term ‘Kan-on’ could have emphasized the direct Chinese origins of the latest sinograph pronunciation. Go-on were just imitations of Korean imitations, but Kan-on were imitations of the real thing. When Nihon shoki was being compiled in the late seventh and early eighth centuries, scribes used the ‘real thing’ – System E, the Chang’an dialect of LMC (CLMC) – as the basis of their transcriptions of Japanese poetry. Some scribes were more familiar with CLMC than others. Hence we see different degrees of retentions from SDBT in different volumes of Shoki (p. 57). Mori (1991) has divided Shoki into two strata, ‘alpha’ and ‘beta.’ The ‘alpha section’ poetry has fewer SDBT retentions than the ‘beta section’ poetry. Mori (1991) believes that the division between the two strata are clear-cut, but I see the key characteristics of Kan-on and System-E-based transcription (SEBT) in both strata of Shoki: (1) The use of CLMC prenasalized obstruents to represent OJ voiced obstruents: CLMC *mb for OJ b, CLMC *nd for OJ d, etc. Cf. the sound correspondences between CLMC prenasalized obstruents and OJ voiced obstruents: CLMC *mb : Kan-on b, CLMC *nd : Kan-on d, etc. (2) The use of CLMC ‘muddy’ obstruents (reconstructed with *® by Pulleyblank 1984: 68) to represent OJ voiceless as well as voiced obstruents: CLMC *p® for OJ p, CLMC *t® for OJ t, etc. Cf. the sound correspondences 106

OLD CHINESE, MIDDLE CHINESE, AND SINOXENIC

between CLMC ‘muddy’ initials and Kan-on voiceless obstruents: CLMC *p® : Kan-on h, CLMC *t® : Kan-on t, etc. (3) The absence of phonograms used for their OC sound values. Although SDBT and the majority of Go-on were more or less contemporary, phonograms such as
EH *kye / EMC *ciR > Go-on si ‘branch’ for OJ kyi and
EH *tyRq / EMC *ctq > Go-on si ‘stop’ for OJ to were still in use as late as the eighth century (Ôno Tôru 1962: 141). Such archaic phonograms are completely absent from Shoki. (4) The use of phonograms of the
‘genitive’ rhyme solely for OJ syllables ending either in -i or -iy. Go-on and SDBT readings for
‘genitive’ rhyme characters end either in i-like vowels or in o-like vowels, whereas Kan-on and SEBT readings of
‘genitive’ rhyme characters end only in i-like vowels. I will conclude this section with a note on ‘pseudo-Kan-on.’ Although Kan-on is the dominant variety of SJ today, there are some sinographs whose Kan-on readings (a) were forgotten or (b) were never transmitted to Japan. Thus lexicographers have supplied these sinographs with Kan-on ‘readings’ generated on the basis of fanqie (cf. the pseudo-Go-on on p. 104). Some lexicographers even altered attested Kan-on readings to fit preconceived notions about Kan-on: e.g., changing
Kan-on mei ‘bright’ to pseudo-Kan-on bei so that there are no Kan-on readings with nasal initials (Miller 1967: 106). Fortunately, my sources for SJ (Tôdô 1978, Morohashi 1955–60, Morohashi et al. 1981–82, and Morohashi et al. 1992) do not alter attested readings. Nevertheless, SJ data from dictionaries can be used only with great caution. Other strata The importation of Chinese readings into Japan did not stop with the Kan-on of the late seventh and early eighth centuries. The Japanese court continued to send missions to Tang China until 838. Even after the court severed its official relations with the deteriorating Tang in the late ninth century (Varley 1984: 54, 75), Japanese continued to go to China. They learned late Tang and Northern Song (960–1127 CE) readings which Tôdô (1980: 172) calls “New Kan-on” (Shin Kan-on). But this New Kan-on never caught on in Japan. For example, New Kan-on
 hosa < Northern Song *pho saq ‘bodhisattva’ did not replace the established Go-on word bosatsu. Practically no New Kan-on pronunciations survive in MSJ. One cannot even find genuine or fake New Kan-on pronunciations in dictionaries. After New Kan-on came various strata collectively known as ‘Tô-Sô-on’ (lit. ‘sounds of Tang and Song’). The term ‘Tô-Sô-on’ is somewhat misleading since the Tang Dynasty had long since fallen by the time Sôtô and Rinzai Zen monks brought back the readings that they had learned in the Southern Song (1127–1279) capital of Hangzhou (Tôdô 1978: 1587). ‘Tô-Sô-on’ can refer to any SJ readings later than Go-on and Kan-on, though in the strictest 107

OLD JAPANESE

sense it refers to borrowings from late Northern Song and early Yuan (Tôdô 1980: 174). Even though Tô-Sô-on never seriously threatened Kan-on or Go-on, a number of Tô-Sô-on words such as
 isu (cf. Go-on and Kan-on *isi) are still common in MSJ. Note that Tô-Sô-on -u in words such as
su ‘child; nominal suffix’ corresponds to -i in Kan-on and Go-on. This word belonged to the EMC
*-t ‘genitive’ rhyme. Late EMC had merged the EMC
*-iR ‘branch,’
*-i ‘fat,’ and
*-t ‘genitive’ rhymes into a single rhyme *-i which persisted into early LMC. Hence the later stratum of Go-on and Kan-on as a whole render these rhymes with -i. Early LMC *-i then became some sort of non-palatal vowel after sibilants (*s, *s®, *ts, *tsh, *ts®, *Z, *Z®) in late LMC. Pulleyblank reconstructs this vowel as *rC before retroflex sibilants (*Z, *Z®) and as *zC before dental sibilants (*s, *s®, *ts, *tsh, *ts®). (5.4) *i > *i >

*rC / *zC /

C_# C_#

C = {*Z, *Z®} C = {*s, *s®, *ts, *tsh, *ts®}

I prefer to reconstruct this vowel as *t in both environments: (5.5) *i >

*t

/

C_#

C = {*s, *s®, *ts, *tsh, *ts®, *Z, *Z®}

Regardless of which reconstruction is correct, all evidence points toward a non-palatal vowel for prestige dialects of late LMC. SK, SV, and the literary layers of nearly all modern Chinese languages have non-palatal vowels for words of the early LMC *-i rhyme with retroflex and dental sibilants: (5.6)
‘child’

Early Late SK LMC LMC *tsi *tst co [ts£]

SV

Md

Literary Taiwanese tO [ttt] zh [ts)] chu3 [tsu]

Colloquial readings of characters in southern Chinese languages still preserve the earlier *-i:
Literary Taiwanese su 5 < LMC *st ‘four’ corresponds to Colloquial Taiwanese si 5 < pre-LMC *si. OSV also preserves pre-LMC *i:
SV tO [ttt] < LMC *tst ‘child’ corresponds to OSV tí [tii] (Wang 1958: 380). Although this discussion may seem completely irrelevant, I must point out this phenomenon for two reasons: (1) Non-palatal vowels for words of the early LMC *-i rhyme with retroflex and dental sibilants are late Tang innovations. Knowing this will help us to date SK and SV in the next two sections (pp. 109 and 117). (2) In Chapter 8, we will see many cases of SK -o [£] and SV -e [tt] corresponding to OJ -i. Knowing that the rhymes SK -o [£] and SV -e [tt] reflect an innovation (*i > *t) which occurred after the borrowing of Go-on 108

OLD CHINESE, MIDDLE CHINESE, AND SINOXENIC

and Kan-on will help us to avoid misinterpreting them as evidence for nonpalatal pronunciations of OJ i (e.g., *[£] or *[t] ). Sino-Korean (SK) Unlike Japan, the Korean peninsula is directly adjacent to China. Contact between the non-Chinese tribes of the peninsula and the Chinese of the mainland was inevitable. Weiman (Korean Wiman) of the northeastern Chinese state of Yan took over the northern part of the peninsula circa the third century CE. The Western Han invaded this territory and founded four colonies in 108 BCE. The natives of the north may have been exposed to Western and Eastern Han Dynasty Chinese for several centuries. The Chinese never did dominate the entire peninsula. The king of the tribal state of Koguryo (Jpn Kôkuri) was crowned by the Chinese in the first century CE. Koguryo destroyed the last of the Chinese colonies in 313 CE. To the southwest and southeast of Koguryo, Paekche (Jpn Kudara) and Silla (Jpn Shiragi) emerged as states in the third and fourth centuries CE. The enigmatic tribal confederation of Kaya (Jpn Mimana) was formed on the southern coast between these two states. The peninsula was entirely under native rule by the fourth century CE (Lewin 1973: 22, Ki-baik Lee 1980: 507, Haewoo Lee 1994: 208–209). Each of these states probably had its own language. Although independent from China, the ‘Three Kingdoms’ of the peninsula – Koguryo, Paekche, and Silla – imported Chinese culture and sent missions to the various Chinese states during the Six Dynasties Period (Yu 1991). I believe that LOC and EMC dialects of this period formed the basis of ‘Old Sino-Korean’ (OSK): Sino-Koguryo, Sino-Paekche, and Sino-Silla. (If Sino-Kaya existed, it too would have been based on LOC and EMC.) Best (1983: 146) claims that Paekche was recognized as “the most culturally sophisticated of the Three Kingdoms.” Even the Chinese “were speaking respectfully of the accomplishments of Paekche’s [Confucian] scholars.” Paekche men of learning such as ‘Wani’ and ‘Achiki’ spread their knowledge of Chinese language and culture and Buddhism to their Japanese allies in the southeast. Perhaps the early Systems underlying Go-on and the bulk of Japanese transcriptions apart from Shoki were based on various strata of their Sino-Paekche pronunciations rather than on LOC and EMC dialects. Paekche was ultimately doomed. Its ally Japan was no match for the new Tang Dynasty. Intent on expanding into the peninsula, the Tang forged an alliance with Silla, which had already conquered Kaya in the sixth century. With the help of the Tang, Silla defeated Paekche in 663 CE and Koguryo in 668 CE, thereby unifying the peninsula for the first time. Paekche and Koguryo refugees “played a vital role as scribes, craftsmen, and artists in the advancement of culture and civilization in Japan” (Varley 1984: 22). Their languages died out, but the final stages of their branches of SX may live on in the form of Go-on. Since students from all of the Three 109

OLD JAPANESE

Kingdoms had gone to the Tang capital of Chang’an in the seventh century (Haewoo Lee 1994: 220), it is also possible that these Paekche and Koguryo refugees taught CLMC (System E) to the Japanese. Unified Silla (668–935) borrowed a new system of character readings from northern LMC which formed the core of Sino-Korean proper. Old Korean, the Silla language, was related to the ancestor of the Early Middle Korean (EMK) of Koryo (935–1392), the Late Middle Korean (LMK) of the fifteenth century, and modern Korean (Vovin 1996b). This section will briefly outline what little is known about the varieties of OSK, sketch the phonology of SK, and attempt to determine the origins of SK. Since I am only using SK evidence for this book, I will not discuss aspects of Korean historical phonology which are not relevant to SK. Old Sino-Korean (OSK) ‘Old Sino-Korean’ refers to all of the branches of SX of the Korean peninsula prior to its unification in 668 CE: Sino-Koguryo, Sino-Paekche, Sino-Silla, and possibly Sino-Kaya. Practically nothing is known about Sino-Kaya at this point, so I will not mention it again. Our knowledge of the other three varieties of OSK is not much better. Like the Japanese prior to the eighth century, the peoples of the Three Kingdoms used phonograms to record proper nouns. The degree of overlap between Paekche and Japanese phonograms is striking and confirms the Paekche origins of Japanese writing (Bentley 2001). Toh (1977, 1981, 1984, 1985, 1987), Lyu (1983), Yu (1991), Eom (1991, 1994), Ryu (1994), Bentley (1998b, 2001) are some of the many studies on Three Kingdoms phonograms and OSK. Unfortunately, most of these studies with the exception of Bentley (1998b, 2001) suffer from four problems. (1) Most scholars seem to assume that OSK readings and the readings of phonograms in transcriptions were identical. But this was not the case in Japan, and it may not have been the case in Korea. The aims of SX and sinographic transcription necessitate different readings. SX is meant to mimic Chinese, whereas sinographic transcription is meant to record non-Chinese sounds with phonograms representing the nearest Chinese equivalents. Unless the syllabic inventories of a variety of Chinese (or its SX incarnation) and a non-Chinese language perfectly match, compromise is inevitable in transcription. (2) To know how much compromise is involved, we must know something about the phonotactics of Chinese and the languages of the Three Kingdoms. Unfortunately, Koguryo and Paekche are extinct, so we cannot draw upon any modern data from them. Silla is the ancestor of Old Korean (OK; see below), but our knowledge of OK phonology is shaky. Thus we must look at LOC and EMC phonotactics to understand what choices were available for the scribes of the Three Kingdoms. 110

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Yet no one has ever analyzed the transcriptions of the Three Kingdoms with an understanding of the phonotactics of earlier Chinese. It seems that scholars assume that OC and MC had more than enough syllables to render nonChinese languages, even though there are gaps in the syllabic inventory of Chinese that prevent exact matches between Chinese and non-Chinese syllables. (3) If we want to understand the phonotactics of earlier Chinese, we need to work with the best available Chinese reconstructions. But apart from Bentley (1998b, 2001), all scholars in this field use outdated Karlgrenian reconstructions. (4) Some scholars superimpose assumptions upon the actual evidence. Believing that all Altaic languages have vowel harmony,3 Kiyose (1991) reconstructs vowel harmony for the languages of the Three Kingdoms, even though the phonograms’ Chinese readings do not support his reconstructions. For example, he reconstructs Koguryo
 LOC *koq sye ‘gem’ as *kösi with a front rounded vowel *ö absent in the LOC reading of the phonogram
LOC *koq ‘old’ (1991: 262). One must value evidence over one’s own assumptions. Even if one did avoid all four of the problems listed above, one still would be far from reconstructing all but the vaguest picture of the various branches of OSK. Since not all initial and final classes are represented in the transcriptions, we would have no idea how the branches of OSK rendered certain LOC and EMC initials and finals. Furthermore, we do not know enough about phonological differences between LOC dialects to determine the Chinese dialectal origins of the peninsular branches of SX. Yu (1991: 66) theorizes that Sino-Koguryo is based on the Chinese of the northern kingdom of Wei while Eom (1991: 11) theorizes that Sino-Paekche is based on southern Chinese, but these theories cannot be verified at the present time. Since so little is known about OSK, I will not use OSK evidence when I reconstruct OJ in Chapters 7 and 8. Sino-Korean proper (SK) After Silla unified the Korean peninsula in 668 CE, Sino-Silla became the dominant and eventually the only variety of SX in the region. Late SinoKoguryo and late Sino-Paekche withered away along with the Koguryo and Paekche languages. The descendants of their speakers adopted the Silla language. Yi Kimun (1961: 22) refers to the language of Unified Silla as ‘Old Korean’ (OK). The Sino-Silla of OK was probably a multistratal mix of readings derived from LOC, EMC, and LMC. Traces of the earlier strata may be found in three early types of Korean orthography: hyangchal (‘local letters’) itwu (‘clerk readings’), and kwukyel (‘oral formulae’).4 These extinct writing systems are beyond the scope of this book. 111

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The newest stratum of Sino-Silla has survived up to the present day. Haewoo Lee (1994: 210) calls this stratum ‘Late Sino-Silla.’ I will call it ‘SK proper’ or simply ‘SK.’ Its dating is somewhat controversial. Haewoo Lee (1994: 207) has summarized six proposals for the origins of SK (Maspero 1920, Karlgren 1926, Arisaka 1936,5 Kôno 1964–67, Pak 1971, and Sin 1982). I will add two more views to Lee’s list, including Lee’s own view. (7) SK derives “from the northern Late Middle Chinese in about 7–8 centuries [sic], particularly from the new standard language of Changan [sic] in the period of Late Middle Chinese” (Haewoo Lee 1994: 207). (8) SK derives from four stages of Chinese: OC (before the second century CE), MC (circa the seventh century), Old Mandarin (circa the fourteenth century), and modern Mandarin (Eom 1998: 326). I will summarize my own view below. Modern SK is multistratal. A few readings are OC-based relics:
SK kay ‘general object classifier’ < Western Han *kaayh (cf. OSV cái [kaay] ‘id.’). Still others are from Old Mandarin (OM):
‘defeat’ has two SK readings, (1) pwuk < LMC *puRk and (2) pay < OM *pjy (Eom 1998: 332). There are a handful of readings of sinographs based on modern Mandarin (Eom 1998: 333) which I regard as ordinary borrowings rather than SK since they are extremely rare and unsystematic. Nonetheless the majority of SK readings – perhaps up to 95 per cent – are from LMC as claimed by Haewoo Lee and not from the EMC ‘language’ of Qieyun as claimed by Karlgren (1926), Pak (1971), or Sin (1982). I believe that SK represents a variety of northern Chinese somewhat newer than the variety reflected by Kan-on (p. 105). If Kan-on dates from the seventh century, then perhaps SK dates from the eighth century. Thus I am largely in agreement with Haewoo Lee (1994). Haewoo Lee (1994) gives four arguments for the Chang’an LMC origin of SK: (1) The z of fifteenth-century SK corresponds to Chang’an LMC *r which appears in Tibetan transcriptions as zh [9] (Luo 1933a). Lee assumes that the LMK letter ‘triangle’ transcribed as z in Yale romanization was actually a voiced fricative *z. However, this view has been challenged by Vovin (1993), who reconstructs z as a palatal nasal *ã mostly on the basis of Korean-internal evidence. Moreover, SK has nasals corresponding to Chang’an LMC prenasalized stops: SK m and n correspond to CLMC *mb and *nd. In this respect, SK resembles non-northwestern Chinese dialects which never developed Chang’an-style prenasalized stops. (2) SK has a medial glide -y- in Grade II words corresponding to Pulleyblank’s reconstruction of a medial glide *-y- in LMC Grade II words. However, a medial -y- is not found in CLMC-based Kan-on or in the Tibetan transcriptions of northwestern LMC. This implies that SK cannot derive from CLMC. (3) SK does not distinguish finals which were distinct in EMC. For example, SK, like Kan-on, generally has one equivalent (SK i) of the EMC 112

OLD CHINESE, MIDDLE CHINESE, AND SINOXENIC


*-iR ‘branch,’
*-i ‘fat,’ and
*-t ‘genitive’ rhymes. (SK -o [£] for these three rhymes corresponds to LMC *t. See (5.6).) Thus SK must be based on an LMC dialect which had merged these rhymes. For other examples of mergers reflected in SK, see Haewoo Lee (1994: 216–217). (4) The SK coda -l corresponds to the *-r of northwestern LMC rather than to the *-t of EMC and of southern LMC. The origin of SK -l is rather controversial. For a summary of various views, see Haewoo Lee (1994: 217– 220). Like Haewoo Lee (1994), Arisaka Hideyo (1957: 305), and Yi Kimun (1961: 56), I believe that SK -l reflects northern LMC *-r < EMC *-t rather than a lenition of southern LMC *-t. SK -l corresponds to -r in the Tibetan transcriptions of northwestern LMC and to -t(V) in Kan-on, SV, and southern Chinese languages: (5.7) SK -l

Tib. tr. of Kan-on S. LMC SV, Hakka, NW LMC Cnt, Taiwan -r -ti/-tu *-t -t

Note that Kan-on has -ti/-tu with -t- rather than -r-. Assuming that Kan-on -t- was *t in the seventh century, I believe that this -t- reflects early CLMC *-t which later became the later CLMC *-r attested in the Tibetan transcriptions. I have already eliminated a northwestern LMC origin for SK on the basis of the different treatments of nasals and Grade II in CLMC and SK. Moreover, I can eliminate a southern LMC origin for SK on the basis of the different treatments of *-t in the south and SK. Only northeastern LMC remains as a possible source for SK. However, Alexander Vovin (p.c.) has pointed out that it would make no sense for SK to be borrowed from the northeast, which was less culturally prestigious than the Tang capital of Chang’an in the northwest. At present I cannot reconcile this sociolinguistic observation with the isogloss evidence. Even if Haewoo Lee (1994: 210–211) is correct in assuming that the name reforms of King Kyengtek were based on SK proper, we have very little evidence for SK readings from the Unified Silla period up to the early Yi Dynasty in the fifteenth century. The situation improves immeasurably after the promulgation of the Korean hankul alphabet in 1446. We are blessed not only with the first alphabetic transcriptions of SK readings but also the first SK dictionary, the Tongkwuk cengwun (Correct Rhymes of the Eastern Nation, hereafter TKCW; 1447) which lists readings in hankul for thousands of characters arranged by their rhymes. But as its title implies, TKCW was intended to codify the ‘right’ readings for characters. When writing sinograph readings in hankul, one was supposed to use the readings in TKCW, not the actual readings that had been imported from China centuries ago during the Unified Silla period. The TKCW readings are an interesting blend of elements from the Chinese rhyme dictionaries and tables (pp. 93 and 96) on the one hand and actual SK 113

OLD JAPANESE

readings on the other. Samuel E. Martin (1997: 264) views the TKCW system of readings as “a reconstruction of Middle Chinese phonology in terms of the Korean sound system as represented by the hankul symbols.” Until recently, there has been a tendency to “dismiss the readings given in that dictionary as wholly artificial and prescriptive” but Kang (1997: 124– 125) sees TKCW as “an extremely valuable work not only for interpreting the Korean readings of Chinese characters, but also for understanding Middle Korean and the Korean alphabet in a much broader sense.” Kang (1997: 125–128) proves his point by demonstrating the close correlations between TKCW finals and the finals of the authentic SK preserved in fifteenthcentury spelling ‘mistakes’ and in the non-TKCW-based SK orthography of later centuries. But although I also think the true worth of TKCW has been grossly underestimated, no one can claim that the TKCW readings are genuine SK readings. Thus I will generally avoid citing TKCW readings in this book. Instead, I will use the SK readings taken from the Cenwun okphyen (Jewel Book of All Rhymes, hereafter CWOP) dictionary of c. 1796 which was modeled after the Chinese Kangxi zidian dictionary of 1716 CE (John Bentley, p.c.). Although CWOP was published over three hundred years after the first attested real SK readings in hankul, its orthography is extremely faithful to the post-TKCW SK orthography of the sixteenth century. I call this orthography the ‘premodern SK orthography’ as opposed to the prescriptive fifteenth-century TKCW SK orthography or the modern postwar SK orthography. All ‘SK’ forms in this book are cited in Yale romanizations of premodern SK spellings with premodern pronunciations. The premodern SK orthography originated as a phonetic transcription of actual SK pronunciations in the late fifteenth century without the artificial distinctions of TKCW or the pitch marks that were a feature of all early hankul writing. Despite changes in SK pronunciation, this orthography remained fairly stable during the Yi Dynasty and persisted into the Japanese colonial period. Many of the spellings in Choy Namsen’s Sin cacen (New Sinographic Dictionary) of 1915 are identical to those of earlier centuries, though Sin cacen also lists alternative spellings reflecting twentieth-century pronunciations. One can see numerous examples of the conservatism of early twentieth-century SK orthography by comparing the Sin cacen readings with those of CWOP and earlier works in Nam (1973). There is only one major difference between early and late premodern SK orthography. According to Nam (1973: 8, 183), the hankul letter z (LMK *[ ã] or *[z] ) used in the fifteenth-century TKCW orthography continued to be used in non-prescriptive SK orthography to the sixteenth century. Thereafter it was replaced by the hankul letter for a zero initial. Since CWOP was compiled in the eighteenth century, it does not distinguish between zero-initial and z-initial readings. Hence I will use TKCW and the pre-seventeenth-century SK readings collected by Nam (1973) in order to 114

OLD CHINESE, MIDDLE CHINESE, AND SINOXENIC

Table 5.4 SK consonants (after Kang Sinhang 1997: 119) Labial

Dental and palatal

Velar

Glottal

Unaspirated

p

t

c [ts]

k

(q) [}]

Aspirated

ph [ph]

th [th]

ch [tsh]

kh

h [kh]

‘Muddy’

( pp)

(tt)

(ss)

(cc)

(kk)

(hh)

Nasal

m

n

{z} {[z] or [ ã] }

Liquid or glide

w

l [r]/[l]

s

y

ng [Y] (zero)

(-lq)

determine whether characters listed in CWOP with zero initials were once read with initial z. I will now sketch the phonology of the SK recorded in premodern orthography with reference to the phonology of the SK of TKCW. Table 5.4 lists all of the consonants in TKCW and premodern SK orthography in Martin’s (1992) Yale romanization for LMK. Consonants found only in TKCW are given in parentheses. The z found in early premodern SK orthography is given in curly brackets ({}) to distinguish it from the prescriptive letters unique to TKCW. Since premodern SK orthography was based on the actual pronunciation of fifteenth-century SK, the SK sound values given here and elsewhere are those of the fifteenth century. All of the consonants in Table 5.4 are potential SK initials with the exception of -lq which occurs only as a coda (see below). The following peculiarities of the TKCW initials require explanation. (1) TKCW had a series of ‘muddy’ obstruents ( pp, tt, ss, cc, kk, hh) which corresponded to the ‘muddy’ obstruents listed in Yunjing and distinguished in fanqie from ‘clear’ and ‘second clear’ obstruents. The ‘muddy’ stops and affricates ( pp, tt, cc, kk) of TKCW corresponded to non-aspirates ( p, t, c, s, k) and aspirates ( ph, th, ch) in SK. The ‘muddy’ fricatives of TKCW (ss, hh) corresponded to the ordinary SK fricatives s and h. I will not speculate about how LMK speakers pronounced the TKCW ‘muddy’ initials here, though Kang (1997: 119) assumes that they were like the tense unaspirated obstruents of modern Korean ( pp, tt, ss, cc, kk). There are two modern SK readings with ss- and one with kk-, but these rare initials have nothing to do with TKCW or Chinese (Martin 1992: 112). (2) TKCW aspirates regularly correspond to Chinese aspirates. However, aspiration in authentic SK is unpredictable. (3) I have already noted that z ( [z] or [ ã] ) was not an artificial initial, since it could be found in real SK readings up to the sixteenth century. 115

OLD JAPANESE

Although it is absent from the orthography of CWOP, it can be restored on the basis of pre-seventeenth-century readings. (4) TKCW allowed ng in initial position. This ng- was meant to correspond to the Chinese initial
*Y ‘doubt,’ but TKCW often confuses ng- (GD ) with the zero initial (G) that is obligatory before vowels and glides without preceding consonants. Many cases of ng- in TKCW are unetymological. I suspect that the graphic similarity between the ng- and zero initial letters may have caused this confusion. I also doubt that many actually tried to pronounce the prescriptive initial ng- of TKCW. In premodern SK orthography, the letters for the TKCW initial ng and the zero initial became interchangeable symbols for phonetic zero in initial position. Thus the partly etymological ng-zero initial distinction of TKCW is completely absent from SK. (5) TKCW distinguishes between a glottal stop initial q- and the zero initial. Premodern SK orthography dispenses with this distinction entirely and replaces q- with the zero initial. TKCW and SK allow the following codas: (5.8) TKCW: -p SK: -p

-m -w -lq -n -m -$ -l -n

-y -k -y -k

-ng -ng

Both the SK of TKCW and the SK of the premodern orthography have a total of seven vowels whose phonetic interpretation has been extremely controversial (Table 5.5). The phonetic values given in Table 5.5 are identical to those of modern Korean, with the exception of o [£], which no longer exists; it has merged with a in SK readings. Note however that premodern diphthongs have been monophthongized in modern Korean: e.g., ay [ay] is now pronounced [ε]. Kim Wancin (1963) has proposed that the fifteenth-century LMK vowels were phonetically quite different from the modern Korean vowels. This view is quite popular among Korean linguists, though some prefer to date the shift before LMK. However, I do not believe any such shift existed. Various types of evidence have been cited against the shift: internal (Martin 1998), comparative (Martin 1998), transcriptional (Vovin 1998), Sinoxenic (Miyake 1998), and theoretical (Oh 1998). I will not repeat the arguments made in the aforementioned works here. I will simply assume that Korean vowels Table 5.5 SK vowels

High Mid Low

Front

Central

Back

i [i]

u [t] e [R] a [a]

wu [u] wo [o] o [£]

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OLD CHINESE, MIDDLE CHINESE, AND SINOXENIC

have remained stable at least since the time of the borrowing of SK proper in Unified Silla. Many earlier SK glide –vowel and vowel–glide combinations have monophthongized into single vowels in modern SK pronunciation (e.g., ay [ay] > [ε] ), but I will ignore these monophthongizations and cite the earlier pronunciations. The TKCW orthography even marked LMK pitch equivalents of MC tones with dots. However, the premodern SK orthography ignores pitch entirely. This will not be a problem for me, since I will not be reconstructing OJ pitch accent. In the modern standard pronunciation of SK, there is a correlation between the MC Rising and Departing tones and vowel length. However, Martin (1992: 112) notes that this correlation has many exceptions. The segments described above combine to form SK readings with the structure: (5.9) C(G)V(G)(C) C = {all consonants including zero and excluding ng} G = {w, y} V = {all vowels} G = {y} C = { p, m, l, n, k, ng, y) I have excluded pitch and vowel length from the above formulation. Sino-Vietnamese (SV) Contrary to popular belief, the Vietnamese language, like Japanese and Korean, is completely unrelated to Chinese. Vietnamese belongs to the Vietic branch of the Mon-Khmer language family of Southeast Asia. It is Sinoxenic that makes the Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese languages look ‘Chinese.’ But unlike the Koreans and the Japanese, the Vietnamese were ruled directly by the Chinese for over a millennium. What we know today as northern Vietnam was the Chinese province of Jiaozhi which passed through a number of dynastic hands from 111 BCE to 939 CE. Thus the Vietnamese were exposed to multiple stages of Chinese ranging from the Western Han stage of OC to the final stage of LMC during the Five Dynasties period (907–960 CE). They did not have to rely on a few immigrants and returnees from missions to distant Chinese capitals for their knowledge of Chinese, since they could hear the language firsthand from native speakers. Even the illiterate majority were profoundly affected by the tongue of their foreign rulers. The Sinitic influence went far beyond the adoption of many everyday words such as the generic classifier OSV cái <
Western Han *kaayh ‘id.’ or the development of multiple strata of Sino-Vietnamese 117

OLD JAPANESE

(pp. 124 and 126). Long exposure to Chinese had Sinified the language not only lexically but also phonologically. Once Vietnam broke free from the Chinese in the tenth century, the language was altered almost unrecognizably by the changes that had occurred over the last millennium. Although the syntactic and lexical core of Vietnamese remained very un-Chinese – neither its modified–modifier pattern nor its basic vocabulary was lost – the language looked superficially like Chinese. The newly independent country itself was modeled after its former oppressor. The Chinese rulers were gone, but Chinese culture and language remained. The Vietnamese established a Chinese-style system of civil service examinations that lasted until the beginning of the twentieth century. Scholars learned the Confucian classics in the original Chinese in hopes of passing the exams. In Vietnam, Classical Chinese was “the medium of written communication among the educated people (like Latin in medieval Europe) and the vehicle of literary creations either in verse or in prose” (NguyWn 1997: 2). But like the peoples of the Korean peninsula and Japan before them, the Vietnamese devised ways to write their own language with sinographs. However, the chw nôm [ctt nom] (possibly from
 LOC *dzRq nRRm ‘characters southern’) script (p. 129) would turn out to be far more complex than any of its northern counterparts. Despite its difficulty, the script would continue to be used as late as the early twentieth century. In the seventeenth century, European missionaries developed systems of romanization to spread their Catholic faith among the Vietnamese. One such French missionary, Alexandre de Rhodes, came to Vietnam in 1624, mastered the language, and codified a synthesis of earlier romanizations in his Dictionarium annamiticum, lusitanum et latinum (Annamite–Portuguese– Latin Dictionary; 1651). His dictionary’s romanization, which later came to be called qu3c ngw [kwok Yt] ‘national language’ <
 LMC *kuRk YüR ‘id.’ under uncertain circumstances (DeFrancis 1978, Thompson 1987: 55), initially did not spread beyond the missionaries and their converts. However, the French later promoted the script and today it is the only medium in which Vietnamese is written. Although sinographs and chw nôm have never been entirely forgotten in Vietnam, their status is akin to man’yôgana in Japan. They are now only the objects of scholarly study, not scripts for everyday use. This radical change in writing systems has not diminished the roles of Sino-Vietnamese proper (SV) and Old Sino-Vietnamese (OSV) in the language. The old sinographic and chw nôm spellings for SV and OSV may be gone – but SV and OSV persist not only in old words but also in the neologisms necessitated by csng-skn [kRw§ saan] (<
 LMC *k®üwYh Zaanh) ‘Communism.’ Like SJ and SK, SV is indispensable for sophisticated discourse. SV and especially OSV have penetrated the core lexicon to an extent unparalleled by SJ or SK: e.g., the ordinary Vietnamese word for ‘cat’ is OSV mèo [mεw] <
EMC *mεrw ‘id.’ 118

OLD CHINESE, MIDDLE CHINESE, AND SINOXENIC

Table 5.6 Written Vietnamese consonants (after Thompson 1987: 58) Labial

Dental

Retroflex

Palatal

Velar

Glottal

Unaspirated 17th-c. Hanoi

p

t

tr *[â] [c]

ch *[c] [c]

c/k/qu

( [}] )

Aspirated 17th-c. Hanoi

ph *[ph] [f ]

th *[th]

s *[Z] [s]

x *[\] [s]

kh *[kh] [x]

h

Implosive

b [(]

$ [ß ]

‘Softened’ 17th-c. Hanoi

(%) *[β] [v]

d *[dy ] [z]

gi *[©9] [z]

g/gh *[g] [γ]

Liquids/glides North

v/o/u [v]/[w]

l [l]

Nasals

m

n

nh [ ã]

ng/ngh [Y]

r [z]

Since at least the nineteenth century, dictionaries listing sinographs and chw nôm characters with their readings in qu3c ngw have been compiled. For a survey of dictionaries and other sources of Vietnamese character readings, see Mineya (1972: 21–33). NguyWn (1992: 410–411) surveys more recent nôm dictionaries. I have taken the SV forms in my book from Mineya’s (1972) appendix. I use a 1997 reprint of NgZ thiên t@ (earliest known edition from 1909), as my source of chw nôm readings. Before discussing SV proper, OSV, and nôm in the following three sections, I would like to describe the qu3c ngw orthography and outline aspects of Vietnamese diachronic and synchronic phonology which are relevant to SV as a whole. Written Vietnamese has the consonants in Table 5.6. The letter % is no longer used in modern qu3c ngw. Although all of the letters in Table 5.6 represented distinct consonants in seventeenth-century Vietnamese, no modern Vietnamese dialect makes all the distinctions indicated in spelling. I have cited reconstructed seventeenth-century phonetic values from Thompson (1976: 1120) whenever they differ from phonetic values in modern dialects with two exceptions. First, I follow Gage (1985) and reconstruct the seventeenth-century value of s as a retroflex fricative *Z because (1) Gage (1985: 506) has shown that s < *Cr-, (2) s is still a retroflex [Z] in central and southern dialects, and (3) s corresponds to OC *r-clusters and MC retroflex initials. Second, I reconstruct g as *g since de Rhodes described g as being similar to a European g (Gregerson 1969: 165, 182).6 Phonetic values for 119

OLD JAPANESE

modern Hanoi are taken from Thompson (1987: 98) except when they can be inferred from qu3c ngw: e.g., p is [p], etc. I cite modern Hanoi phonetic values of qu3c ngw forms unless stated otherwise. Qu3c ngw consonants correspond to Vietnamese consonantal phonemes with exceptions explained in Thompson (1987: 62–64). Some of the phonetic values for consonants are quite unexpected. Orthographic d is a voiced fricative [z] in the north and a palatal glide [y] elsewhere but never [d], though in the seventeenth century it was presumably a palatalized dental stop [dy ]. These mismatches resulted from massive phonological changes that can be confirmed by comparative and philological evidence. I will list the most relevant changes for our purposes below. (1) The original Vietnamese voiced obstruents were devoiced: (5.10) *b, *d, *j, *g, etc. > *p, *t, *c, *k, etc. One can determine the presence or absence of earlier voicing by looking at the tones. Syllables with proto-voiceless initials have ngang, s8c, or hni tones while syllables with proto-voiced initials have huyVn, n'ng, or ngk tones. I will discuss tones further on pp. 126 and 128. (2) Vietnamese initial unaspirated labial and dental stops became voiced implosives: (5.11) *p > (

*t > ß

Thus Vietnamese b [(] and d [ß ] come from both voiceless and voiced sources (Thompson 1976: 1128, Gage 1985: 503):7 (5.12) *p, *b > *p > *(

*t, *d > *t > *ß

(3) Earlier Vietnamese voiced implosives (*(, *ß ) became nasals (Thompson 1976: 1,134–1,135, Gage 1985: 505, 506). (5.13) *( > m

*ß > n

I suspect the following ‘drag chain’ shifts took place: (5.14) p > ( > m

t>ß>n

(4) The shift in (5.14) may have been even more complex than this. Earlier Vietnamese *s became t (Gage 1985: 303). This shift can be integrated into my earlier chain of changes as (5.15): (5.15) s > t > ß > n

120

OLD CHINESE, MIDDLE CHINESE, AND SINOXENIC

Sino-Vietnamese t has several non-*s sources. One is Chinese *ts. The Vietnamese may have borrowed *ts as *s (cf. English pronunciations of tsunami as [sunami] ). Others are LMC *py and *p®y which appear in Grade IV SV readings (p. 97): (5.16) *py, *p®y > *p\i > *psi > *ts > *s > t (cf. 5.22). These changes left Vietnamese without any [s]. Notice that the seventeenthcentury consonant system in Table 5.6 has no [s]. In all modern dialects of Vietnamese, the palatal fricative x *[\] has become [s] (Thompson 1987: 98). Thus x has filled the hole left behind by the *s which had become t: (5.17) \ > s > t > ß > n (5) The aspirates ( ph, th, kh) generally correspond to OC and MC aspirates (*ph, *th, *kh). kh always corresponds to Chinese *kh. ph has two sources, OC and EMC *ph and two of the LMC ‘light lip sounds’ (LMC *f, *f®; p. 96). th has several sources besides OC and MC *th: (a) OC and MC *tsh (Mineya 1972: 84): (5.18) *tsh > (*sh = aspirated s?) > th (b) OC and MC palatal fricatives and affricates (*\, *\®, *9, *j) (Mineya 1972: 91): (5.19) *\, *\®, *9, *j > (*sh = aspirated s?) > th I would rather not posit an exotic aspirated s in (5.18) and (5.19), though such a sound does exist in Burmese. Mineya (1972: 113) does not posit any such intermediate stage. Note that Chinese palatal fricatives are also occasionally borrowed as x (Mineya 1972: 91). (c) LMC *phy in Grade IV words (p. 97): (5.20) *phy > *ph\i > *phsi > *tsh > *sh > th (cf. 5.16) (6) So far, I have explained that Vietnamese lost its original voiced obstruents (*b, *d, *j, *g, etc.) (5.10). But where did the so-called ‘softened’ voiced obstruents % *[β], d *[dy ], gi *[ j], and g *[g] of seventeenth-century Vietnamese in Table 5.6 come from? (6a) Seventeenth-century % *[β] derives from prefixed labials (*C-p, *C-b) (Haudricourt 1965, Pulleyblank 1981, Gage 1985: 504). This % *[β] later merged with v *[v].

121

OLD JAPANESE

(5.21) *C-p, *C-b > % *[β] > v [v] (6b) d *[dy ] corresponds to OC and MC *y and LMC *my. It also derives from prefixed dentals (*C-t, *C-d) (Gage 1985: 504). (5.22) *y, *my, *C-t, *C-d > d *[dy ] > d (northern [z], southern [y] ) (6c) gi *[ _j9] corresponds to LMC *ky. It also derives from prefixed palatals (*C-c, *C-j) (Pulleyblank 1981: 279, Gage 1985: 504). (5.23) *ky, *C-c, *C-j > gi *[ j_9] > gi (northern [z], southern [y] ) (6d) g corresponds to prefixed velars (*C-k, *C-g) (Haudricourt 1965, Pulleyblank 1981, Gage 1985: 504): (5.24) *C-k, *C-g > g *[g] > g [γ] The vowels of Vietnamese have apparently undergone far fewer changes than the consonants. Downer (1987: 141) points out that Barker and Barker (1970) and Thompson (1976) both reconstructed the fourteen vowel nuclei (eleven vowels and three diphthongs) found in seventeenth-century and modern Vietnamese for Proto-Viet-Muong (PVM). I list these fourteen nuclei in Table 5.7. According to Thompson (1976: 1149), As might be expected, (Viet-Muong) vowels present a number of problems that are difficult to deal with. However, these problems are of relatively small importance – to a great extent the system of PVM seems to be very similar to that of the modern languages [i.e., Vietnamese and Muong; italics mine].

Table 5.7 Written Vietnamese and PVM vowels Front Higha High + Midb Mid Low

i, y ia, iê ê e

Central [i] [iR] [e] [ε]

â #

e ea, [R] [a]

[t] ed [tR] d [RR] a [aa]; [a] / _c, nh

Back u [u] ua, uô [uR] ô [o] o [Q]

Notes a The vowel [i] is sometimes written as y at the end of a syllable. See Thompson (1987: 64) for more details on when [i] is spelled as i or y. b The diphthongs [iR tR uR] are written as ia, ea, ua at the end of a syllable and as iê, ed, uô before a coda.

122

OLD CHINESE, MIDDLE CHINESE, AND SINOXENIC

I will list the most relevant vowel changes between PVM and Vietnamese for our purposes below. (1) PVM *R, *RR raised to *t before velars (*k, *Y) (Barker and Barker 1970). (5.25) *R(R) >

/ _k, Y

e [t]

(2) PVM *ε dissimilated to a [a] before palatals (*c, *ã) (Barker and Barker 1970). (5.26) *ε

>

a [a] / _c, ã

(3) PVM *o, *Q respectively ‘broke’ to [Rw] and [aw] before velars (*k, *Y) (Thompson 1976: 1151–1152). Some of the labiality of the vowels ‘moved’ to the final velars which gained labial co-articulation: (5.27) *ok > ôc [Rw¶] *oY > ông [Rw§] *Qk > oc [aw¶] *QY > ong [aw§] Henderson (1985: 21) considers this an example of ‘feature shuffling.’ Note that *u did not break to the expected [tw] before velars, though velars after *u did gain labial co-articulation: (5.28) *uk > uc [uw¶]

*uY > ung [uw§]

Gage (1985: 514–516) has found that Vietnamese vowels correspond very closely to written Khmer vowels. Since (1) Khmer and Vietnamese are very distantly related within Mon-Khmer and (2) Khmer and Vietnamese relations have been negative for centuries, such correspondences are probably the result of independent retentions rather than shared innovations or the result of language contact. We cannot say that Vietnamese vowels are identical to PVM vowels. Nor can we say that PVM vowels are identical to Proto-Mon-Khmer vowels. Nevertheless, when Gage (1985: 514–516) worked out the correspondences between Vietnamese vowels and Shorto’s (1976) Proto-Mon-Khmer vowels, he found many near-identities. There is no evidence for a Vietnamese ‘Great Vowel Shift.’ Thus I will take SV and OSV vowels at face value, with exceptions due to rules (5.25–28). The above vowels can be followed by any of ten codas: (5.29) -p -m -o/-u [w]

-t -n

-ch -nh [c] [ ã]

123

-i/-y -c [y] [k]/[¶]

-ng [Y]/[§]

OLD JAPANESE

SV and OSV syllables have the following structure: (5.30) C(G)V(C) + Tone C = {all consonants except p} G = {w} V = {all vowels; however, #, â ≠ V/ _#} C = {p, m, w, t, n, c, ã, y, k, Y} All vowels are phonetically long in syllable-final position owing to a bimoraic syllable structure constraint. Since the vowels # [a] and â [R] are inherently short, they cannot stand at the end of a syllable: syllables such as c# [ka] or câ [kR] are impossible. I will discuss tones in the next two sections. Old Sino-Vietnamese (OSV) Old Sino-Vietnamese (OSV) refers to all the strata of Chinese loanwords in Vietnamese predating Sino-Vietnamese proper, which I will demonstrate to be of late Tang origin in the next section. Thus OSV words can be borrowed from any variety of Chinese ranging from Western Han OC of the second century BCE to early Tang EMC of the seventh century. Our knowledge of premodern Chinese dialects is too minimal to pinpoint the exact geographic origin of the source dialect(s) of OSV. Presumably OSV is based on southeastern Chinese rather than on the distant dialects of the Western Han capital of Chang’an or the Wu, Eastern Jin, and Six Dynasties Song capital of Jiankang,8 though perhaps those dialects exerted some influence over the speech of the ‘extreme south.’ So far, we only know a few hundred OSV words. Most of them are not associated with sinographs except by scholars who know their etymologies. In traditional Vietnam, OSV words were often written with nôm characters rather than with the sinographs for their source etyma. OSV words have certain phonological characteristics that distinguish them from LMC-based SV proper. Wang Li (1958) and Pulleyblank (1981, 1984) give extensive lists of sound correspondences between OSV and EMC with copious examples. I do not intend to repeat their work here, but I must acknowledge my debt to them because they have established the OSV equivalents of EMC initials, rhymes, and tones. Since only a few hundred OSV words survive, we have no idea what the OSV readings of thousands of sinographs were. But Wang’s and Pulleyblank’s work allows us to make reasonable guesses about those lost readings. I will cite the correspondences established by Wang (1958) and Pulleyblank (1981, 1984) whenever necessary in Chapters 7 and 8. The only two types of correspondences that I will mention here are initial and tonal.

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OLD CHINESE, MIDDLE CHINESE, AND SINOXENIC

(1) OSV often has ‘softened’ initials (v < %, d, gi, g) corresponding to OC and EMC stops and affricates (Pulleyblank 1981): (5.31) OC, EMC 17th c. OSV OSV

*p, *b *t *ts, *dz, *c, *j *k, *g, *® % *[β] d [dy ] gi [ _j9] g [g] v [v] d [z] gi [z] g [γ]

The above pattern is extremely common; see Wang (1958), Ray (1979), and Pulleyblank (1981) for dozens of examples. These ‘softened’ initials originated from earlier clusters (5.21–24). Yet we have no evidence from the Qieyun tradition nor any other evidence to suggest that LOC or EMC still had the initial consonant clusters that characterized stages of Chinese prior to LOC. I have wondered whether colloquial Chinese of the Six Dynasties still preserved some clusters absent in the refined pronunciation reflected in the fanqie of Qieyun. Norman (1973, 1974) has theorized that Proto-Min had a series of ‘softened’ initials which were somehow distinguished from ordinary stops and affricates. Norman (1973: 237) suspects that these ‘softened’ initials “originated from the reduction of clusters of some type.” However, Cheng and Miyake (1995) found only one correlation between Norman’s ProtoMin ‘softened’ initials and the ‘softened’ initials of OSV. I doubt that there is any relationship between the ‘softened’ initials in the two languages. Starostin (1989: 52–57) goes even further and denies the very existence of ‘softened’ initials in Min. I will not argue for or against him here. I suspect that the ‘softened’ initials in Vietnamese may be remnants of native (i.e., non-Chinese) affixes. Mon-Khmer languages in general are rich in prefixes and infixes. Ruc, a Vietic language, still has affixes such as pa-/-a‘causative,’ -n-/-r- ‘nominalizer,’ mu- ‘quantifier,’ kV- ‘animal,’ k- ‘natural phenomena,’ and tR- ‘stative verb’ (Alves 1998: 14). These affixes have either been lost in Vietnamese or have resulted in ‘softened’ initials: (5.32) Ruc words with k- ‘natural phenomena’ Viet ku-mRa 2 ‘rain’ : *k-m- >mea [mtR] ‘id.’ ka-yQ 3 ‘wind’ : *k-y- > gió [zQQ] ‘id.’ Perhaps the early Vietnamese who still had such morphology applied it to OSV words in the spoken language. Unfortunately, this hypothesis cannot be tested at present, because we do not know much about early Vietnamese morphology. We cannot predict what prefixes would have been attached to which OSV loans. In any case, it appears that OSV ‘softened’ initials are Vietnamese innovations. Therefore we cannot use ‘softened’ initials as evidence for similar initials in OJ. It is unlikely that EMC-based System D (Sino-Paekche?) readings and Chang’an LMC – the foundations for the transcription systems

125

OLD JAPANESE

Table 5.8 Written OSV tones OC/EMC

Level (*-$)

Rising (*-q) and Entering (*-C)

Departing (*-h)

Clear Muddy

ngang huyVn

s8c n'ng

hni (rarely ngang) ngã (rarely huyVn)

of Kojiki and Shoki – had such initials. Neither the fanqie of the EMC ‘language’ of Qieyun nor the Tibetan transcriptions of northwestern LMC suggest the existence of ‘softened’ initials. Although I will not be using Chinese tones or their SX counterparts to reconstruct OJ pitch accent, I will note that OSV–Chinese tonal correspondences are different from SV–Chinese tonal correspondences. When OSV and SV words are segmentally identical, the suprasegmentals (tones) give away their ages: the Chinese Rising Tone (marked with the tonal letter *-q) of
EMC *tQq / LMC *tuRq ‘gamble’ appears as the s8c tone in OSV $3 ‘challenge’ but appears as the hni tone in SV $7 ‘gamble’ (Wang 1958: 380). One can see the Rising Tone: s8c tone and other OC/EMC: OSV tonal correspondences in Table 5.8. Each of the Vietnamese tone names contains and describes the tone it represents: 1 2 3 4 5 6

ngang ‘level’ has the unmarked mid level ngang tone. huyVn ‘dark’ has the low falling breathy huyVn tone, marked by (`). s8c ‘sharp’ has the high rising s8c tone marked by (´). n'ng ‘heavy’ has the low creaky n'ng tone marked by a subscript dot. hni ‘question’ has the low rising hni tone marked by a superscript question mark. ngã ‘fall’ has the high creaky ngã tone marked by a tilde.

I am mentioning OSV tone correspondences here only because I use them as well as the segmental correspondences listed in Wang (1958) and Pulleyblank (1981, 1984) to identify OSV words. Sino-Vietnamese proper (SV) I have already discussed Vietnamese historical phonology as a whole, so I will focus here only on arguments for the approximate date and location of the Chinese source of SV proper. There is a general consensus that SV readings are quite late relative to other branches of SX. Maspero (1912: 14) thought that SV was based on ninth- and tenth-century Chinese. Mineya (1972: 164) more or less agrees with Maspero’s view, though he does not accept all of the details. Wang (1958: 300) attributes the origin of SV to 126

OLD CHINESE, MIDDLE CHINESE, AND SINOXENIC

Tang Dynasty Chang’an Chinese. Hashimoto thinks SV originated from a southeastern Chinese koine. Although I have rejected the details of Hashimoto’s theory (Miyake 1999: 317–320), I suspect that SV did originate from the south. SV and many Yue dialects share an unusual innovation: *i in all closed syllables has centralized and lowered to a. As far as I know, this development of *-i- is unique to Yue. SV â [R] seems to reflect a Yue dialect with *-a- or *-R- corresponding to *-i- elsewhere: (5.33)

LMC
=‘heart’ *sim

Cnt sàm [sam]

SV tâm [tRm]

Md xcn [\in]

SK Kan-on sim simu

Northwestern LMC did not shift earlier *-i- to *-a-:
‘heart’ was spelled in Tibetan script as sim, with -i-, not *sam with *-a- (Luo 1933a: 210). There is no evidence for a Vietnamese-internal shift (*-i- > -R-) that took place after SV was borrowed. Furthermore, Vietnamese does have OSV forms with i corresponding to â [R] in SV and to i elsewhere: OSV tim <
EMC *sim ‘heart.’ Like Pulleyblank (1984: 205), I suspect that the change -i- > *-R- took place in the “Cantonese-like” Chinese dialect that was the source of SV. OSV tim ‘heart’ with -i- was borrowed before the change and SV tâm ‘heart’ with -â- was borrowed after the change. Canton was the capital of the Tang Dynasty’s Lingnan Province, which encompassed Jiaozhou (northern Vietnam). Although it is shaky to rely purely on one piece of evidence, I wonder whether SV originated as late Tang Dynasty Cantonese with a Vietnamese accent. SV cannot be based on a northwestern dialect such as Chang’an LMC for three reasons: (1) SV nasals correspond to Chang’an LMC prenasalized stops. This is the weakest of the three anti-Chang’an arguments because earlier prenasalized stops in Vietnamese merged with nasals (Gage 1985: 505–506): (5.34) *mp > m

*nt > n

*ãj > nh [ ã]

*Yg > ng [Y]

So in theory the Vietnamese who went to Chang’an could have brought back CLMC *mb, *nd, etc. and these prenasalized stops later became *m, *n, etc. (2) SV is anomalous in that it reflects a *-y- in Grade II absent in modern southern dialects and in the Tibetan transcriptions of northwestern LMC: e.g., the Grade II word
‘associate’ is SV giao [zaaw] < *kyaaw but is transcribed in Tibetan as ka’u or ke’u, not *kya’u or *kye’u (Luo 1933a: 210, 218). (3) Unlike SK, SV has the southern coda t instead of the northern LMC coda *r recorded in Tibetan transcriptions. According to Gage (1985: 510– 511), earlier *r generally became [y] after non-front vowels and zero after front vowels in Vietnamese: 127

OLD JAPANESE

(5.35) *-r > -y /V [-pal]_

*-r > -$ /V [+pal]

If SV were borrowed from late Chang’an before this change, then we would expect the following correspondence: (5.36) SV *-r > -y/-$

S. Chinese -t

:

SK -l

:

If SV were borrowed after the change *-r > -y/-$, the Vietnamese would have to render Chang’an *-r with some other consonant. Since Siamese, a language whose phonology is typologically similar to Vietnamese, renders foreign -r as -n, perhaps the Vietnamese would have done the same, resulting in these correspondences: (5.37) SV -n

:

S. Chinese -t

:

SK -l

But neither (5.36) nor (5.37) matches the actual correspondences: (5.38) SV -t

:

S. Chinese -t

:

SK -l

SV conforms to the southern rather than the northern pattern in this respect but not others (such as *-y- in Grade II). SV has one feature that is neither northern nor southern. The SV ngang tone corresponds to the MC Level Tone after second muddy as well as clear initials (Table 5.9). According to Hashimoto (1978: 16), this is “a characteristic found in no known dialect of modern Chinese.” It is also not found in the OSV equivalents of the Level Tone (Table 5.8). Furthermore, if one compares Table 5.9 with Table 5.8, one finds that the Vietnamese counterparts of the Rising and Departing Tones have ‘flip-flopped.’ I will not present my speculations about the reasons for these oddities here. I will simply note once more that one can determine whether a ‘Sinoid’ word in Vietnamese is OSV or SV by checking the tonal correspondences. So far, I have accumulated conflicting evidence about the areal origins of SV. What about SV’s temporal origins? I have three major reasons to assume that SV is LMC-based:

Table 5.9 Written SV tones LMC

Level (*-$)

Rising (*-q)

Departing (*-h) and Entering (*-C)

(2nd) Clear 2nd Muddy Muddy

ngang ngang huyVn

hni ngã ngã/n'ng

s8c n'ng n'ng

128

OLD CHINESE, MIDDLE CHINESE, AND SINOXENIC

Table 5.10 The ‘branch/fat/genitive/small’ rhymes in MC, SV, and SJ Rhyme


‘branch’


‘fat’


=‘genitive’


‘small’

EMC OSV Go-on LMC Kan-on SV

*-iR -ia [iR] -e, -i

*-i -i [ii] -i

*-t -d [RR] -o, -i

*-ty -di [RRy] -e, -i

*-i -i -e [tt] (after certain LMC sibilants; see p. 108), -i [ii] (elsewhere)

(1) Merged finals: EMC finals have one-to-one correspondences with OSV, whereas multiple EMC finals correspond to a single SV final. In Table 5.10, EMC and OSV make a four-way distinction, modern Go-on makes a partial three-way distinction, and LMC, Kan-on, and SV have merged all four finals into a single final class. (2) Labiodentals: EMC bilabials became labiodentals in certain LMC Grade III rhymes. SV reflects these LMC labiodentals: (5.39) LMC *f *f® SV ph [f ] ph [f ]

*v v [v]

Note that SV ph was probably [ph] in the seventeenth century (Table 5.6). If SV ph were a fricative in de Rhodes’s time, he or the missionaries before him would have spelled Viet [f ] as f. *ph was the closest native Vietnamese equivalent to LMC *f(®) at the time of borrowing. (3) SV reflects the LMC depalatalization of *i after dental and retroflex sibilants (5.4 or 5.5). See (5.6) for an example. Summing up the above discussion, SV appears to be an LMC-based amalgam of northern and southern features. In terms of the traits in Table 5.11, SV is closest to Mandarin and Cantonese, less similar to CLMC, SK, and Kan-on, and very different not only from Go-on and EMC but also from OSV. I have yet to find a Chinese language which has the same combination of features as SV. Geography would seem to dictate a southern origin for SV, but I cannot speculate much further. In any case, it is clear that SV, like SK, is not based on the Chang’an dialect of LMC. Chw Nôm Chw nôm [ctt nom] (possibly from
 LOC *dzRq nRRm ‘characters southern’) is the Vietnamese counterpart to Japanese man’yôgana and Korean hyangchal. Although it too has fallen out of use, it was perhaps more successful than either of its northern cousins. Nôm was still in use in the early twentieth century, long after man’yôgana and hyangchal had passed 129

OLD JAPANESE

Table 5.11 Phonological traits across Chinese and SX Trait

CLMC

Kan

Md

SK

SV

Cnt

OSV

Go

EMC

a b c d e f g h i j

+ – – – –?/+ + + + + 3~4

+ – – – – + ? – – 5~6

– + + – ? + + + + 2~3

– ? + – + + – – + 4~5

– – + + – + + + + 0

– – – + – + + – +/– 2~3

– – – – – – – – – 6

– – – – – – – – – 6

– – – – – – – – – 6

Key to traits a Partial denasalization of nasals b Partial denasalization of *ã only c *-y- in Grade II d Shift of *i to R or a e *-t > -r. Note that early CLMC probably had *-t f Merger of EMC finals g LMC labiodentals h *m > *v (> Md w) i Depalatalization of *i after sibilants (pp. 108–9). Cantonese once had this trait, but lost it (Ramsey 1987: 101) j Number of differences from SV.

into obsolescence. Modern scholars still know how to read its thousands of characters, albeit in modernized pronunciation. The original pronunciations of nôm characters – like the original pronunciations of man’yôgana phonograms – were very different from those used today. Although Vietnamese vowels have apparently been quite stable over the time, we have seen that the Vietnamese consonant system has changed considerably in the last four hundred years. The finals of nôm character readings today are probably not much different from the finals of the characters in centuries past, but many of the initials must have been altered almost unrecognizably since the time of the script’s creation. All agree that nôm reflects pre-de-Rhodes Vietnamese phonology, but the age and origins of the script are obscure. NguyWn (1992: 384–397) summarizes the competing claims of various scholars concerning the invention of nôm, ranging from the nationalistic and mythological to the more reasonable and scholarly. Most of those claims are highly speculative and not worthy of mention here. I will briefly state my own views below. The Chinese rulers of Jiaozhi (later Jiaozhou) may have been the first to attempt to transcribe Vietnamese. Although I doubt that the Chinese had any great motivation to learn the language of their subjects, surely there were local names and words that were written with characters. See NguyWn 130

OLD CHINESE, MIDDLE CHINESE, AND SINOXENIC

(1992: 387–388, 392–393) for two early attempts at Vietnamese transcription. These sporadic attempts did not yet constitute a system. After ten centuries of ‘northern rule,’ Vietnamese had been remolded into a language well suited for quasisinography. Formerly disyllabic and sesquisyllabic morphemes had been reduced to monosyllables which could each be rendered with one character. However, Vietnamese had more syllables than Chinese had. This made a man’yôgana-style Chinese-based syllabary impossible. Modern Vietnamese, which no longer has any of the initial consonant clusters that had characterized its ancestor, has 3,525 syllables, whereas its SV component has only 1,310 syllables (NguyWn Ngic San 1987, quoted in NguyWn 1992: 406). Vietnamese must have had more than 3,525 syllables before the loss of all consonant clusters. Downer (1987: 142–143) points out that modern Vietnamese has 71 rhymes but its SV component has only 33 or 34. Presumably earlier Vietnamese might have had a few more native rhymes. If the Vietnamese of today used only preexisting sinographs as phonograms with their official SV readings, they could not write two-thirds of the syllables in their language. This figure of two-thirds was probably more like three-quarters a thousand years ago. Sinography had to be drastically modified and expanded if it was to be a viable writing system for Vietnamese as a whole rather than just a means to record a word here or a name there. The Vietnamese were well acquainted with the workings of sinography and found many of the solutions to their problem within the preexisting Chinese tradition of writing. Following the Chinese model, the Vietnamese gradually decided to use sinographs for their approximate phonetic values either as loan characters or as building blocks for new phonetic compounds. These two types of characters formed the core of what would become the nôm script. An example of a nôm loan character is the aforementioned
SV hu [hii] ‘sorrow’/ SV hí [hii] ‘cry,’ a phonogram for an unrelated word which also happened to be of Chinese origin, OSV hdi [hRRy] ‘breath’ <
Western or Eastern Han *khRyh ‘id.’
‘sorrow/cry’ did not have an SV reading homophonous with hdi ‘breath’ but its sound was close enough. (Or was it? Although hdi was not in the SV syllabic inventory, why didn’t the Vietnamese choose a phonetic element such as
SV hki [haay] with an di [RRy]-like final instead? I will soon deal with this issue.) Some nôm ‘loan’ characters were simply the original characters for OSV words. OSV gan [gaan] <
EMC *C-kan ‘liver’ was written with
SV can [kaan] ‘id.’ (Gan was not in the SV syllabic inventory.) However, this principle was not used consistently. One did not write OSV hdi [hRRy] ‘breath’ with
SV khí [xii] ‘id.,’ even though OSV hdi was borrowed from the Western or Eastern Han word *khRyh ‘breath’ represented by
. One simply had to know which OSV words were written etymologically (e.g., gan ‘liver’) and which ones were not (e.g., hdi ‘breath’). 131

OLD JAPANESE

Both types of nôm loan characters were identical in appearance to ordinary sinographs. No one literate in sinography but ignorant of nôm would ever guess that
‘sorrow/cry’ stood for an indigenous Vietnamese word meaning
‘breath.’ An example of a nôm phonetic compound is c for n#m [nam] ‘five.’ This character did not exist in Chinese at all and would be utterly unintelligible to anyone without a knowledge of both sinography and Vietnamese. The left side of character is the phonetic indicator
SV nam [naam] ‘south.’ (N#m was not in the SV syllabic inventory.) The right side of the character is the semantic indicator
SV ngZ [Yuu] ‘five.’ The structure of the character c tells the reader that it stands for a word that sounds like
SV nam but means
‘five.’ Phonetic compounds are but one type of ‘vietographs’: graphs unique to nôm. Vietnamese also used a number of non-Chinese methods to create further types of nôm characters. I will mention only some of them below. Diacritics were added to phonetic elements: (<) was added to the right side of the phonetic
SV mãi [maay] ‘buy’ to create the new character
< for the native word mDi [mRRy] ‘new.’ (mDi is not in the SV syllabic inventory.) Consonant clusters absent in SV readings but plentiful in native words were rendered via certain sinographs serving as initial ‘letters’:
SV ba [(aa] ‘snake’ represented earlier Vietnamese *(- in ‘biphonetic compounds’ such as d *bláay ‘fruit’ (<
*(- +
SV lfi ‘rely on’; attested in de Rhodes’s 1651 dictionary with bl- as blái). Some nôm characters were semantograms such as
SV dhch [zic] ‘armpit,’ which was used to write the unrelated native word nfch [nac] ‘armpit,’ or novel ‘semantic compounds’ such as e *bl3Ry ‘sky,’ which combined
SV thiên [thiRn] ‘heaven’ with
SV the%ng [t htRY] ‘above.’ (This word is spelled with bl- as blIi in de Rhodes 1651; in modern Vietnamese it is trIi [cRRy].) Like all semantographs, these characters contain no phonetic information and therefore are of no use to us. The majority of nôm characters used the phonetic principle, and it is those characters that concern us most. How similar did two syllables have to be in order to be written with the same phonetic? Downer (1987) theorized that Vietnamese rhyming conventions constrained the use of phonetics in nôm. Unlike traditional Chinese rhyming, Vietnamese rhyming is quite loose. Rhyming syllables must have identical codas (/Ø y w p m t n c ã k Y/ ) but need not have identical vowels. However, vowels of rhyming syllables must belong to the same vowel class. Downer (1987: 140) proposed five vowel classes for Vietnamese rhyming (Table 5.12). I have added the labels ‘palatal,’ ‘neutral,’ and ‘labial’ to Downer’s scheme for reasons to be explained shortly. If Downer is correct, phonetic elements should generally be used only for syllables of one rhyme category (i.e., the same vowel class and coda). I have tested Downer’s theory by analyzing the usage of phonetic elements in several hundred nôm characters from Ngw thiên t@ (Five Thousand Characters). These 132

OLD CHINESE, MIDDLE CHINESE, AND SINOXENIC

Table 5.12 Vowel classes in Vietnamese rhyming (after Downer 1987: 140) ‘Palatal’ Front

‘Neutral’ High central

‘Labial’ Back

i [i], ia/iê [iR]

e [t], ea/ed [tR] d [RR] Low central â [R], # [a] Low a [aa]

u [u], ua/uô [uR]

ê [e] e [ε]

ô [o] o [Q]

Note I have replaced Downer’s term ‘mid’ with ‘central,’ since not all of his ‘mid’ vowels were mid (sans quotes) vowels: e [t] is high, ea/ed [tR] is high plus mid, and # [a] is low. Hereafter I will treat the high vowel plus schwa diphthongs as single vowels.

characters either (a) themselves appear as phonograms in Kojiki and Shoki poetry or (b) have phonetic elements which appear in phonograms in Kojiki and Shoki poetry. One such character is
=c7 [koo], a nôm loan character for ‘neck.’ (
SV c7 [koo] means ‘old.’) Following Downer’s reasoning, since
c7 has a back vowel ô and a zero coda, it should appear only as a phonetic element in vietographs for syllables with back vowels and a zero coda. The following vietographs confirm this prediction:9 (5.40) -ô -u -ua -ô -o (-ua


c7 ‘neck’ (SV c7 ‘old’) f gù ‘hunchback’ g coa ‘property’
c7 ‘throat’ h cn ‘grass’ and -o are not in the SV rhyme inventory.)

But Downer’s theory cannot account for the range of many phonetic elements. Exceptions are inevitable, but there are patterns of recurring violations of his predictions. Most notably, ‘low’ a [aa] rhymes with both ‘high central’ (e, ed [t tR] ) and ‘low central’ (â, # [R a] ) vowels. Thus I suspect that, for the purposes of nôm analysis, we can combine the ‘high central,’ ‘low central,’ and ‘low’ classes into a single ‘neutral’ class which contrasts with Downer’s ‘front’ and ‘back’ classes. I will rename his ‘front’ and ‘back’ classes as ‘palatal’ and ‘labial.’10 The reader can compare my three-way division between palatal, neutral, and labial vowels with Downer’s original five-way division by consulting Table 5.12. However, my three-way division still cannot explain many uses of phonetic elements. As Downer (1987: 144) points out, some problematic cases such as the vietograph for the name of the script,
nôm, can be explained by differences between Vietnamese and LMC phonotactics. LMC – and 133

OLD JAPANESE

therefore SV – does not allow labial vowels to be followed by labial codas, whereas Vietnamese does allow such combinations: nom [nQm] ‘look,’ OSV nôm [nom] ‘southern,’ núm [num] ‘knob.’ Thus scribes were forced to use
SV nam [naam] ‘south’ despite its non-labial vowel as the phonetic element (or ‘base’ in Downer’s terminology) for the vietograph
nôm [nom]. But earlier I brought up the example of
SV hu [hii] ‘sorrow’/ SV hí [hii] ‘cry’ as a loan character for OSV hdi [hRRy] ‘breath.’ Why write OSV hdi, which has a neutral vowel d, with
‘sorrow/cry,’ which has a palatal vowel i? This is not an isolated case. Many other characters with SV readings in -i are used as phonograms or as bases of vietographs for native words with neutral vowel rhymes. These characters often belong to OSV, EMC, and OC non-palatal rhymes that became palatal rhymes in LMC: (5.41)

SV
hi/hy

LMC EMC LOC *xi *hty *hty

EH and WH Chinese Gloss *hRy ‘cry’

If nôm were based purely on SV readings alone, there would be no way for the Vietnamese to know that graphs such as
once had neutral vowels. I propose that, in the early centuries of the millennium, there were more OSV readings (sans quotes) of characters in use than there are today. Currently, there are only a few sinographs whose SV readings may be carryovers from OSV, such as
SV/OSV cd ‘machine’ < EMC/LOC *kty or EH/WH *kRy. (Its expected SV reading would be *ki.) Perhaps about 95 per cent of SV readings known today are LMC-based; only 5 per cent or so are OC or EMC-based. There is no reason to suppose that this 95 to 5 ratio was current in the twelfth century when nôm characters were being created. Some OSV readings (sans quotes) forgotten and unrecorded in modern dictionaries may have still been in use or at least dimly remembered. From the OSV words that survive today, we know that OSV has many rhymes completely absent from the SV rhyme inventory, and early writers would surely have taken advantage of this fact. Using both OSV and SV readings of characters gave them more options for writing the thousands of syllables of their language. If this is correct, then
was chosen for OSV hdi [hRRy] ‘breath’ on the basis of a now extinct OSV reading resembling EMC/LOC *hty or EH/WH *hRy. This hypothesized practice of using outdated sinograph readings as the basis of an orthography has parallels in the north. The Japanese used LOC and EMC-based System-D-based orthography throughout the Nara Period and the Koreans used LOC and EMC-based hyangchal up to the Koryo Dynasty, even though LMC-based Kan-on and Sino-Korean proper had rendered Go-on and OSK obsolete. As we shall see in Chapter 8, the archaic elements in nôm can shed light on the ‘eight vowel’ problem of OJ. Many OJ phonograms occur either as nôm loan characters or as bases of nôm phonetic compounds. We will find 134

OLD CHINESE, MIDDLE CHINESE, AND SINOXENIC

that there are correlations between the OJ ‘vowels’ and the three vocalic classes of nôm.

Other external sources for earlier Chinese Since the Chinese were the dominant culture in East Asia, their language influenced many other languages besides Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese. Chinese loanwords ranging from prehistoric cultural words to the latest PRC Communist jargon can be found everywhere in the region. Although these borrowings may lack the scale and regularity of Sinoxenic, their premodern strata are nevertheless evidence for OC and MC. The final class of external evidence consists of transcriptions in nonsinographic writing systems. Not all Asians were blessed (or cursed) by sinography. We do have alphabetic evidence for MC. As Barat (n.d.: 1) says of this evidence, “It is needless to emphasize that these vocabularies are hard evidence of the historical Chinese language. They are not reconstruction [sic] and not hypotheses.” Unfortunately, we shall see that these transcriptions cannot help us very much in the quest for OJ sound values. Sino-Tibetan sources Other Sino-Tibetan languages – particularly the classic literary languages (Tibetan, Burmese, and Tangut) – can aid and abet the reconstruction of OC. On the one hand, knowledge of other ST languages can give us typological ideas about what OC may have been like. Recent reconstructions of OC (Starostin 1989 and Baxter 1992) have come to look rather like Tibetan, with simple six-vowel systems and initial and final consonant clusters all reconstructed on the basis of Chinese-internal evidence. On the other hand, knowledge of ST can result in circularity and a mixing of levels if one consciously or unconsciously projects Tibeto-Burman features for which there is no Chinese-internal evidence upon OC. The reconstructions of ProtoSino-Tibetan and OC are two different matters and must be kept separate. Since PST and OC in the general sense are of course far beyond the time depth of the material in this study, I shall say no more about them here. The ST evidence that is relevant for our purposes consists of the Tibetan alphabetic transcriptions of northwestern LMC during the late Tang Dynasty and the following Five Dynasties period. These transcriptions have been extensively studied by Luo (1933a) and form part of the basis for Coblin’s (1994) reconstructions of northwestern LMC. I have already referred to these transcriptions a number of times and I will continue to refer to them in later chapters. Since this material dates from the ninth century onward, it reflects a stage of northwestern LMC over a century after the importation of Kan-on into Japan circa the mid to late seventh century. Nonetheless, we can still see the 135

OLD JAPANESE

denasalization that characterizes Kan-on in these transcriptions: Kan-on b, d, z, g correspond to the Tibetan letter sequences ’b, ’d, zh, ’g (5.42). The apostrophe in the Wylie romanization of Tibetan probably represented a homorganic nasal before stops. (5.42)
‘horse’
‘mud’
‘like’
‘I’

Kan-on ba dei zyo ga

Tibetan LMC transcription (Luo 1933a) ’ba *[mba] ’de *[nde] zhu *[9u] ’ga *[Yga]

Since the orthography of Shoki is based on Chang’an LMC ( p. 32), one might think that it would be possible to reconstruct the pronunciation of Shoki poetry by reading phonograms according to their Tibetan transcriptions. That is not possible because the corpus of characters with Tibetan transcriptions includes only a few hundred characters and excludes many of the more obscure characters used as phonograms in Shoki. We could infer the readings of most if not all of the excluded characters because theTibetan materials contain transcriptions of the reflexes of all EMC initials and all but ten EMC rhymes (Luo 1933a: viii). However, I would rather not emulate the Japanese lexicographers by manufacturing pseudo-readings out of initials and finals. Furthermore, there is no way to get around the fact that the Tibetan transcriptions use only six vowel letters (a i t u e o) in an unsystematic manner.11 We cannot determine much about the OJ ‘vowels’ by looking only at these transcriptions. The lack of correspondences between OJ and the Tibetan transcriptions may be due to at least three factors. First, the transcriptions are approximately one hundred to two hundred years newer than Shoki. The earliest transcriptions are from the Sino-Tibetan Treaty Inscription of 821–822. Most of the others are undated but believed to be from late Tang and/or the Five Dynasties period. The transcriptions may reflect innovations absent in the CLMC learned by the Japanese a century or more earlier. Second, we cannot assume that the transcriptions represent the Chang’an dialect. The transcriptions may represent a variety of northwestern dialects. Third, individual writers may have had their own idiosyncratic methods of transcription. Thus the transcriptions may embody diversity among personal orthographies across both space and time. The Tibetan transcriptions are valuable, but they must be treated with caution. Non-Sino-Tibetan sources These sources are of two types. The first consists of Uighur transcriptions of northwestern Chinese. These have been studied by a number of scholars 136

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including Sinor (1939), Csongor (1952, 1954, 1962), and most recently Barat (1993, 1995, n.d.) and Shôgaito (1995, 1997). Most of the transcriptions are in Uighur script, but a few are in the Brahmi or Arabic scripts. I will confine my remarks here to those in the Uighur script. Like the Tibetan transcriptions, this material originated over a century after the borrowing of Kan-on and is sporadic. There are only a few hundred glosses spanning from the ninth to the twelfth century, and they do not encompass the vast majority of OJ phonograms. The nature of the Uighur script posed an even greater problem than the late date and the lack of scale. It could not accurately record the vowels of Chinese. All vowels were represented by the letters aleph (’), waw (w), and yod (y) alone or in combination. For example, w could represent Uighur u or o, y could represent Uighur y, i, ï, or e, and the combination wy could represent Uighur ü or ö. Thus if we find that
‘diagram,’ a Shoki phonogram for OJ two (96.10.5) and OJ dwo (96.13.3, 96.15.4) was transcribed in Uighur as tw (cf. Kan-on to) (Barat n.d.: 32) we cannot know for sure whether tw represents LMC *tu or *to. tw tells us only that
‘diagram’ had some sort of rounded vowel in medieval northwestern Chinese. And what are we to do with the Uighur transcription kwy (cf. Kan-on kwei) for
‘intelligent’ (Barat n.d.: 55), a Shoki phonogram for OJ we (43.12.2)? kwy could represent LMC *kü, *kö, *kuy, *koy, etc. Clearly, the Uighur data is not sufficient for our needs. Fortunately, the second type of non-Sino-Tibetan material is far greater in terms of both quantity and quality. Sinographic transcriptions of names and words from Indic languages (primarily Sanskrit but also including various Prakrits) comprise the largest body of non-Sinoxenic data on LOC and MC. This data has been extensively studied by many scholars, including Maspero (1920), Mizutani (1960), Pulleyblank (1965, 1983, 1984), Yuchi (1982, 1985), Liu (1984), and Coblin (1991, 1994). In Chapter 8, I will draw upon data from two large bodies of ‘Sino-Indic’ transcriptions cited in Coblin’s (1994) compendium. The first of these is the corpus of Jñanagupta, an Indian monk who lived in China (primarily in Chang’an but also briefly in Chengdu) from 560 to 604 CE (Coblin 1991: 5). He was a contemporary of Lu Fayan, the compiler of Qieyun. His transcriptions reflect northwestern EMC as opposed to the presumably eastern variety of EMC that was the source of Go-on and System D, the basis of the Kojiki phonogram orthography. Nevertheless, his Chang’an EMC (CEMC) preserved some of the finer rhyme distinctions in Qieyun lost in LMC (Pulleyblank 1984: 148) and its nasal initials had not yet become prenasalized stops. CEMC is closer to the southern EMC underlying OSV than to CLMC. The second is the corpus of Amoghavajra (705–774 CE), another Indian monk who lived in the Chang’an area (Coblin 1994: 21). His transcriptions are based on a mid-eighth-century variety of CLMC which is somewhat newer than the variety underlying Kan-on and the Shoki phonogram orthography. 137

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Both sources of transcriptions have severe limitations. They contain only sinographs which approximate the pronunciations of Indic syllables. Hence they are valuable as secondary supporting data but insufficient for the reconstruction of the entire phonological system of Chinese. I will discuss these transcriptions further on p. 151.

The reconstruction of Old Chinese Karlgren (1940, 1957) was the first to attempt to reconstruct OC (his ‘Archaic Chinese’) but his reconstruction of OC was never as widely accepted as his reconstruction of MC (his ‘Ancient Chinese’). Nevertheless his methodology for OC reconstruction set a precedent for all others. He worked backwards from his MC reconstruction, trying to create an earlier state of the language that could account for evidence from phonetic compounds and Shijing rhyming ( p. 92). Norman (1988: 45) calls Karlgren’s OC “a reconstruction based on another reconstruction, a kind of second-degree abstraction.” As Pulleyblank (1993: 338) points out, one must “get one’s reconstruction of Middle Chinese right as the essential foundation for reconstructing Old Chinese.” A “seconddegree abstraction” based on an already flawed first abstraction is doomed. We have already seen that Karlgren’s MC had weaknesses such as an overly large system of 15 vowels (Figure 3.3) combining to form many diphthongs and triphthongs in restricted distribution. Karlgren’s OC not only carried over these weaknesses – it had a system of 14 vowels that also occurred in complex combinations – but also had weaknesses of its own, such as final voiced stops which corresponded to zero in MC and conflicted with both Chinese-internal and Chinese-external (i.e., Sino-Tibetan evidence) (Baxter 1992: 325–339). Later reconstructions of OC carried over many of his reconstruction’s weaknesses and in some cases even exacerbated them. Pulleyblank (1962) set a new course in OC reconstruction, beginning with a revision of Karlgren’s MC reconstruction, proposing a simple five-vowel system (*a, *i, *u, *e, *o) for OC, using Han and LOC transcriptions as additional evidence for OC, and incorporating Haudricourt’s (1954a, 1954b) revolutionary hypothesis of tonogenesis. His suggestions have been widely adopted by the post-Karlgrenian school, represented by Schuessler (1987), Starostin (1989), and Baxter (1992). All of the ‘post-Karlgrenian’ reconstructions proposed by these three scholars have many virtues, but Starostin’s is the most suitable for our purposes. I will explain why below. Post-Karlgrenian OC reconstructions Schuessler (1987), Starostin (1989), and Baxter (1992) share many views about the nature of OC phonology. For example, they agree that OC had only a few vowels (four for Schuessler and six for Starostin and Baxter) and 138

OLD CHINESE, MIDDLE CHINESE, AND SINOXENIC

no tones. In some cases their reconstructions of individual OC words are extremely similar if not identical. Yet there are three major differences between Starostin’s reconstruction and the others. (1) OC had two types of syllables which Pulleyblank (1994) has called “Type A” and “Type B.” (These terms have nothing to do with the ‘types’ of OJ ‘vowels.’) A Type A syllable was apparently very similar to its Type B counterpart except for some distinguishing feature: it was this feature that caused Type A and Type B syllables to develop very differently in MC. Karlgren believed that OC Type B syllables were distinguished by a medial yod (*-ü- = *-y-) which was absent in OC Type A syllables. He also believed that the zero-yod Type A/B distinction existed also in MC: (5.43)

OC (Karlgren 1957) Type A
‘father’s sister’ *ko Type B
‘dwell’ *küo

MC (Karlgren 1957) *kuo *küwo

Others have adhered to Karlgren’s interpretation of the OC Type A/ B distinction, long after it was questioned by Pulleyblank (1962). Schuessler (1987) and Baxter (1992) retain Karlgren’s Type B medial yod in their OC reconstructions, in spite of the paucity of evidence from Tibeto-Burman, transcriptions, and Sinoxenic. Pulleyblank (1962) accounted for the OC Type A/B distinction with vowel length instead of medial yod: OC Type A syllables had short vowels and OC Type B syllables had long vowels. Starostin (1989) has reversed this hypothesis: OC Type A syllables had long vowels and OC Type B syllables had short vowels (5.44). (5.44) Type A
‘father’s sister’ Type B
‘dwell’

OC OC (Karlgren 1957) (Starostin 1989) *ko *kaa *küo *ka

Although I have reservations about Starostin’s interpretation of the distinction ( p. 142), it is clear that medial yod can no longer be reconstructed as the key characteristic of Type B syllables. (2) Starostin (1989) draws upon a broader spectrum of evidence than Schuessler (1987) or Baxter (1992). Schuessler (1987) does not explicitly state the types of evidence that he has used in his reconstruction. His OC, a revision of Li’s (1971) reconstruction, is apparently based mostly or wholly on Chinese-internal evidence. He does not mention transcriptions, Sinoxenic, or old loans in neighboring languages. Baxter draws primarily upon Chineseinternal evidence, though he does occasionally appeal to external evidence. Starostin makes fuller use of both internal and external evidence than Baxter. 139

OLD JAPANESE

Unlike Baxter, he utilizes Proto-Min, Chinese transcriptions of foreign words, all three branches of Sinoxenic (SJ, SK, and SV), and Chinese loans in Tai. No full-scale reconstruction of OC known to me has yet taken advantage of all of the extant evidence – OSV, nôm, and Hmong-Mien remain mostly ignored – but Starostin’s comes closest to the ideal so far. (3) Schuessler (1987) reconstructs only “Early Zhou” Chinese circa 1050– 770 BCE, well over a thousand years before the period we are concerned with, and Baxter’s efforts are focused on the reconstruction of the OC of Shijing (p. 92). Only Starostin (1989) reconstructs nine stages of OC, ranging from Proto-Chinese all the way to Late LOC of the fifth century CE in addition to EMC of the sixth century and the Qieyun ‘language’ of 601. Of course, among these nine stages, his LOC stages are the most important for the reconstruction of the readings of the more archaic OJ phonograms. Although he provides reconstructed forms only for five of the nine stages of OC and the Qieyun ‘language,’ he does meticulously list sound changes between all of the stages. One could reconstruct unlisted forms for intermediate stages such as ‘Middle LOC’ on the basis of his lists of reconstructions for major stages and sound changes, but I have tried to avoid doing that as much as possible. Thus I generally rely upon the reconstructed forms labeled as ‘LOC’ in his appendix instead of attempting to reconstruct Early, Middle, and Late LOC forms on my own. Forms labeled simply as ‘OC’ are Starostin’s reconstructions of ‘Preclassical Chinese’ (c. tenth century to sixth century BCE). For the above three reasons, I have selected Starostin (1989) rather than Schuessler (1987) or Baxter (1992) as my source of OC reconstructions. Proposed revisions to Starostin (1989) Starostin’s (1989) reconstruction is not perfect, but no reconstruction is. Quite a bit of the evidence that he did not investigate, including OSV and nôm, contradicts some aspects of his reconstruction. His OC may need substantial revision, but this is not the place to propose such revisions. In any cases, I still believe that his reconstruction is the best available in published form. My OJ reconstruction does not principally rely upon his reconstruction, and those aspects of his reconstruction which I do refer to are mostly corroborated by other sources such as Ting (1972), Schuessler (1987), Baxter (1992), and Pulleyblank (1977–78, 1991b). Below I will present four revisions to Starostin’s reconstruction. (1) I accept Ting’s (1972) proposal of a velar glide coda *-ò for the OC
‘fish’ and
‘genitive’ rhyme categories which Starostin reconstructs without *-ò. There are at least three types of evidence that point toward *-ò.

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First, one can find OC words of the
‘fish’ and
‘genitive’ rhyme categories which had a final *-t in Proto-Tai (Pulleyblank 1993: 364–365, Miyake 1999: 36–37). Second, all agree that Type A syllables of the OC
‘genitive’ rhyme (Starostin 1989’s *-RR and Baxter 1992’s *-t) developed a final palatal glide *-y in MC. (5.45) MLOC *-RR > LLOC *-RRy (Starostin 1989: 497) (5.46) OC *-t > MC -oy (Baxter 1992: 578–579). I agree with Pulleyblank’s (1993: 364) observation: “spontaneous generation of a palatal glide by a central or back vowel, [R] or [£], seems completely unmotivated.” Pulleyblank (1993: 365) proposes that the MC palatal glide originated from an earlier OC velar glide: (5.47) LOC *-Rò A > EMC *-Ry (Baxter’s -oy) He does not specify what happened to the final *-ò in Type B syllables of the OC
‘genitive’ rhyme, but I think it simply monophthongized with the preceding vowel: (5.48) LOC *-Rò B > *-R > EMC *-t Third, OSV and nôm evidence seem to indicate a final *-ò in Type B
‘genitive’ rhyme. The Vietnamese seem to have borrowed this *-ò as native *-y. OSV sometimes renders the Type B
‘genitive’ rhyme as -di [RRy]: e.g.,
OSV khNi [xRRy] ‘arise.’ Type B
‘genitive’ rhyme graphs such as
SV kì/kz ‘his/her/its’ are bases for vietographs with a final [y] such as
cày [kay] ‘kind of insect.’ (2) Although Starostin (1989: 485) reconstructed the LOC Type B
‘fish’ rhyme as *-o (< Eastern Han *-a), this rhyme regularly corresponds to OSV ea [tR] (Wang 1958: 367–368, Pulleyblank 1984: 209), not to OSV ô [o] or o [Q]. Nôm bases of the LOC Type B
‘fish’ rhyme are not used in vietographs for words with labial vowels (u, ua, ô, o). Hence I will reconstruct the vowel of the LOC Type B
‘fish’ rhyme as nonlabial *a instead of labial *o. I do agree with Starostin’s reconstruction of the LOC Type A
‘fish’ rhyme as *-oo (< Eastern Han *-aa), though I do not think the vowel length needs to be specified (see below). This rhyme regularly corresponds to a [aa] in the older layer of OSV and to o [QQ] in the newer layer. Nôm bases of this rhyme consistently appear in vietographs for words with labial vowels (u, ua, ô, o). Apparently the earlier OC velar glide coda *-ò was lost in this rhyme by the LOC period.

141

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Thus I revise Starostin’s reconstructions of the LOC Type A and B
‘fish’ and
‘genitive’ rhymes as follows: (5.49) Rhyme
‘fish’
‘fish’
‘genitive’
‘genitive’

Type A B A B

Starostin’s LOC Miyake’s LOC *-oo *-oA *-o *-aò B *-tt *-Rò A *-t *-Rò B

I will explain other differences between my reconstruction and his shortly. (3) In (5.49) I have emended Starostin’s LOC *t(t) to *Rò. OSV shows that OC *R in the Type B
‘genitive’ rhyme may have persisted into LOC and perhaps even into EMC. According to Starostin’s system of reconstruction, the Type B
‘genitive’ rhyme word
‘time’ should appear in various stages of OC and EMC as: (5.50)
‘time’

Classical OC Western Han *d(h)R *d(h)R ELOC EMC *j(h)t *j(h)t

Eastern Han *d(h)yR > *j(h)R

Starostin (1989: 485) believes that *R raised to *t between Eastern Han OC and Early LOC of the third century. Therefore OSV words of the Type B
‘genitive’ rhyme from Eastern Han should have the final -d [RR] (the short vowel -â [R] is not permitted as a Vietnamese final) and newer OSV words should have the final -e [tt]. But we rarely find -e [tt] as an OSV counterpart of the OC Type B ‘genitive’ rhyme. We find -di [RRy] or -d [RR]: e.g.,
OSV thIi [t h RRy] ‘time’ and
OSV cI [kRR] ‘flag’ (Pulleyblank 1984: 212). Notice the [y] in OSV thIi ‘time’ which looks like a trace of the LOC final velar glide *-ò. Pulleyblank 1984 and Starostin 1989 agree that EMC did not have any *-ò in the Type B
‘genitive’ rhyme, so the absence of a trace of LOC *-ò would be a sign of late origin. Hence I believe that OSV -di [RRy] words such as
thIi ‘time’ reflect LOC *-Rò B (5.48) and that OSV -d words such as
cI ‘flag’ reflect late LOC *-R. Therefore I would revise (5.50) as in (5.51). (5.51)

Classical OC
‘time’ *d(h)Rò B ELOC *j(h)Rò B

Western Han *d(h)Rò B EMC *j(h)t

Eastern Han *d(h)yRò B > *j(h)Rò B

(4) As mentioned earlier, Starostin (1989) believes that the OC Type A/B distinction involved vowel length. He came to this conclusion largely on the basis of correlations between Types A and B in OC and vowel length in the 142

OLD CHINESE, MIDDLE CHINESE, AND SINOXENIC

Tibeto-Burman Lushei language. OC Type A corresponded to Lushei long vowels and OC Type B corresponded to Lushei short vowels. But Starostin (1989: 328) himself admits that out of the OC–Lushei cognates presented in chapter 3 of his book, OC Type A corresponded to Lushei short vowels in 42 cases and to Lushei long vowels in only 32 cases. As Pulleyblank (1994: 91) writes, “even if one accepts all Starostin’s [sic] cognate word pairs (and many of them seem to me to be doubtful) the statistical correlation he claims to find between Lushei long vowels and Type A is hardly impressive.” Starostin found 72 cases of OC Type B corresponding to Lushei short vowels. He does not give the exact number of exceptions, but notes only that there are not more than ten of them. There very well may be a correlation between the OC Types and Lushei vowel length partly obscured by secondary lengthening in Lushei and/or shifts within Chinese. Nevertheless I remain agnostic and unwilling to commit to Starostin’s interpretation of the OC Type A/B distinction. Pulleyblank once advocated a similar hypothesis (1962) but now views the OC Type A/B distinction as a “prosodic opposition between prominence on the first and prominence on the second mora of the syllable” (1994: 94). He has found such an opposition in Sizang Chin and cites four Sizang Chin numerals “whose relation to Chinese is uncontroversial” to show that the position of the ‘syllabic peak’ in Sizang Chin corresponds with the OC Types (1994: 92). However, he admits that the syllabic peaks of two Sizang Chin numerals do not match the types of their OC cognates. Pulleyblank’s hypothesis requires much more testing. I currently think that Norman’s (1994) hypothesis of a pharyngeal origin for the OC Type A /B distinction may be the most likely, but I am hesitant to commit to it in its present form. For now, I will ignore Starostin’s OC vowel length and indicate the type of an OC syllable with a superscript ‘A’ or ‘B’ at the end of a rhyme. (5.52)

OC (Starostin 1989) OC (Miyake) Type A *VV *V A Type B *V *V B

Apart from the revisions explained above and a number of typographical modifications listed in my initial list of abbreviations, symbols, and conventions, I will quote all OC forms according to Starostin (1989).

The reconstruction of Early Middle Chinese Karlgren’s ‘Ancient Chinese’ (my EMC) reconstruction, first presented in (1915–26) and published in final form in (1957), though extremely outdated, remains influential today. Karlgren was a pioneer in drawing data not only from dialects throughout China but also from all three branches of Sinoxenic. 143

OLD JAPANESE

Many other reconstructions came after his, but most of them did not represent significant advances. Too many Karlgrenoid reconstructions imitated his complex fifteen-vowel system and, worse yet, added further quirks to it. Many EMC reconstructions bear little resemblance to any variety of Chinese or Sinoxenic in terms of phonological typology. However, the realism of the consonant systems of Karlgrenoid reconstructions has rarely been seriously questioned. One can easily and independently verify much of Karlgren’s original EMC consonants through the comparative method without any knowledge of the ‘36 initials’ listed in Yunjing. Even post-Karlgrenian reconstructions such as Pulleyblank (1984), Starostin (1989), Baxter (1992), and Coblin (1994) preserve most of Karlgren’s original sound values for EMC consonants. Since there is so much consensus on the initials, I decided to choose Pulleyblank’s (1984, 1991a) EMC reconstruction mainly because I believe that his reconstruction of the finals is the best available. I will enumerate my reasons for this belief in the next section. Post-Karlgrenian EMC reconstructions There are at least four published post-Karlgrenian reconstructions of EMC which lack the convoluted vowel systems of earlier efforts: Pulleyblank (1984, 1991a), Starostin (1989), Baxter (1992), and Coblin (1994). Coblin (1994) is the least useful for us because it is a reconstruction of ‘Old Northwestern Chinese.’ I doubt that the EMC basis of the orthography of Kojiki poetry originated from the northwest. The Three Kingdoms of the Korean peninsula probably got their sinographic readings from the east and south of China rather than the distant, backward northwest. Prior to the unification of China by the Sui, peninsular peoples would have little motivation to journey to the former Han capital of Chang’an and bring back its rustic pronunciations. If the term Go-on (‘sounds of Wu’; i.e., sounds of the south) is truly meaningful, then it is further counterevidence against a northwestern EMC origin for System D, the basis of Go-on and the phonogram orthography of the poetry of Kojiki. I will not use Coblin’s Old Northwestern Chinese, but I will review and reject his northwestern LMC reconstruction in the following section. The remaining three EMC reconstructions attempt to express the abstract phonological distinctions of the ‘language’ of the Qieyun dictionary of 601 CE (p. 93). Pulleyblank, Starostin, and Baxter all agree that the distinctions of Qieyun were real, but their interpretations of those distinctions differ considerably. Pulleyblank’s (1984, 1991a) interpretation stands out among the three because it is the only one which uses abundant and appropriate evidence. Besides philological sources such as Qieyun, he uses three types of modern sources: (1) the colloquial strata of Min dialects, (2) Go-on and man’yôgana (which potentially entails circularity; see Chapters 3 and 6), and (3) OSV. 144

OLD CHINESE, MIDDLE CHINESE, AND SINOXENIC

No other reconstruction of OC or MC has ever tapped the rich mines of OSV. Furthermore, his reconstruction has a largely typologically plausible vowel system not unlike that of Vietnamese and can neatly account for Go-on, OSV, and many of the Min forms. Starostin (1989) tried to reconstruct ‘Middle Chinese’ (EMC)12 by combining the initials already reconstructed by other scholars (primarily Karlgren 1915–26 and Li Rong 1952) with finals derived via the comparative method. His choice of sources for comparison was extremely unfortunate. He restricted himself only to Sinoxenic, selecting EMC-based Go-on and LMCbased Sino-Vietnamese and Sino-Korean. Since the latter two are much newer than Go-on, they lack many of the distinctions of Qieyun. When one looks at Starostin’s (1989: 23–27) table of correspondences between SV, SK, and Go-on, one is struck by the number of Qieyun finals which are not distinguished in all three. Forty-six sets of SV, SK, and Go-on finals corresponded to fifty-eight Qieyun finals. A strict application of the comparative method would require Starostin to reconstruct only forty-six ‘Middle Chinese’ finals. Yet he manages to fill in the holes by plucking pieces of others’ reconstructions and picking fragments from modern Chinese dialects. The end result is not as bad as one might expect – in fact, it is not too different from Pulleyblank’s solution – but it does have some major flaws. Starostin reconstructs a lax–tense distinction for EMC vowels (underlining signifies tenseness): (5.53) lax *a, *ä, *u, *e, *o

vs.

tense *a, *ä, *u, *e, *o

and assigns the tense vowels to Grade III syllables without any explanation. I do not know how he came up with this unusual interpretation of Grade III, since the SX branches he worked with do not have a lax–tense distinction. He also takes advantage of his knowledge of previous OC reconstructions to posit retroflex vowels which correspond to OC r-vowel clusters but are completely absent in modern languages. Like Karlgren, Starostin reconstructs *-ie- in Grade IV, even though such an EMC diphthong was long ago discredited by Maspero (1920) and is absent in many Karlgrenian as well as post-Karlgrenian reconstructions which reconstruct a simple *-e- or *-ε-. Although Starostin’s OC is based on his EMC reconstruction, the above problems and others do not greatly mar his OC. Since his OC reconstructions can be verified by looking at pre-MC archaisms in the colloquial strata of Chinese and pre-MC loans in Vietnamese and Tai, it seems that he came to the right conclusions about OC in spite of the errors in his EMC reconstruction. Thus I have chosen to use his version of OC but not his version of EMC. As for Baxter’s (1992: 27) version of EMC, Baxter himself denies that it is a reconstruction: “The notation I introduce here is not intended as a reconstruction; rather it is a convenient transcription which adequately represents 145

OLD JAPANESE

all the phonological distinctions of Middle Chinese while leaving controversial questions open.” In spite of this declaration, Baxter does use his ‘transcription’ as a de facto reconstruction upon which he builds his OC reconstruction. If I were also to use his ‘transcription’ as a de facto reconstruction, I would have to make a number of typographical changes, since his transcription is inconsistent and confusing (e.g., *[y] is represented by both *y and *j, and the latter can also represent [ò] before a back vowel; Baxter 1992: 55, 579–580). But such changes would not alter the fact that his EMC cannot always account for Go-on or OSV: (5.54) Rhyme
‘genitive’
‘anxious’

Pulleyblank Baxter Go-on OSV *-t *-i o, i d(i) [RR(y) ] *-uR *-ju [òu] u ua [uR]

Older Go-on -o and d(i) [RR(y) ] make no sense if the
‘genitive’ rhyme were Baxter’s high front i. Pulleyblank’s *t is not a perfect match, but at least it is a non-front vowel. And where would the schwa in OSV ua [uR] come from if the
‘anxious’ rhyme were Baxter’s *-ju [òu]? I do not wish to give the impression that Pulleyblank’s reconstruction is the last word on the subject. There are a number of aspects of his EMC reconstruction which I find questionable. In some cases I favor Starostin’s or Baxter’s solutions and in others I favor my own. But since (1) these questionable aspects are almost entirely in the finals and (2) I will use Pulleyblank’s finals as convenient labels for EMC rhymes rather than as primary evidence for OJ vocalism, I will list only a few emendations below. Proposed revisions to Pulleyblank (1984, 1991a) Pulleyblank has published two slightly different reconstructions of EMC (1984, 1991a). The reconstruction used in this book is based on his (1991a) reconstruction with the following alterations: (1) Pulleyblank (1991a: 12) has changed his (1984) reconstructions of the EMC Grade II vowels *ar and *er to *at and *Rt. I find these new diphthongs to be dubious. Pulleyblank is correct in noting that Tai does have diphthongs ending in *-t. However, I know of no Tai language that allows such a diphthong in medial position: i.e., syllables such as *CatC are probably impossible in Tai languages. Yet Pulleyblank’s (1991a) EMC is full of syllables such as
EMC *kRtp ‘first Heavenly Stem.’ Moreover, I have never seen any forms in Chinese or in other languages which suggest *Vt diphthongs in Grade II. Colloquial Taiwanese e and OSV e [ε] regularly correspond to Pulleyblank’s EMC *at: compare
EMC *γ atq ‘summer’ with Colloquial Taiwanese he6 and OSV hè [hεε] ‘id.’ If Pulleyblank were correct, we might expect forms such as Colloquial Taiwanese *hai 6 and OSV *hày [hay]. I will abandon Pulleyblank’s (1984) and (1991a) Grade II vowels 146

OLD CHINESE, MIDDLE CHINESE, AND SINOXENIC

in favor of Baxter’s (1992: 61) *æ and *ε, which account for the data without resorting to marked retroflex vowels or exotic diphthongs (1992: 61). (2) If I follow Baxter in reconstructing *ε in Grade II, this would conflict with Pulleyblank’s (1984, 1991a) reconstruction of the EMC Grade IV vowel *ε. Pulleyblank (1984: 198–199) himself gives the solution when he points out that the usual OSV rendition of this vowel is ê [e]. OSV e [ε] is a rarer rendition and is otherwise associated with Grade II (see above), not Grade IV. Since Pulleyblank’s (1984, 1991a) EMC has no *e whatsoever, I will substitute EMC *e for his EMC *ε. EMC *e would account for the OSV data better. (3) Pulleyblank (1984, 1991a) reconstructs the vowel *Q for the Grade I
‘model’ rhyme on the basis of its OSV counterpart o [Q]. This vowel does not contrast with an upper-mid vowel *o. Pulleyblank (1991a: 7) suggests that “one could substitute o for Q without ambiguity for practical purposes.” I will adopt his suggestion. (4) Other than the diphthongs (*at, *Rt) discussed in (1) above, Pulleyblank (1984, 1991a) reconstructs three diphthongs (*iR, *tR, *uR) in syllable-final position which are in near-complementary distribution with three diphthongs (*ia, *ta, *ua) in syllable-medial position: i.e., CVR and CVaC but not *CVa or *CVRC. There are only two exceptions to the above generalization: the common rhyme *-ia and the very rare rhyme *-ta. I believe that these diphthongs are in need of reinterpretation. Let us ignore the rhymes *-ia and *-ta for the moment and look at the Go-on and OSV renderings of (*iR, *tR, *uR) and (*ia, *ta, *ua): (5.55) Final Medial Final Medial Final Medial

EMC *-iR *-ia*-tR *-ta*-uR *-ua-

Go-on -e -e-o -o-u-u-

OSV -ia -iê-ea -ed-ua -uô-

[iR] -[iR][tR] -[tR][uR] -[uR]-

Pulleyblank’s differentiation between three *-VR and three *-Va- diphthongs is unnecessary, since it appears that the Japanese and the Vietnamese perceived medial *-Va- and *-VR similarly. I will simplify (5.55) by positing only three *VR diphthongs: (5.56) Final Medial Final Medial Final Medial

EMC *-iR *-iR*-tR *-tR*-uR *-uR-

Go-on -e -e-o -o-u-u-

OSV -ia -iê-ea -ed-ua -uô147

[iR] -[iR][tR] -[tR][uR] -[uR]-

OLD JAPANESE

This would eliminate the need for a diphthong *ua. But how can I eliminate the two remaining diphthongs ending in *-a (*-ia and *-ta)? Go-on and OSV render EMC *-ia with (y)a, not -e or -ia. If Pulleyblank’s identification of medial *-ia- (our *-iR-) with final *-ia were correct, then why was *ia not rendered the same way in both medial and final position (5.57)? (5.57)

EMC Go-on OSV Final *-ia -ya -a [aa] Medial *-ia- (my *-iR-) -e-iê- [iR]

I could eliminate *-ia by rewriting it as *-ya, which does not otherwise occur in Pulleyblank’s reconstruction. (Pulleyblank reconstructs medial *-yonly before *i.) Compare the Go-on and OSV renditions of EMC *-ya (Pulleyblank’s *-ia) and EMC *-a (5.58). (5.58)

EMC Go-on OSV Final *-ya (Pulleyblank’s *-ia) -ya -a [aa] Medial *-a -a -a [aa]

Now we only have four EMC diphthongs left (*iR, *tR, *uR, *ta). *-ta is of such low textual frequency that one is tempted to overlook it, but it does appear among the OJ phonograms, so we cannot ignore it. *-ta appears only after velars and is restricted almost entirely to phonograms for Indic velar-initial syllables. According to Pulleyblank (1965, 1984: 167–168), EMC velars had back allophones before back vowels. EMC */ka/ may have been *[qa]. Therefore EMC had no native *[ka]. When EMC speakers had to transcribe Indic syllables such as *[ka], they created special phonograms such as
EMC *kta ‘transcriptional character for Indic ka and ka’. I would like to reconstruct the rhyme *-ta with a velar glide *-ò- as *-òa, which would be parallel to my revision of *-ia with a palatal glide *-y- as *-ya. (5) Pulleyblank (1991a) reconstructed the voiceless and voiced ‘throat sounds’ of EMC as velars (*x and *γ). Norman (1988: 31) argued that perhaps we should take the term ‘throat’ literally and reconstruct these sounds as glottals (*h and *®). I will do precisely that, though they may have been velars. The evidence is ambiguous. Pulleyblank (1962) himself once reconstructed them as glottals and as late as 1984 (163–164) believed that they were glottals in southern EMC. (6) See my initial list of abbreviations, symbols, and conventions for minor typographical substitutions such as *y for *j. I list the consonants and vowels of our modified version of Pulleyblank’s (1984, 1991a) reconstruction in Table 5.13. *h and *® may have been *[x γ ], so I have added these possibilities in parentheses. 148

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Table 5.13 The consonants of EMC

Voiceless stops/affr. Voiceless fricatives Aspirated stops/affr. Voiced stops/affr. Voiced fricatives Nasals Glides

Labial

Dental

Retroflex

Palatal

Velar

Glottal

*p

*t

*tr

*th *d

*m *w

*n *l

*k (*x) *kh *g (*γ) *Y *ò

*q *h

*ph *b

*c *\ *ch *j *9 *ã *y

*ts *s *tsh *dz *z

*thr *dr

*cr *Z *chr *jr *|

*nr

*®

Table 5.14 The vowels of EMC

High High + Central Upper mid Lower mid Low

Front

Central

Back

*i *iR *e *ε *æ

*t *tR *R

*u *uR *o *a

The distinction between *ε and *æ may have been an archaism in Qieyun. Rhyme classes with those vowels are poorly distinguished in OSV and Go-on and have merged in modern Chinese languages and the rest of SX. The syllable structure of my modified EMC is: (5.59) C(G1)V(C) + Tone C = {all consonants in Table 5.13 except *ò} (G) = {*w, *y, *ò} V = {all vowels in Table 5.14} (C) = {*p, *m, *w, *t, *n, *y, *yk, *yY, *k, *Y, *wk, *wY} Tone = {zero = Level, *-q = Rising, *-h = Departing, *-stop = Entering} *yk and *yY are palatalized velars and *wk and *wY are labialized velars. Starostin (1989) also reconstructs these codas for EMC. I use Pulleyblank’s (1984, 1991a) unusual notation for these four sounds. They could otherwise be written as *ky, *Yy, *kw, *Yw.

The reconstruction of Late Middle Chinese (LMC) LMC has not received the attention that has been showered upon EMC, largely because of the paucity of materials. There is no LMC equivalent to Qieyun. We do have the list of 36 initials in Yunjing and other rhyme tables, but the rhymes in those tables are taken from Qieyun and do not represent 149

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the rhymes of LMC. I know of only two post-Karlgrenian reconstructions of LMC and will briefly review them below. Post-Karlgrenian LMC reconstructions After revolutionizing the OC field in (1962), Edwin Pulleyblank published the first draft of his Late Middle Chinese reconstruction in (1970–71). Pulleyblank’s premises were radically different from those of his predecessors. He viewed rhyme tables as evidence for northwestern Chang’an LMC rather than for southern EMC. He also viewed the Four Grades of the tables in a new way. Previous scholars had tried to make sense of the Four Grades via EMC with little success. But having freed himself from the need to shove EMC into the supposedly LMC framework of Yunjing, Pulleyblank declared that the Grades of LMC were grades of palatalization, ranging from zero to maximal. Nearly fifteen years later, Pulleyblank presented a revised reconstruction of LMC in his (1984) monograph. This reconstruction reappeared with slight modifications in his (1991a) Lexicon. Meanwhile, W. South Coblin had been pursuing the problem of LMC (and of northwestern MC in general) from a completely different perspective. Instead of relying upon rhyme tables which he rejected as artificial, he sought to reconstruct ancient northwestern speech on the basis of Chinese transcriptions of foreign languages and foreign transcriptions of Chinese. Luo (1933a) had barely dared to venture beyond Karlgren’s EMC reconstruction, but Coblin (1994) devised reconstructions of northwestern LOC, EMC, and LMC that were intended to be a radical departure from those of his predecessors. Both of these takes on Chang’an LMC would seem to be indispensable for the interpretation of the CLMC-based Shoki orthography. If two researchers could arrive at the same results independently using different methodologies, we could safely assume that they had approximated the truth. Unfortunately, this is far from the case. Pulleyblank’s LMC reconstruction is an example of theory overriding data. Although Pulleyblank is always to be commended for collecting data neglected by his peers – particularly Sinoxenic data – his ultimate (1984, 1991a) version of LMC relies heavily on his assumptions. For example, he reconstructed a medial *-y- in Grade II for Chang’an LMC, even though such a yod is exceedingly rare in the extensive transcriptive materials available for northwestern Chinese, infrequent in SK (which may not even be based on CLMC; see p. 112), and absent from Kan-on. He believed that CLMC was the standard language of Tang and spread to the south, yet southern Chinese has no trace of this yod. This is all very ironic since Pulleyblank has protested (rightfully, I believe) against the Karlgrenian reconstruction of yod for Grade III in EMC and Type B syllables of OC. 150

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The problems with Pulleyblank’s reconstruction are not restricted to Grade II. Unlike his EMC reconstruction which accounts nicely for Go-on and OSV, his LMC reconstruction cannot account for any of the later strata of SX. Why do Vietnamese long vowels (SV cao [kaaw] ) correspond to LMC short vowels (
LMC *kaw ‘high’)? Why would the Vietnamese, who had a perfectly good final -ua [uR], borrow
LMC *muR ‘model’ as mô [moo] and
LMC *YüR ‘anxious’ as ngu [Yuu]? Why not simply reconstruct LMC *mo and LMC *Yu? There are many other cases of mismatches between attested forms and his reconstruction which I will not list here. Occasionally Pulleyblank tried to reconcile mismatches with dubious results. According to his ‘grades of palatalization’ theory (5.2), Grade III was the second most palatalized Grade and Grade IV is the most palatalized Grade. Grade III was characterized by the vowel *i and Grade IV was characterized by the glide-vowel combination *yi. SK violates this theory because SK has u [t] in Grade III and i [i] in Grade IV. In order to make SK fit his ‘grades of palatalization’ theory, he reinterpreted Late Middle Korean u as [i] and i as [yi] (1984: 100–104). This would imply an otherwise unjustifiable chain shift (*yi > *i > t) between LMK and modern Korean. But Pulleyblank neither pursued the consequences of his claims for Korean historical phonology nor cited Korean-internal evidence to justify his claims. Coblin (1994) is the antithesis to Pulleyblank’s theory-heavy approach. His Compendium of Phonetics is almost all data and no theory. Surely Coblin, grounded more firmly in the real world, would be more likely to produce realistic results. Regrettably, the very nature of Coblin’s methodology bars him from obtaining such results. Coblin principally draws upon two types of data: Tibetan transcriptions of Chinese and Chinese transcriptions of Indic languages. The Tibetan script of the time had only six vowel letters. It probably could not accurately record all of the phonemic distinctions of LMC. It is roughly analogous to katakana transcriptions of English in phrase books for Japanese tourists. Using those transcriptions, one could not reconstruct English sounds such as [æ R θ 2 W] which have no Japanese equivalents. The Chinese Buddhist transcriptions pose a different problem. Ignoring vowel length and syllabic liquids (è, ù, ê), Sanskrit has only a five-vowel system (a, i, u, e, o). Middle Indic languages also have a five-vowel system. The Chinese would naturally tend to use characters with vowels similar to the five Indic vowels in their transcriptions. Coblin (1994: 79) finds himself unable to learn much about the early northwestern sound value of the
‘fish’ rhyme because it is rarely used to transcribe Indic. Obviously, the
‘fish’ rhyme was among the rhymes that did not resemble anything in Indic. How much could we determine about English phonology based on English transcriptions of Indic words? We could not learn anything about English sounds not used in Indic transcription. We would never know that English had a /z/ or /W/ on the basis of transcriptions of Sanskrit, which has no /z/ or /W/. 151

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Pulleyblank (1998: 201) also points out that Coblin is not entirely liberated from the philological tradition that he rejects. Coblin’s ‘Qieyun System’ is but a minor revision of Karlgren’s ‘Ancient Chinese.’ Coblin is more conservative than he realizes. Coblin (1994: 49–50) reconstructs an “intrinsically front” *i in Grade III and an “anti-palatal” *t in Grade IV. Since the Indic data he discusses for these vowel do not have a distinction between /i/ and /t/, he apparently falls back on the Karlgrenian assumption that Grade III was more palatal than Grade IV. This contradicts everything else known about those two Grades. Compare Coblin’s (1994: 49, 217, 226, 241) Sui-Tang Chang’an (STCA) reconstructions with (1) Coblin’s ‘Qieyun System’ (QYS), (2) the Tibetan transcriptions listed in Coblin (1994), (3) SK, and (4) SV in (5.60). (5.60)
‘sad’
‘compare’
‘machine’
‘discard’

Grade III IV III IV

STCA *pi *bt *ki *kht

QYS *pyi *bi *kyei *khi

Tib. pyi bt, ’byi, ’byt kt (none)

SK SV pi bi [(ii] pi tì [tii] kuy [kty] cd [kRR] ki khí [xii]

Notice that STCA *i correlates with the presence of a *y in QYS and that STCA *t correlates with the absence of a *y in QYS. So far, so good. However, the Tibetan transcriptions only confuse us: Tibetan yi and t correspond to STCA *i, and Tibetan t, yi, and yt correspond to STCA *t. The SK and SV forms, on the other hand, have a pattern. SK distinguishes Grades III and IV only after velars and SV distinguishes those Grades only after labials. SK uy [ty] corresponds to STCA *i and SK i corresponds to STCA *t. This is precisely the reverse of what we would expect given Coblin’s STCA reconstruction:
SK *ki ‘machine’ and
SK *kuy [kty] ‘discard.’ If Mineya (1972) et al. are correct in deriving SV t from a palatalized labial, then why is SV t in Grade IV (
SV tì ‘compare’) if Grade IV had Coblin’s “anti-palatal” vowel *t? And why is SV t not in Grade III (
SV bi ‘sad’), which Coblin reconstructs with an “intrinsically front” *i? The vowel of
SV cd [kRR] ‘machine’ (Grade III) also does not suggest an “intrinsically front” *i. It is true that
SV cd’ ‘machine’ is a ‘carryover’ reading from pre-Tang OSV; the expected LMC-based SV reading would be *ki. Nonetheless Coblin’s (1994: 241) fifth-century ‘Old Northwestern Chinese’ reconstruction *ki for
‘machine’ does not explain the non-front vowel in SV cd. On pp. 112 and 127, I have demonstrated that SK and SV have different origins. If they both reflect Grade III as non-palatal and Grade IV as palatal, these manifestations of the Grades are most likely to be traits shared by their source LMC dialects rather than coincidental Korean and Vietnameseinternal developments. It is theoretically possible that Chang’an LMC could have reversed the pattern found elsewhere, but it would be simpler for us to 152

OLD CHINESE, MIDDLE CHINESE, AND SINOXENIC

assume otherwise. If we ignore the hypothetical Karlgrenian QYS and look at the hard data, we see that Indic and Tibetan tell us nothing about Grades III and IV but that SK and SV do tell us something quite different from Coblin’s account. This is not much ado about nothing, for all four of the characters in (5.60) appear in Shoki.
‘sad’ and
‘machine’ are phonograms for OJ piy and kiy with B-type iy (NS 123.4.5a, 7.2.3) and
‘compare’ and
‘discard’ are phonograms for OJ pyi and kyi with A-type yi (NS 6.2.1, 96.21.3) We will see in Chapter 8 that OJ B-type iy correlates with Grade III and that OJ A-type yi correlates with Grade IV. The Grade III/IV distinction is crucial for the reconstruction of these two OJ ‘vowels.’ Neither Pulleyblank’s nor Coblin’s LMC reconstruction is satisfactory. The ideal solution would be to use the comparative method to create reconstructions untainted by either Karlgrenian or post-Karlgrenian preconceptions. But such a task is far beyond the scope of this book, so I shall not attempt it here. In the next section, I will explain how I will approximate LMC without using either Pulleyblank’s or Coblin’s reconstructions. The initials of Chang’an LMC Since no LMC equivalent of Qieyun exists, no lists of LMC finals compiled by LMC speakers exist. The post-LMC rhyme tables such as Yunjing still listed the long obsolete finals of Qieyun. Instead of trying to reconstruct LMC finals, I will use SK and SV as my main witnesses for LMC finals. As we have seen, the Tibetan transcriptions of northwestern LMC finals are inconsistent and unreliable. Even though SK and SV probably do not descend from Chang’an LMC, the similarities between their finals and those of modern Kan-on suggest that there were no radical differences between the finals of their source LMC dialects and the Chang’an LMC source of Kan-on. However, SK and SV cannot tell us much about the initials of Chang’an LMC for two reasons. First, they were apparently based on LMC dialects which had not undergone the denasalization that was peculiar to CLMC. Second, neither currently reflects the original consonantal distinctions of LMC. SK aspiration is not correlated with aspiration in Chinese or in SV. Many consonant mergers and shifts have taken place in SV. Thus I will recycle the consonants of modified EMC (Table 5.13) with modifications to serve as a makeshift substitute for the initials of CLMC. But it is not clear whether all the EMC consonantal distinctions survived into CLMC. Pulleyblank (1984, 1991a) reconstructs retroflexes but no palatals because he believes that EMC palatals had merged with EMC retroflexes in LMC. Although late LMC-based SV still maintains a distinction between the two series, we cannot be certain that such a distinction existed in the northwest as well as in the south. Coblin (1994) reconstructs separate series 153

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of palatals and retroflexes for Sui-Tang Chang’an, which would have been the basis of Kan-on and the orthography of Shoki. I believe it is best to err in the direction of overdifferentiation rather than underdifferentiation, so I will keep LMC palatals separate from LMC retroflexes. I will make only three changes to the EMC consonants of Table 5.13 to reflect the major characteristics of CLMC. (1) Pulleyblank (1991a: 6) believes that EMC voiced obstruents had become LMC ‘muddy’ obstruents “having voiceless onset with voiced aspiration or murmur at their release.” Even without referring to the voiceless modern Kan-on counterparts of LMC ‘muddy’ obstruents, we can confirm this by looking at the Tibetan transcriptions (Luo 1933a): (5.61) LMC *k *kh *k® Tibetan transcription k, g kh k, kh, g Similar patterns of correspondence exist for unaspirated, aspirated, and ‘muddy’ obstruents at other points of articulation: (5.62) LMC Tibetan transcription

*p p, b

*ph *p® ph ph, b

Apparently the Tibetans perceived ‘muddy’ obstruents as either nonaspirates (k, g, b) or aspirates (kh, ph). Pulleyblank’s *C® reconstructions account for both patterns of transcription. Therefore I will rewrite all EMC voiced obstruents (*b, *d,*g, etc.) as *C® clusters (*p®, *t®, *k®, etc.). (2) Unlike EMC, LMC distinguished between ‘heavy lip sounds’ (bilabials) and ‘light lip sounds’ (labiodentals). The ‘heavy/light’ distinction must have been known to the scribes of Shoki, since it is attested in the fanqie for Yan Shigu’s Han shu commentary of 641. The ‘light lip sounds’ have been reconstructed in a number of different ways (Table 5.15). Table 5.15 Reconstructions of the LMC labiodentals Yunjing initial name


‘not’ Unaspirated


‘spread’ Aspirated


‘present’ ‘Muddy’


‘small’ Nasal

Tib. translit. (Luo 1933a) Tôdô (1978, 1980) Pulleyblank (1984, 1991a) Coblin (1994) Miyake

ph *f *f *pf *f

ph *fh *f *phf *fh

ph, b, ’b *v *f® *bv *f®

m, b, ’b *w *v *m(v) *mv

Note Coblin (1994: 58) reconstructs *m for seventh-century Sui-Tang Chang’an and *mv for eighthcentury Mid-Tang Chang’an.

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My reconstruction is a compromise between those of Tôdô (1978, 1980), Pulleyblank (1984, 1991a), and Coblin (1994). Although both Pulleyblank and I doubt the existence of a distinction between *f and *fh – there would be no other pair of fricatives distinguished by aspiration in LMC – I will err on the side of overdifferentiation and keep *f and *fh separate. For consistency with other ‘muddy’ obstruents, I will preserve Pulleyblank’s reconstruction of the ‘muddy’ labiodental as *f®. I will revise Pulleyblank’s *v as *mv to reflect the nasality evident in the Tibetan transcriptions m and ’b (probably *[mb] ). Following Coblin (1994: 34, 59), I will rewrite EMC bilabial initials (*p, *ph, *b, *m) followed by the vowel *u as CLMC labiodental initials: (5.63) EMC *p, *ph, *b / _u > CLMC *f, *fh, *f® (5.64) EMC *m / _u (except / _uw) > CLMC *mv A separate rule (5.64) is necessary for *m because EMC *m does not shift to CLMC *mv if it is followed by a *w: EMC *muw, *muwY, *muwk all have initial *m in CLMC (Pulleyblank 1984: 90). (3) *mv in (5.64) above is one of six prenasalized obstruent initials (*mb, *mv, *nd, *ndr, *ã9, *Yg) in LMC that developed from EMC nasal initials in all but certain environments (see below). All six correspond to modern Kan-on voiced obstruents and voiced obstruents prefixed with a.chung (symbolized here as an apostrophe) in Tibetan transcription (also see 5.42). Uighur transcriptions (Barat n.d.) also show denasalization in five of the six initials (*ndr is not represented in the data): (5.65) EMC LMC Kan-on Tib. translit. Uighur

*m *mb b ’b p

*m *mv b ’b v

*n *nd d ’d l

*nr *ndr d ’d –

*ã *ã9 z 9 z

*Y *Yg g ’g k

The exact circumstances under which denasalization was blocked are unclear. Coblin (1994: 58) thinks the process “occurred primarily in syllables whose finals lacked a nasal element of any kind . . . in some varieties of northwest Chinese it may have begun to spread beyond its original phonetic environment to syllables having final nasal elements.” For now, I will regard nasals before finals without nasal elements as denasalized: *m, *n > *mb, *nd, etc. I will regard nasals before finals with nasal elements as potentially denasalized: *m(b), *n(d), etc. In any case, denasalization was probably subphonemic in CLMC. Nothing in Kan-on or the transcriptions suggests the existence of minimal pairs such as *ma vs. *mba or *maY vs. *baY. However, what may have been 155

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CLMC allophone *[m] – perceived by non-Chinese as */m/? CLMC phoneme */m/ CLMC allophone *[mb] – perceived by non-Chinese as */mb/?

Figure 5.1 Foreign perceptions of CLMC nasals

Table 5.16 The consonants of CLMC Labial Voiceless stops/affr. *p Voiceless fricatives *f(h) Aspirated stops/affr. *ph ‘Muddy’ stops/affr. *p® ‘Muddy’ fricatives Prenasalized obst. *mb *mv Nasals *m Glides *w

Dental

Retroflex

*t

*ts *tr *s *th *tsh *thr *t® *ts® *t®r *s® *nd *ndr *n *nr *l

*cr *Z *chr *c®r *Z®

Palatal

Velar

Glottal

*c *\ *ch *c® *\® *ã9 *ã *y

*k (*x) *kh *k® (*x®) *Yg *Y *ò

*q *h *h®

subphonemic for a Chinese may have been quite distinct for a Korean or Japanese scribe (Figure 5.1), so I will distinguish between denasalized and (potentially) non-denasalized allophones of nasal phonemes. Using the above proposals, I derive the CLMC consonants in Table 5.16 from the EMC consonants of Table 5.13.

Summary In this chapter, I have surveyed all the types of evidence available for Chinese reconstruction as well as the latest Chinese reconstructions themselves. I adopted Starostin’s (1989) LOC reconstruction and Pulleyblank’s (1984, 1991a) EMC reconstruction because they draw upon and account for the widest variety of data. I rejected the LMC reconstructions of Pulleyblank (1984, 1991a) and Coblin (1994) and proposed a set of LMC initials. In the next chapter, I will outline my methodology for OJ reconstruction and explain how I will use the sources discussed up to this point.

Notes 1 EMC *tr represents a single consonant *[â]. Pulleyblank does not reconstruct any consonant clusters for EMC apart from consonant–glide clusters such as *tw-. 2 Pulleyblank’s (1984: 75) examples are from examples of the Four Grades in a manuscript fragment from Dunhuang. These examples are similar to four of the entries in table 25 of Tôdô and Kobayashi’s (1971: 74) edition of Yunjing.

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3 Kiyose (1991) uses the term ‘Altaic’ to denote a group of typologically similar languages rather than a family of genetically related languages. 4 I have adopted Kim-Renaud’s (1997: 2) translations of these terms. 5 I have not been able to identify Arisaka (1936). It is absent from Haewoo Lee’s bibliography. 6 Gregerson (1969: 165) reconstructs g as either *g or *γ, but I favor *g since (1) de Rhodes says “g is used just as it is with us” (Gregerson 1969: 182) and (2) *γ would have been written with a special letter or digraph instead of g. 7 According to Gage (1985), earlier *c, *j > *c and *k, *g > *k but *p, *b and *t, *d change directly into voiced implosives without the intermediate stages *p and *t that I propose in (5.12). 8 After the fall of the Eastern Han, the Wu state, one of China’s Three Kingdoms, ruled Jiaozhou (northern Vietnam) from 222 to 280. Jiaozhou was then controlled by various other states such as Eastern Jin and Song during the rest of the Six Dynasties period before falling under Sui and finally Tang control. 9 I have excluded characters which retain their SV readings and meanings when used in nôm: e.g.,
SV cô ‘father’s sister.’ 10 Some scholars including Downer treat Vietnamese e [t] and d [RR] as back vowels (i.e., as /T/ and /[/). However, notice that Downer’s ‘back’ (my ‘labial’) vowel class consists only of rounded back vowels and excludes these two unrounded central or back vowels. 11 I use the non-Wylie symbol t to transcribe the ‘inverse gi-gu (letter i)’ of the Tibetan transcriptions. The phonetic value of this vowel is uncertain (Che 1994: 75), though I suspect it may have been [t]. 12 Starostin (1989) uses the term ‘EMC’ to refer to sixth-century Chinese rather than the Chinese of Qieyun (601 CE).

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6 GOALS AND METHODOLOGY

This chapter will be quite short and relatively simple compared to earlier chapters. My aims and techniques are not as complex as the background knowledge and tools required for OJ reconstruction.

Goals I intend to reconstruct the segmental phonetics and phonology of the Old Japanese (OJ) language of the poetry of Kojiki and Nihon shoki. This reconstruction must be: (1) Statistically based: I will not draw conclusions about OJ on the basis of the readings of a few phonograms. Neither will I treat all phonograms for an OJ syllable equally. I will examine phonogram frequency to avoid being misled by nonce oddities. I am interested in finding dominant patterns of phonogram usage throughout the entire corpus of Kojiki and Shoki poetry. (2) Typologically sound: I want to reconstruct a plausible phonological system for OJ that (a) has precedents in natural human languages and (b) is as unmarked as possible. Extraordinary solutions will require extraordinary evidence. (3) Consistent with Japonic-internal evidence: I want my solution to fit what is already known about stages of Japanese after the eighth century.To avoid circularity, my solution will not be based on claims about pre-OJ made in Chapter 4. Instead, I will test such claims during the course of the following two chapters. There is no guarantee that philological reconstruction will confirm the results of internal and comparative reconstruction.

Methodology I have examined all poems from Kojiki and Nihon shoki in their original phonogram orthography, including all textual variants listed in the Shintô taikei (Outline of Shintô) edition of Kojiki and the Nihon koten bungaku taikei (Outline of Classical Japanese Literature) edition of Shoki. I have also examined textual variations between three modern printed editions of Kojiki 158

GOALS AND METHODOLOGY

and Shoki poetry: (1) the Shintô taikei edition of Kojiki, (2) the Nihon koten bungaku taikei edition of Shoki, and (3) the Nihon koten bungaku taikei anthology of non-Man’yôshû OJ poetry, Kodai kayô shû (Collection of Ancient Songs). I will quote OJ poetry in modified Yale romanizations for each phonogram based on (1) the kana transcriptions of the poems given in Kodai kayô shû and (2) the A/B-type classification of phonograms given in Igarashi’s (1969) dictionary of OJ orthography. I have chosen the poetry of Kojiki and Shoki to be my primary evidence for OJ phonetics and phonology for four reasons: (1) They constitute a large body of connected language. The poetry of Kojiki and Shoki contain a total of roughly 12,800 phonograms, including textual variants. It would be dangerous to reconstruct OJ on the basis of transcriptions of isolated proper nouns because they may contain archaic and/or aesthetic phonogram usages. One could not easily reconstruct the sounds of English on the basis of English personal and place names, which often have spelling irregularities lacking in the orthography for the rest of the language. Using two complete bodies of poetry (with the exception of a single poem; see below), I can reconstruct practically all of the syllables of the language rather than just those which happen to occur in names. I will also be able to reconstruct phonetic and phonological forms for many of the words in the language, since the bulk of the known OJ lexicon appears in poetry. (2) The System-D-based transcription (p. 18) of Kojiki and the System-Ebased transcription (p. 32) of Shoki are quite different, yet the poems being transcribed are often the same or very similar. Thus these two orthographies will give us two different perspectives on the phonetics and phonology of the poems shared by both works and of OJ in general. Since Kojiki and Shoki are contemporaneous, I hope to integrate their separate perspectives into a single coherent picture of the OJ sound system. (3) Kojiki and Shoki are both national histories produced for the Japanese court and presumably reflect the prestigious Central dialect of OJ. Man’yôshû, on the other hand, contains poems in the Azuma (Eastern) dialect of OJ as well as the Central dialect. The Azuma dialect is quite different from the Central dialect and is less well understood. It deserves separate treatment and I hope to examine its orthography, phonetics, and phonology elsewhere. I believe that the reconstruction of the Central dialect in this book is a prerequisite for reconstruction of the Azuma dialect. Hereafter, I will use the term OJ to refer only to the Central OJ dialect. (4) Unlike Man’yôshû, Kojiki and Shoki employ pure phonogram orthography without any ambiguous semantograms or tawamuregaki ( p. 26). The difficulties of interpretation that arise when dealing with the complex writing system of Man’yôshû poetry are largely absent from the simpler writing systems of Kojiki and Shoki poetry. As a general rule, I will exclude cases of variation including variant phonograms and variant interpretations of phonograms from my study. 159

OLD JAPANESE

Although I am frequently sure that some variant phonograms are scribal errors, I do not wish to explain away the statistical noise they can generate. Nor do I wish to deal with determining the correct readings of those rare phonograms which my sources interpret differently. But on the other hand, I do not wish to hide the warts of the extant texts. I am first and foremost interested in the big picture and will cite variants only when they can make major contributions to my study. For the most part I will treat Kojiki and Shoki as single texts. I will not take Mori’s (1991) division of Shoki into alpha and beta sections as a given. In Chapter 3, we have seen that the distinction between the two sections was not entirely clear-cut. I will further test Mori’s hypothesis in the next two chapters when I check to see whether certain traits of Shoki transcription are unique to one or the other section. Following the precedents set by Ôno’s (1953a) and Mori’s (1991) studies of Shoki orthography, I will exclude Shoki poem 122 from my analysis since it has not yet been adequately deciphered. However, I will use all other Kojiki and Shoki poems. From here onward, I will use the terms ‘Kojiki’ and ‘Shoki’ to refer only to the poetry of those two works and not to their prose unless otherwise specified. Now that I have explained my textual policies, I will now describe the three-stage process by which I will reconstruct the language of these texts. Chapter 7 constitutes the first stage. I will reconstruct the initial consonants of OJ on the basis of the initials of the Early Middle Chinese (EMC) readings of Kojiki phonograms and the Chang’an Late Middle Chinese (CLMC) readings of Shoki phonograms. My reconstructions of EMC initials will follow those of Pulleyblank (1984, 1991a) with the modifications given on p. 146. My reconstructions of CLMC initials will be based on Pulleyblank’s (1984, 1991a) reconstructions of EMC initials with the modifications given on p. 154. These modifications will ‘update’ and ‘localize’ the EMC initials to reflect the characteristics of the Chang’an dialect during the early Tang Dynasty. I have chosen to rely primarily on the reconstructions of Middle Chinese (MC) initials rather than on attested Sinoxenic (SX) initials because MC initials are relatively uncontroversial and are poorly preserved in SX. Authentic Sino-Korean (SK), as opposed to the prescriptive variety of the Tongkwuk cengwun dictionary, consistently reflects neither the ‘muddiness’ nor the aspiration of MC: unaspirated and aspirated SK initials can correspond to ‘clear’ (unaspirated), ‘second clear’ (aspirated), or ‘muddy’ LMC consonants (p. 115). Vietnamese has undergone radical consonant shifts since the borrowing of Sino-Vietnamese (SV) during the late Tang (p. 120). Since the Tibetan transcriptions definitely reflect the denasalization of northwestern LMC but are limited in quality and quantity (p. 135), I will also cite SK initials from Cenwun okphyen (c. 1796), SV initials from Mineya 160

GOALS AND METHODOLOGY

(1972), and the initials found in alphabetic transcriptions of northwestern Chinese (Luo 1933a, Barat n.d.) as secondary and tertiary evidence. Although Pulleyblank (1984: 96–100, 154–159) did employ man’yôgana evidence for the reconstruction of the finals of his two stages of MC, his arguments for his reconstructions of EMC and LMC initials did not rely upon man’yôgana. Hence it is not circular to use his reconstructions of initials to reconstruct OJ initials. In each section of Chapter 7, I will determine which EMC initials most frequently appear in the readings of the phonograms for syllables with the same OJ consonant in Kojiki and reconstruct that OJ consonant on the basis of those initials. Then I will repeat this process with LMC initials in Shoki. Finally, I will reconstruct the OJ consonant on the basis of my consonantal reconstructions for Kojiki and Shoki. I will also look for correlations between MC consonants and OJ ‘vowels.’ For example, I may find that OJ s is predominantly written with MC *s before OJ u and wo, MC *ts before OJ a and o, and MC *\ before OJ i and e. In such instances, I will reconstruct allophones for each environment. The process of consonantal reconstruction is diagramed in Figure 6.1. Chapter 8 constitutes the second stage: the reconstruction of the ‘vowels’ of OJ. Since I am not using any reconstruction of LMC finals, I will look at which EMC final categories are most frequently correlated with each of the ‘vowels’ in the LMC-based orthography of Shoki as well as the EMC-based

OJ consonant X

EMC initials of phonograms for X-initial syllables in Kojiki

LMC initials of phonograms for X-initial syllables in Shoki

Most frequent EMC initials

Most frequent LMC initials

(EMC-based SX evidence)

(LMC-based SX and transcriptions)

EMC-based reconstruction of OJ X

LMC-based reconstruction of OJ X

Final reconstruction of OJ X

Environmentally conditioned allophones

Figure 6.1 Methodology of OJ consonantal reconstruction

161

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orthography of Kojiki. Although somewhat anachronistic, this practice of viewing later stages of Chinese through an EMC prism has a long history going back to the rhyme table tradition. Modern examples include the Hashimotos’ studies of Cantonese (1972) and Hakka (1973). Besides, the gap between EMC and LMC is hardly as dramatic as that between EMC and modern Cantonese and Hakka. I do not intend to imply that all the EMC final categories survived into LMC. The comparative and transcriptive evidence clearly shows many mergers between the two stages. I use EMC final categories rather than the reconstructed shapes of EMC finals as primary evidence for the OJ ‘vowels’ because I reject Pulleyblank’s (1984) man’yôgana-based EMC final reconstructions as potentially circular. In each section of Chapter 8, I will use SX and nôm to interpret phonetically the EMC final categories most commonly associated with a single OJ ‘vowel.’ Since few Old Sino-Vietnamese (OSV) words correspond to the phonograms in Kojiki, I will look at the regular OSV counterparts of their EMC finals whenever necessary. I will also look at the readings of vietographs from the 1997 edition of Ngw thiên t@ (Five Thousand Characters) whose phonetic elements (‘bases’) belong to these EMC final categories. I will reconstruct the phonetic shape of each OJ ‘vowel’ in Kojiki on the basis of this OSV and nôm data. Using the finals of the SK and SV readings of Shoki phonograms as substitutes for reconstructions of the LMC reflexes of OJ ‘vowel’ X

EMC final categories of phonograms for X-‘vowel’ syllables in Kojiki

LMC final categories of phonograms for X-‘vowel’ syllables in Shoki

Most frequent EMC final categories

Most frequent EMC final categories

EMC-based OSV counterparts of the above finals and finals of readings of vietographs with bases with the above finals

LMC-based SK and SV finals of phonograms with the above finals

EMC-based reconstruction of OJ X

LMC-based reconstruction of OJ X

Final reconstruction of OJ X

Environmentally conditioned allophones

Figure 6.2 Methodology of OJ ‘vocalic’ reconstruction

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GOALS AND METHODOLOGY

EMC rhyme categories, I will then reconstruct the phonetic shape of each OJ ‘vowel’ in Shoki. Finally, I will reconstruct each OJ ‘vowel’ on the basis of my vocalic reconstructions for Kojiki and Shoki. I will also look for correlations between EMC final categories and OJ ‘vowels.’ For example, I may find that OJ C-type i is transcribed with EMC *-i except after OJ w, where it is transcribed as EMC *-uy. In such instances, I will reconstruct allophones for each environment or even reinterpret the A/B/C-type classification of the ‘vowel’ if necessary. We may discover that some or all ‘C-type’ ‘vowels’ are really A-type or B-type ‘vowels.’ Chapter 9 constitutes the third and last stage: the reconstruction of the structure and inventory of OJ syllables. At this point I will have complete inventories of both the consonants and the ‘vowels’ of OJ. I will formulate rules to combine these elements into syllables. Using these rules, I will generate a complete list of reconstructed OJ syllables. I will conclude with an attempt to resurrect the eighth-century pronunciation of an OJ poem attributed to the mythological hero Yamato Takeru.

163

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7 THE RECONSTRUCTION OF OLD JAPANESE CONSONANTS

Overview In this chapter, I will reconstruct OJ consonants in an order determined by the phonetic classes implied by their Yale romanizations. I have grouped OJ consonants into sets according to their apparent places of articulation, with the zero initial ordered last. Within each of the above sets, I have grouped OJ consonants according to their apparent manners of articulation. I must emphasize the distinction between the romanization and the reconstruction of an OJ consonant. The former is an algebraic notation. Only the latter has phonological substance. The Yale symbol p does not necessarily represent an OJ bilabial stop *p. It may have been an OJ bilabial fricative *φ or even an OJ glottal fricative *h. I have grouped OJ s and z with the dentals, though they may actually be palatals (*c and *j). The orthographic zero initial ($ ) could be a glottal stop (*}). My arrangement of the OJ consonants may not match their reconstructions’ places and manners of articulation. During the course of these next two chapters, we will see how closely my OJ reconstruction corresponds to Yale romanization. Before I begin my reconstructions, I should note that I use the terms ‘Kojiki’ and ‘Shoki’ to refer only to the poetry of those two works unless otherwise specified.

OJ p Three EMC consonants (*p, *ph, and *b) correspond to OJ p in Kojiki (Table 7.1). 65.6 per cent (339/517) of OJ p in Kojiki were without a doubt written with EMC *p. 24.6 per cent (127/517) of OJ p in Kojiki in theory may have been written with either EMC *b or EMC *p. All of these cases involve the OJ syllable pyi. 99.2 per cent (127/128) of OJ pyi in Kojiki were written with the phonogram
, which had three EMC readings with *b and two EMC readings with *p. I will assume that
was selected for its *p readings. It would make no sense to reconstruct allophonic variation (*p~*b) only 164

THE RECONSTRUCTION OF OLD JAPANESE CONSONANTS

Table 7.1 OJ p in Kojiki poetry OJ \ EMC

*p

*ph

*p/*b

*b

a yi iy u ey ye o Subtotals Total

204 0 0 54 18 0 63 339 517

0 0 10 0 0 0 0 10

0 127 0 0 0 0 0 127

4 1 3 0 0 31 2 41

Table 7.2 OJ p in Shoki poetry OJ \ CLMC

*p

*p/*ph

*ph

*p/*p®

*p®

*f

*fh

*f®

a yi iy u ye ey o Subtotals Total

134 18 4 6 7 6 15 190 475

0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1

52 8 0 0 0 0 0 60

0 64 0 0 0 0 0 64

16 13 0 0 15 21 41 106

0 0 0 17 0 0 0 17

2 0 0 17 0 0 0 19

0 0 0 17 0 0 1 18

before the OJ ‘vowel’ yi. If we regard
as an EMC *p-initial phonogram, then 90.1 per cent (466/517) of OJ p corresponded to EMC *p. OJ pye is the only p-initial syllable in Kojiki which was consistently written with EMC *b. Nonetheless I am reluctant to reconstruct an allophone *b for OJ p only before ye (or ye and yi). Thus I reconstruct OJ p in Kojiki as *p for pye as well as for pyi. Although OJ piy is usually written with EMC *ph, I would rather not reconstruct *ph (or a labial fricative in OJ but absent in EMC) before iy. Hence I will reconstruct OJ p in Kojiki as *p before all ‘vowels.’ Six CLMC consonants correspond to OJ p in Shoki (Table 7.2). 88.6 per cent (421/475) of OJ p in Shoki were written with CLMC stops (*p, *ph, *p®). The most common of these stops is *p. There is only one instance of CLMC *ph in the entire alpha section:
for OJ pyi (75.19.7). The 59 other instances of unambiguous *ph are in the beta section. If Mori is correct in claiming that the alpha section is phonetically more accurate, then the near-absence of CLMC *ph in the alpha section and the low frequency of CLMC *ph throughout Shoki prevents us from reconstructing OJ p as an aspirated *ph. 165

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There are two phonograms which have CLMC readings with and without simple *p:
*p-/*p®- for OJ pyi and
*p-/*p®- for OJ pey,1 which account for all 65 cases of ambiguous *p in Shoki. If I add these 65 ambiguous cases to the total of 190 unambiguous cases of *p, then the total for CLMC *p in Shoki rises to 53.7 per cent (255/475). Only 11.3 per cent (54/475) of OJ p in Shoki correspond to CLMC fricatives (*f, *fh, and *f®). All of these fricatives are found in the readings of phonograms for the OJ syllables pa, pu, and po. Only 1.0 per cent (2/204) of OJ pa and 1.8 per cent (1/57) of OJ po were written with an CLMC fricative, whereas 89.5 per cent (51/57) of OJ pu was written with an CLMC fricative. OJ pu was always written with an CLMC fricative (*f or *f®) in the alpha section. Should I reconstruct a fricative allophone (*φ or *f) before OJ u and a stop allophone (*p) elsewhere? I do not think a fricative allophone before OJ u is necessary for two reasons. First, CLMC probably had no syllables such as *pu, *phu, or *p®u. Pulleyblank (1984: 86) and Coblin (1994: 34) agree that EMC labials became CLMC labiodentals before the vowel *u: *pu > *fu, etc. Assuming that (1) this change occurred without any exceptions, (2) OJ p was *p, and (3) OJ u was *u (i.e., a vowel similar to EMC *u), scribes faced with the problem of writing OJ *pu would have to compromise. They would have to select (a) phonograms with inappropriate initials and appropriate vowels (e.g.,
=CLMC *f-, perhaps *fuh; cf. SK pwu [pu] and SV phú [fuu] ) or (b) phonograms with appropriate initials and inappropriate vowels (
CLMC *p-, perhaps *poh; cf. SK phwo [pho] and SV b3 [(oo] ). They apparently preferred the former solution and wrote OJ *pu as CLMC *fu rather than as CLMC *po. Second, even if one disregards the above assumptions, one cannot deny that EMC *ph, the closest EMC approximation of a labial fricative (*φ or *f ), never appears in Kojiki spellings for OJ pu. Now that I have rejected *ph and *φ or *f as possible reconstructions of OJ p in Shoki, there are only two candidates left: *p and *p®. Since *p clearly outnumbers *p® and is less exotic than *p®, I reconstruct OJ p as a voiceless unaspirated bilabial stop *p in Shoki as well as in Kojiki.

OJ b EMC *p and *b correspond to OJ p in Kojiki (Table 7.3). There are 20 ambiguous cases involving phonograms which could be read with either EMC *p or *b. If we ignore these cases, 96.9 per cent (95/98 [= 118 − 20] ) of OJ b in Kojiki were written with EMC *b. Perhaps I should reconstruct OJ b in Kojiki as *b. However, before I come to that conclusion, we should examine the data from Shoki (Table 7.4). Let us suppose that OJ b was *b for Shoki as well. Since CLMC has no *b, the best substitute available for *b would be *mb (cf. its Tibetan 166

THE RECONSTRUCTION OF OLD JAPANESE CONSONANTS

Table 7.3 OJ b in Kojiki poetry OJ \ EMC

*p

*b

*p/*b

a yi iy u ey ye o Subtotals Total

3 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 118

0 1 0 19 0 0 0 20

63 15 4 0 6 1 6 95

Table 7.4 OJ b in Shoki poetry OJ \ CLMC

*p

*p/*p®

*p®

*mb

*mv

a yi iy u ye ey o Subtotals Total

4 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 84

0 0 0 3 0 0 0 3

3 0 2 2 0 9 10 26

31 16 1 0 2 0 0 50

0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1

transliteration as ’b *[mb]?), even though the CLMC voiced stop has prenasalization absent in OJ *b. *p® also might be a viable substitute, since the Tibetans transcribed it as b or even ’b as well as ph. Thus it is unsurprising that 90.5 per cent (76/84) of OJ b in Shoki were written either with *mb or *p®. Nevertheless, I am hesitant to reconstruct a simple OJ *b which would not explain prenasalization in later reflexes of OJ b ( p. 75). The sound change *b > mb is rather bizarre. I would rather reconstruct *mb for OJ and assume that LMJ mb had inherited this prenasalization. But how would I explain the fact that 31 per cent (26/84) of OJ b were written with *p®? Mori believed that the alpha section was written by Chinese. If both CLMC and OJ had prenasalized obstruents, then we would expect CLMC native speakers to identify their own *mb with OJ *mb. So we might expect the alpha section to have few or no instances of *p® for OJ b. This is not quite the case, for we find that only two-thirds (22/33) of OJ b in the alpha section were written with CLMC *mb (Table 7.5). Why would CLMC speakers write OJ *mb as *p or *p®? Furthermore, OJ bu and bo were always written with *p® in the alpha section. All six instances of OJ bo in the beta section were written with *p®. 167

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Table 7.5 OJ b in Shoki alpha section poetry OJ \ CLMC

*mb

*p

*p®

a yi u o Subtotals Total

11 11 0 0 22 33

5 0 0 0 5

1 0 1 4 6

All nine instances of OJ bey are in the beta section and were written with *p®. Yet it would make no sense to reconstruct a non-nasal allophone *b preceding certain random ‘vowels’ (OJ ey, o, etc.) and a nasal allophone *mb preceding all other ‘vowels’ (OJ a, yi, etc.). I will refine my earlier statement to account for the above phenomena by adopting Ramsey and Unger’s (1972) proposal of nasalized vowels preceding OJ voiced obstruents: 1 2 3

OJ b was generally a prenasalized voiced unaspirated bilabial stop *mb. ‘Vowels’ preceding *mb may have been nasalized (*~). *mb may have been reduced to *b if a preceding ‘vowel’ was nasalized (*~). Thus OJ *mb may have had the following allophones in free variation:

(7.1) (1) *[mb]

(2) *[~mb] (3) *[~b]

Since all instances of OJ *mb in Shoki are intervocalic, any OJ *mb could potentially be reduced to OJ *~b. There was no *~b in CLMC, so scribes wrote this non-nasal voiced stop allophone of OJ b as CLMC *mb (a prenasalized voiced stop), *p (a non-nasal voiceless stop), or *p® (a nonnasal stop with voiceless onset and voiced aspiration). One could write my reconstruction of OJ b as *~b or even as *b or *np without specifying nasality or voicing, but I will continue to write it as *mb.

OJ m OJ m in Kojiki corresponds only to EMC *m (Table 7.6). Therefore I will reconstruct OJ m in Kojiki as *m. The picture is more complicated in Shoki, where CLMC *m, *m(b), and *mv correspond to OJ m (Table 7.7). CLMC *mb is the most frequent initial (82.3 per cent = 525/638). Were OJ m and b homophonous? Should I

168

THE RECONSTRUCTION OF OLD JAPANESE CONSONANTS

Table 7.6 OJ m in Kojiki poetry OJ \ EMC

*m

a yi iy u ey ye wo o Total

198 180 15 72 29 24 37 135 690

Table 7.7 OJ m in Shoki poetry OJ \ CLMC

*m(b)

*mb

*mv

a yi iy u ye ey o Subtotals Total

28 0 0 3 3 0 17 51 634

151 151 0 12 15 38 154 521

0 0 8 54 0 0 0 62

reconstruct a post-OJ phonemic split? I do not think such a drastic measure is necessary. The key to the solution lies in the phonotactics of CLMC. CLMC allowed initial nasals (as opposed to prenasalized obstruents such as *mb or *mv) only in syllables with final nasal elements: CLMC *mVN was possible, but CLMC *mV was impossible, since earlier *mV syllables had become *mbV and *mvV syllables. If we assume that OJ m was *m, scribes had to choose between CLMC *mbV and *mvV phonograms or CLMC *mVN phonograms to write OJ m-initial syllables. Apparently, they favored using open syllable phonograms even though those phonograms’ prenasalized obstruents were not perfect matches for OJ *m. We should not project the lack of *mV syllables in CLMC onto OJ. If OJ m were *mb, we might expect to see at least a few cases of EMC *b for OJ m in Kojiki, but we find only EMC *m (Table 7.6). Furthermore, we know that OJ m corresponds to m in all later stages of the language. Therefore I reconstruct OJ m as a bilabial nasal *m for both Kojiki and Shoki.

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Table 7.8 OJ w in Kojiki poetry OJ \ EMC

*®w

*w

a i e o Subtotals Total

69 0 13 0 82 228

0 12 0 134 146

OJ w OJ w in Kojiki corresponds to EMC *®w and *w (Table 7.8). EMC *®w and *w are in complementary distribution: EMC *®w precedes OJ a and e and EMC *w precedes OJ i and o. But I will not reconstruct two allophones for OJ w, because *®w and *w were in complementary distribution in EMC. EMC *®w appeared only before non-high (i.e., low and mid) vowels (*a, *e, etc.) and EMC *w appeared only before high vowels (*i, *t, *u). If OJ wa and we had (1) initial *w- and (2) non-high ‘vowels’ (e.g., *a and *e), then the closest EMC equivalents would have initial *®w- coupled with non-high vowels. I do not think one should project a distributional peculiarity of EMC into OJ.2 It is also possible that the variety of Chinese underlying the Kojiki orthography had *w instead of *®w. EMC *®w phonograms may have been borrowed before the shift of *w to *®w before non-high vowels. I will reconstruct OJ w in Kojiki as a labial glide *w. OJ w in Shoki corresponds to CLMC *h®, *h®w, *q, *qw, and *w (Table 7.9). Surprisingly, the most common CLMC initial is the glottal stop *q [}]. CLMC initials without any *w account for 52.3 per cent (114/218) of the total. How can we account for this bizarre state of affairs? Was OJ w really *w? Why would anyone write a labial glide *w with a glottal stop *q [}] or a glottal fricative *h®? The answers to the above questions lie in the finals rather than the initials of the Shoki phonograms for OJ w-initial syllables. All of the phonograms Table 7.9 OJ w in Shoki poetry OJ \ CLMC

*h®

*h®w

*q

*qw

*w

a i e o Subtotals Total

0 0 0 5 5 218

51 0 6 6 63

0 3 0 106 109

24 2 1 1 28

0 8 5 0 13

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with *w-less CLMC initials (i.e., *q and *h®) have EMC, SK, and SV readings with labial glides or vowels (7.2). (7.2) OJ wo wo wo wo wi

Ph.






Freq. 47 34 25 5 3

EMC *qo *qo *qoq *®o *quy

Go CLMC u *qu *qu *qwo, go *h®wi *q-

Kan wo wo wo ko wi

SK wo [o] wo [o] wo [o] hwo [ho] wi [uy]

SV ô [}oo] ô [}oo] 7 [}oo] h4 [hoo] uy [}wii] oai [}waay]

Coblin (1994: 153, 245) notes that Amoghavajra (705–774) of the northwest used the first phonogram
to write Sanskrit o and e and that the fifth phonogram
is transcribed as Tibetan u in Tiandi bayang shenzhoujing. The other three phonograms do not appear in the northwestern LMC transcriptional materials. One might conclude that OJ wi was *wi and that OJ wo was *o. However, there is no strong evidence for a distinction between *qo and *wo in LMC. (Although SV alone distinguishes between [}] and [v] before o-like vowels, SV readings such as vo and vô always derive from LMC *mv- rather than LMC *w-.) CLMC *q- < EMC *qo (cf.
SK wo [o], SV ô [}oo] ) was the closest equivalent of OJ wo. I will reconstruct OJ w as *w.

OJ t OJ t in Kojiki corresponds to EMC *t, *th, *tr, and *d (Table 7.10). 80.5 per cent (566/703) of OJ t were unambiguously written with EMC *t. All 60 attestations of OJ te in Kojiki were written with the phonogram H which is not listed in Guangyun. Tôdô (1978: 431) speculates that H is a variant of
, which is listed in Guangyun with two fanqie, one for EMC *tey and another for EMC *tri. If I treated H as an EMC *t-initial phonogram, then the figure for EMC *t in Kojiki would rise up to 89.0 per cent (626/703). Table 7.10 OJ t in Kojiki poetry OJ \ EMC

*t

*t?

*th

*tr

*d

a i u e wo o Subtotals Total

222 0 135 0 14 195 566 703

0 0 0 60 0 0 60

1 0 0 0 0 0 1

0 74 0 0 0 0 74

0 0 1 0 0 1 2

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Table 7.11 OJ t in Shoki poetry OJ \ CLMC

*t

*th

*t®

*n(d)

*tr

*thr

*t®r

*ch/*c®/*t/*thr

a i u e wo o Subtotals Total

101 0 50 66 11 86 314 509 (+78)

2 0 49 0 0 0 51

8 (+45) 0 4 3 12 36 (+33) 63 (+78)

1 0 0 1 0 0 2

0 62 0 0 0 0 62

0 1 0 0 0 0 1

0 3 0 0 0 0 3

13 0 0 0 0 0 13

But what about the remaining 10.7 per cent (74/703) of OJ t in Kojiki which corresponded to EMC *tr? All 74 of these cases involve the OJ syllable ti, though skeptics may wish to include the 60 cases of H ≅
EMC *tey/ *tri. OJ ti was never written with EMC *t. Should I reconstruct a retroflex allophone *tr [â] in OJ before the ‘vowel’ i (and the ‘vowel’ e?) and a dental allophone *t elsewhere? It may be better to ask about the distribution of EMC *t and *tr first. EMC *t could never occur before the high front vowel *i. Thus EMC had no syllables such as *ti or *tiR, though it did have syllables such as *tri and *triR. The complementary distribution of *t and *tr is a trait of EMC that should not be projected onto OJ. OJ ti (*tV) was written with EMC
*triR(h) and
EMC *triRh in Kojiki because there were no phonograms with readings like EMC *tiR. We cannot always assume that the Chinese readings of phonograms were exact phonetic equivalents of OJ syllables. Hence I will reconstruct OJ t in Kojiki as *t. OJ t in Shoki corresponds to nine CLMC initials (Table 7.11). Like EMC *tr in Kojiki, CLMC *tr in Shoki is found only in phonograms for OJ ti. Like EMC, CLMC probably did not have a *ti, but it did have many similar syllables with *tr- [â] (
TKCW and sixteenth-century SK ti > later SK ci, SV tri, Tibetan transcription ci) and one anomalous syllable with *t®- (
SK ti, SV $ha, Tibetan transcription di). The use of CLMC retroflex initials for OJ ti probably tells us more about the phonotactics of CLMC than OJ. Thus I reject *tr as a possible allophone for OJ t. Three other high-frequency CLMC initials corresponding to OJ t are *t, *th, and *t®. *th is restricted to phonograms for the syllables ta and tu. It seems arbitrary to reconstruct *th only before OJ a and u, so I reject *th. *t® appears to be more infrequent than it actually is only because it is predominantly found among the variant phonograms that I have excluded from this study. I have added the figures for variants in parentheses in Table 7.11. These variants do not alter the general picture. Even if I include the 78 probable cases of CLMC *t® for OJ t), CLMC *t still outnumbers CLMC *t® by a ratio of two to one (314 to 141 = 63 + 78). Also, 172

THE RECONSTRUCTION OF OLD JAPANESE CONSONANTS

CLMC *t® mostly appears in phonograms for OJ ta, two, and to. It would be arbitrary to reconstruct *t® only before these three ‘vowels.’ The statistics for *t may not be overwhelming – 61.7 per cent (314/509) – but *t is less marked as well as more common than *t®. Therefore I will reconstruct OJ t as a voiceless unaspirated dental stop *t in both Kojiki and Shoki.

OJ d OJ d in Kojiki corresponds to EMC *t, *d, *dr, and *9 (Table 7.12). There are only two strong possibilities: *d and *dr. Half the instances of *dr involve phonograms for OJ di. EMC had only one syllable combining a dental initial with a high front vowel (
*dih). In Kojiki poetry, OJ di was written with
EMC *dri and
EMC *drt(h). These graphs were the closest EMC counterparts to OJ di apart from EMC
*dih, which is found as a phonogram for OJ di in the prose of Kojiki and in Man’yôshû. If OJ di really did have a retroflex initial *dr- [¶ ], why write it with a dental initial phonogram such as EMC
*dih? We find EMC *d corresponding to d in OJ da, du, and dwo. Why not reconstruct *d for OJ di as well? I cannot explain why
EMC *drwiRn(h) and
EMC *drtR / *9tR with the EMC initial *dr- are the sole phonograms for OJ de and do in the poetry of Kojiki. I would have expected phonograms with the EMC initial *d-. But before I reconstruct *dr for OJ de and do, I should note that, in the prose of Kojiki, EMC dental-initial phonograms coexist alongside the aforementioned *dr-initial phonograms for these syllables: (7.3) OJ de OJ do


EMC *denh / *tenh,
EMC *tey
EMC *dRY,
EMC *dRY

Hence I think it is possible to reconstruct OJ d as *d for all d-initial syllables in Kojiki. OJ d in Shoki corresponds to six CLMC initials (Table 7.13). Most of the initials are partly or wholly voiced: *t®, n(d), *nd, *ndr. As we would expect Table 7.12 OJ d in Kojiki poetry OJ \ EMC

*t

*d

*dr

*dr/*9

a i u e wo o Subtotals Total

1 0 0 0 0 1 2 143

55 0 46 0 2 0 103

0 9 0 14 0 0 23

0 0 0 0 0 15 15

173

OLD JAPANESE

Table 7.13 OJ d in Shoki poetry OJ \ CLMC

*t

*th

*t®

*n(d)

*nd

*ndr

a i u e wo o Subtotals Total

6 0 1 2 0 1 10 120 (+5)

1 0 1 0 0 0 2

1 (+5) 0 35 6 2 5 49 (+5)

12 1 1 13 4 12 43

12 0 0 0 0 0 12

0 4 0 0 0 0 4

from our previous experience with the phonograms for OJ ti and di, we find an CLMC retroflex initial *ndr [å¶ ] for 80 per cent (4/5) of OJ di in Shoki. There was no CLMC *ndi. The one definite case of *nd for OJ di (NS 31.5.2) involves the phonogram
which probably had a mid vowel in CLMC (cf. Tibetan transcription ’de *[nde]? and SV nê [nee], nq [nee] ). If OJ d were *nd, then CLMC syllables such as *ndri and *nde would have been the closest equivalents to OJ di (= *ndV). I will not project the distributional idiosyncrasies of CLMC into OJ by reconstructing a retroflex allophone of OJ d before i. The only candidates left are *n(d), *nd, and *t®. None is quite like the *d that I reconstructed for OJ d in Kojiki. *n(d) and *nd together (45.8 per cent = 55/120) are somewhat more common than *t® (40.8 per cent = 49/120), but there is no obvious majority candidate. If I add five variants with probable *t® to the 49 cases of definite *t®- in Table 7.13, the total of *t® phonograms (43.2 per cent = 54/125 = 120 + 5) is nearly equal to the total of *n(d) and *nd phonograms (44.0 per cent = 55/125 = 5 + 120). Any reconstruction of OJ d for Shoki would have to account for both the nasal and non-nasal correspondences. I propose a solution parallel to that given for OJ b in section 7.3: 1 2 3

OJ d was generally a prenasalized voiced unaspirated dental stop *nd. ‘Vowels’ preceding *nd may have been nasalized (*~). *nd may have been reduced to *d if a preceding ‘vowel’ was nasalized (*~). OJ *nd may have had the following allophones in free variation:

(7.4) (1) *[nd]

(2) *[~nd]

(3) *[~d]

Since nearly all instances of OJ *nd in Shoki are intervocalic,3 almost any OJ *nd could potentially be reduced to OJ *~d. There was no *~d in CLMC, so scribes generally wrote this non-nasal voiced stop allophone of OJ d as 174

THE RECONSTRUCTION OF OLD JAPANESE CONSONANTS

CLMC *nd(r) (a prenasalized voiced stop) or *t® (a non-nasal stop with voiceless onset and voiced aspiration). Although I could write my reconstruction of OJ d as *~d or even as *d or *nt without specifying nasality or voicing, I will continue to write it as *nd.

OJ n OJ n in Kojiki corresponds to EMC *n and *ã (Table 7.14). EMC *ã corresponds to OJ n before i and EMC *n corresponds to OJ n elsewhere. At face value, this would imply that OJ n was *ã before i and *n elsewhere. Although the MSJ syllable ni is [nyi], I am not sure whether I should project a palatal or palatalized allophone of n back into OJ. The LMJ syllable ni did not have a palatal initial, for the Portuguese did not romanize it as *nhi *[ ãi] (cf. the Portuguese-based practice of writing Vietnamese [ ãii] as nhi). There was no EMC *ni. The Kojiki phonograms for ni (
EMC *ãiRq and
EMC *ãiRq) may be inexact attempts to write an OJ *ni. Although I cannot rule out a palatalized or palatal initial before OJ i, it is simpler to reconstruct *n before all vowels. OJ n in Shoki corresponds to CLMC *n(d), *nd, *ndr, and *ã9 (Table 7.15). This would seem to contradict my earlier reconstruction of OJ n as *n. Table 7.14 OJ n in Kojiki poetry OJ \ EMC

*n

*ã

a i u e wo o Subtotals Totals

126 0 18 49 12 272 477 669

0 192 0 0 0 0 192

Table 7.15 OJ n in Shoki poetry OJ \CLMC

*n(d)

*nd

*nd(r)

*ã9

a i u e wo o Subtotals Total

0 0 0 0 0 252 252 620

138 1 26 21 3 12 201

0 4 0 0 0 0 4

0 163 0 0 0 0 163

175

OLD JAPANESE

However, I have already explained that syllables with initial nasals and non-nasal finals were impossible in CLMC (p. 169). Let us assume that OJ n was *n. The scribes of Shoki could write OJ *nV syllables either with *nd/*ã9-initial, non-nasal final phonograms or with *n-initial nasal-final syllable phonograms. The former solution predominated for all OJ n-syllables with the possible exception of OJ no. 95.5 per cent (252/264) of no in Shoki are written with the phonogram=
whose CLMC initial may have been either *n- or *nd-.
appears in Tibetan transcriptions with both ’d (*[nd] ) and (’)n. If we assume that the CLMC initial of
was *nd-, then all OJ n-syllables in Shoki would be written with CLMC prenasalized obstruents (*nd, *ndr, and *ã9). Why not reconstruct OJ n as a prenasalized obstruent *nd? Although I have already reconstructed OJ d as *nd, one might argue for a phonemic split of *nd: i.e., some OJ *nd became post-OJ n and others became post-OJ d. This solution is not only messy but also contradictory to what we already know about OJ d = *nd. OJ d = *nd corresponded exclusively to EMC non-nasal obstruents in Kojiki and corresponded frequently to the CLMC non-nasal obstruent *t® in Shoki. Yet we never find OJ n corresponding to a MC non-nasal obstruent in either text. Since the correspondence patterns for OJ d and n are quite distinct, they must be reconstructed separately. I reconstruct OJ n as *n for Shoki because it is always written with prenasalized or nasal CLMC initials. The high frequency of CLMC *ã9 for the initial of OJ ni in Shoki may suggest a palatal allophone of OJ n. However, recall that EMC had no syllable *ni. Such a *ni would have developed into an equally nonexistent CLMC *ndi. CLMC *ndr- and *ã9- were the only choices for OJ ni available to Shoki scribes, who preferred the latter to the former. But the high frequency of CLMC *ã9- may tell us only that the n of OJ ni was non-retroflex, not that it was specifically palatal. Although I accept the possibility of a palatal allophone of n in OJ ni, it would be simplest to reconstruct OJ n as a dental nasal *n before all vowels.

OJ r OJ r in both Kojiki and Shoki corresponds to MC l (Table 7.16). On the basis of the data, I could reconstruct OJ r as *l. Lange (1973: 124) and Mori (1991: 135) have also reconstructed OJ r as *l. However, other data point toward an alternative reconstruction *r. The Portuguese transcribed the LMJ reflex of OJ r as r and MSJ r is still an [r]. I could posit a change of *l to *r between OJ and LMJ, but I would rather not do so. Furthermore, neither EMC nor CLMC had an *r. Eastern Han *r had become *l in early LOC (Starostin 1989: 485). This *l remained unchanged in EMC and CLMC. Although Tôdô (1978) and Pulleyblank (1984, 1991a) have reconstructed 176

THE RECONSTRUCTION OF OLD JAPANESE CONSONANTS

Table 7.16 OJ r in Kojiki and Shoki poetry OJ

EMC *l (Kojiki)

CLMC *l (Shoki)

a i u e wo o Totals

102 144 87 53 11 28 425

120 104 74 55 9 31 393

the CLMC
‘sun’ initial as *r, their *r corresponds to zh [9] rather than to r in the Tibetan transcriptions of northwestern Chinese (Luo 1933a: 19). The Uighurs transcribed the northwestern LMC
‘sun’ initial as sh, zh, or y, and not as r, which did exist in their alphabet (Barat n.d.: 44 –45). I reconstruct the CLMC
‘sun’ initial as *ã9. Sanskrit r was transcribed with CLMC *l, not CLMC *ã9. By analogy, OJ *r could also have been transcribed with CLMC *l. Given what we know of post-OJ, it would be simplest to reconstruct an *r for OJ r. This *r would then continue more or less unchanged in later stages of Japanese.

OJ s OJ s in Kojiki corresponds to five EMC initials (Table 7.17).
, the sole Kojiki phonogram for OJ so, has two EMC readings, *tsRY and *dzRY. Since none of the other phonograms for OJ s-syllables in Kojiki has voiced EMC initials, I assume that
was chosen for its voiceless initial reading *tsRY rather than its voiced initial reading *dzRY. Thus I will ignore *dz as a candidate for OJ s. The remaining candidates are found in near-complementary distribution. If I take the evidence in Table 7.17 at face value, I should reconstruct OJ s as: Table 7.17 OJ s in Kojiki poetry OJ \ EMC

*s

*ts

*ts/*dz

*\

*c

a i u e wo o Subtotals Total

0 171 80 0 15 0 266 570

117 0 0 0 0 0 117

0 0 0 0 0 48 48

0 0 0 41 0 0 41

0 98 0 0 0 0 98

177

OLD JAPANESE

Table 7.18 Phonograms for OJ sa in Kojiki prose Ph

Frequency

EMC

EMC initial type

OJ








114/156 34/156 4/156 3/156 1/156

*tsah *Zæ *tsanh *stRY *tsaq/ h

dental affricate retroflex fricative dental affricate dental fricative dental affricate

sa sa sanu saga sa

1 2 3 4

*ts before a and o *c and/or *s before i *s before u and wo *\ before e

This is an exceedingly inelegant solution. Does any language exist with four allophones of /s/ distributed in such a manner? LMJ and MSJ, the descendants of OJ, have only two allophones of /s/, [\] before palatal vowel(s) and [s] elsewhere. The motivation for the apparent allophony of /s/ in Kojiki is far less clear. I know of no language with a similar pattern of allophony. I would like to reconstruct *s not only for OJ su and swo but also for OJ sa and so and perhaps even for OJ si and se. In the prose of Kojiki, OJ sa was spelled with both affricates (*ts) and fricatives (*Z, *s) (Table 7.18). Although the majority of OJ sa are still written with *ts, we cannot ignore the 23.7 per cent (37/156) which are written with fricative-initial phonograms. We cannot say that OJ sa was written with *ts throughout Kojiki. One could try to claim that OJ sa was pronounced only as an affricate *ts in poetry but could be pronounced as an affricate *ts or a fricative *s in prose, but this sounds arbitrary and bizarre. Moreover, the Suiko Period phonograms for OJ sa include a mix of affricate and fricative initials (Ôno Tôru 1962: 93; Omodaka 1967: 894) (Table 7.19). I do not have statistics for the frequency of these three phonograms. Ôno Tôru (1962: 93, 141) considers both
EMC *tsah and
EMC *Zæ to be “commonly used” ( jôyô) Suiko phonograms for sa. Thus we cannot disregard
EMC *Zæ as a rare phonogram during the Suiko Period.

Table 7.19 Suiko Period phonograms for OJ sa Ph

EMC

EMC initial type

OJ






*tsah *Zæ *tsak

dental affricate retroflex fricative dental affricate

sa sa sa

178

THE RECONSTRUCTION OF OLD JAPANESE CONSONANTS

According to Ôno’s (1962: 141) chronological table of phonogram usage
EMC *Zæ did wane in popularity from 700 CE onward. This would seem to imply a fortition of a Suiko fricative to a Nara affricate *ts – and a later lenition of *ts to a post-OJ fricative [s]. Those in favor of such a fortition could also point out that the Suiko phonogram for OJ so was
EMC *st < LOC *sR with a fricative initial, whereas the Nara phonogram was
*tsRY/ *dzRY with an affricate initial (Ôno 1962: 141). However, I would rather not posit a scenario of back-and-forth changes: (7.5) Suiko *s (for OJ sa, so) > Nara *ts (for OJ sa, so) > Post-OJ [s] (for sa, so) I still cannot explain why fricatives would become affricates only before OJ a and o. If I took the EMC initials at face value, I would have to claim that Suiko *ts became Nara *s before OJ u – the mirror image of what we would expect by analogy with (7.5). There is no Suiko phonogram for OJ su (Ôno Tôru 1962: 50), but the Suiko phonogram for OJ suku,
EMC *tsuRwk, has an initial affricate *ts. In the poetry of Kojiki, OJ su is spelled with
EMC *suR, which has an initial fricative *s. Affricate-initial phonograms for OJ su are rare in the text of Kojiki:
EMC *suR appears 114 times, but
EMC *cuw appears three times,
EMC *cuw appears twice, and
EMC *cuw appears only once. Were OJ sa and so developing affricate initials while OJ su was losing its affricate initials? How probable are simultaneous changes in opposite directions? (7.6) Suiko *s (for OJ sa, so) > Nara *ts (for OJ sa, so) > Post-OJ [s] (for sa, so) but Suiko *ts (for OJ su) > Nara *s (for OJ su) > Post-OJ [s] (for su) Were scribes accurately recording such strange shifts? So far, I have implicitly assumed that the Japanese could distinguish between the various *s-like EMC initials and deliberately used them to write the four allophones of their native /s/. What if we assumed the reverse scenario? What if the Japanese only had a simple *s without any allophonic variation? What if all the *s-like initials of EMC (or, more precisely, the System D version of EMC) sounded like native *s to them? Sandness also supports reconstructing only a simple *s for OJ. She points out (1985: 10): It is important to remember that the substitution of [s] for [ts] in foreign words is common among people whose native language lacks an initial /ts/. For example, many English-speakers have trouble learning even to hear, much less reproduce, the distinction between Japanese sugi “cedar” and tsugi “next” or between suite iru “is emptied out” or tsuite iru “is attached.” 179

OLD JAPANESE

Like modern English speakers who substitute their [s] for Japanese [ts], OJ speakers could have substituted *s for Chinese *ts. The Japanese may have regarded such characters as *s-initial phonograms appropriate for writing OJ *s-initial syllables. Moreover, phonograms such as
EMC *tsah and
*tsRY may have been the best available substitutes for phonetically more appropriate characters such as
EMC *sa (which was of very low frequency) and
EMC *sRY (which meant ‘monk’ and may have been taboo in secular transcription). Hence I reject *ts as a possible allophone of OJ /s/. Did OJ /s/ have two allophones *c and *s before OJ i ? Or are these allophones actually phonemes? One might try to reconstruct two kinds of OJ si: one with an initial *s and another with an initial *c. This would resemble Mabuchi’s (1957) proposal of two types of OJ si: si A, written with EMC dentals (*s and *ts), and si B, written with EMC non-dentals (*Z and *c). Such a proposal is unacceptable because the phonograms for the two ‘types’ of si are interchangeable (Bentley 1997: 97). Bentley (1997: 95) thinks that “the ancient writers used both types [of phonograms for OJ si] because they sounded similar to the native ears.” I believe that Bentley is correct. It seems wasteful to reconstruct *c solely for OJ si (and *\ solely for OJ se). It would be more economical to reconstruct *s for all s-initial syllables, though a palatal allophone *\ of OJ /s/ may have existed before the ‘vowels’ (i and e). OJ s in Shoki corresponds to twelve different CLMC initials (Table 7.20). It is extremely unlikely that OJ s had so many allophones. Several or even all of these CLMC initials must correspond to a single OJ allophone. The rather unlikely velar initial *k(®) occurs only in one instance of the phonogram
CLMC *k(®)- for OJ si. Scribes may have assumed that
was read with a dental initial like its phonetic element,
CLMC *ts®-, a phonogram for OJ zi. The remaining CLMC initials are all *s-like. The five most frequent initials are: Table 7.20 OJ s in Shoki poetry OJ \ CLMC

*s

*s®

*ts

*tsh

*ts(®)

*ts(®)/*cr

*\

*c

Other

a i u e wo o Subtotals Total

8 30 52 11 14 0 115 441

0 53 0 0 0 0 53

64 3 0 0 0 0 67

14 0 0 0 0 0 14

0 0 0 0 0 29 29

0 0 0 9 0 0 9

3 36 13 15 0 0 67

0 58 4 8 0 2 72

2 2 4 0 0 7 15

Note ‘Other’ includes all unambiguous initials that occur ten times or fewer in Shoki: *ts®, *Z, *chr, *c®, *k(®).

180

THE RECONSTRUCTION OF OLD JAPANESE CONSONANTS

1 2 3; tie 3; tie 5

*s / _ a, i, u, e, wo (26.1 per cent = 115/441) *c / _ i, u, e, o (16.3 per cent = 72/441) *\ / _ a, i, u, e (15.2 per cent = 67/441) *ts / _ a, i (15.2 per cent = 67/441) *s® / _ i (12.0 per cent = 53/441)

None of these initials appears before all six OJ ‘vowels.’ Only *s appears before five of the six OJ ‘vowels.’ Dentals (*s, *s®, *ts, *tsh, *ts®) are the most common at 64.4 per cent (284/441). They outnumber palatals (*\, *c, *c®) by a two to one ratio (64.4 per cent to 32.7 per cent = 144/441). Retroflexes (*Z, *cr, *chr) amount to only 2.7 per cent (12/441) and can be ignored entirely. In terms of manners of articulation, fricatives (*s, *s®, *Z, *\; 53.7 per cent = 237/441) are more common than affricates (*ts, *tsh, *ts®, *cr, *chr, *c, *c®; 46.0 per cent = 203/441). Non-aspirates (*s, *ts, *Z, *cr, *\, *c; 73.2 per cent = 323/441) are more common than voiceless (*tsh, *chr; 3.4 per cent = 15/441) or voiced aspirates (*s®, *ts®, *c®; 23.1 per cent = 102/441). On the basis of the above statistics, the ‘average’ CLMC initial for OJ s in Shoki is an unaspirated dental fricative: i.e., *s, which turns out to be the most common initial and the only initial that appears before five of the six OJ ‘vowels.’ However, *s is not the most frequent CLMC initial for OJ sa, si, se, or so in Shoki. Yet I am still reluctant to reconstruct four allophones of OJ s (*ts, *ts, *\, *c) for reasons I have already discussed. Perhaps looking only at Mori’s (1991) ‘alpha section’ of Shoki may give us some insights into this problem. I have already done so using Mori’s own statistics (p. 59), but this time I will try to do so using my statistics. Mori believes that the alpha section of Shoki was written by Chinese scribes. Even if those scribes were not native speakers of CLMC, we would expect them to do a reasonably good job of transcribing OJ s. If they could distinguish between fricatives and affricates in their own language, they should have been able to distinguish between fricatives and affricates in OJ. Table 7.21 shows us how well they did. Table 7.21 OJ s in Shoki alpha section poetry OJ \ CLMC

*s

*ts

*ts/*ts®

*ts®

*Z

*\

*c

a i u e wo o Subtotals Total

8 26 29 10 5 0 78 191

15 0 0 0 0 0 15

0 0 0 0 0 11 11

0 0 0 0 0 1 1

0 0 0 0 0 1 1

0 21 0 4 0 0 25

0 52 0 8 0 0 60

181

OLD JAPANESE

I doubt that the scribes of the alpha section were native Chinese speakers. Although we cannot expect 100 per cent accuracy from any scribes, the OJ syllables sa, si, se, and so are written with both fricatives and affricates. Only su and swo are consistently written with fricatives. Should I take the alpha section at face value and reconstruct: 1 2 3

*ts for OJ sa and so allophonic variation between *s, *\, and *c for OJ si and se *s for OJ su and swo?

I have no objections to (3). I find (1) and part of (2) harder to accept. Why would all ‘vowels’ other than u and wo be preceded by affricate allophones (i.e., *ts and *c)? I would like to think that the variation is an unintentional byproduct of scribes unable to tell apart the many *s-like initials of CLMC. Yet it is difficult to ignore the fact that the same MC initials are correlated with the same OJ ‘vowels’ in both Kojiki and Shoki. We do not find completely random variation. There are definite patterns of phonogram selection at work: *s with u and wo, *ts with a and o, and *s, *\, or *c with i and e. Do these patterns necessarily reflect actual OJ pronunciation, or can they be explained in some other way? I think that the patterns resulted from the continuation of earlier orthographic traditions. The Shoki scribes did not invent an entirely new writing system from scratch. Their orthography was an update of earlier orthographies rather than a wholly separate entity. There is considerable overlap between the orthographies of Kojiki and Shoki. All but one of the phonograms for OJ s-syllables in the poetry of Kojiki reappear in the poetry of Shoki. In almost all cases, these ‘carryover’ phonograms (e.g.,
*tsah) are among the most common phonograms for those syllables in the poetry of Shoki. Although each scribe could have chosen entirely different phonograms for any OJ syllable, most chose those already chosen by scribes before them. Bentley (1997: 157) has proposed that “set spellings” existed for words as well as for syllables. I hypothesize that those who originated these “set spellings” must have been unable to distinguish between the various MC *s-like initials. Later scribes simply repeated their predecessors’ arbitrary choices of *ts-initial phonograms for OJ sa and so, *c- and *s-initial phonograms for OJ si, *\-initial phonograms for OJ se, and *s-initial phonograms. Even if immigrant scribes and native scribes skilled in OSK and Chinese itself thought these spellings poorly matched the actual sounds of OJ, they were not in a position to rock the boat. As Bentley (1997: 158) pointed out, stable societies need stable orthographies. Though hardly entirely revolutionary, the Shoki orthography may have been rejected by later scribes because its modifications to the preexisting, long-established system were too radical. 182

THE RECONSTRUCTION OF OLD JAPANESE CONSONANTS

Thus the patterns of spelling that we have seen above are at least partly the result of arbitrary conventions rather than conscious attempts to record the supposed chaotic allophony of OJ s. The early seventh-century spellings of s-syllables (EMC *s for OJ sa and so but EMC *ts for OJ su) operated by a different set of arbitrary conventions which were abandoned by the eighth century. Taking these conventions literally can only result in the reconstruction of strangely distributed allophones and nonsensical sound changes such as those in (7.6). Judging from the paucity of Suiko Period transcriptions compared with the wealth of Nara Period transcriptions, standardization inevitably accompanied the increasing use of writing. The above solution is admittedly rather speculative because we have no contemporary records telling us about the standardization of phonogram writing. I think the process was gradual and perhaps even subconscious. Scribes adjusted their spelling habits to reflect the latest SJ readings while still being influenced by the habits of their peers and their own old habits. We may never know the details of the process, but we cannot regard the convergence in spellings seen in the tables of Ôno Tôru (1962: 141–142) and Bentley (1997: 159–161) as a coincidence. There definitely was a tradition at work, and, once it was set, it was relatively impervious to innovations. Non-traditional Shoki-style spellings are almost nonexistent in post-Shoki works. Chaotic writing systems are more probable than chaotic sound systems. It is unlikely that the OJ writing system consistently recorded four or more allophones of OJ s. It is more likely that OJ had an *s which was inconsistently recorded by the OJ writing system. Thus I reconstruct OJ s as a voiceless dental fricative *s (with or without a palatal allophone *\ before the ‘vowels’ i and e) for both Kojiki and Shoki.

OJ z OJ z in Kojiki corresponds to six EMC initials (Table 7.22). Owing to the small number of z-initial syllables in Kojiki, I have added all other variants into the total to avoid skewing the statistics: Table 7.22 OJ z in Kojiki poetry OJ \ EMC

*z

*dz

*jr

*\

*j

*y/*zy

a i u e o Subtotals Total

0 0 0 0 2 (+5) 2 (+5) 45 (+14)

0 0 0 0 0 (+1) 0 (+1)

0 6 (+3) 0 0 0 6 (+3)

1 0 0 0 0 1

0 0 28 4 0 32

4 (+5) 0 0 0 0 4 (+5)

183

OLD JAPANESE

(1) All definite cases of *y/*z involve the phonogram
EMC *zya / *ya. Four of the five variants involve
EMC *ya, a graphic variant of
EMC *zya / *ya which lacks a *z-initial reading. The fifth variant involves
EMC *na/q/h, an unrelated but graphically similar character. I will treat
EMC *ya and
EMC *na/q/h as scribal errors for
EMC *zya. Since the phonograms for the other z-syllables all have EMC obstruent initials, I will disregard the *y-initial reading of
. (2) One instance of OJ zo in Kojiki (78.9.2) is written as
EMC *dzwRn in some texts and as
EMC *dzRyq/h in others. Since either character has initial *dz, I will assume that the original phonogram for (78.9.2) also had initial *dz. (3) OJ zi in Kojiki is written as
EMC *jrtq > later EMC *jriq. I will regard all three variants (
EMC *thoq,
EMC *jtRYq/h, and
EMC *cth > later EMC *cih) as scribal errors for
, though it is remotely possible that
is original. (4) OJ zo in Kojiki definitely appears twice as
EMC *ztRq. Some texts have five more instances of
whereas others have pseudographs such as b which are obvious scribal errors for
. I will emend these five pseudographs as
. If I take the data in Table 7.26 literally and ignore the marginal cases (EMC *\ and *dz), I could reconstruct the following allophones of OJ z: 1 2

3

*zy for OJ za. *j for OJ zi, zu, and ze. (I will not reconstruct *jr [¶| ] for OJ zi, since nothing so far leads me to believe that OJ ever had retroflex consonants. We have already seen that OJ ti (*t-) and di (*nd-) were written with phonograms such as
EMC *triR(h) and
EMC *dri because EMC had no such syllables as *ti or *di.) *z for OJ zo.

The last proposal is easy to accept, but the first and second are odd. Go-on distinguishes between z and zy before a, u, and o. What were the OJ sources of z and zy? If z were *zy before a and *j before u, how would Go-on zya, zyu have been distinguished from Go-on za, zu in the OJ period? It would be simpler to assume that Go-on zy < OJ Go-on *zy whereas Go-on z < OJ Go-on *z before a, u, and o. For maximal simplicity, I could reconstruct OJ z as *z before all vowels, though I cannot exclude the possibility of a palatal allophone (*j or *9) before i and e. However, Shoki casts some doubt on a simple *z. OJ z generally corresponds to CLMC *ã9 in Shoki (Table 7.23). 71.2 per cent (37/52) of z-syllables in Shoki are written with CLMC *ã9. Only OJ za and ze are never written with CLMC *ã9. This does not necessarily mean that the initials of OJ za and ze lacked nasality. EMC did not allow *ã before the vowels *a and *e. Judging from SX, LMC also did not allow *ã (CLMC *ã9) before the vowels *a and *e. SV has no syllables such as *nha [ ãaa], *nhê [ ãee], or 184

THE RECONSTRUCTION OF OLD JAPANESE CONSONANTS

Table 7.23 OJ z in Shoki poetry OJ \ CLMC

*s®

*ts

*ts®

*cr

*c®r

*c®

*ã9

a i u e o Subtotals Total

0 0 0 0 2 2 52

0 0 0 0 1 1

2 0 0 0 1 3

3 0 0 0 0 3

0 0 2 1 0 3

0 2 0 0 1 3

0 7 28 0 2 37

*nhe [ ãεε] derived from LMC *ã-initial syllables. SK has no syllables such as *za [ ãa] / [za] or *zyey [ãyRy] / [zyRy] derived from LMC *ã(9)-initial syllables. Kan-on has no syllables such as za or ze. Since there were no CLMC syllables such as *ã9a or *ã9e, Shoki scribes were forced to use phonograms with initials other than *ã9 to write OJ za and ze. There is no need to reconstruct non-nasal allophones of OJ z specifically for OJ za and ze. The absence of *ã9-initial phonograms for those syllables reflects the phonotactics of CLMC rather than the phonotactics of OJ. But how do we explain the fact that OJ zi, zu, and zo are sometimes written with initials other than CLMC *ã9? I reconstructed OJ z in Kojiki as a simple *z. If OJ z were also a simple *z in Shoki, it would be impossible to write this *z accurately. CLMC had no fully voiced obstruents such as *z. The closest CLMC equivalents of foreign *z were ‘muddy’ obstruents (*s®, etc.) and *ã9 (< EMC *ã). Skeptics might point out that CLMC *ã9 appears in Tibetan transcriptions as zh [9], not ’zh ( [ ã9]? or [®9]?) and argue that it may not have been prenasalized at all. Nonetheless, we must remember that the Tibetan transcriptions are from the ninth and tenth centuries, one to two centuries after the borrowing of Kan-on. There must have been a prenasalized stage somewhere between the *ã of sixth-century EMC and the *9 of ninth-century CLMC: (7.7) EMC *ã

> *ãj

> *ã9

>

late CLMC *9

The late seventh-century CLMC known to Shoki scribes probably had * ãj or *ã9. It is difficult to believe that EMC *ã changed directly to CLMC *9. All other CLMC nasals are written with an a.chung ( ) which may or may not have represented prenasalization in Tibetan transcriptions. EMC *ã may have initially developed prenasalization like all the other nasals at first, only to lose it later (*ã9 > *9): (7.8) EMC Early CLMC *m, *n, *nr, *Y *mb/*mv, *nd, *ndr, *Yg but *ã *ãj > *ã9 185

Late CLMC Tib. tr. ’b, ’d, ’j, ’g Tib. tr. zh

OLD JAPANESE

It really does not matter whether CLMC *ã9 was prenasalized or not in the late seventh century, since CLMC *( ã)9 would have been an acceptable near-equivalent for an OJ *z in either case. To be certain that OJ z was prenasalized, we must look at later stages of the language. On p. 75, I have already discussed evidence from LMJ and modern dialects for the prenasalization of z. I could claim that an originally non-prenasalized OJ z somehow prenasalized and then lost its prenasalization (*z > *nz > [z] ), but I would rather claim that OJ z was prenasalized and that the prenasalization found in LMJ and some modern dialects is a retention and not a post-OJ innovation. The prenasalization of OJ z need not have been manifested as a segment (i.e., *n or *ã). As Ramsey and Unger (1972) have suggested, vowels preceding OJ voiced obstruents could have been nasalized. Following their suggestion, I propose a solution parallel to those given for OJ b and d (pp. 168 and 174): (1) OJ z was generally a prenasalized voiced unaspirated dental fricative *nz. It could not have been palatal because Kan-on renders CLMC *( ã)9 as zy before non-front vowels. If OJ z were *ã9 or ãj, we would find Kan-on z, not zy, in this environment. Kan-on zya, zyu, zyo tell us that OJ z by itself was not sufficient to imitate CLMC *( ã)9. (2) ‘Vowels’ preceding *nz may have been nasalized (*~). (3) *nz may have been reduced to *z if a preceding ‘vowel’ was nasalized (*~ ). OJ *nz may have had the following allophones in free variation: (7.9) (1) *[nz]

(2) *[~nz]

(3) *[~z]

If OJ z had palatal allophones before front ‘vowels,’ they would be realized as: (7.10) (1) *[ ãj] (4) *[ ã9]

(2) *[~ãj] (5) *[~ã9]

(3) *[~j] (6) *[~9]

and/or

Perhaps some if not all of the cases of OJ zi, zu, and zo written with nonnasal CLMC initials reflect allophones of OJ z such as *[~z], *[~j], or *[~9] without *[n] or *[ ã]. I will hereafter write my reconstruction of OJ z as *nz, though one could write it as *z or *ns without specifying either its prenasalization or its voicing.

OJ y OJ y corresponds only to MC *y in both Kojiki and Shoki (Table 7.24). I will reconstruct OJ y as *y for both texts.

186

THE RECONSTRUCTION OF OLD JAPANESE CONSONANTS

Table 7.24 OJ y in Kojiki and Shoki poetry OJ

EMC *y (Kojiki)

CLMC *y (Shoki)

a u e wo o Totals

154 52 25 16 29 276

124 39 25 9 49 246

Table 7.25 OJ k in Kojiki poetry OJ \ EMC

*k

*kò

*kh

*g

*Y

*h

*®

a yi iy u ey ye wo o Subtotals Total

127 0 24 133 0 0 38 0 322 730

68 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 68

1 1 0 0 26 0 0 0 28

0 154 0 0 0 36 0 0 190

0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 116 116

4 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 5

OJ k OJ k in Kojiki corresponds to seven EMC initials (Table 7.25). *k is clearly the EMC consonant that most frequently corresponds to OJ k. However, there are a number of oddities in Table 7.25 that require explanation. (1) *k and *kò for OJ ka: In Pulleyblank’s (1984: 105, 167–168) MC reconstruction, *k has a back allophone before non-high vowels. This is evident from Uighur transcriptions of MC which distinguish between the two allophones: the back allophone is written as x or q and the front allophone is written as k (Csongor 1949, 1962; Pulleyblank 1965; Barat n.d.). Although Uighur has x and q before non-palatal vowels and k before palatal vowels, the Uighur consistently transcribed Sanskrit k as k before all vowels, palatal or otherwise (Pulleyblank 1965: 200). If MC *k were simply [k] like Sanskrit k in all environments, why did the Uighurs not transcribe MC *k as k in all environments? The Chinese did not perceive Sanskrit k before a to be like their own back allophone of *k before *a (i.e., *[q]?), so they transcribed Sanskrit ka with special phonograms such as
EMC *kòa ( p. 148).

187

OLD JAPANESE

At one point I wondered whether pre-OJ had a back allophone of k before non-palatal vowels and a front allophone of k before palatal vowels which was breaking down in OJ. In Kojiki, we find both
EMC *kæ (*[qæ]?) and
EMC *kòa (*[kòa] ) as phonograms for OJ ka. If OJ ka had initial *q, we would expect only to find the phonogram
EMC *kæ (*[qæ]?). Were *q and *k in free variation before OJ a? I would rather not reconstruct such variation. If the Japanese had no *q : *k distinction in their language, they would have borrowed both allophones of EMC *k as *k. They probably regarded
EMC *kæ (*[qæ]?) and
EMC *kòa (*[kòa] ) as interchangeable phonograms for OJ ka with the same initial. I know of no Japonic evidence for a uvular stop *q, so I will not reconstruct one. (2) OJ kyi and kye are almost always spelled with EMC *g. If one ignores the phonograms, there is no reason to believe that OJ kyi and kye ever had voiced initials. OJ kyi and kye correspond to LMJ and MSJ ki and ke (see Martin 1987: 88–93 for exceptions). There is nothing in Ryukyuan pointing toward earlier voicing in these syllables (unless one wants to claim that Ryukyuan and OJ independently lost voicing in these particular syllables after the two branches of Japonic split). On the basis of Japanese-internal evidence, I will disregard EMC *g and reconstruct *k for OJ kyi and kye, since *k-initial phonograms such as
EMC *khyih (which appears only once for OJ kyi in Kojiki 4.20.4) did exist.4 (3) OJ key is exclusively spelled with EMC *kh: all 26 cases involve the phonogram
EMC *khtyh. I do not see any reason why only OJ key would have an aspirated allophone. OJ key was transcribed during the Suiko Period with both aspirated and unaspirated phonograms:
EMC *ktR < LOC *kaò B,
EMC *hty < LOC *hty B,
EMC *ktR < LOC *kaò B, and
EMC *khtyh < LOC *khtyhB (Ôno Tôru 1962: 50). The fourth phonogram,
EMC *khtyh, was chosen to be the sole phonogram for OJ key in Kojiki, giving the misleading impression that OJ key had an aspirated initial. I will disregard the aspiration of
EMC *khtyh and reconstruct the initial of OJ key as unaspirated *k. (4) OJ ko is written only with the phonogram
EMC *htRq, and OJ ka and kwo are sporadically spelled with *®-. Does this mean that OJ ko (and rarely OJ ka and kwo) had a fricative initial that later hardened into the k attested in all later stages? In the Suiko inscriptions, OJ ko was also transcribed as
EMC *ktq < LOC *kRòqB. If we assume that the *h of EMC *htRq represented an initial *h in OJ ko, we will have to claim that the initial of this syllable was *k during the Suiko Period, lenited to *h during the Nara Period, and then reverted to the k attested in LMJ. Why would this unusual fortition occur only to the syllable ko? It is highly improbable that the use of fricative-initial characters reflects fricative allophones of OJ k which appeared only before certain ‘vowels’ (i.e., o , a, and wo). It is more probable that scribes chose phonograms 188

THE RECONSTRUCTION OF OLD JAPANESE CONSONANTS

Table 7.26 OJ k in Shoki poetry OJ \ CLMC

*c /*k

*k

*kh

*k®

*k®ò

*kh/q

*h

Other

a yi iy u ye ey wo o Subtotals Total

0 89 0 0 0 0 0 0 89 698

129 1 21 105 8 10 55 30 359

3 23 2 0 1 16 0 4 49

0 41 0 0 2 0 0 4 47

41 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 41

0 0 0 42 0 0 0 0 42

12 0 0 0 0 0 0 50 62

0 2 (*c /*k®) 0 0 4 (*k(h) ) 0 3 (*h®) 0 9

Note ‘Other’ includes all CLMC initials which appear four or fewer times: *c/*k®, *k(h), and *h®.

according to SJ readings which lacked distinctions between *k and *h and between *g and *®. In all strata of SJ, Chinese glottal fricatives are always borrowed as k and g. (Recall that MSJ h ultimately originates from OJ p = *p.) Let us suppose that OJ k was *k in all environments. Readings of characters such as
EMC *htRq would have been borrowed with OJ k = *k. To Japanese without firsthand knowledge of Chinese,
EMC *htRq (cf. Go-on ko) was a *k-initial phonogram just like
EMC *ktq < LOC *kRòqB (cf. Go-on ko). Hence I doubt that fricative-initial phonograms for OJ k-syllables are evidence for OJ *h or *®.5 In spite of the diversity of EMC initials in Table 7.25, I will reconstruct OJ k in Kojiki as a voiceless velar stop *k on the basis of the above arguments. OJ k in Shoki corresponds to eight CLMC initials (Table 7.26). *k vastly outnumbers all other initials and is the only initial that appears before all OJ ‘vowels.’ I will now proceed to argue against using any of the other initials as evidence for non-*k allophones of OJ k. (1) *c/*k and *c/*k®: these cases involve only two phonograms for OJ kyi. Each of these phonograms had two readings in EMC, one with an initial palatal and one with an initial velar:
EMC *ciR / *kyiR and
EMC *ciR / *gyiR. Double readings also existed in CLMC:
has the Kan-on readings si < CLMC *c- and ki < CLMC *k- and
has the Kan-on readings si < CLMC *c- and ki < CLMC *k®-. Since there are no cases of phonograms with only palatal-initial readings for OJ kyi, I will assume that
CLMC *c- / *k- and
CLMC *c- / *k®- were chosen as phonograms for OJ kyi on the basis of their velar-initial readings. I reject *c as a possible allophone of OJ k before the ‘vowel’ yi. (2) *kh and *k®: aspirated initials are far rarer than *k and do not appear before all ‘vowels.’ The Japanese probably could not distinguish between *k, *kh, and *k® (which all corresponded to Kan-on k) and used phonograms 189

OLD JAPANESE

Table 7.27 OJ k in Shoki alpha section poetry OJ \ CLMC

*c/*k

*k

*k(h)

*kh

*k®

a yi iy u ye ey wo o Subtotals Total

0 49 0 0 0 0 0 0 49 322

83 0 10 80 2 7 29 22 233

0 0 0 0 4 0 0 0 4

1 7 0 0 1 7 0 0 16

0 16 0 0 0 0 0 4 20

with all three initials interchangeably. Chinese speakers would of course be able to distinguish between all three initials and would not use *k-, *kh-, and *k®-initial phonograms interchangeably. Mori (1991) credited Chinese scribes with the low frequency of aspirate phonograms in his alpha section of Shoki. My own statistics for OJ k in the alpha section confirm this low frequency (Table 7.27). Notice how nearly two-thirds of the aspirates (23/36) are found among phonograms for OJ kyi and roughly half of the remaining third (7/36) are found among phonograms for OJ key. I doubt that Chinese speakers would tend to perceive an aspirated allophone *kh before the ‘vowels’ yi and ey but not before other vowels. I know of no other languages with this pattern of allophony and would not reconstruct aspirated allophones for any OJ k-initial syllables. (3) CLMC *h and *h®: I do think that the scribes of the alpha section were more knowledgeable about Chinese than the more conservative scribes of the beta section. As Mori (1991) also pointed out, OJ k is never written with CLMC fricatives in the alpha section. This shows that OJ k probably had no fricative allophones such as *h or *®. I suspect that Japanese and Korean peninsular students of Chinese found a distinction between CLMC *k and *h to be easier to learn than the distinctions between *k, *kh, and *k®. So far we have seen nothing suggesting the existence of phonemic aspiration in OJ. Eom (1994) denies that any of the three major branches of OSK (p. 110) had aspiration. The poor degree of correlation between aspiration in LMC and aspiration in SK proper (i.e., the last stratum of Sino-Silla) is probably proof of the partial or total absence of aspiration in the Silla language. Without aspiration in their own languages, non-native speakers of Chinese were more likely to make mistakes involving aspiration than mistakes involving velar stops and glottal fricatives. (4) CLMC *kh/*q [}]: all 42 of these cases involve a single beta section phonogram
which has two readings, CLMC *kh- (cf. SV khu [xuu] ) and CLMC *q- [}] (cf. SV âu [}Rw] ). Since OJ ku is written 105 times in Shoki with 190

THE RECONSTRUCTION OF OLD JAPANESE CONSONANTS

CLMC *k, I will assume that the phonogram
was chosen for its velarinitial reading *kh- and not its glottal-initial reading *q- [}]. (5) CLMC *k®ò: all 41 of these cases involve a single beta section phonogram
CLMC *k®ò- < EMC *gòa which was originally devised by the Chinese as a transcription character for Indic ga, ga, gha, and gha. Once I would have assumed that
CLMC *k®ò- was evidence for a velar allophone *k of OJ k which would have been in free variation with a uvular allophone *q represented by phonograms like
CLMC *k- (*[q] ), but I have already rejected this hypothesis above.
CLMC *k®ò- never appears in the alpha section. If the scribes of the alpha section were Chinese as Mori (1991) supposes, they would have used
CLMC *k®ò- or, more likely,
CLMC *kò- < EMC *kòa, the phonogram for Indic ka and ka, to transcribe OJ ka (*[kV] ). I suppose one could claim that the alpha section scribes were well versed enough in Chinese not to make the ‘mistake’ of writing an OJ uvular stop *q with CLMC *kò- or *k®ò, but I am still not enthusiastic about reconstructing an OJ *q solely on the basis of phonogram evidence. It is simpler to assume that OJ k was velar like its reflexes in LMJ and MSJ. I will reconstruct OJ k as an voiced unaspirated velar stop *k in all environments for both Kojiki and Shoki.

OJ g OJ g in Kojiki corresponds to EMC *kò, g, *Y, and *® (Table 7.28). Although OJ g most frequently corresponds to EMC *®, this initial appears only in phonograms for OJ ga (
LOC *gahA > EMC *®ah,
LOC *ga(h)A > EMC *®a(h) ) and perhaps OJ gwo (two probable cases of
LOC *goA > EMC *®o).6 Note that all three phonograms have LOC readings with a voiced velar stop *g. Perhaps these characters were chosen to be phonograms for OJ ga and gwo on the basis of their LOC initial *g. (Cf. the choice of LOC *w-initial phonograms for OJ w-syllables on p. 170.) Table 7.28 OJ g in Kojiki poetry OJ \ EMC

*kò

*Y

*g

*®

a yi iy u ye ey wo o Subtotals Total

1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 196 (+2)

0 16 4 0 1 6 0 0 27

0 1 0 16 0 0 0 11 28

140 0 0 0 0 0 (2) 0 140 (+2)

191

OLD JAPANESE

Literalists who take Table 7.28 at face value might want to reconstruct the following pattern of allophony: 1 2 3

*® (or *g) before OJ a and wo *g before OJ u and o *Y elsewhere (before OJ yi, iy, ye, and ey).

If I conflate (1) and (2), I need to explain why OJ g had a nasal allophone only before four ‘vowels’. I know of no correlations between vowels and the prenasalization of reflexes of OJ g in later varieties of Japanese. Is there any evidence for the nasality of OJ g before OJ a, u, wo, and o? In the prose of Kojiki, the phonogram
EMC *htRY represents three OJ two-syllable sequences: kaga, kagu, and kago.
EMC *stRY(h) represents the OJ two-syllable sequence saga in the prose of Kojiki. OJ ga is also written once in the prose of Kojiki as
EMC *Yaq. If the initials of syllables such as OJ ga, gu, and go had no nasality, why spell them with EMC *Y? Why not consistently spell them with EMC *g or *® (< LOC *g)? In the Suiko inscriptions, OJ ga was spelled with
EMC *YiR as well as
EMC *giR and
EMC *kæ (Ôno Tôru 1962: 50), so the use of Chinese *Y to transcribe the initial of g was not an innovation of Kojiki. OJ g is transcribed with a mix of nasals and non-nasals throughout the history of Japanese phonogram writing. In texts other than Shoki (see below), this mixture reflected the absence of a prenasalized voiced velar stop *Yg in LOC and EMC. Foreign *Y could approximate the nasal element of OJ g = *Yg while foreign *g could approximate its non-nasal element. The orthography of Kojiki poetry implies a pattern of allophony (*g~*Y) that is contradicted by all other evidence. No later stage of Japanese exhibits such allophony. Hence I will reconstruct OJ g for Kojiki as a prenasalized voiced velar stop *Yg. OJ g in Shoki corresponds to CLMC *c/*k, *k®, and *Yg (Table 7.29). Unlike the orthographies of other OJ phonogram texts, the orthography of Table 7.29 OJ g in Shoki poetry OJ \ CLMC

*c/*k

*k®

*Yg

a yi iy u ey wo o Subtotals Total

0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 173

0 0 0 2 0 0 1 3

106 16 13 7 9 12 6 169

192

THE RECONSTRUCTION OF OLD JAPANESE CONSONANTS

Shoki was based on CLMC, which did have a prenasalized voiced velar stop *Yg. The 97.8 per cent (169/173) correlation between CLMC *Yg and OJ g in Shoki confirms my earlier reconstruction of OJ g as *Yg. The exceptions may reflect an allophone such as *~g. Perhaps OJ g had allophony similar to the allophony proposed for OJ b, d, and z on pp. 168, 174, and 186: 1 2 3

OJ g was generally a prenasalized voiced unaspirated velar stop *Yg. ‘Vowels’ preceding *Yg may have been nasalized (*~). *Yg may have been reduced to *g if a preceding ‘vowel’ was nasalized (*~). OJ *Yg may have been phonetically realized in at least three ways:

(7.11) (1) *[Yg]

(2) *[~Yg] (3) *[~g]

Why do I not reconstruct *Y or *~Y as an allophone of OJ g? It is not as if an OJ *Y would have no parallels in later stages of the language. In MSJ, *Y is an intervocalic allophone of /g/. Kamei (1956) has reconstructed OJ g as *~Y in intervocalic position and Kiyose (1991) has reconstructed it as *Y in all positions. I object to the reconstruction of a velar nasal allophone *(~)Y for two reasons. (1) Scribes consistently transcribed the two other OJ nasals (m and n) only with LOC or EMC nasals in non-Shoki OJ phonogram texts. However, they transcribed OJ g with both nasals (*Y) and non-nasals (*g), perhaps because OJ g (*Yg) was somehow different from ordinary nasals such as OJ m (*m) and n (*n). (2) The SJ reflexes of MC *Y are vowels (i and u), not g-vowel sequences. It is true that MC *-Y codas do correspond to OJ g. However, we must not forget that the OJ sounds represented by phonograms and the OJ period SJ readings of phonograms were not necessarily one and the same.
EMC *htRY was chosen as an approximation of OJ kagV (*kVYgV). Its OJ period Go-on reading was probably not identical to its readings as a phonogram (i.e., OJ kaga, kagu, and kago), since its Go-on reading is kau, not *kagu. I have hypothesized that OJ had a short-lived phoneme *Y found only in SJ loans which was later lost:
EMC *htRY > OJ Go-on *kaYu > post-OJ Go-on kau. According to a more mainstream view, MC *Y was borrowed as OJ -u and -Z (Hamada 1952, Miller 1967, Frellesvig 1995). Erickson (1998) denies the existence of nasalized vowel phonemes in OJ and implies that MC *Y was borrowed as non-nasalized OJ -i and -u. In any case, OJ g must not have been appropriate for rendering MC *Y. If one claims that MC *Y was borrowed as OJ g, then one must explain why the usual reflexes of OJ g are zero in SJ forms and g in native words. I do not understand what would motivate the deletion of OJ g in SJ. I would rather claim that MC *Y was borrowed as something other than OJ g (my *Yg) to avoid positing such divergent developments. 193

OLD JAPANESE

Although I have proposed allophones such as *~g for OJ g, I will write my reconstruction of OJ g as *Yg. One could also write OJ g less redundantly as *g or *nk without specifying either nasality or voicing.

OJ 2 The OJ ‘zero initial’ in Kojiki corresponds to EMC *q and *w (Table 7.30). I have included all attestations of OJ e in Kojiki: five cases of
EMC *qRyh in the text (I: Age of the Gods) and two cases of
EMC *qæh in the poetry (9.18.1, 9.18.2). EMC *q [}] and EMC *w are in complementary distribution in Table 7.30. Should I reconstruct OJ $ as *w before u and as *q [}] elsewhere? All 56 instances of OJ u in the poetry of Kojiki are spelled with the phonogram
EMC *wuRq. This phonogram may have been arbitrarily chosen among several phonograms already in use to be the one and only phonogram for OJ u in Kojiki poetry. In the prose of Kojiki, we find OJ u spelled once with
EMC *qo(h) / *qwæ in a gloss for OJ ukey ‘food’
 EMC *qo(h) khtyh (I: Age of the Gods). This word does not appear elsewhere in Kojiki, but it does reappear in Shoki as CLMC
 *w- k- (cf. SV vu cai [vuu kaay] ). Ôno Tôru (1962: 88, 141) considers
EMC *qo(h) (rarely EMC *qwæ) to be the principal phonogram for OJ u in the Suiko inscriptions. The only other Suiko phonogram for OJ u,
EMC *wuwq, appears only four times (Ôno Tôru 1962: 52). OJ i is mostly written as
EMC *qyi (as in Kojiki) in the Suiko inscriptions, but it is also written three times as
EMC *yi (Ôno Tôru 1962: 52). Should we conclude that there was variation between *w~*q for OJ u and between *y~*q for OJ i in the Suiko Period which was lost by the time Kojiki was written? I would rather not interpret the evidence so literally. I will reconstruct OJ $ as *$ for Kojiki, leaving open the question of its exact phonetic manifestation. I think that OJ $ may have been a true zero initial. OJ speakers may not have been able to distinguish between *wu and *}u or *yi and *}i. The Shoki evidence corroborates my previous claims. OJ $ corresponds to *q and *y before i, *q and *w before u, and only to *q elsewhere (Table 7.31). Table 7.30 OJ $ in Kojiki poetry OJ \ EMC

*q

*w

a i u e o Subtotals Total

120 118 0 2 (+5) 75 315 (+5) 371+5

0 0 56 0 0 56

194

THE RECONSTRUCTION OF OLD JAPANESE CONSONANTS

Table 7.31 OJ $ in Shoki poetry OJ \ CLMC

*q

*w

*y

a i u e o Subtotals Total

124 80 5 2 73 284 379

0 0 61 0 0 61

0 34 0 0 0 34

Table 7.32 OJ $ in Shoki alpha section poetry OJ \ CLMC

*q

*w

*y

a i u e o Subtotals Total

53 33 4 1 37 128 153

0 0 18 0 0 18

0 7 0 0 0 7

I see no need to reconstruct allophonic variation between initial *q and *y for i or between initial *q and *w for u. We can easily find words spelled both with and without CLMC glottal stops in Shoki. Even the alpha section of Shoki mixes glottal stop and non-glottal-stop spellings of OJ i and u, though a distinction between *q, *y, and *w was phonemic in CLMC (Table 7.32). If the scribes of Shoki could not distinguish between *w and *q, they could not have been native speakers of Chinese. I am finding Mori’s hypothesis of Chinese scribes for the alpha section increasingly difficult to accept. Unger (1993: 6, 22) reconstructed the i of OJ words such as kai ‘oar’ and kui ‘regret’ as */yi/, but the phonogram evidence does not strongly support his position. OJ kai does not appear in Shoki, but OJ kui does appear as
 CLMC *k- q- (cf. SV cu y [kuu }ii] ) with a medial glottal stop (*q) instead of the expected medial *-y- (NS 124.7). OJ kai is always spelled in Man’yôshû with a medial glottal stop as either
 EMC *kæ qyi (153.9, etc.) or
 EMC *®ah (< LOC *gah) qyi (1052.5). These spellings do not necessarily disprove Unger’s view. One could argue that
EMC *qyi was not inappropriate for Unger’s OJ */yi/ since its EMC reading did have a medial *-y-. Nevertheless, EMC and CLMC did have similar syllables with initial *y such as
CLMC *y- (cf. SV di [zii] < *yi) < EMC *yi, so scribes did have alternatives to
EMC *qyi for the transcription of OJ */yi/. Unger (1993: 6, 22) also reconstructed the second u of OJ ku-u ‘kick-FIN’ as */wu /. However, since only the infinitive form of OJ ku-u, OJ kuw-e 195

OLD JAPANESE

Table 7.33 The OJ consonant inventory

Voiceless obstruents Prenasalized voiced obstruents Nasals Liquid and glides

Labial

Dental

*p *mb *m *w

*t *nd

Palatal *s *nz

*n *r

Velar *k *Yg

*y

‘kick-INF,’ appears in phonograms (
 CLMC *k- qw- < EMC *kuR qwiRyh; NS Age of the Gods I), I cannot directly test his reconstruction of */wu/. Furthermore, since OJ u is generally written with MC *w after the Suiko Period,7 the second syllable of OJ ku-u would probably have been spelled with a *w-initial phonogram, regardless of whether it had an initial *w or not. LMJ and MSJ do not have any syllables such as *yi or *wu, so I will not reconstruct such syllables in OJ. I will reconstruct OJ $ as *$ for both Kojiki and Shoki.

Summary I have reconstructed thirteen consonants for OJ (Table 7.33). This system is similar to those of LMJ and MSJ. The main differences are as follows. (1) OJ had a labial stop *p corresponding to the LMJ labial fricative f [φ] and the MSJ glottal fricative h (which has a labial allophone f [φ] before u [T] ). (2) The OJ prenasalized voiced obstruents (*mb, *nd, *nz, *Yg) have lost their prenasalization in MSJ, though MSJ /g/ does have an intervocalic nasal allophone [Y]. (3) Unlike LMJ and MSJ, OJ may have lacked palatal allophones of s and z (i.e., *\ and *ã9 or *ãj) before front ‘vowels.’ The OJ consonant system does not offer us any real surprises. But, as we will see in the next chapter, the same cannot be said of the OJ vowel system.

Notes 1 I cannot cite CLMC finals because I have only reconstructed the CLMC initials. I will cite LMC-based SK and SV readings whenever I need to refer to CLMC finals. 2 One might expect the graphs for OJ wo to have the EMC initial *®w-, assuming that OJ o was a non-high vowel. Yet both Kojiki graphs for OJ wo (
EMC *wuRn,
EMC *wuRnq/h) in fact had the EMC initial *w-. Does this necessarily mean that OJ o was a high vowel? No, for these graphs may have been chosen for their EMC readings’ schwas. I present evidence for *R in this EMC rhyme in (8.59).

196

THE RECONSTRUCTION OF OLD JAPANESE CONSONANTS

3 Ôno (1953a: 211) and the Nihon koten bungaku taikei edition of Shoki interpret phrase-initial
(NS 40.6.1) as da ‘who’ rather than as ta ‘id.’ 4 I do not understand why *g-initial phonograms were used in these cases. 5 I do not know why voiced initial phonograms such as
EMC *®ah (cf. Go-on ga) and
EMC *®o (cf. Go-on go) were used for OJ ka and kwo. 6 This phonogram appears in two phrases (KJK 9.19, 9.22) interpreted as either siyagwo siya (Shintô taikei ed. of Kojiki) or siya kwosiya (Kodai kayô shû ed. of Kojiki). 7 Ôno Tôru (1962: 145) considers
EMC *wuRq > CLMC *w- (cf. SV vZ [vuu] ) to be the “sole commonly used phonogram” for OJ u in the eighth century.

197

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8 THE RECONSTRUCTION OF OLD JAPANESE VOWELS

Overview In this chapter, I will reconstruct the ‘vowels’ of OJ in the following sequence. First, I will reconstruct what I consider to be the primary ‘vowels’ of OJ: a, yi, u, and o. Much of the work on pre-OJ internal reconstruction is based upon the assumption that the pre-OJ predecessors of these four ‘vowels’ (*a, *i, *u, *R) combined into diphthongs which developed into the remaining OJ ‘vowels’ ( ye, ey, iy, wo) (p. 81). If OJ a, yi, u, and o turn out to be quite different from *a, *i, *u, and *R, then I will have to reevaluate preexisting hypotheses of diphthongal origins for the other OJ ‘vowels.’ Then I will reconstruct what I consider to be the secondary ‘vowels’ of OJ: iy, ye, ey, and wo. I will see whether their reconstructed phonetic forms are consistent with theories of their derivations from earlier combinations of the primary ‘vowels.’ Finally, I will determine whether the OJ C-type ‘vowels’ (i, e, o) can be identified as A- or B-type ‘vowels’ in each syllable that they appear in. There is no guarantee that all syllables ending in a C-type ‘vowel’ actually had the same ‘vowel.’ Some syllables may have had A-type ‘vowels’ and others may have had B-type ‘vowels.’ I will consider the possibility that the C-type ‘vowels’ may truly have been distinct from A- and B-type vowels. I will also evaluate Mabuchi’s (1957) and Bentley’s (1997) attempts to find further A/B-type distinctions among syllables with C-type ‘vowels.’ As in the previous chapter, I use the terms ‘Kojiki’ and ‘Shoki’ to refer only to the poetry of those two works unless otherwise specified.

OJ a OJ a in Kojiki corresponds to five EMC rhyme categories (Table 8.1). The most common rhyme category is EMC *-a. The other rhyme categories are found only for one or two syllables: *-æ (OJ ka, ma), *-ya (OJ za, ya), *-tRY (OJ ra), *-òa (OJ ka, ga), and *-aY (OJ ta). 198

THE RECONSTRUCTION OF OLD JAPANESE VOWELS

Table 8.1 OJ a in Kojiki poetry OJ \ EMC

*-a

*-aY

*-òa

*-æ

*-tRY

*-ya

p b m w t d n r s z y k g $ Subtotals Total

208 66 4 69 222 56 126 1 117 0 0 5 140 120 1134 1785

0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 68 1 0 69

0 0 194 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 127 0 0 321

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 101 0 0 0 0 0 0 101

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 154 0 0 0 159

As explained in Chapter 6, I will not use my modified version of Pulleyblank’s (1984, 1991a) EMC reconstruction as primary evidence for the values of OJ ‘vowels.’ The finals of Pulleyblank’s EMC reconstruction were partly based on his interpretation of OJ phonograms. To avoid circularity, I will rely on attested evidence rather than reconstructions, though I will use reconstructions as easily typable tags for Qieyun/Guangyun rhyme names. For example, ‘*-a’ refers to the Qieyun/Guangyun
‘song’ rhyme. See Pulleyblank (1984: 233–236) for a list of Qieyun/Guangyun rhymes and their EMC reconstructions. I will reconstruct the OJ ‘vowel’ a in Kojiki as a low unrounded vowel *a for the following reasons. (1) OSV a [aa] corresponds to EMC *-a. (8.1) Sg
‘seat’
‘disaster’

EMC *dzwa *®waq < LOC *waqA

OSV SV tòa [twaa] tia [twaa] vf [vaa] hia [hwaa]

I have not been able to find any OSV words corresponding to OJ a-phonograms. (2) OJ a-phonograms appear as nôm phonograms for Vietnamese a-syllables:

199

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(8.2) OJ a ta ta da ra wa

Ph







EMC *qa *ta *tha *da *la *®wa

Nôm a [}aa] $a [ßaa] tha, thà [thaa] $à [ßaa] la, là [laa] hòa [hwaa], òa [}waa]

SV a [}aa] $a [ßaa] tha [thaa] $à [ßaa] la [laa] hòa [hwaa]

(3) OJ a-phonograms serve as neutral vowel bases for vietographs generally representing Vietnamese a-syllables: (8.3) OJ Ph ta
na
ra


EMC *ta *nah *la

Derived vietographs i $á ‘stone’ j da ‘skin’ k nf ‘mask’ l ra ‘go out’

(4) OJ a-phonograms have EMC-based Colloquial Taiwanese (CT) readings ending in -a or -oa [wa]: (8.4) OJ a ka ga na

Ph





EMC *qa *khaq *®a *nah

CT a1 khoa 3 oa 2 na 5

(5) OJ a-phonograms appear among Jñanagupta’s (Jn) EMC-based late fifth-century CE transcriptions of Indic syllables ending in -a [£] or -a [aa]: (8.5) OJ a ta ta da na pa ba ra

Ph









EMC *qa *ta *tha *da *na(q/h) *pa *ba *la

Ind. tr. (Jn) a, a ta, ta tha da, dha, dha na, na pa, va ba, bha, bha, va ra, ra

The data in (8.1– 8.5) included only phonograms ending in EMC *-a. However, five OJ a-syllables (ma, ra, za, ya, ka) are predominantly or entirely written with phonograms of other rhymes. Should I reconstruct special allophones of OJ a for these syllables? (1) The *-æ phonograms for OJ ka and ma:
EMC *kæ,
EMC *mæ. I know of no Japanese-internal evidence which would indicate a special 200

THE RECONSTRUCTION OF OLD JAPANESE VOWELS

vowel allophone for OJ ka and ma. There is no property unique to *k and *m that might motivate the development of such an allophone. Hence I will reconstruct both syllables with *-a as OJ *ka and *ma. Note that these syllables also do appear in Kojiki with EMC *-a phonograms:
EMC *kha (cf. CT khoa 3 [khwa]; 42.27.4) and
EMC *ma (Jñanagupta’s phonogram for Ind ma; 15.5.5, etc.). (2) The *-òa phonogram
EMC *kòa for OJ ka. I have already mentioned that this character was originally created to transcribe Indic ka and ka which were syllables without any equivalents in EMC (pp. 148 and 187). Therefore
presumably represented an OJ *ka. (3) The *-ya phonograms
EMC *zya/*ya and
EMC *yah for OJ za and ya.
EMC *zya /*ya is homophonous with
EMC *ya, which Jñanagupta used to transcribe Ind ya and ya.
EMC *yah appears in Jñanagupta’s transcriptions as a phonogram for Ind ya. Thus I see no problem with reconstructing OJ za and ya as *za and *ya. See p. 184 for the reasons why I do not reconstruct OJ za as *zya. (4) The *-tRY phonogram
EMC *ltRY for OJ ra. In the poetry of Kojiki, OJ ra is always written as
EMC *ltRY except for one indisputable instance of
EMC *la (52.2.5). Both of these phonograms are interchangeable in Korean peninsular transcriptions. They are, however, not interchangeable in Chinese transcriptions. I suspect that the use of both phonograms for *la or *ra originated on the Korean peninsula and spread to Japan. I am not certain why
EMC *ltRY would have been used to transcribe open syllables. However,
EMC *ltRY would be a good choice for foreign *la or *ra if one ignores the coda and looks at its LOC form *laYB. There is no need to interpret
EMC *ltRY as evidence for a special allophone of OJ a. I will reconstruct OJ ra as *ra. (5) The *-aY phonogram
EMC *taY for OJ ta. This phonogram appears only once in Kojiki in the name ‘Tagyimati’: (8.6)


! EMC *taY YyiRyh mæ tri (KJK 77.5)

The final *-Y of
may reflect the prenasalization of the following OJ g = *Yg. None of the exceptional rhymes in Kojiki offers significant counterevidence against my reconstruction of OJ a as *a before all initials. The a-phonograms of Shoki also do not offer any such counterevidence even though they belong to twelve different EMC rhyme categories (Table 8.2). Most OJ a-phonograms in Shoki belong to the EMC *-a rhyme category. The majority of the remaining phonograms belong to EMC rhyme categories containing the vowel *a. These rhyme categories apparently had LMC reflexes with an *a-like vowel, judging from SK and SV (Table 8.3). Most of the OJ a-phonograms (1) are read with a in LMC-based SK and SV, (2) were transcribed with a in Tibetan, and (3) were used by Amoghavajra (Am; 705–774 CE) to transcribe Indic syllables ending in a and a. In 201

OLD JAPANESE

Table 8.2 OJ a in Shoki poetry OJ \ EMC

*-a

*-ak *-an *-aY

*-at

*-ay *-æ *-εy

*-iR *-tRY *-Ry

*-ya

p b m w t d n r s z y k g $ Subtotals Total

201 37 114 75 109 19 137 120 86 0 0 165 106 124 1,293 1,548

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1

3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3

0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2

0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 18 0 0 18

0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1

0 0 0 0 13 0 0 0 3 0 124 0 0 0 140

OJ \ EMC

1,548

*-ak

*-an *-aY *-at

*-εy

*-iR *-tRY *-Ry *-ya

0 0 28 0 2 13 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 45

0 0 35 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 2 0 0 39

*-ay *-æ

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 3

0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1

Table 8.3 SX equivalents of rhyme categories for Shoki a-phonograms EMC *-(y)a *-ak

*-an

*-aY

*-at

*-ay

*-æ

*-εy

*-iR *-tRY -i

Kan

-(y)a

-aku

-an

-au

-atu

-ai

-a

-ai

SK

-(y)a

-ak

-an

-ang

-al

-ay

-a

-ay, -oy -i

SV

-a [aa]

-ac -an -ang -at -ai -a -ai [aak] [aan] [aaY] [aat] [aay] [aa] [aay]

-i [ii]

*-Ry

-au

-ai

-ang

-ay

-edng -ai [tRY] [aay]

Table 8.4, I list the most common phonograms for OJ a-syllables along with their SX readings, their Tibetan transcriptions, and their Indic sound values in Amoghavajra’s transcriptions. I have also listed the most common phonograms which did not belong to the EMC *-a rhyme category. 61.8 per cent (957/1,548) of the total number of a-syllables in Shoki are written with these nineteen phonograms. The only OJ a-phonogram that does not fit into this pattern is: (8.7)
EMC *myiR > CLMC *mb-: Kan bi, SK mi, SV mi for OJ ba. It appears once in all Shoki texts (19.4.7) and appears two more times (7.9.5, 7.10.4) in some texts as a variant of the most common phonogram for OJ ba: (8.8)
EMC *maq > CLMC *mb-: Kan ba, SK ma, SV mk 202

THE RECONSTRUCTION OF OLD JAPANESE VOWELS

Table 8.4 Common a-phonograms in Shoki poetry OJ

Ph

EMC

CLMC

Kan

SK

SV

Tib. tr.

Ind. tr. (Am)

pa ba





*pa *maq

*p*mb-

ha ba

pha ma

ba mk

pa –

ma











*ma *mæ *maYq *®wa *ta *naq *naYh *na

*mb*mb*m(b)*h®w*t*nd*n(d)*nd-

ba ba bau kwa ta da dau da

ma ma mang hwa ta na nang na

ma ma mãng hòa $a nã náng na

ba, ’ba ’ba, ma – hwa ta, da – – ’da












*la *tsah *crtRY *yah *ka *gòa *kεyh *Yah *qa

*l*ts*cr*y*k*k®*k*Yg*q-

ra sa sau ya ka kya kai ga a

la ca cang ya ka ka kay a a

la tá trang df kha già giái, giDi ngã a

la, la dza – ya – ga – ’ga a

– ba, ma, ma, (m)ba, (m)bha ma, (m)ba ma ma – ta, ta, ∞a da, da – na, (n)da, (n)da, (r)da ¶a, la, ra, ra ca – ya – gha, gha – – a, a

wa ta da na ra sa za ya ka ga a

Since the two characters are graphically very similar, all three cases of
EMC *myiR > CLMC *mb- for OJ ba are probably scribal errors for
EMC *ma > CLMC *mb-. 4.8 per cent (75/1548) of OJ a-syllables are written with MC closed syllable phonograms: e.g.,
EMC *maY > CLMC *m(b)- for OJ ma. Such phonograms are not evidence for OJ *-aY, etc., because they are interchangeable with MC open syllable phonograms (8.9). (8.9) OJ ma ‘true’

Spellings
EMC *maY > CLMC *m(b)- (cf. SK mang) (NS 96.9.1)
EMC *ma > CLMC *mb- (cf. SK ma) (NS 103.6.4)
EMC *mæ > CLMC *mb- (cf. SK ma) (NS 128.3.1)

I will reconstruct OJ a in both Kojiki and Shoki as a low unrounded vowel *a.

OJ yi OJ yi (‘A-type i’) in Kojiki corresponds to six EMC rhyme categories (Table 8.5). The most common of these categories is *-i, though no single category is predominantly used to write all five yi-syllables ( pyi, byi, myi, kyi, gyi). 203

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Table 8.5 OJ yi in Kojiki poetry OJ \ EMC

*-i

*-iR

*-yi

*-yi(t)

*-yiR

*-yiRy

p b m k g Subtotals Total

0 0 179 0 0 179 497

0 0 0 4 0 4

1 15 0 1 0 17

127 1 0 0 0 128

0 0 1 150 1 152

0 0 0 0 17 17

All cases of *-yit involve the phonogram
, which can be read either with or without a final stop *-t: EMC *pyiq, *pyih, *byi, *byih, *byit. (Note that *-q and *-h are orthographic tone markers and not segments: EMC *pyiq may have been something like *[pyi] with the Rising Tone.) I will treat
as a *-yi final phonogram. A literalist might want to reconstruct five different allophones of OJ yi corresponding to the five different EMC rhyme categories in Table 8.5. OJ pyi, byi, myi, kyi, and gyi would then each have their own allophone of OJ yi. This sounds highly improbable. I will reconstruct OJ yi in Kojiki as a high front vowel *i for the following reasons: (1) OSV [ii] and [iR] correspond to EMC *-i, -iR, and *-yi. (8.10) Sg EMC
‘two’ *ãih
‘pond’ *driR
‘compare’ *pyiq

OSV nhì [ ãii] $ìa [ß iR] ví [vii]

SV nhh [ ãii] $ì [ß ii] tm [tii] < LMC *py-

(2) The evidence for the ‘vowel’ of OJ gyi is puzzling at first glance. The most frequent graph for OJ gyi in the poetry of Kojiki is
EMC *YyiRyh, whose OSV cognate has the final -ê [ee]. (8.11) Sg EMC
‘art, skill’ *YyiRyh

OSV SV nghV [Yee] nghq [Yee]

The vowel of OSV -ê [ee] is lower than i in OSV -i [ii] and -ia [iR], but nevertheless it is non-low and palatal. This graph may have once represented a pre-OJ *Yge which raised to OJ gyi (p. 79). OJ gyi is also spelled once with (8.12) OJ Ph EMC gyi
*gyiR

(32.2.2) 204

THE RECONSTRUCTION OF OLD JAPANESE VOWELS

This graph also represents OJ gyi in the text of Kojiki, where the name of the god Ninigyi has one spelling with
*gyiR and another with
EMC *YyiRyh: (8.13)
 EMC *ãin gyiR

 EMC *ãiRq ãiRq YyiRyh

(KJK Preface) (KJK I: Age of the Gods)

If OJ gyi really had a ‘vowel’ distinct from that of OJ kyi, it would never have been spelled with
EMC *gyiR, the usual phonogram for OJ kyi. I have not been able to find any OSV evidence for EMC *-yiR. (3)
EMC *miq, the main phonogram for OJ myi, appears as a palatal base for the following vietographs which have palatal vowels in two out of three cases: (8.14)
mg ‘mother’

m mía ‘sugar cane’

(but n mN ‘open’)

(4) Jñanagupta transcribed Indic syllables containing palatal vowels (i, c, e) using OJ yi-phonograms. (8.15) OJ pyi byi myi kyi

Ph





EMC *pyiq/h *byi *myiR *gyiR

Ind tr (Jn) pu (sic!) pi, bhc, vi, vc, ve mi, me gi ( fanqie:
 EMC *gtR + *khyih = *gih), khye, gra (sic!)

Pulleyblank (1984: 148) notes that Jñanagupta uses EMC *-i and *-iR phonograms interchangeably for Ind i and c. In (8.15), Ind -i corresponds to both EMC *-yi and *-yiR. Pulleyblank interprets this as evidence for the merger of these two rhyme classes in northern EMC. Southern EMC, the source of CT and OSV, kept these categories distinct: (8.16) EMC CT *-(y)iR -ia [ya], -i *-(y)i -ai [ay], -i

OSV -ia [iR] -i [ii]

Go -i (usual), -e (rare) -i

Judging from Jñanagupta’s transcriptions, the two categories had merged into *-i in the north by the late sixth century. This merger is evident not only in Go-on (8.16) but also in Kojiki. For example, the second syllable of the OJ word kyimyi ‘lord’ can be spelled with phonograms of both the EMC *-iR and *-i rhyme categories: (8.17)
 EMC *gyiR mi > late 6th c. n. EMC *gyi mi (KJK 7.4)
 EMC *gyiR myiR > late 6th c. n. EMC *gyi myi (KJK 65.4) 205

OLD JAPANESE

Table 8.6 OJ yi in Shoki poetry OJ \ EMC

*-i

*-iR

*-yi

*-yiR

*-yiRy

yit

p b m k g Subtotals Total

0 0 9 15 0 24 442

0 0 0 0 3 3

94 10 1 3 0 108

9 5 141 137 1 293

0 0 0 0 13 13

0 0 0 1 0 1

Table 8.7 Common yi-phonograms in Shoki poetry OJ

Ph

EMC

CLMC

Kan

SK

SV

Tib. tr.

Ind. tr. (Am)

pyi








*pyiq *pyih *myih *myiRq *myiR

pi pi mi, moy mi mi mi mi ki ki yey

tm tí mh mW ri [sic] mW di – kì, kz nghq

pi – – mi, me –

*myiR *kyiRq *gyiR *YyiRyh

hi hi bi bi bi bi bi ki ki gei

bt, ’byi – ’bt – –







*p(yiq) *p(yih) *mb(yih) *mb(yiq) *mb(yi) *mb(yiq) *mb(yi) *k(yiq) *k®(yi) *Yg-

’byi, myi – gi, gyi ’ge’t

– ki, kc – –

byi myi kyi gyi

Thus there is no need to reconstruct a vowel other than *-i for OJ yisyllables represented by phonograms of the *-iR rhyme category. The *-iR : *-i distinction was no longer relevant for the late variety of EMC that was the basis of most of the orthography of Kojiki. It is simplest to reconstruct *i as the vowel of all OJ yi-syllables in Kojiki. OJ yi in Shoki corresponds to six EMC rhyme categories (Table 8.6). The two most frequent final categories are *-yiR (66.3 per cent = 293/442) and *-yi (24.4 per cent = 108/442). Since I have already demonstrated that these categories had merged in Jñanagupta’s sixth-century EMC, I can treat them as a single final *-yi (90.7 per cent = 401/442). In Table 8.7, I list the LMC-based SX readings and the transcriptional data for the most common Shoki yi-phonograms. I have provisionally supplied CLMC finals in parentheses whenever possible on the basis of the EMC final mergers discussed above. The above nine phonograms are quite representative, for they account for 81.9 per cent (362/442) of the total. They all represent LMC Grade IV syllables (p. 97). SK generally only allows the palatal vowel i or the palatal glide y after velar initials of Grade IV LMC syllables. Hence the SK readings of Grade IV=
, 206

THE RECONSTRUCTION OF OLD JAPANESE VOWELS


, and
are ki, ki, and yey [yRy]. Cenwun okphyen lists SK moy [m£y] for Grade IV
as a ‘vulgar’ (swok) reading; the proper reading is SK mi. SV generally palatalizes labials of Grade IV LMC syllables. The SV readings of OJ yi phonograms have dental initials derived from earlier labial-yod clusters (5.16, 5.20, 5.22): (8.18) OJ pyi pyi pyi pyi pyi myi myi

Ph








CLMC *p(yiq) *p(yih) *p(yi) *ph(yih) *p®(yi) *mb(yi) *mb(yi)

Earlier *pyii *pyii *pyii *phyii *pyii *myii *myii

SV > > > > > > >

SV tm tí ti thí tì di ri [sic]

[tii] [tii] [tii] [thii] [tii] [zii] [zii]

The phonograms
,
, and
are of low frequency and hence absent from Table 8.7. SV ri [zii] for
is probably an error for di. Although SV does not consistently have dentals corresponding to LMC Grade IV labial initials, we will later see that such dental reflexes are completely absent in the SV readings of Shoki phonograms for OJ piy, biy, and miy (p. 217) and OJ pey, bey, and mey (p. 227). These dental reflexes will be crucial in distinguishing the OJ palatal A-type ‘vowels’ ( yi, ye) from the OJ non-palatal B-type ‘vowels’ (iy, ey). On the basis of the SV evidence, one could reconstruct OJ yi as (a) *yi with a palatal glide *y or (b) an *i preceded by palatalized consonants (e.g. *pyi, *mb yi, etc.). If such features existed, I will consider them to be subphonemic. I will reconstruct OJ A-type yi as a high front unrounded vowel *i for both Kojiki and Shoki.

OJ u OJ u in Kojiki corresponds to four EMC rhyme categories (Table 8.8). These rhyme categories are in near-complementary distribution: 1 2 3 4

EMC EMC EMC EMC

*-o: *-Rw: *-uw: *-uR:

OJ OJ OJ OJ

pu, tu, nu du mu, ru, zu, yu, ku bu, su, gu, u

The distribution of OJ initial classes among these EMC rhyme categories appears to be random and is not strong evidence for four different allophones of OJ u. The evidence below points to a labial pronunciation of OJ u. (1) Words in all four EMC rhyme categories appear in OSV with labial vowels and/or labial glides. 207

OLD JAPANESE

Table 8.8 OJ u in Kojiki poetry OJ \ EMC

*-o

*-Rw

*-uw

*-uR

p b m t d n r s z y k g $ Subtotals Total

54 0 0 135 0 18 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 207 797

0 0 0 1 46 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 47

0 0 72 0 0 0 87 0 28 52 133 0 0 372

0 19 0 0 0 0 0 80 0 0 0 16 56 171

(8.19) Sg EMC OSV OJ cf. Ph EMC OJ


*noq nn [nQQ] –
*no nu



*dRwh *guwq $5 [ßoo] cpu [kRw] du –
*kuwq ku


*buR bùa [(uR] –
*puR, *buR bu

(2) The CT reflexes of all four EMC rhyme categories contain labial vowels and/or labial glides. (8.20) Sg EMC CT OJ


*no lo2 nu


*dRwh tau6 du


*kuwq ku 3 ku


*puR, *buR po1 bu

(3) Jñanagupta used phonograms for OJ u-syllables to transcribe Indic syllables containing u or e: (8.21) OJ Ph tu
nu
mu
yu
ru
(with the

EMC *to *no *muw *yuw *luw radical

Ind tr. (Jn) tu nu mu yu re
‘mouth’ added to indicate r-) 208

THE RECONSTRUCTION OF OLD JAPANESE VOWELS

Clearly, OJ u was not an unrounded vowel like MSJ u [T]. There are only a few obstacles left before I can confidently reconstruct OJ u as a rounded *u. First, why did OJ scribes write OJ pu, tu, nu with EMC *-o phonograms (cf. the OSV and CT evidence)? EMC had no *tuw or *nuw, so *to and *no were the best possible matches for OJ tu and nu. However, this does not explain the choice of
EMC *poh (cf. CT po5) for OJ pu, since EMC did have a pu. The answer may lie in pre-OJ vowel raising (4.14). If
EMC *poh were borrowed into Japanese before vowel raising as *po, it would become *pu after raising and be a suitable graph for OJ pu. Even if vowel raising were not relevant, semantics and frequency may have prevented scribes from using EMC *puw graphs: (8.22)
EMC *puw
EMC *puw
EMC *puwq
EMC *puwq
EMC *puwq
EMC *puwh

‘not’ ‘bright (clothing)’ ‘not’ ‘kind of plant’ ‘earthenware vessel’ ‘wealthy’


‘not’ and
‘not’ could be mistaken for Classical Chinese function words.
‘bright (clothing)’ and
‘earthenware vessel’ were relatively obscure characters. I have not listed other even more obscure *puw characters. Unlike Shoki orthography, Kojiki orthography mostly uses easily readable high-frequency characters as phonograms. We will see on p. 253 that
‘wealthy’ is the most common Kojiki phonogram for OJ po owing to its LOC reading *pRòhB. To use
‘wealthy’ for OJ pu as well as OJ po would have been confusing. Second, why did OJ scribes write OJ du with
EMC *dRwh? EMC had no *du, so this was the best possible match for OJ du. Third, why did OJ scribes write OJ bu, su, gu, u with EMC *-uR rhyme words? EMC *-uR originated from LOC *-wo. Perhaps the LOC readings of these phonograms were borrowed with pre-OJ *-o which then raised to OJ u (cf. 4.14). Alternately, scribes simply ignored the final EMC *R (still preserved in OSV) and used these graphs as if they simply ended in *-u. I will reconstruct OJ u in Kojiki as a high back rounded vowel *u. OJ u in Shoki corresponds to eight EMC rhyme categories (Table 8.9). All of the high-frequency rhyme categories contained labial vowels or labial glides, judging from their SK and SV reflexes (Table 8.10). The most frequent category is *-uR. Most of the phonograms for all OJ u-syllables except tu, du, and nu belong to this category. As in Kojiki, OJ tu, du, and nu are generally written with phonograms of the *-o and *-Rw rhyme categories. Like EMC, LMC probably did not have any syllables such as *tu, *du, and *nu. Kan-on has no tu, du, or nu. SV does not have 209

OLD JAPANESE

Table 8.9 OJ u in Shoki poetry OJ \ LMC

*-awY

*-o

*-Rw

*-uR

*-uR/*-Rw

*-uw

Other

p b m t d n r s z y k g $ Subtotals Total

0 0 0 0 0 10 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 10 740

6 2 0 101 3 14 9 4 0 0 0 0 0 139

0 0 10 3 35 0 6 0 0 0 7 0 0 61

51 4 56 0 0 0 38 65 28 27 124 9 65 467

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 9 0 0 9

0 0 0 0 0 0 21 4 2 13 8 0 0 48

0 0 3 (*-uwY) 0 0 2 (*-uRwY) 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 (*-o/*-wæ) 6

Note ‘Other’ includes all categories that appear three times or fewer: *-o/-wæ (once), *-uRwY (twice), *-uY (thrice).

Table 8.10 SX equivalents of major rhyme categories of Shoki u-phonograms EMC Kan SK SV

*-awY -ou -wong [oY] -ông [Rw§]

*-o -o -wo [o] -ô [o]

*-Rw -ou -wu [u] -âu [Rw]

*-uR -u -wu [u] -u [u]

*-uw -iu -(y)wu [(y)u] -u, -eu [u], [tw]

any syllables such as *$u [ßuu]. SV nu [nuu] for
‘wife and children’ is irregular. Its SK reading nwo [no] has the expected mid vowel. SK does have the syllables twu and nwu (
SK twu ‘bean,’
SK nwu ‘mongrel’) but this -wu corresponds to SV -âu [Rw] (cf.
SV $pu ‘bean,’
SV npu ‘mongrel’). Since Korean did not permit the finals -ew [Rw] and -ow [£w], -wu [u] would be the closest possible approximation of an LMC final such as *-Rw. Phonograms such as
EMC *to ‘capital’ (SK two, SV $ô),
EMC *dRwh ‘bean’ (SK twu, SV $pu), and
EMC *nawY ‘agriculture’ (SK nwong, SV nông) were the closest possible approximations of OJ tu, du, nu known to Shoki scribes. Such phonograms are not evidence for the reconstruction of allophones of OJ u after dental initials.

210

THE RECONSTRUCTION OF OLD JAPANESE VOWELS

Table 8.11 Common u-phonograms in Shoki poetry OJ

Ph

EMC

CLMC

Kan

SK

SV

Tib. tr.

Ind. tr. (Am)

pu






*phuRh *puRh *buR

*fh*f*f®-

hu hu hu

pwu pwu pwu

phó, thú phú phù

– – –


























*boh *muR *muRh *to *thoh *dRwh *dRwh *nawY *no *luRh *luw *suR *\uRq/h *ãuR *ãuRh *yuRh *yuw *kuR *khuR *YuR *YuR *wuR *wuRq

*p®*mbv*mbv*t*th*t®*t®*n(d)*nd*l*l*s*\*ã9*ã9*y*y*k*kh*Yg*Yg*w*w-

ho bu bu to to tou tou nou no ru riu su syu ju ju yu iu ku ku gu gu u u

pwo mwu mwu two two, thwo twu twu nwong nwo lwu lywu sywu sywu ywu ywu ywu ywu kwu kwu wu wu wu wu

bò, bs vZ vj $ô th3 $fu $fu nông nô lZ leu tu du, thâu, thú nho, nhu nhj dj, dZ do, du cu, câu khu ngu ngu vu vZ

– – pu, pu’, phu, phu’, ’bu bu bu, b’u [sic] ’bu – – – – ’dong, ’nong – – li’u su – zhu – yu yi’u ku, khu – – ’gu yu –

bu mu tu du nu ru su zu yu ku gu u

bhu, bhe vo vu tu – – – – nu – – – 5u, 5o – ju, jyo yo, yoh· – ku – – – – –

In Table 8.11, I list the LMC-based SX readings and the transcriptional data for the most common Shoki u-phonograms which comprise 77.0 per cent (569/739) of the total. Amoghavajra’s Indic transcriptions and the Tibetan transcriptions confirm that the phonograms for OJ u represented a non-low back rounded vowel (*u or *o). Most of the data point toward a high vowel (*u) rather than a mid vowel (*o). I will reconstruct OJ u as a high back rounded vowel *u. This vowel and the two previous vowels (*a and *i) all remained intact in LMJ ( [a i u] ). MSJ a and i are still [a] and [i], but MSJ u [T] has lost its rounding.

OJ o OJ o (‘B-type o’) corresponds to a mid back rounded vowel [o] in LMJ and MSJ. It corresponds to five EMC rhyme categories with central unrounded vowels (Table 8.12). All of these rhyme categories derived from LOC rhyme categories with central unrounded vowels (*R, *a):

211

OLD JAPANESE

Table 8.12 OJ o in Kojiki poetry OJ \ EMC

*-t

*-tR

*-RY

*-RY/*-Ry

*-Rw

*-Ry

m t d n r s z y k g Subtotals Total

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 11 11 853

0 1 15 0 28 0 2 29 116 0 191

0 191 1 270 0 48 0 0 0 0 510

0 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4

135 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 135

0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 2

(8.23) LOC *-RòB *-aòB *-RYA *-Rò A *-Rò A

> > > > >

EMC *-t *-tR *-RY *-Rw (irreg.) *-Ry (reg.)

Ph w





LOC *gRòB *haòqB *nRY A *mRò A *nRò A

EMC *gt *htRq *nRY *mRwq *nRyq

OJ go ko no mo no

The o-phonograms
‘mother’ and
‘then’ were probably selected for their LOC readings *mRòqA and *nRòqA rather than for their EMC readings with inappropriate final glides (*w and *y). Therefore
‘mother’ and
‘then’ are not evidence for *Rw and *Ry allophones of OJ o. The OSV and nôm evidence confirms the absence of rounding in the EMC rhyme categories of OJ o-phonograms (and in OJ o itself ). (1) The EMC rhymes of Kojiki o-phonograms correspond to OSV unrounded central vowels:

‘game of go’ ‘allow’ LOC *gRòB *haòqB EMC *gt *htRq OSV cI hEa [kRR] [htR] OJ – ko Ph w
‘game of go’ ‘I’ LOC *gRòB *yaòB EMC *gt *ytR

(8.24) Sg

cf.

OJ

go

yo


‘donkey’ *laòB *ltR lJa [ltR] –
‘backbone’ *laòqB *ltRq ro

212


‘plum’ *mRò A *mRy md [mRR] (NS: mey)
‘mother’ *mRòqA *mRwq (irreg.) mo


‘generation’ *dRòh A *dRyh $Ii [ßRRy] (MYS: de)
‘then’ *nRòqA *nRyq no

THE RECONSTRUCTION OF OLD JAPANESE VOWELS

(2) Kojiki o-phonograms serve as phonograms for Vietnamese words with unrounded central vowels and generally serve as neutral vowel bases for vietographs: (8.25) OJ so to ro

Ph




EMC *tsRY ‘then’ *tRY ‘climb’ *ltR ‘backbone’

Viet ph reading tJng ‘experience’ – –

Derived vietograph – o dâng ‘offer’ p lOa ‘fire,’ rv ‘radiant’

(3) Taiwanese is not very helpful because it lacks an t. The R of its literary and colloquial layers (LT and CT) corresponds to finals with labial vowels and/or glides in other Chinese languages and SX: (8.26)
‘wormwood’

EMC LT CT *haw hR1 R1

Cnt Md hòu hao

SV hao

SK hwo

Taiwanese R probably originated from an earlier *-Q: Amoy, the closest mainland relative of Taiwanese, has an -o corresponding to LT R. The CT reflexes of the EMC rhyme categories of Kojiki o-phonograms are: (8.27) EMC CT

*-t -ai

*-tR -i, -u (usual); -o (rare)

*-RY *-Rw -in -au

*-Ry -e (usual)

Presumably CT -i, -u, -e, -o originated from finals containing earlier nonpalatal, non-labial vowels such as *t or *R. The CT -u and -o reflexes of the EMC *-tR rhyme correspond to an unrounded high back -T zin Chaozhou (Cz) Min (cf. OSV -ea [tR] ). Chaozhou seems to preserve the earlier vocalism better than CT in this instance (Pulleyblank 1984: 216). I have found CT and Chaozhou readings for five Kojiki o-phonograms (8.28). Notice that the Cz readings of four of the phonograms have the final -T: (8.28) Ph EMC CT Cz OSV OJ


‘allow’ *htRq kho3 hT 3 hEa ko


‘I’ *ytR – T2 – yo


‘give’ *ytRq tho6 T3 – yo


‘backbone’ *ltRq lu6 lT 4 lã < OC *rhaqB? ro


‘mother’ *mRwq bu 3 bo3 – mo

I will consider this Chaozhou -T to be weak evidence for an unrounded reconstruction of OJ o. Unlike Pulleyblank (1984: 216), I am uncertain whether this -T is a true retention from EMC, since it looks more like LMC-based SV -e [tt] than EMC-based OSV -ea [tR]. 213

OLD JAPANESE

(4) Jñanagupta almost never used OJ o-phonograms or their nearhomophones in his transcriptions. This tells us that their EMC rhymes (and by extension, OJ o) must not have been very much like anything in Indic languages. The only Kojiki o-phonogram that appears in Jñanagupta’s Indic transcriptions is
EMC *tRY ‘climb’ for Indic ta@g [t£Yg]. This may imply that the OJ to represented by
EMC *tRY ‘climb’ was something like Indic ta [t£]. Jñanagupta also used
EMC *sRY ‘monk’ (borrowed from Sanskrit saúgha [s£Yg®£] ‘monastic order’), to transcribe Indic saú(gh) [s£Y(g®) ] and saúk [s£Yk]. Since
EMC *sRY ‘monk’ appears as a phonogram for OJ so in Man’yôshû (817.2.5) and is a near-homophone of the sole Kojiki phonogram for OJ so,
EMC *tsRY ‘then,’ OJ so may have been similar to Indic sa [s£]. This limited evidence indicates that OJ o was not a rounded vowel like LMJ or MSJ [o]. On the basis of the general absence of rounded vowels in the OSV, nôm, Chaozhou, and Indic transcriptional data, I will reconstruct OJ o in Kojiki as a mid central unrounded vowel *R. Although I could reconstruct OJ o as a high central *t or a high back *T on the basis of the high vowels in OSV, nôm, and Chaozhou, I prefer a mid central *R because (1) it differs only in frontness and rounding from the mid back [o] of LMJ and MSJ and (2) it is closer to Indic a [£]. In Shoki, OJ o corresponds to four EMC rhyme categories which all contain *R (Table 8.13). SK and SV have unrounded vowels in their equivalents of three of the four EMC rhyme categories of Shoki o-phonograms (Table 8.14). The SK and SV vowels ( [t R £ a] ) generally suggest that OJ o was an central or back unrounded vowel. Obviously, OJ o cannot be *a because I have already reconstructed OJ a as *a. OJ o also could not be *ay because the majority of o-phonograms do not have SK or SV readings ending in [y].

Table 8.13 OJ o in Shoki poetry OJ \ EMC

*-tR

*-Rng

*-Rng/*-Ry

*-Ry

*-wRn

t d n r s z y k g Subtotals Total

0 0 0 30 3 5 49 88 7 182 623 (+30)

46 4 252 1 35 1 0 0 0 339

71 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 72

5 (+30) 13 11 0 0 0 0 0 0 29 (+30)

0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1

214

THE RECONSTRUCTION OF OLD JAPANESE VOWELS

Table 8.14 SX equivalents of rhyme categories for Shoki o-phonograms EMC Kan SK SV

*-tR -yo -(y)e [(y)R] -u’ [tt]

*-Rng -ou -ung [tY] -#ng [aY], -u’ng [tY]

*-Ry -ai -oy [£y], -ay [ay] -ai [aay]

*-wRn -on -won [on] -ôn [on]

But why was OJ o written with EMC *-Ry > CLMC *(-ay) in Shoki? All three EMC *-Ry > CLMC *(-ay) phonograms for Shoki o-syllables are confined to the beta section: (8.29) OJ to, do do do, no

Ph
‘moss’
‘bear’
‘then’

LOC *dRòA *nRòhA *nRòqA

EMC *dRy *dRy *dRy

Go dai dai dai

CLMC *t®(ay) *nd(ay) *nd(ay)

SK thoy nay nay

SV $ài nfi nãi

Some texts have 30 instances of
‘thatch’ in place of the phonogram
‘moss’ for OJ to. In Table 8.13 I have optionally added all thirty instances of
‘thatch’ to the figures for
‘moss.’ Although I do not completely accept Mori’s hypothesis of a dichotomy between a ‘Chinese’ alpha section and a ‘native’ beta section, I do believe that the beta section has more archaic usages than the alpha section. Beta section scribes may have chosen the phonograms in (8.29) for their LOC readings ending in *-Rò A. Even if they were unaware of those LOC readings, scribes may have chosen CLMC *(-ay) phonograms because CLMC apparently had no syllables such as *tR or *ndR. SK has no te, the, ne [tR thR nR] and SV has no $d, thd, nd [ßRR thRR nRR] corresponding to the theoretical LMC syllables *tR, *thR, *nR. Closed syllable phonograms are orthographic compromises rather than evidence for lost final consonants. I will reconstruct OJ to, do, no as *tR, *ndR, *nR. In Table 8.15, I list the LMC-based SX readings and the transcriptional data for the most common Shoki o-phonograms which comprise 89.1 per cent (555/623) of the total. Only one SK reading (cwo for
EMC *jrtR > LMC *c®r- ‘hoe’) in Table 8.15 has a rounded vowel. All other SX readings, including the ‘vulgar’ reading of
‘hoe,’ SK se [sR], have unrounded vowels: SK u, e, o, a [t R £ a] and SV e, ea, #, a [t tR a aa]. The Tibetan transcriptions have a wide range of non-low vowels: i, e, t, u. The variation in transcriptions probably reflect not only northwestern LMC dialect variation but also the lack of exact Tibetan equivalents for the LMC vowels of Shoki o-phonograms. LMC and OJ may have had an *R, but Tibetan did not.

215

OLD JAPANESE

Table 8.15 Common o-phonograms in Shoki poetry OJ

Ph

EMC

CLMC

Kan SK

to to, do





*tRY *tRYq

*t*t-

tou tou




do do, no
no


*dRy *dRY *nRyh *nRyq *nRY

*t®(ay) *t®*nd(ayh) *nd(ayq) *nd-

tai tou dai dai dou












*ltRq *ltRh *tsRY *dzRYh *ãtRh *jrtR *ytRh *ytR *htR

*l*l*ts*ts®*ã9*c®r*y*y*h-

ryo ryo sou sou jo syo yo yo kyo







*htRq *ktRq *YtRq *YtRh

*h*k*Y*Y-

kyo kyo go go

ro so zo yo k

g

SV

Tib. tr.

tung tung

$#ng $=ng ting, teng, ding, ’ding thoy $ài – tung $9ng – nay nfi – nay nãi – nung n#ng ’ding, ’dtng, ning, ’ning, ’neng lye lw – lye l@ lu cung t#ng tsing, tshing cung t'ng – ye nh@ – cwo, se sJ – ye d@ yu ye de – he he hi, hyi, he’i, hye, hu, ’hyu he hEa he ke cO ku’u, gu e ngw ’gi, ’gt, ’ge e ng@ ’gu

Ind. tr. (Am) – – – – – – ù, ê – – – – – – – – – – – –

Amoghavajra almost never used OJ o-phonograms or their nearhomophones in his Indic transcriptions. Such characters probably had CLMC vowels absent in Indic (i.e., *t or *R). The evidence from both the pre-LMC and LMC periods supports my reconstruction of OJ o as a mid central unrounded vowel *R. This vowel later backed and rounded to become the [o] found in LMJ and MSJ. If one diagrams the four primary ‘vowels’ of OJ, *a, *i, and *u form the corners of a triangle and *R is at the center (Table 8.16). Table 8.16 is practically identical to Whitman’s (1985) scheme of ProtoJapanese vowels in Table 4.8. These four vowels supposedly combined to form the four secondary ‘vowels’ of OJ (iy, ye, ey, wo; p. 80). I will test this monophthongization hypothesis in the next four sections (pp. 217–38). Table 8.16 The ‘primary’ vowels of OJ Front High Mid Low

Central

*i

Back *u

*R *a

216

THE RECONSTRUCTION OF OLD JAPANESE VOWELS

Table 8.17 OJ iy in Kojiki poetry OJ \ EMC

*-i

*-t

*-uy

p b m k g Subtotals Total

0 4 0 0 0 4 61

0 0 0 24 4 28

13 0 15 1 0 29

OJ iy OJ iy (‘B-type i’) is the least frequent ‘vowel’ in Kojiki. It corresponds to three EMC rhyme categories (Table 8.17). The only Kojiki iy-phonogram of the *-i rhyme category is
EMC *bih ‘prepare’ for OJ biy. The vast majority of iy-phonograms are evenly split between the *-t and *-uy rhyme categories. The OSV and nôm evidence indicates that B-type iy was less palatal than A-type yi, as follows. (1) The OSV equivalents of the EMC rhyme categories corresponding to OJ iy (*-i, *-t, *-uy) generally lack palatal vowels: (8.30) Sg

cf.

LOC EMC OSV OJ Ph LOC EMC OJ


‘hunger’ *kiB *ki cd [kRR] –
‘prepare’ *bihB *bih biy




‘rise’ ‘suspect’ ‘taste’ *khRòB *YRòB *mwtyhB *khtq *Yt *muyh khNi [xRRy] ngI [YRR] mùi [muy] – giy miy



‘age’ ‘valuable’ ‘ornate’ ‘fat’ *kRòqB *kwtyhB *phwtqB *bwtyB *ktq *kuyh *phuyq *buy kiy kiy piy piy


‘small’ *mwtyB *muy miy

(2) OJ iy-phonograms serve as phonograms for Vietnamese words with non-palatal vowels (d [RR], u [u] ) and as neutral vowel bases for vietographs: (8.31) OJ giy

Ph LOC
*YRò B ‘suspect’

(MYS: miy)
Cf. miy


Viet ph reading ngI ‘suspect’ (OSV) *mwtyqB ‘tail’ – *mwtyhB ‘taste’ mùi ‘taste’ (OSV) 217

Derived vietograph q ngI ‘suspect’ (OSV) r vv ‘break’ –

OLD JAPANESE

Since I have already reconstructed OJ o as *R, I cannot reconstruct OJ iy as *R on the basis of OSV d [RR]. Neither can I reconstruct OJ iy as *uy (cf. Whitman 1985) or *wi (cf. Unger 1993) on the basis of OSV ui [uy]. I will not reconstruct OJ iy with labial elements such as *u or *w for the following reasons. (a) 92 per cent (23/25) of OJ kiy in Kojiki are written with
EMC *ktq ‘age.’ OJ kiy is written only once with
EMC *kuyh ‘valuable.’ If OJ kiy were *kuy or *kwi, we would expect
EMC *kuyh ‘valuable’ to be the most frequent phonogram for OJ kiy, since
EMC *ktq ‘age’ (cf.
EMC *khtq, OSV khNi [xRRy] ‘rise’) would be a very poor choice for an OJ *kuy or *kwi. (b) We would also expect the Go-on reading of
EMC *kuyh ‘valuable’ to be ki without a -w- since OJ kiy (*kuy / *kwi) became post-OJ ki. But EMC *-uy regularly corresponds to Go-on -wi after velars. The actual Go-on reading of
EMC *kuyh ‘valuable’ is kwi, not ki. EMC *kuy was probably closer to OJ kwi than to OJ kiy. (c) OJ biy and giy are never written with EMC *-uy phonograms, whereas OJ piy and miy are always written with such phonograms (
EMC *phuyq ‘ornate,’
EMC *buy ‘fat,’
EMC *muy ‘small,’
EMC *muyh ‘taste’). It would be strange to posit an *-uy or *-wi allophone of OJ iy only before *p and *m but not before their fellow labial *b. Unlike LOC, EMC did not permit the final *-ty after labials. Neither LOC nor EMC permitted the final *-t after labials. Scribes had to use EMC *-i and EMC *-uy phonograms for OJ piy, biy, miy (*pt, *mbt, *mt?) because LOC and EMC had no syllables such as *pt, *bt, or *mt. There are no OSV forms such as be [ptt], phe [ftt], or me [mtt]. Starostin reconstructs the LOC source of EMC *-uy as *-wty. Since Vietnamese phonotactics forbid finals combining [w] with [t] such as *-uu’i [wty], I cannot test Starostin’s reconstruction using OSV evidence. If his reconstruction is correct, then perhaps phonograms which end in *-uy in EMC (e.g.,
EMC *kuyh ‘valuable’) were chosen to write OJ iy-syllables on the basis of their earlier LOC *-wty readings. I also cannot use CT to test Starostin’s reconstruction of LOC *-wty. As I have already mentioned, CT lacks a t and its R is probably from an earlier *-Q. The only Kojiki iy-phonogram with a CT reading is: (8.32)

EMC CT Go
‘fat’ *buy pui 2 bi

OJ piy

Compare
CT pui 2 [pwi] ‘fat’ for OJ piy in (8.32) to
OSV mùi ‘taste’ for OJ miy in (8.30) and (8.31). OJ piy (*pt) and miy (*mt) were definitely not simply *pi and *mi (cf. Lange 1973), though I doubt that they were *puy and *muy or *pwi and *mwi. Jñanagupta did not use the Kojiki iy-phonograms or their nearhomophones in his Indic transcriptions. There was no need to use characters 218

THE RECONSTRUCTION OF OLD JAPANESE VOWELS

of the EMC *-t and *-uy rhymes, since Indic languages lacked the vowel t and diphthongs such as ui. This negative evidence underscores the relatively non-palatal nature of OJ iy. If OJ iy were a palatal vowel like *i, Jñanagupta would have used the phonograms for OJ iy-syllables or their near-homophones to transcribe Indic palatal vowels such as i and c. I will reconstruct OJ iy in Kojiki as a non-palatal high central vowel *t. In Shoki, OJ iy corresponds to five EMC rhyme categories (Table 8.18). All of the Shoki iy-phonograms belong to Grade III, whereas the majority of Shoki yi-phonograms belong to Grade IV. (The same is true of the Kojiki iy- and yi-phonograms, though it may be anachronistic to apply the Grades to EMC instead of LMC.) By comparing the SK and SV readings of all of the Shoki iy-phonograms in Table 8.19 with the SK and SV (sans tones) readings of the most common Shoki yi-phonograms in Table 8.7, one can see in (8.33) that Grade III (correlated with OJ iy) is less palatal than Grade IV (correlated with OJ yi). Table 8.18 OJ iy in Shoki poetry OJ \ EMC

*-i

*-iR

*-t

*-ty

*-uy

p b m k g Subtotals Total

0 3 0 0 0 3 51

4 0 0 0 0 4

0 0 0 19 13 32

0 0 0 4 0 4

0 0 8 0 0 8

Table 8.19 Iy-phonograms in Shoki poetry OJ

Ph

EMC

CLMC

Kan

SK

SV

Tib. tr.

Ind. tr. (Am)

piy














*piRq *biRh *bih *mih *muyh *muy *ktq *kt *khtyh *ktq *kty(q)

*p(iq) *p®(ih) *p®(ih) *mb(ih) *mbv*mbv*k*k*kh*k*k-

hi hi hi bi bi bi ki ki ki ki ki

phi phi pi mi mi mi kuy kuy kuy kuy kuy

be byi – – – ’byi – – ki, khe – ki, gi

– – – – – vi, ve – – – – –





*kty *Yt

*k*Yg-

ki gi

kuy uy

bm bh bh mh vh vi km, k] cd, ki khí km, k] cd, ki, km, k] cd nghi

kt ’gi’, ’gu

– -g- [sic]

biy miy kiy

giy

219

OLD JAPANESE

(8.33) OJ OJ Type pyi, byi, myi A piy, biy, miy B kyi, gyi A kiy, giy B

LMC Grade IV III IV III

SK pi, mi, moy [pi mi m£y] pi, phi, mi ki, yey kuy, uy [kty ty]

SV ti, mi, mê, di, ri [sic] bi, mi, vi ki, ky, nghê cd, ki, ky, khi, nghi

Clearly, OJ iy was less palatal than OJ yi (*i). Amoghavajra’s transcriptions also confirm this. In Table 8.19, we can see that he almost never used any OJ iy-phonograms to transcribe Indic sounds. He had little reason to do so, since Indic languages lacked the non-palatal vowel *t. Thus OJ iy was unlike anything in Indic. The ninth- and tenth-century Tibetan transcriptions of northwestern LMC do not consistently distinguish Grades III and IV. Perhaps those two Grades had merged or were in the process of merger in late northwestern LMC. In any case, the Tibetan evidence cannot help us to determine the phonetic value of OJ iy. On the basis of the evidence above, I will reconstruct OJ B-type iy as a high central unrounded vowel *t for both Kojiki and Shoki. It is also possible that OJ iy was something like SK uy [ty]. If OJ iy did originate from pre-OJ *ui and *Ri (p. 80), *u and *R would have assimilated to the following *i, which may have become a glide *y: (8.34) *u *R

> >

*t *t

/ /

_i (y) _i (y)

(centralization, loss of rounding) (raising)

*ui and *Ri would then merge into *ty. In the OJ period, this *ty may have been reduced to *t. After the OJ period, A-type yi (*i) and B-type iy (*t or *ty) merged into [i]: (8.35) Pre-OJ *ui > *uy > iy = *ty *Ri > *Ry > iy = *ty *i > *i > yi = *i

OJ Post-OJ > *t > [i] > *t > [i] > *i > [i]

Perhaps an OJ *ty became post-OJ [i] without any intermediate *t stage: (8.36) *ty

> *iy

> [i]

Although I favor *ty over *t, I will write my reconstruction of OJ iy as *t for simplicity.

220

THE RECONSTRUCTION OF OLD JAPANESE VOWELS

Table 8.20 OJ ye in Kojiki poetry OJ \ EMC

*-æ

*-æy

*-iRn

*-yi

*-yiRy

p b m k g Subtotals Total

0 0 0 0 1 1 65 (+29)

0 0 24 0 0 24

0 1 (+1) 0 0 0 1 (+1)

0 0 0 36 0 36

3 (+28) 0 0 0 0 3 (+28)

OJ ye OJ ye (‘A-type ye’) is the third least frequent ‘vowel’ in Kojiki. It corresponds to five different EMC rhyme categories (Table 8.20). Each of these categories is associated with one and only one OJ syllable. This might imply five different allophones, but I would like to reconstruct as few allophones as possible. The most frequent category is *-yi, which was associated with OJ yi (p. 204). Having already reconstructed OJ yi as *i, I obviously cannot reconstruct OJ ye as *i. Nevertheless the fact that
EMC *gyi ‘grand’ was chosen to be the sole phonogram for OJ kye in Kojiki tells us that the pronunciation of OJ kye must have resembled the pronunciation of OJ kyi (*ki). Since OJ ye corresponds to [e] in LMJ, I will tentatively hypothesize that OJ ye was an upper mid front unrounded vowel like *e. The use of EMC *-yiRy characters as phonograms for OJ pye supports this hypothesis. OJ pye is written three times in all Kojiki texts with the phonogram
EMC *byiRyh ‘money’ (4.19.1, 22.7.2, 52.5.3). It is written twenty-eight times with
EMC *byiRyh ‘money’ in some texts and as
EMC *byiRyh ‘ruin’ in others. Owing to the homophony and graphic similarity of these two characters, it is difficult to determine which characters were original and which characters were scribal errors. Nevertheless, it is certain that all of these instances of OJ pye were being spelled with characters pronounced as *byiRyh in EMC. If I add the twenty-eight ambiguous instances of
/
EMC *byiRyh ‘money’ / ‘ruin’ to the three definite instances of
EMC *byiRyh ‘money’ for OJ pye, *-yiRy is the second most common EMC rhyme category after *-yi among the ye-phonograms of Kojiki. The Kojiki and Shoki phonogram for OJ gyi,
EMC *YyiRy ‘art,’ belongs to this category. The OSV word corresponding to
EMC *YyiRy ‘art’ is nghV [Yee] ‘craft’ with an upper mid front unrounded vowel ê [ee] not unlike the *e that I hypothesized for OJ ye. The OSV ‘readings’ for
EMC *byiRyh ‘money’ and
EMC *byiRyh ‘ruin’ have not survived, but they probably would have ended in -ê [ee] like
OSV nghV ‘craft.’ The ‘vowels’ of OJ gyi (*Ygi) and OJ pye (*pe?) must have been close enough to justify using phonograms of the same EMC rhyme category for both syllables. 221

OLD JAPANESE

The third most frequent rhyme category is represented by the sole phonogram for OJ mye in Kojiki,
EMC *mæyh ‘sell.’ Ôno Tôru (1962: 186) considers
to be the most commonly used phonogram for OJ mye in the Suiko and Nara Periods. The OSV and CT evidence for the EMC *-æy rhyme category after labials points toward an *-e-like pronunciation: (8.37) Sg LOC EMC CT OSV OJ


‘picture’ *wier hA *®wæyh oe6, ui 6 vv [vεε] –


‘sell’ *mier hA *mæyh b(o)e6 – mye


EMC *mæyh ‘sell’ is not a nôm phonogram or a vietograph base, but its phonetic element
EMC *mæyq ‘buy’ is a phonogram for Viet mDi ‘new.’
EMC *mæyq ‘buy’ is also a neutral vowel base: (8.38) s mái [maay] ‘roof ’

t, u máy [may] ‘machine’

This usage is not necessarily evidence for the pre-LMC pronunciation of
EMC *mæyq ‘buy’ or its near-homophone
EMC *mæyh ‘sell.’
EMC *mæyq ‘buy’ may have been chosen as a phonogram for Viet mDi ‘new’ and as a neutral vowel base because of its LMC-based SV reading mãi [maay] (cf. Kan-on bai and SK may). Jñanagupta did not use
EMC *mæyh ‘sell’ or any of its nearhomophones as phonograms for Indic syllables. He transcribed Indic mi and me with
EMC *myiR ‘increasingly’ (a phonogram for OJ myi; see 8.19), not
EMC *mæyh ‘sell.’ Apparently Indic -i and -e [ee] were not much like EMC *-æy. Sanskrit has no vowel such as [æ]. The above data show that
EMC *mæyh ‘sell’ may not have been an ideal phonogram for OJ mye (*me?). OSV -e [εε] is lower than the *e that I had originally hypothesized for OJ ye. CT (o)e looks like a relatively good match for my *e, but this (o)e may be the product of post-EMC sound changes. Nevertheless, I would rather not reconstruct a unique *æ or *ε allophone of OJ ye before OJ m. I will tenatively reconstruct OJ mye as *me. The phonograms for OJ bye and gye are extremely rare in Kojiki but do offer some support for the reconstruction of OJ ye as *e.
EMC *biRnh ‘divide’ for OJ bye (KJK 33.2.4, 91.1.4a), belongs to the *-iRn rhyme category which corresponds to OSV -iên [iRn] (cf. OSV liVn ‘connect’ <
EMC *liRn ‘id.’) and to CT -iN [u ] (cf.
EMC *piRnh / CT piN 5 ‘change’). These OSV and CT finals do not match my reconstruction of a mid front vowel *e for OJ ye, but they do contain a high front vowel [i]. 222

THE RECONSTRUCTION OF OLD JAPANESE VOWELS


EMC *Yæ ‘tusk, ivory’ for OJ gye (KJK 21.5.6) belongs to the *-æ rhyme category which corresponds to OSV -e [εε] and CT -e (cf. OSV hè and CT he6 ‘summer’ <
EMC *®æq ‘id.’). The CT reading of
EMC *Yæ ‘tusk, ivory’ is ge2, which closely matches my reconstruction of OJ gye as *Yge. I will reconstruct OJ ye in Kojiki as a mid front unrounded vowel *e. I will not specify its precise height since it is written with phonograms whose EMC rhyme categories correspond to high, upper mid, and lower mid OSV vowels (i [ii], -iê- [iR], ê [ee], e [εε] ). Perhaps OJ ye had a wide range of allophonic variation. OJ ye in Shoki corresponds to seven EMC rhyme categories (Table 8.21). All but two of these categories (*-æ and *-æy) correspond to SK and SV rhymes containing [i], [e], or [yR] (Table 8.22). *-ey is the most frequent category for all four ye-syllables in Shoki. The EMC *-ey rhyme category would seem to be the most obvious choice for the transcription of OJ ye, which I have just reconstructed as *e. In fact, Jñanagupta used EMC *-ey phonograms to transcribe many Indic syllables ending in -e (Pulleyblank 1984: 198), confirming that the *-ey rhyme category Table 8.21 OJ ye in Shoki poetry OJ \ EMC

*-æ

*-æy

*-ey a

*-yi

*-yiR

*-yiRn

*-yiRyb

p b m k Subtotals Total

3 0 0 1 4 62 (+23)

0 0 3 0 3

15 2 10 12 (+13) 39 (+13)

0 0 0 2 2

4 0 2 0 6

0 0 3 0 3

5 (+10) 0 0 0 5 (+10)

Notes a The most frequent phonogram for OJ kye in Shoki appears as
EMC *key / CLMC *k- ‘chicken’ in some texts and as y EMC *key / CLMC *k- ‘chicken’ in others. These characters are simply graphic variants. I have optionally added all thirteen cases of variation between the two characters to my figures for EMC *-ey. b The second most frequent phonogram for OJ pye in Shoki appears in some texts as
EMC *byiRyh / CLMC *p®- ‘money’ and in others as
EMC *byiRyh / CLMC *p®- ‘ruin.’ I have optionally added all ten cases of variation between the two characters to my figures for EMC *-yiRy.

Table 8.22 SX equivalents of rhyme categories for Shoki ye-phonograms EMC

*-æ

*-æy

*-ey

*-yi

Kan

-a

SK

-a

SV

-a [aa]

-a(i) [aa(y) ]

-a(i)

-ei

-i

-i

-en

-ei

-a(y)

-yey [yRy]

-i

-i

-yen [yRn]

-yey [yRy]

-ê [ee]

-i [ii]

-i [ii]

-iên [iRn]

-ê [ee]

223

*-yiR

*-yiRn

*-yiRy

OLD JAPANESE

was [e]-like in northwestern EMC. Copious examples of EMC *-ey representing Indic e in Jñanagupta’s transcriptions can be found in Coblin (1994: 194–203). Yet not one ye-syllable in Kojiki is ever spelled with an EMC *-ey phonogram. In fact, as we will see in the next section, many OJ ey-syllables in Kojiki are spelled with EMC *-ey. Was OJ ye in Kojiki really an *e? A better question to ask might be: Was EMC *-ey really an *-ey? It obviously was [e]-like in Jñanagupta’s northwestern EMC dialect, but it may have been an *-ay or *-Ry in the non-northwestern EMC dialect that was the basis of Go-on and the Kojiki orthography. Southern Chinese languages, Chinese loans in Vietnamese and Tai, and the early sixth-century transcriptions of Saúghabhara (or Saúghavarman) of the Liang (502–557) provide evidence for an *ay- or *Ry-like pronunciation of the *-ey rhyme category in southern EMC. (1) EMC *-ey regularly corresponds to Cantonese -ai and sometimes corresponds to -ai in CT and Meixian Hakka:
‘chicken’ OC *keA EMC *key(h) CT koe1 [kwe] Hakka kai1 Cnt gài [kay] Go ke OJ (KJK ) – LT ke1 Kan kei OJ (NS) kye

(8.39) Sg


‘steps’ *biyqA *beyq – – baih [pay] bai – pe 2, pe6 hei pye


‘rice’ *mhiyqA *meyq – mi 3 máih [may] mai mey bi 3 bei –


‘enigma’ *miy(h)A *mey(h) – mi 2 màih [may] mai – be 2 bei bye, mye


‘west’ *sRyA *sey sai 1 si 1 sài [say] sai – se1 sei se

(2) One possible OSV word and a few Tai words reflect an *Ry-like pronunciation of the EMC *-ey rhyme category.
EMC *sey ‘west’ has two readings in SV, tây [tRy] < *sRy and a rarer reading tê [tee] < *see. Since EMC *-ey regularly corresponds only to ê [ee], tây may be an OSV borrowing from a southern EMC form such as *sRy (cf. CT sai 1 and Cnt sài). A southern form of
EMC *key ‘chicken’ such as *kRy (cf. Hakka kai 1, Cnt gài) may be the source of Proto-Tai *kRiB (Li 1977: 31, 186, 285) despite the irregular tone correspondence. Manomaivibool (1976: 13, 23, 24) has found three more possible Tai borrowings of Chinese words belonging to the EMC *-ey rhyme category: (8.40) Sg OC
‘ladder’ *c(h)lRyA
‘bottom’ *tRyqA
‘plow’ *riA

EMC *they *teyq *ley 224

Cnt tài [thay] dái [tay] làih [lay]

Proto-Tai (Li 1977) *}dl/rRiA ‘id.’ *tRï C ‘under’ *thlRiA ‘id.’

THE RECONSTRUCTION OF OLD JAPANESE VOWELS

Note that the superscript ‘A’ in OC reconstructions refers to syllable types (A and B, corresponding to Starostin 1989’s long and short vowels) whereas the superscript ‘A’ and ‘C’ in Proto-Tai (PT) reconstructions refers to tones. Since all three PT forms in (8.40) have problematic segmental correspondences, I consider PT *kRiB ‘chicken’ to be the best evidence for a final *-Ry in southern Chinese. (3) Unlike Jñanagupta in the northwest, Saúghabhara in the south used characters of the EMC *-ey rhyme category to transcribe Sanskrit ai instead of Sanskrit e (Pulleyblank 1984: 199). This implies that *-ey was phonetically *[ay] or *[Ry] in southern EMC. Pulleyblank reconstructed the phonetic value of his EMC final *-εy (our *-ey) as *[æy]. He believed that Go-on ai for EMC *-ey “followed southern usage” (1984: 199). In (8.39), Go-on ai corresponds to Cantonese, Hakka, and CT -ai. (But note that
EMC *key ‘chicken’ is Go-on ke, not kai. This Go-on -e may be from a northern EMC *-ey or from a southern EMC *-Ry. See p. 224.) Characters pronounced with *-ay or *-Ry in southern EMC would have been poor choices for the transcription of OJ ye-syllables such as pye (*pe), bye (*mbe), etc. Thus scribes using EMC-based orthography to write OJ would favor characters from other rhyme categories for that purpose. However, the Shoki scribes were using an orthography based on the Chang’an dialect of LMC (CLMC), not southern EMC. The general LMC reflex of the EMC *-ey rhyme category had a more [e]-like pronunciation: cf. LMC-based LT -e, SK -yey [yRy] (premodern SK had no [e]), and SV -ê [ee]. Hence characters such as
southern EMC *bayq ‘steps’ (cf. Cnt baih, Go-on bai) which were once inappropriate for the transcription of OJ ye-syllables were now quite appropriate if one chose them for their CLMC pronunciations. In fact,
CLMC *p®- ‘steps’ (cf. LT pe5 and pe6, SK phyey, SV bq) is the most common Shoki phonogram for OJ pye (*pe). The different spellings of OJ ye-syllables in Kojiki and Shoki ultimately result from differences between EMC and CLMC and are not evidence for different pronunciations of OJ ye in the two texts. Not all of the Shoki phonograms for OJ ye-syllables seem to be suitable from an LMC point of view. EMC *-æ and *-æy correspond to finals without front vowels in LMC-based CT, SK, and SV. Three Shoki ye-phonograms belong to these two rhyme categories: (8.41) OJ kye pye mye

Ph
‘family’
‘hegemon’
‘sell’

EMC *kæ *pæh *mæyh

CLMC *k*p*mb-

LT ka1 pa 5 mai 6

Kan ka ha bai

SK ka pha may

SV ca [kaa] bá [(aa] mfi [maay]

These characters are found only in the beta section and are very rare even there:
‘hegemon’ for OJ pye and
‘sell’ for OJ mye appear only three times each and
‘family’ for OJ kye appears only once. 225

OLD JAPANESE

Table 8.23 Ye-phonograms in Shoki poetry OJ

Ph

EMC

CLMC

Kan

SK

SV

Tib. tr.

Ind. tr. (Am)

pye












úy


x



*beyh *byiRy *byiRy *pyiRq *pæh *mey *mey *myiRn *mæyh *myiR *key *key *kheyq *gyi *kheyq *keyh *kæ

*p®*p®*p®*p*p*mb*mb*m(b)*mb*mb*k*k*kh*k®*kh*k*k-

hei hei hei hi ha bei bei ben bai bi kei kei kei ki kei kei ka

phyey phyey phyey pi pha mi mi myen may – kyey kyey kyey kuy kyey kyey ka

bq tq tq tz bá mê mê miên mfi – kê kê khái kì, kz khki kU ca

– – – pyi – – – myen ’be’i – kye – khye – khye kye ka

– – – – – me, (m)be me, (m)be – – – ke – – – – ke –

bye mye

kye

I believe that these characters were used for their EMC sound values. I have already shown that EMC *-æ and *-æy correspond to OSV -e [εε] and CT -e.
EMC *mæyh ‘sell’ for OJ mye appears to be a carryover from System-D-based transcription.
EMC *kæ ‘family’ (cf. CT ke1) for OJ kye and
EMC *pæh ‘hegemon’ for OJ pye are not carryovers, but they do belong to the same rhyme category as
EMC *Yæ ‘tusk, ivory’ (cf. CT ge 2), the Kojiki phonogram for OJ gye (*Yge). Although the beta section is not primarily written in an EMC-based orthography, it does contain conservative elements lacking in the alpha section. The Tibetan and Indic transcriptive data (Table 8.23), though sparse, confirms that at least some of the Shoki ye-phonograms were read with mid or high front vowels in northwestern LMC. I will reconstruct OJ ye as a mid front unrounded vowel *e for both Kojiki and Shoki. Whitman (1985) and Unger (1993) reconstructed OJ ye as a glidevowel combination *ye. Lange (1973) reconstructed OJ ye as *e before velars (k, g) but as *ye before labials ( p, b, m). None of the data shown here supports Lange’s reconstruction of two different sound values of OJ ye. As for Unger’s view, it may have some merit because most of the phonograms in Table 8.23 belong to Grade IV, the most palatal of the Four Grades (p. 97) and are read with a medial -y- in SK. Three of the phonograms for OJ pye are read with the dental initial t in SV derived from an earlier *py. We will see in the next section that none of the phonograms for OJ pey, bey, or mey is ever read with a dental initial (t, th, d ) in SV. If OJ ye originated from pre-OJ *ia and *iR (p. 81), it must have had a glide *y at some point in its history: 226

THE RECONSTRUCTION OF OLD JAPANESE VOWELS

(8.42) Pre-OJ *ia > *ya *iR > *yR

OJ? > *ye > *ye

> >

OJ? *e *e

Post-OJ > [e] > [e]

Whether OJ ye had this glide during the OJ period or not is open to question. There is also a third possibility. OJ ye could have been an *e preceded by palatalized initials: *pye, *mbye, etc. Although I prefer this last solution, I find it hard to rule out the other two. I will continue to write my reconstruction of OJ ye simply as *e without specifying a preceding glide or the palatalization of a preceding consonant.

OJ ey OJ ey (‘B-type ey’) in Kojiki corresponds to four EMC rhyme categories (Table 8.24). The most common of these categories is *-ey (55.3 per cent = 47/85), represented by two phonograms,
EMC *peyh ‘close’ for OJ pey and
EMC *meyq ‘rice.’ In the previous section, we have seen that this rhyme category was probably an *-ay or *-Ry in southern EMC.
EMC *peyh ‘close’ and
EMC *meyq ‘rice’ are pai [pay] and máih [may] in Cantonese. The second most common category is *-ty, represented by the sole Kojiki phonogram for OJ key,
=EMC *khtyh ‘breath’. The OSV form of this word, hdi [hRRy] ‘breath’ leads me to suspect that OJ key was something like *kRy. EMC *-Ry and *-iR, represented by one phonogram each in Kojiki, tie for the least common category. OSV evidence (8.43) confirms Pulleyblank’s reconstruction of EMC *-Ry and enables me to reconstruct OJ bey as *mbRy. (8.43) Sg

cf.


Gloss ‘wait’ ‘generation’ ‘times’

EMC *dRyq *dRyh *bRyh

OSV $%i [ßRRy] $Ii [ßRRy] –

OJ – te (in Suiko texts) bey (Kojiki)

Table 8.24 OJ ey in Kojiki poetry OJ \ EMC

*-ey

*-iR

*-ty

*-Ry

p b m k g Subtotals Total

18 0 29 0 0 47 85

0 0 0 0 6 6

0 0 0 26 0 26

0 6 0 0 0 6

227

OLD JAPANESE

EMC *-iR looks like an unusual choice for OJ ey until one realizes that the sole Kojiki phonogram for OJ gey,
EMC *YiR ‘proper,’ had the OC reading *YayB. Although this word has no known OSV equivalent, its nearhomophone
EMC *YiRh < OC *Y(r)ayhB ‘righteous’ does appear in OSV as ngãi [Yaay]. This would seem to indicate that OJ ey had an *ay allophone after g (*Yg), but there is no reason why ey would have different allophones after k (*k) and g (*Yg). Most of the above evidence points toward *Ry for OJ ey. The OJ ‘vowels’ iy (*t) and ey (*Ry?) must have been similar because EMC *-ty characters transcribed both OJ iy and ey-syllables in the text of Kojiki. The *-ty character
EMC *kty ‘few’ / *ktyq ‘how many’ is the second phonogram in one of the Kojiki spellings of the toponym Sikiy:
 EMC *cth kty (II: Keikô, III: Yûryaku). Yet
EMC *khtyh ‘breath,’ a near-homophone of this character, is the second phonogram of a gloss for the OJ name element wakey:
 EMC *®wa khtyh (I: Age of the Gods). None of the five Kojiki phonograms for OJ ey-syllables appears in Jñanagupta’s transcriptions, though a near-homophone of the Kojiki phonogram for OJ mey (
EMC *meyq ‘rice’; cf. Cnt máih),
EMC *mey ‘confused’ (cf. Cnt màih), does appear as a phonogram for Indic me. However, this does not mean that OJ mey was *me since
EMC *mey ‘confused’ was probably pronounced as *may in southern EMC (cf. Cnt màih, Go-on mai). The Shoki data generally confirm my reconstruction of OJ ey as *Ry. This ‘vowel’ corresponds to seven EMC rhyme categories (Table 8.25). To err on the side of overdifferentiation, I have followed Mineya (1972) in distinguishing between the *-Ry and *-wRy rhymes after labials, though I know of no evidence outside the rhyme dictionary tradition for such a distinction. Pulleyblank (1991a) reconstructs *-Ry only after labials. All 52 cases of *-wRy in Shoki involve labial-initial phonograms. If I follow Pulleyblank and rewrite *-wRy after labials as *-Ry, then the *-Ry phonograms comprise 89.1 per cent (98/110) of the ey-phonograms in Shoki. Judging from SX evidence, EMC *-Ry lowered to *-ay in LMC (Table 8.26). (SK -oy [£y] appears to be an EMC retention in the source dialect of SK.) Without any characters

Table 8.25 OJ ey in Shoki poetry OJ \ EMC

*-ay

*-ey

*-εy

*-i

*-ty

*-Ry

*-wRy

p b m k g Subtotals Total

1 0 0 0 0 1 110

3 0 1 0 0 4

0 0 0 2 0 2

0 0 0 1 0 1

0 0 0 4 0 4

9 3 0 19 9 40

15 6 37 0 0 58

228

THE RECONSTRUCTION OF OLD JAPANESE VOWELS

Table 8.26 SX equivalents of rhyme categories for Shoki ey-phonograms EMC Kan SK

*-ay -ai -ay

SV

-ai [aay]

*-ey -ei -yey [yRy] -ê [ee]

*-εy -ai -oy, -yey [£y yRy] -ai, -o’i [aay RRy]

*-i -i -uy [ty] -i [ii]

*-ty -i -uy [ty] -i [ii]

*-Ry -ai -ay, -oy [ay £y] -ai, -ôi (/ b_) [aay oy]

*-wRy -ai -ay, -oy [ay £y] -ôi [oy]

read with *-Ry in CLMC, Shoki scribes had no choice but to use CLMC *-ay < EMC *-Ry characters as phonograms for OJ ey-syllables. CLMC *-ay was the closest available equivalent of OJ ey (*Ry). SV has -ôi corresponding to EMC *-(w)Ry after labials:
EMC *bRyq / LMC *p®- / SV bsi [(oy] ‘increase.’ The rounded vowel of SV -ôi probably reflects the southern dialect that was the source of SV. The Cantonese reading of
‘increase’ is púih [phuy]. Such a rounded vowel may not have existed in northern dialects: compare SV bsi and Cnt púih with the Tibetan transcription be’i, SK poy [p£y] and phay [phay], and Kan-on hai. I will not reconstruct OJ ey as *oy after labials. The other rhyme categories are sparsely represented only in the beta section. (1) Two beta section ey-phonograms belong to *-ey, the most common category for Shoki ye-phonograms (Table 8.21). These exceptional instances must reflect the southern EMC pronunciation of the *-ey rhyme as *-ay. The phonogram
EMC *peyh / CLMC *p- ‘close’ (cf. Cnt pai) for OJ pey (43.7.6, 43.9.6, 68.2.5) is a carryover from earlier usage. It is the sole Kojiki phonogram for OJ pey. The phonogram
EMC *mey / CLMC *mb- (cf. Cnt màih) for OJ mey (NS 104.7.6) is a near-homophone of the Kojiki phonogram for OJ mey,
EMC *meyq ‘rice’ (cf. Cnt máih). (2) *-ty is represented four times by the beta section phonogram
EMC *khtyh / CLMC *kh- for OJ key (59.5.6, 66.3.4, 104.8.4, 105.4.1). This is also a carryover from earlier usage, since the LMC reading of this character was closer to *i or *ty than to *Ry: compare SK kuy [kty], SV khí [xii], and LT khi 5 to OSV hdi [hRRy]. (3) *-εy is represented twice by the beta section phonograms
EMC *kεy / CLMC *k- ‘step’ (17.1.4) and
EMC *kεyh ‘abstain’ / CLMC *k(36.2.6) for OJ key (*kRy?). The CLMC reflex of the EMC *-εy rhyme, rendered in Kan-on as -ai, must not have been entirely appropriate for OJ ey (*Ry). The graphs
and
were respectively transcribed in Tibetan as ke’t and ke. The beta section scribes may have chosen
‘step’ and
‘abstain’ for their EMC readings *kεy and *kεyh. EMC *-εy may have phonetically resembled earlier stratum SK -oy [£y] (cf.
SK koy [k£y] ‘step’) and /or earlier stratum SV -di [RRy] (cf.
SV gió’i [zRRy] ‘abstain’). 229

OLD JAPANESE

(4) *-ay is represented only once by the beta section phonogram
EMC *payh / *phayh ‘river name’ (64.3.4) which probably had a low vowel *a in LMC: cf. SK phay [phay], SV bái [(aay] / phái [faay], and LT phai 5 [phay]. This low frequency tells us that OJ ey did not sound much like LMC *-ay, which corresponds to Kan-on -ai (< presumably *ai), not Kan-on -e (< *ye, *ey). Pulleyblank (1984, 1991a) believed that the EMC *-Ry and *-ay categories had merged into a single LMC category *-ay. If such a merger had occurred, both EMC *-Ry > CLMC *-ay and EMC *-ay > CLMC *-ay characters should appear in large numbers as phonograms for OJ ey-syllables in Shoki. Yet this is not the case: EMC *-ay appears only once and EMC *-Ry graphs appear in nearly all other cases. Why would Shoki scribes overwhelmingly prefer EMC *-Ry characters over EMC *-ay characters if their finals were indistinguishable in CLMC? Perhaps CLMC still distinguished between the two rhyme categories. The CLMC reflex of EMC *-ay must have been less like OJ ey (*Ry?) than the CLMC reflex of EMC *-Ry. (5) *-i is represented only once by the beta section phonogram
EMC *kih ‘crammed’ (24.2.2); cf. SK kuy [kty]. A scribe may have assumed that this character was read like a more common character sharing the same phonetic element such as
EMC *khRyh / CLMC *kh- ‘indignant’ (a beta section Shoki phonogram for key; cf. SK kay, SV khái [xaay], and LT khai 5). In Table 8.27, I list the ten ey-phonograms which appear three or more times in Shoki poetry along with their SX readings and the Tibetan and Indic transcriptive data. 81.8 per cent (90/110) of ey-syllables in Shoki are spelled with these phonograms. Amoghavajra’s use of
EMC *pwRy / CLMC *p- ‘cup’ and
EMC *mwRyq / CLMC *mb- ‘every’ for Indic pay- [p£y] and mai [m£y] would be parallel to the Japanese use of those characters as phonograms for OJ pey (*pRy) and mey (*mRy). Table 8.27 Common ey-phonograms in Shoki poetry OJ

Ph

EMC

CLMC

Kan

SK

SV

Tib. tr.

Ind. tr. (Am)

pey pey, bey






*pwRy *bwRy *bRyq

*p*p®*p®-

hai hai hai

bôi b4i bsi

pa’i ba’i be’i

pay– –

mey




*mwRy

*mb-

bai

poy poy poy phay moy

–

–

key






*mwRyq *khRy *kRy

*mb*kh*k-

bai kai kai

mai môi m5i khai cai

’be kha’e, khe –

mai – –

gey






*khty *YRy *YRy

*kh*Yg*Yg-

ki gai gai

khí ngai ngfi

ki, khe – ’ge, ’ge’i

– – –

moy khoy koy hoy kuy ay ay

230

THE RECONSTRUCTION OF OLD JAPANESE VOWELS

The Tibetan transcriptions transcribe the CLMC final corresponding to EMC *-Ry in a number of ways: -a’i, -a’e, -e, -e’i. The a ~ e variation may reflect a late CLMC vowel such as *æ or *ε which was absent in Tibetan. Coblin (1994: 175–183) reconstructed synchronic variation between *-qi and *-εi for this final in ninth- and tenth-century northwestern LMC. He reconstructs an *-qi only for seventh- and eighth-century CLMC. Amoghavajra almost never used this final (Coblin’s mid-Tang CLMC *-qi) to transcribe Indic e, preferring the CLMC reflex of EMC *-ey (Coblin’s mid-Tang CLMC *-iei) for that purpose. This suggests that an *e-like pronunciation of the CLMC reflex of EMC *-Ry developed after Amoghavajra’s time (i.e., the mid to late eighth century). Such a pronunciation would not have existed when Shoki was being written in the early eighth century. Thus the Tibetan transcriptions do not necessarily support reconstructions of OJ ey such as Whitman’s (1985) *ey or Miyake’s (1995) *ε. I will reconstruct OJ ey for both Kojiki and Shoki as a mid central unrounded vowel followed by a palatal glide: *Ry. One may consider this ‘vowel’ to be a combination of o (‘B-type o’ = *R) with yi (‘A-type i’ = *i): *Ri. OJ ey (*Ry) later merged with OJ ye (*e). I do not think that OJ ey = *Ry first became *ey (cf. Whitman 1985) before merging with OJ ye = *e. If *R had fronted to *e before the loss of the following glide, it would have merged with OJ ei = *ey, the probable source of Go-on and Kan-on -ei. But OJ ey became post-OJ e, not post-OJ *ei. My reconstruction of OJ ey as OJ o + OJ yi explains an odd feature of Go-on and Kan-on. The other two branches of SX have finals such as [Ry] (OSV -ây, SK -ey), [RRy] (OSV -o’i), and [£y] (SK -oy) which might be expected to correspond to Go-on and Kan-on -oi < *Ry. However, the index of Tôdô (1978) lists no SJ readings ending in -oi and the index of Morohashi et al. (1981–82) lists only one SJ reading ending in -oi, Tô-sô-on hoi for
EMC *bwRyh ‘dry over heat.’ If OJ ey were *Ry, there would be no Go-on or Kan-on readings ending in -oi < *Ry because all OJ ey = *Ry had shifted to post-OJ e. There are no Kan-on readings ending in -e (implying that CLMC had no finals such as OJ ye = *-e or OJ ey = *-Ry), but some Go-on readings ending in -e may have once ended in OJ ey = *-Ry: (8.44)
EMC *khtyh ‘breath’ > OJ period Go-on *kRy = key > post-OJ Go-on ke (cf. OSV hdi [hRRy] ). Other Go-on readings ending in -e may have once ended in OJ ye = *-e: (8.45)
EMC *kæ ‘family’ > OJ period Go-on *ke = kye > post-OJ Go-on ke (cf. CT ke1) The implications of OJ phonetic reconstruction for OJ period SJ phonology have barely begun to be explored. 231

OLD JAPANESE

Table 8.28 OJ wo in Kojiki poetry OJ \ EMC

*-aw

*-o

*-Rw

*-uRwY

m t d n r s y k g Subtotals Total

37 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 38 148 (+13)

0 0 2 12 4 15 0 39 2 74

0 13 (+13) 0 0 7 0 0 0 0 20 (+13)

0 0 0 0 0 0 16 0 0 16

OJ wo OJ wo (‘A-type o’) in Kojiki corresponds to four EMC rhyme categories (Table 8.28). (1) The most frequent category is EMC *-o which corresponds to OSV -o [QQ] and CT -o (p. 208). This suggests that OJ wo may have been a mid back rounded vowel *o not unlike its post-OJ reflex [o]. Curiously, two near-homophones differing only in tone are phonograms for OJ syllables with different vowels: (8.46) OJ Ph EMC CT nu
‘slave’ *no lo2 nwo
‘rage’ *noh – (cf. LT no6 ) There is no evidence indicating that these two words ever had different vowels in any variety of Chinese. The choice of
EMC *no ‘slave’ for OJ nu (*nu) and
EMC *noh ‘rage’ for OJ nwo (*no?) must have been purely arbitrary. (2) The second most common final is *-aw, represented only by two phonograms: (8.47) OJ mwo two

Ph EMC
‘hair’ *maw
‘knife’ *taw

OSV CT – m2, ng 2 dao [zaaw] –


EMC *maw ‘hair’ appears 37 times while
EMC *taw ‘knife’ only appears once (4.33.2). EMC *-aw generally corresponds to CT -au [aw] (with the exception of
CT m2, ng 2 ‘hair’) and to OSV -ao [aaw]. Starostin (1989: 681) reconstructs these two words as OC *mhaaw (my *mhaw A) and OC *taaw (my *tawA). He does not reconstruct rounded vowels for this 232

THE RECONSTRUCTION OF OLD JAPANESE VOWELS

rhyme at any stage of OC or in EMC. Why would the Japanese use words of this rhyme as phonograms for OJ mwo (*mo?) and OJ two (*to?)? I think the answer to this question may lie in the phonology of the languages of the Korean peninsula. [aw] was not a permissible final in Middle Korean. Not even the prescriptive SK of the Tongkwuk cengwun (TKCW ) dictionary listed such a final. The TKCW SK reflex of EMC *-aw was -wow [o(w) ] which corresponded to -wo [o] in non-prescriptive SK. Compare the TKCW and non-TKCW SK readings of ‘hair’ and ‘knife’: (8.48) OJ mwo two

Ph EMC
‘hair’ *maw
‘knife’ *taw

TKCW SK SK mwow [mo(w) ] mwo [mo] twow [to(w) ] two [to]

The Middle Korean hankul letter E w was created solely to write the coda -w of prescriptive SK. There were no native Middle Korean syllables ending in -w. If I project this aversion of a final -w into the Three Kingdoms period, it is possible that the Korean peninsular peoples borrowed EMC *-aw as *-o (cf. SK -wo [o] ). It is also possible that *-aw monophthongized or shifted to *-o or *-ow in one or more Korean languages prior to the transmission of OSK readings to Japan. In either case, perhaps the Japanese initially learned to pronounce
and
as *mo and *to, which closely matched their native syllables mwo (*mo?) and two (*to?). Unfortunately, we know too little about Koguryo, Paekche, and Silla to affirm any of these scenarios. (3) The third most common final, *-Rw, might be interpreted as evidence for the reconstruction of OJ wo as *Rw. This final appears only in two phonograms: (8.49) OJ Ph EMC two
‘bushel’ *tRwq rwo
‘leak’ *lRwh

OSV CT $Pu [ßRw] tau 3 – lau 5, lau 6

Some texts have
EMC *keyh ‘calculate’ instead of
EMC *tRwq ‘bushel’ as a phonogram for two. The former is obviously a scribal error for the latter. I have optionally added all thirteen cases of variation between
‘calculate’ and
‘bushel’ to the total for *-Rw in Table 8.28. Starostin (1989: 685) reconstructs the early LOC readings of
‘bushel’ and
‘leak’ as *toowq (my *towqA) and *lhoowh (my *lhowhA). Perhaps these characters were chosen for their LOC readings with *o. In any case, I will reject the reconstruction of OJ wo as *Rw because EMC *-Rw is not the predominant rhyme category for OJ wo-phonograms. Also, there is no reason why OJ wo would have a *-Rw allophone after t and r but not after other coronal initials: i.e., after d, n, or s. I would expect one allophone after all members of a consonant class (t, d, n, r, s), not after only two random members (t and r). 233

OLD JAPANESE

(4) The least frequent EMC rhyme category is *-uRwY, represented only by the sole Kojiki phonogram for OJ ywo,
EMC *yuRwYh ‘use’ (cf. Go-on yuu). EMC had no syllables such as *yo, *yaw, or *yRw which combined the initial *y with any of the previous three rhyme categories, so
EMC *yuRwYh ‘use’ was chosen despite its nasal final. The OSV equivalent of
EMC *yuRwYh ‘use’ is dùng [zuw§] < *y- ‘id.,’ though the general OSV equivalent of EMC *-uRwY is -uông [uRY]. Neither [u] nor [uR] precisely matches the [o] I would like to see, but they are both labial. I will reconstruct OJ wo in Kojiki as a mid back rounded vowel *o. Over 80 per cent of OJ wo in Shoki correspond to EMC *-o (Table 8.29). EMC *-o in turn corresponds to SK wo [o] and SV ô [oo], which is what we would expect if OJ wo were *o. All but one of the remaining rhyme categories correspond to SK and SV rhymes with labial vowels or glides (Table 8.30). We can ignore the exceptional *-ak category because it is represented only by a single phonogram for OJ two (*to?),
EMC *dak, which has another reading ending in *-o, EMC *doh. Obviously Shoki scribes had the *-o reading in mind (cf. SK two, SV ds, Tibetan transcription do, du) when they chose
‘measure’ as a phonogram for OJ two (*to?). Table 8.29 OJ wo in Shoki poetry OJ \ EMC

*-o

*-o/*-ak

*-Rw

*-uRwY

Other

t d n r s y k g Subtotals Total

12 6 3 6 14 0 58 12 111 135

5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5

4 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 7

0 0 0 0 0 7 0 0 7

2 (*-aw) 0 0 0 0 1 (*-iRw) 0 2 (*-o/*-uR) 5

Note ‘Other’ includes all rhyme categories that appear only once or twice: *-aw, *-iRw, *-o/-uR.

Table 8.30 SX equivalents of rhyme categories for Shoki wo-phonograms EMC Kan SK SV

*-ak -aku -ak [ak] -ac [aak]

*-aw -au -wo [o] -ao [aaw]

*-iRw -eu -ywo [yo] -iêu, -ao [iRw aaw]

*-o -o -wo [o] -ô [oo]

234

*-Rw -ou -wu [u] -âu [Rw]

*-uR -u -wu [u] -u [uu]

*-uRwY -you -ywong [yoY] -ung, -ong [uw§ aw§]

THE RECONSTRUCTION OF OLD JAPANESE VOWELS

The rhyme category *-aw is unique to the beta section, where it only appears twice (42.3.3, 71.6.2), represented by
EMC *taw ‘knife’ (cf. Go-on to, tou, SK two [to] ), a phonogram for OJ two (*to?). This is a carryover from earlier usage. OJ two is first spelled as
EMC *taw ‘knife’ in the Suiko inscriptions. Two of the rhyme categories are unique to the alpha section. (1) *-uR is represented twice (75.9.2., 75.11.2) by the phonogram
EMC *YuR ‘pleasure’ (cf. Kan-on gu, SK wu, SV ngu, LT gu 2) which has an alternative reading ending in *-o, EMC *Yo (cf. Kan-on go, SK wo). (2) *-iRw is represented once (74.5.2) by the phonogram
EMC *yiRw ‘distant’ (cf. Kan-on eu, SK ywo [yo], SV dao [zaaw] < *y-, LT iau 2 [yaw] ). Like
EMC *yuRwYh ‘use’ in Kojiki and Shoki (see below), this phonogram was chosen because of the lack of syllables such as *yo in Chinese. LMC probably had no such syllable, because: (1) Its ancestor EMC had no such syllable. There are no CT syllables such as*io [yo] or OSV syllables such as dô [zoo] which would have derived from an EMC *yo. (CT io derives from EMC *yiRw.) (2) SK ywo [yo] corresponds to Kan-on yau and eu, SV dao [zaaw] and diêu [ziRw], and LT iau [yaw], not Kan-on yo, SV *dô [zoo] or LT *io [yo] (see below). (3) SV has no syllable such as *dô [zoo] < LMC *yo. (4) LT has no syllable such as *io [yo] < LMC *yo. The last two rare rhyme categories are shared by both sections of Shoki: (1) *-uRwY:
EMC *yuRwYh ‘use’ and its near-homophone
EMC *yuRwY ‘usual’ appear as phonograms for OJ ywo (*yo?). If one ignores their nasal finals, these characters would have been the best matches available for OJ ywo (*yo?) in CLMC (cf. SK ywong [yoY] for both, SV djng [zuw§] < *y- for ‘use’ and SV dong [zaw§] ~ dung [zuw§] < *y- for ‘usual’). (2) *-Rw:
EMC *tRwq ‘bushel’ and
EMC *lRwh ‘leak’ are phonograms for OJ two (*to?) and rwo (*ro?) in the beta section of Shoki as well as in Kojiki. The alpha section has one instance (119.3.4) of
EMC *lRw ‘building’ (cf. SV lâu [lRw] ) for OJ rwo (*ro?). With the exception of OJ ywo (*yo?) and this one case of OJ rwo (*ro?), OJ wo (*o?) is consistently spelled with phonograms of the EMC *-o category in the alpha section. I list all wo-phonograms which appear more than once in Shoki poetry in Table 8.31. 90.4 per cent (122/135) of the wo-syllables in Shoki are written with these phonograms. The Indic and Tibetan transcriptive data for the characters in Table 8.31 are more or less consistent with my reconstruction of OJ wo as a rounded vowel. The unrounded vowels in the ninth- and tenth-century Tibetan transcriptions (i, t, e) which correspond to Kan-on o (< OJ Kan-on o = *R?) and SV â [R] may be attempts to write late northwestern LMC vowels such as *t and/or *R. If the Tibetan letters i and e do truly represent palatal vowels, such vowels must have developed after the borrowing of Kan-on in the late seventh century. The Kan-on readings lack palatal vowels and glides. 235

OLD JAPANESE

Table 8.31 Common wo-phonograms in Shoki poetry OJ

Ph EMC

CLMC Kan

two




*doh *dak *toh *tRwq *doh *do *taw *no *noh *do *noq *lo *loq *lRwh

*t®*t®*t*t*t®*t®*t*nd*nd*t®*nd*l*l*l-

to taku to tou to to tau do do to do ro ro rou

*so *soh *yuRwYh *yuRwY *koq *koh *koh *ko *®o *Yoh *Yoh *Yoh *YuR

*s*s*y*y*k*k*k*k*h®*Yg*Yg*Yg*Yg-

so so you you ko ko ko ko ko go go go gu






dwo


nwo
rwo




ywo

kwo




gwo


swo

SK

SV

two thak tyek twu two two two nwo nwo two nwo lwo lwo lwu

$s $fc $3 $Tu $s $4 $ao nô ns $4 n5 lô l5 lpu

Tib. tr.

do, du – – te’[u] – – de’u – – duo [sic] – – – li’u, lt’u, le’u swo tô – swo t3 so ywong djng yung ywong dong, dung – kwo c7 go kwo c3 – kwo c3 ko, go, gu kwo cô ko hwo h4 – wo ngs gwa [sic] wo ngô go wo ngj – wu ngu –

Ind. tr. (Am) du, dhu, dhe – to – – – – – de, do – – ro, ì lu – su se, so – – – – – – – – – – –

The overwhelming majority of the evidence supports my reconstruction of OJ wo as a mid back rounded vowel *o. But it cannot tell us whether OJ wo was actually pronounced with a labial glide *w. We do not even know for sure whether MC had a final such as *-wo. No comparative evidence suggests a distinction between *Co and *Cwo in EMC or LMC. Korean and Vietnamese would not be able to reflect such a distinction or perfectly replicate a Chinese *-wo because neither language has Cwo syllables. (The wo of Yale romanization is Korean [o], not [wo].) Indic syllables of the shape Cvo (Indic has no [w] ) are extremely rare, so we are not likely to find any evidence for MC *Cwo syllables in the transcriptions of Jñanagupta and Amoghavajra. wo does not appear in the Tibetan transcriptions, though
‘diagram’ is transcribed as duo (cf. SK two [to], SV $4 [ßoo], LT to2). Without knowing whether *wo was possible in OJ or MC, we can imagine the following four scenarios: 1 2

OJ wo = *o was written with MC *o. OJ wo = *wo was written with MC *wo. 236

THE RECONSTRUCTION OF OLD JAPANESE VOWELS

Table 8.32 The reconstructed OJ ‘vowels’ thus far Front

Central

Back

High KJK/NS Total Rank

yi = *i 497/442 939/8,001 4th = 11.7%

iy = *t 61/51 112/8,001 8th = 1.4%

u = *u 797/740 1,537/8,001 2nd = 19.2%

Mid KJK/NS Total Rank

ye = *e 65/62 127/8,002 7th = 1.6%

o = *R 853/623 1,476/8,001 3rd = 18.4%

wo = *o 148/135 283/8,001 5th = 3.5%

Low KJK/NS Total Rank

3 4

Diphthong

ey = *Ry = o + yi 85/110 195/8,001 6th = 2.4%

a = *a 1,785/1,548 3,333/8,001 1st = 41.7%

OJ wo = *o was written with MC *wo because MC had no *o. OJ wo = *wo was written with MC *o because MC had no *wo.

I find the first scenario to be the simplest and therefore the most attractive. Regardless of whether MC had a final like *-wo or not, we have not seen any evidence for a contrast between *wo and *o in OJ. (Unger 1993 does reconstruct such a contrast for OJ, but his *wo and *o are equivalent to our *o and *R.) If OJ wo were *wo, its *w would have been predictable and nondistinctive. Thus I will write my reconstruction of OJ wo as *o without indicating this possible glide. I have now reconstructed the eight ‘vowels’ of OJ (seven vowels and one diphthong). In Table 8.32, I list (1) their reconstructions, (2) the total number of their attestations in Kojiki and Shoki (excluding textual variants), and (3) their rank in frequency relative to each other (excluding the C-type ‘vowels’ i, e, o). Not surprisingly, the ‘primary’ vowels (a, yi, u, o) are the four most frequent. The most frequent ‘secondary’ vowel (wo) is only a third as frequent as the fourth place ‘primary’ vowel (yi). These may not be all of the ‘vowels’ of OJ, for I have not yet examined the three C-type ‘vowels’ (i, e, o). In the next three sections (pp. 238–62), I will determine whether I should reconstruct any further ‘vowels.’ Out of the eight ‘vowels’ in Table 8.32, five remained more or less intact in post-OJ: (1) a = *a, (2) yi = *i, (3) u = *u, (4) ye = *e, and (5) wo = *o (Table 8.33). I assume that OJ ‘A-type’ wo (*o) and ‘B-type’ o (*R) merged into *o. If these two vowels had merged into an *R which would later shift to [o], Early Middle Japanese (EMJ) of the ninth century would have a somewhat unbalanced vowel system (Table 8.34). 237

OLD JAPANESE

Table 8.33 The post-OJ vowel system Front

Central

High

yi = [i] < OJ yi, iy, i

Mid Low

e = [e] < OJ ye, ey, e

Back

a = [a] < OJ a

u = [u] (MSJ [T] ) < OJ u o = [o] < OJ wo, o, o

Table 8.34 A rejected EMJ vowel system Front High Mid Low

Central

i = *i e = *e

o = *R a = *a

Back u = *u

Table 8.35 A preferred EMJ vowel system Front High Mid Low

Central

i = *i e = *e

a = *a

Back u = *u o = *o

I would rather reconstruct a more balanced system with *o instead of *R (Table 8.35). The OJ vowel system so far (Table 8.32) is balanced with the exception of the aberrant diphthong ey (*Ry), which I will discuss in my conclusion. We will now see whether I will have to clutter that neat system with more vowels.

OJ i OJ i (‘C-type i’) corresponds to five EMC rhymes in Kojiki (Table 8.36). Two (*-iR, *-yi) earlier corresponded to OJ A-type yi, two (*-t, *-uy) earlier corresponded to OJ B-type iy, and one (*-i) earlier corresponded to both yi and iy. Judging from the correlations between EMC finals, types of OJ i, and syllables with OJ C-type i, one might superficially conclude that: 1 2 3

OJ ti, ni, and i had A-type yi (*i). OJ wi, ri, and zi had B-type iy (*t). OJ di and si could be pronounced with either A-type yi (*i) or B-type iy (*t). 238

THE RECONSTRUCTION OF OLD JAPANESE VOWELS

Table 8.36 OJ i in Kojiki poetry OJ \ EMC OJ type

*-i A/B

*-iR A

*-t B

*-uy B

*-yi A

w t d n r s z $ Subtotals Total

0 0 8 0 0 0 0 0 9 825

0 75 0 192 0 171 0 0 438

0 0 1 0 144 98 6 0 248

12 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 12

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 118 118

The distribution of EMC finals among the phonograms for OJ i-syllables is almost random. One would have expected either (a) free variation of yi (*i) and iy (*t) or (b) better yet, the predominance of the less marked vowel (i.e., yi = *i). There is no good reason for ti to have A-type yi (*i) while ri has B-type iy (*t). A literal interpretation of the EMC data makes little sense. si is the only OJ i-syllable which is written with large numbers of phonograms implying both A-type yi (*i) and B-type iy (*t). Mabuchi (1957) proposed that Kojiki distinguished between two kinds of si. He considered
‘this’ (implying A-type syi = *si) to be a phonogram for si A and
‘intention’ and
‘kind of fungus’ (both implying B-type siy = *st) to be phonograms for si B. However, these phonograms were interchangeable. In one and the same Kojiki poem, OJ sisi ‘game’ is spelled as
 (implying syi-siy; 98.4) and as
 (implying siy-syi; 98.5) (Bentley 1997: 97). If both *si and *st existed in OJ, they were in free variation. It would be simplest to reconstruct *i after all coronals instead of reconstructing *t as an optional or obligatory allophone after only certain random coronals (e.g., *nd, *r, *s, *z). Historically, some of these i (*i) may have been iy (*t) from an even earlier PJ *Ri or *ui, but the evidence for reconstructing iy (*t) after coronals in the OJ period is not persuasive. The evidence so far for the vowels of OJ i and wi is unambiguous. Each of these two syllables is written with only one phonogram: (8.50) OJ Ph EMC Corresponding OSV rhyme class i
‘he/she/it’ *qyi -i [ii] wi
‘leather’ *wuy -ui [uy] OJ i seems to be A-type yi (*i) and OJ wi seems to be B-type wiy (*wt) (cf.
EMC *kuyh ‘valuable’ for OJ kiy = *kt). The latter would be the sole 239

OLD JAPANESE

Table 8.37 OJ i in Shoki poetry OJ \ EMC OJ type

*-ey ?

*-ey/*-i ?/A/B

*-i A/B

*-iR A/B

*-iR/*-iRyk A/B/?

*-t B

*-uy B

*-yi A

w t d n r s z $ Subtotals Total

0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 2 748

0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1

1 12 1 6 86 16 1 0 123

3 54 3 33 7 32 0 0 132

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 2

0 0 0 128 11 221 7 32 399

9 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 9

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 80 80

OJ i-syllable with the vowel *t. I am not comfortable with reconstructing OJ wi as *wt because *t is otherwise so infrequent in OJ. We will soon see that Shoki provides evidence for an alternate reconstruction *wi. OJ i in Shoki corresponds to seven EMC rhyme categories (Table 8.37). *-iRyk is represented only by the alternative reading EMC *yiRyk ‘change’ for
, a phonogram for OJ i which can also be read as EMC *yiRh ‘easy.’ Clearly only the *k-less reading (cf. SK i) is relevant for our purposes. The most frequent category is *-t (53.3 per cent = 399/748). Yet I doubt that at least half of the i-syllables in Shoki had the OJ B-type vowel iy (*t). *-t and the other EMC rhyme categories corresponding to OJ i mostly have equivalents with palatal vowels or palatal glides in the LMC-based strata of SX (Table 8.38). The Chang’an dialect of LMC (CLMC) probably did not preserve EMC *-t after non-grave initials (i.e., coronals). Amoghavajra occasionally used coronal-initial *-t phonograms to write Indic i and c. For example, he wrote

Table 8.38 SX equivalents of rhyme categories for Shoki i-phonograms EMC Kan-on SK

*-ey -ei -yey [yRy]

SV

-ê [ee]

*-i, *-iR, *-t -i -uy [ty] (after k, $ < *Y, h) -o [£] after LMC dental and retroflex sibilants; -i elsewhere -i, -y [ii] -e [tt] after LMC dental and retroflex sibilants

240

*-iRyk -eki -yek [yRk]

*-uy -wi -wuy [uy] > modern -wi [wi]

*-yi -i -i

-ich [ic]

-uy [wi]

-i, -y [ii]

THE RECONSTRUCTION OF OLD JAPANESE VOWELS

the Indic syllable li with
EMC *lt ‘village,’ whose CLMC pronunciation may have been *li (cf. SK li [ri], SV lí, ly [lii], Tibetan transcription l i). As in Kojiki, both
EMC *lt ‘village’ and its homophone
‘reason’ are phonograms for OJ ri in Shoki. The most common phonogram for OJ ri in Shoki is
EMC *lih ‘profit’ > CLMC *l(ih) (cf. SK li, SV lh [lii], Tibetan transcription li; SV l%i [lRRy] is irregular and probably OSV in origin). One could argue that Shoki scribes were forced to use CLMC coronal-initial *-i characters to transcribe OJ coronal-initial *-t syllables (*tt, *ndt, nt, *rt, *st, *nzt) because CLMC had no syllables such as *nt, *rt, *st, or *nzt. However, it would be simpler to assume that the vowel of OJ ti, di, ni, ri, si, zi was an *i which was written with a CLMC *-i. The vowel of OJ wi may have also been an *-i. In Shoki, this syllable is spelled with seven different phonograms: (8.51) OJ Ph wi
‘power’ wi wi wi wi wi wi

EMC *quy

Kan SK wi wuy [uy]
‘say’ *wuyh wi wuy
‘winding’ *qwiR wi wuy ‘bend’ *qwiRq wi wuy
‘great’ *wuyq wi wuy
‘leather’ *wuy wi wuy
‘do’ *wiR wi wuy ‘for’ *wiRh wi wuy
‘rank’ *wih wi wuy

SV uy [}wi] oai [}waay] vh [vii] uy [}wii] u] [}wii] vu [vii] vi [vii] vi [vii] vh [vii] vh [vii]

Tib. tr. u’i, u

Freq 3

u, yu, ’yu – – – wu’t ’u, yu, ’yu ’u ’u

3 2 2 1 1 1

69.2 per cent (9/13) of OJ wi in Shoki are written with EMC *-uy phonograms (implying B-type wiy = *wt) and the remaining 30.8 per cent (4/13) are written with EMC *-wi(R) phonograms (implying A-type wyi = *wi). Vietnamese, which distinguishes between -ui [uy] and -uy [wi] in native words, has only /wi/ (vi [vii] by itself and uy [wii] after consonants) in SV. If CLMC were like the southern LMC dialect that was the source of SV, it would have merged EMC *-uy, *-wi, and *-wiR into a single rhyme *-wi. The SK evidence is ambiguous because Korean does not distinguish between [uy] and [wi]. SK wuy [uy] might reflect a northern LMC dialect with either *uy or *wi. The u and yu of the Tibetan transcriptions might reflect a late stage of northwestern LMC in which *uy or *wi had monophthongized to *ü (cf. some Korean speakers’ pronunciation of /wi/ as [ü] ). I am uncertain whether EMC *-uy, *-wi, and *-wiR merged into *wi or *uy. This CLMC *wi or *uy would have been the closest available equivalent to OJ wi (*wi or *wt?). I cannot completely rule out the possibility of OJ wi being *wt, but it is far more likely that this syllable was *wi with the more common vowel *i. 241

OLD JAPANESE

OJ i (*i?) is written in both sections of Shoki with EMC *-yi and *-t phonograms: (8.52) OJ i i i i

Ph
‘he/she/it’
‘strange’
‘using’
‘easy’ (
‘change’

EMC *qyi *yth *ytq *yiRh *yiRyk

Kan i i i i eki

SK i i i i yek

SV y [}ii] dh [zii] du [zii] dh [zii] dhch [zic]

Tib. tr. }yi ( ) yi, yt ’i, yt, ye – ytg)

Freq 80 19 13 2

The LMC source dialects of SK and SV seem to have merged the two rhymes into a single rhyme like *-i. Whether CLMC still maintained such a distinction is open to question. Amoghavajra transcribed Indic i and c with the *-yi phonogram
EMC *qyi ‘he/she/it’ but not with *-t phonograms such as
EMC *yth ‘strange.’ This may or may not be evidence for a distinction between *qyi and *yt in CLMC. Whatever the situation may have been in CLMC, OJ i is predominantly spelled with the *-yi phonogram
‘he/she/it’ in Shoki as well as in Kojiki, so I will reconstruct OJ i as *i. I will treat all cases of OJ C-type i as if they were A-type yi (*i), though some of those vowels originated from other pre-OJ sources (i.e., *Ri, *ui, *e). There is no need to reconstruct a special OJ C-type vowel distinct from A-type yi (*i) or B-type iy (*t). Nearly all of the EMC rhyme categories associated with OJ C-type i-phonograms are also associated with OJ A-type yi and OJ B-type iy-phonograms. The SX and transcriptive data for the most common i-phonograms accounting for 92.4 per cent (691/748) of the total generally support the reconstruction of OJ i as *i (Table 8.39). Some of the data, however, imply a non-palatal value for OJ i at first sight. (1) The SK and SV readings for characters with CLMC dental and retroflex sibilant initials (*s, *s®, *Z®) have non-palatal vowels: SK o [£] and SV e [tt]. But characters read with these vowels in SK and SV did not necessarily represent OJ *st and *nzt. Such readings reflect dialects of late LMC which depalatalized *i to *t after dental and retroflex sibilants (p. 108). This late LMC *t (or Pulleyblank’s LMC *" and *ù) did not yet exist when Shoki was being written. Amoghavajra transcribed Indic si with
EMC *siR > CLMC *si (?) ‘this’ in the mid to late eighth century, decades after Shoki was completed. If
EMC *siR ‘this’ had already become CLMC *st or *s" (cf. the ninth- to tenth-century Tibetan transcription st) in the eighth century, Amoghavajra would have indicated that the character was to be pronounced as *si instead of *st by adding a fanqie spelling such as
 CLMC *st + *\i (cf. SK so + si, SV te + thi, LT su1 + si 1) = *si. The OJ syllable si represented by
EMC *siR ‘this’ was probably more like Indic si than SK so [s£] or SV te [ttt]. 242

THE RECONSTRUCTION OF OLD JAPANESE VOWELS

Table 8.39 Common i-phonograms in Shoki poetry OJ

Ph

EMC

CLMC

Kan

SK

SV

Tib. tr.

Ind. tr. (Am)

wi











z



*quy *wuyh *qwiR(q) *triRh *triR(h) *trih *nriRq *ney(h) *nrih *ãth *ntq *ãiRq *lih

*q*w*q*tr*tr*tr*ndr*nd*ndr*ã9*nd*ã9*l-

wi wi wi ti ti ti di dei di zi di zi ri

wuy wuy wuy ci ci chi ni ni ni i ni i li

u’i, u u, yu, ’yu – ci, ct, ji ci, ct, ji ci – ’de – – ni zhi, zht, zhe li

– – – ∞c ∞i – – de îi, (ñ)îi – -dy-, di, dc – –










*ltq *lih *ct *zt *cth *siR *\tq

*l*l*c*s®*c*s*\-

ri – si si si si si

li – ci so ci so si

*\iq

*\-

si












*\iR *zth *st(h) *ãth *jrth *ãth *qyi *yth *yth

*\*s®*s*ã9*Z®*ã9*q*y*y-

si si si zi si zi i i i

ci (irreg.) si so so i so i i i i

li, lt – ci, chi, ji, jt – – st she, shi, ’shi, sht –

– – – – – si –




uy vh uy, u] trí tri, trí trí nx nê, nq nq, nh, nhh nhh nhu nhu lh l%i (OSV?) lí, ly – chi tJ chí te thm thu] (irreg.) thm – t@ te, tE nhh su nhh y dh du

– st si, st – shi – }yi yi, yt ’i, yt, ye

– – – – – – i, c – –

ti di ni ri

si

zi i

5i

Note The modern SK reading of
is si. ci may be an error in the Cenwun okphyen.

(2) The Tibetan transcriptions often have e and t as well as i. These may be attempts to write late northwestern LMC *R and *t (or Pulleyblank’s LMC *" and *ù). They are not strong evidence for reconstructing OJ i as *t because they may reflect vocalic innovations that took place after the writing of Shoki. Amoghavajra used characters transcribed in Tibetan with t to write Indic syllables ending in i and c. As I just explained, if these characters had been pronounced with a final *-t in CLMC, he would have supplied fanqie indicating that they should be pronounced with a final *-i: e.g.,
 CLMC *st + *\i = *si, etc. I will reconstruct OJ C-type i as a high front unrounded vowel *i, though a high central allophone *t is also possible. 243

OLD JAPANESE

Table 8.40 OJ e in Kojiki poetry OJ \ EMC OJ type

*-æ A

*-ey B

w t d n r s z y $ Subtotals Total

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 49 0 53 0 0 0 0 0 0 (2) 0 (2) 102 261 (+5)

*-ey? B

*-iR B

*-iRn A

*-iRy ?

*-Ry B

*-wiRn A?

*-wey B?

0 60 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 60

0 0 0 0 0 0 4 0 0 4

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 25 0 25

0 0 0 0 0 41 0 0 0 41

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 (5) (5)

0 0 14 0 0 0 0 0 0 14

13 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 13

OJ e OJ e (‘C-type e’) in Kojiki corresponds to eight EMC rhyme categories (Table 8.40). We have encountered five of these categories (*-æ, *-ey, *-iR, *-iRn, and *-Ry) before in Tables 8.20 and 8.24. Two previously unencountered categories (*-wiRn) and (*-wey) are variants of *-iRn and *-ey, previously associated with phonograms for OJ ye and ey-syllables in Kojiki. The remaining previously unencountered category (*-iRy) is a variant of the *-yiRy category represented in Kojiki by the phonograms
EMC *YyiRy ‘art, skill’ for OJ gyi (*Ygi) and
EMC *byiRyh ‘money’ (and/or
EMC *byiRyh ‘ruin’) for OJ bye (*mbe). The absence of categories entirely unlike others we have seen before suggests that OJ C-type e was not a ‘vowel’ distinct from OJ A-type ye (*e) and OJ B-type ey (*Ry). If I literally interpret the correlations between EMC finals, types of OJ e, and syllables with OJ C-type e, I could reconstruct: 1 2 3

A-type ye (*e) for OJ de, se, and ye B-type ey (*Ry) for OJ we, te, ne, re, and ze Allophonic variation between the two ‘vowels’ (*e ~ *Ry) for OJ e.

I could even claim that OJ de had a medial glide *-w- on the basis of
EMC *drwiRn(h), the sole phonogram for OJ de in Kojiki poetry. I do not know why a character with medial *-w- was selected. I doubt that the *-wreflected anything in Japanese. The *-w- may not have even existed in the OSK pronunciation of the word, though its prescriptive Tongkwuk cengwun readings are ttwyen and ttwyen’. The SK reading given in the Cenwun okphyen dictionary is cyen [tsyRn] without a medial *-w-. I will ignore the *-w- and treat OJ de like a Type-A syllable. But it seems arbitrary to reconstruct 244

THE RECONSTRUCTION OF OLD JAPANESE VOWELS

OJ de as Type A *nde while reconstructing other OJ dental-initial syllables (te, ne, re) as Type B (*tRy, *nRy, *rRy). If we look beyond Kojiki, we will find that OJ de is spelled in the Taihô census of 702 CE and Man’yôshû (17.6.4, 17.8.5) as
EMC *dRyh ‘generation’ (cf. OSV $Ii [ßRRy] ‘id.’), implying B-type dey (*ndRy). Were A-type dye (*nde) and B-type dey (*ndRy) in free variation? Could I reconstruct *-Ry after all dentals? We will later see that Shoki points toward *e after all coronals in OJ. Like the majority of OJ coronal-initial e-syllables, OJ ze at first appears to have had B-type ey (*Ry) as its ‘vowel.’ Its sole phonogram is
EMC *jiRq ‘this,’ which belongs to the same EMC rhyme category as
EMC *YiR ‘proper’ < OC *YayB (cf. OSV ngay [Yay] ‘righteous’), the Kojiki phonogram for OJ gey (*YgRy). One might think that
EMC *jiRq ‘this’ was chosen for an OC reading like *j(h)ayqB by analogy with
OC *YayB ‘proper.’ However, it turns out that
EMC *YiR ‘proper’ belongs to the OC
*-ay ‘song’ class whereas
EMC *jiRq belongs to the OC
*-e ‘branch’ class: its OC reading is *d(h)eqB. Its LOC reading *j(h)eqB is probably the basis of Go-on ze. DharmakÖema (Dk), an Indian monk living in northwestern China in the fifth century, used near-homophones of this character to transcribe Indic syllables ending in -i, -e, and -ya [y£]: (8.53) OJ Ph si
‘this’ (Taihô census: se; NS: si)
‘bestow’ (Inariyama: kye)
‘branch’

LOC *seB *\eB *ceB

EMC *siR *\iR *ciR

Ind (Dk) si, se 5ya [\y£] ci, ce

Of course, Ind -e resembles LOC *-eB and OJ A-type ye (*e). Ind -ya [y£] resembles not only the regular OSV and CT equivalents of EMC *-iR (OSV -ia [iR] and CT -ia [ya] ) but also pre-OJ *ia and *iR, the diphthongal sources of OJ ye (*e). The earliest Go-on readings for
EMC *\iR ‘bestow’ and
EMC *jiRq ‘this’ may have been *siR (or *se) and *nziR (or *nze), which later developed into post-OJ Go-on se and ze. Presumably native OJ ze was similar to *nze, the OJ period Go-on reading of
EMC *jiRq ‘this.’ I will reconstruct OJ ze as *nze. I would like to reconstruct OJ se as *se to match OJ ze (*nze). Both of the Kojiki phonograms for OJ se (
EMC *\iRyh ‘power’ and
EMC *\iRyh ‘world’) have the EMC initial *\. If the initial of OJ se were also *\, a front mid vowel could have caused it to develop from an earlier *s: (8.54) *se > *\e *s would probably not have palatalized before a schwa: i.e., *sRy > *\Ry > *\e. The OSV equivalent of the EMC *-iRyh rhyme may be -ê [ee]: cf. OSV nghV [Yee] ‘craft’ from
EMC *YyiRyh ‘art, skill’ with the *-yiRyh rhyme. 245

OLD JAPANESE

DharmakÖema transcribed Indic 5i [\i] with
EMC *\iRyh ‘world’. Jñanagupta does not use the EMC *-iRyh rhyme in his transcriptions. However, I would not consider DharmakÖema’s transcription to be evidence for reconstructing OJ se as *\i instead of *se or *\e. OJ we is written with
EMC *®weyh < LOC *w(h)ieyhA ‘grace.’ It belongs to a sparsely populated EMC rhyme (*-wey) with no known OSV equivalent. The Kojiki phonograms for OJ pey (*pRy) and mey (*mRy),
EMC *peyh ‘close’ and
EMC *meyq ‘rice,’ belong to a similar rhyme (EMC *-ey) corresponding to (1) [ay]-like rhymes in southern Chinese languages, (2) OSV -ây [Ry] and Proto-Tai *Ri, and (3) Indic -ai in Sa¢ghabhara’s transcriptions (p. 225). If the southern pronunciation of EMC *-ey was *-ay or *-Ry, then the southern pronunciation of EMC *-wey might have been *-way or *-wRy. Hence
southern EMC *way ~ *wRy ‘grace’ (cf. Cnt waih [way] ) may have represented OJ B-type wey (*wRy). Go-on we for
‘grace’ may derive from OJ period Go-on *wRy. I am not entirely certain that OJ we was *wRy because the CT reflexes of EMC *-wey are -e and -i: the CT readings of
EMC *kwey ‘sceptre’ and
EMC *®wey ‘garden plot’ are ke1 and ki 2, not *koai 1 [kway] and *koai 2 [kway]. I will later cite Shoki evidence for the reconstruction of OJ we as A-type wye (*we). The sole Kojiki phonogram for OJ ye is
EMC *yiRn ‘prolong.’ I will reconstruct OJ ye as *ye for the following reasons. (1)
EMC *yiRn ‘prolong’ belongs to the same EMC rhyme category as
EMC *biRnh ‘divide,’ the Kojiki phonogram for OJ bye (*mbe). This rhyme category (EMC *-iRn) corresponds to OSV -iên [iRn] and CT -iN [u]. (2) The CT reading of
EMC *yiRn ‘prolong’ is an exception to this generalization: CT chhian2 [tshyyεn] ends in -ian [yεn], not -iN [u]. Nonetheless, it does contain a front vowel [ε]. (3) DharmakÖema used
EMC *yiRn ‘prolong’ to transcribe the Indic syllables ya [y£], yaá [y£å ], and yaú(t) [y£n(t) ]. Compare Indic ya [y£] to pre-OJ *iR and *ia, the diphthongal sources of OJ *e. OJ e appears only seven times in Kojiki: twice in poetry (9.18.1, 9.18.2) and five times in prose (I: Age of the Gods). The poetic attestations of e are limited to the single exclamation ee whose spelling varies from text to text: (8.55a)



EMC *qæh qæh

(NKBT Kodai kayô shû, Nobuyoshi ms.)

(8.55b)
I =



EMC *qæh qæh

(Shintô taikei, Gohon ms.)

(8.55c)
I =



EMC *dep dep

(Shinpuku-ji, Kanenaga, Kan’ei mss.; Kojiki-den)

I is merely a symbol representing the repetition of the preceding character, so there is no real difference between (8.55a) and (8.55b). I will reject (8.55c) 246

THE RECONSTRUCTION OF OLD JAPANESE VOWELS

because
EMC *dep ‘pile up’ is not attested elsewhere as a phonogram for any OJ syllable. It may be a scribal error for some other character. Furthermore, this ee is parallel to the exclamation aa (spelled as

EMC *qa qa) later in the poem (9.21). The two remaining spellings (8.55a and 8.55b) contain
EMC *qæh ‘second,’ which belongs to the same rhyme category as
EMC *Yæ ‘tusk, ivory’ (cf. CT ge 2), the Kojiki phonogram for OJ gye (*Yge). EMC *-æ corresponds to OSV -e [εε] and CT -e, so I could reconstruct OJ e as *e. Yet OJ e is consistently spelled in the text of Kojiki with the phonogram
EMC *qRyh ‘love’ (cf. SK oy [£y] ) instead of
EMC *qæh ‘second.’ This phonogram belongs to the same rhyme category as
EMC *bRyq ‘multiply,’ the Kojiki phonogram for OJ bey (*mbRy). It rhymes precisely with
EMC *dRy ‘generation’ (cf. OSV $Ii [ßRRy] ), a phonogram for OJ de (*ndRy). All of this suggests that OJ e could also be pronounced as *Ry. It is difficult to draw conclusions about such an extremely rare syllable. Perhaps OJ e was pronounced as *Ry except in (a) marginal native words such as onomatopoeia and exclamations (i.e., OJ ee = *ee) and (b) Chinese loans such as
EMC *qæh > OJ Go-on *e? > Go-on e ‘second.’ A contrast between *Ry and *e contrast could have existed in Chinese loans (e.g., between
EMC *qæh > OJ Go-on *e? > Go-on e ‘second’ and
EMC *qty > OJ Go-on *Ry? > Go-on e ‘clothing’), but there is no evidence for such a contrast in native words. Thus far I have reconstructed OJ e as: 1 2 3

A-type ye (*e) in de, se, ze, ye B-type ey (*Ry) in we, te, ne, re either *e or *Ry in e.

This is still litle better than my original face-value interpretation because of the random split of dental-initial syllables between Type A and Type B. The Shoki data are needed to resolve this problem. In Shoki, OJ e corresponds to eight EMC rhymes (Table 8.41). One (*-ey) is primarily associated with Shoki ye-phonograms, four (*-εy, *-i, *-Ry, *-wRy) are associated with Shoki ey-phonograms, and the remaining three (*-et, *-iRn, *-iRy) are unique to Shoki e-phonograms. Two of the latter rhymes (*-iRn and *-iRy) are similar to rhymes associated with Shoki ye-phonograms (*-yiRn and *-yiRy). 88.2 per cent (231/262) of the e-syllables in Shoki are spelled with either *-ey or *-iRy. This figure rises to 92.4 per cent (242/262) if we treat all 11 instances of the phonogram H ‘phonogram for Jpn te’ as a variant of
EMC *tey / Kan-on tei ‘base.’ The rhymes *-ey and *-iRy had probably merged into a single [e]-like LMC rhyme because: 1 2

Amoghavajra used both rhymes to render Indic e. Their SX equivalents are indistinguishable (Table 8.42). 247

OLD JAPANESE

Table 8.41 OJ e in Shoki poetry OJ \ EMC OJ type

*-et ?

*-ey A

*-ey? A?

*-ey/*-εy A/B

*-i B

*-iRn A?

*-iRy A?

*-Ry B

*-wRy B

w t d n r s z y $ Subtotals Total

0 0 6 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 262

6 59 15 30 14 11 0 0 0 135

0 11 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 11

0 0 0 0 0 9 0 0 0 9

0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1

5 0 0 0 43 23 1 24 0 96

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 2

1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1

Table 8.42 SX equivalents of rhyme categories for Shoki e-phonograms EMC Kan SK SV

*-et -etu -yel [yRl] -êt [et]

*-ey -ei -yey [yRy] -ê [ee]

*-εy -ai -ay, -oy [ay £y] -ai, -o’i [aay RRy]

*-i -i -uy, -o, -i [ty £ i] -i, -y, -u’ [ii ii tt]

*-iRn -en -yen [yRn] -iên [iRn]

*-iRy -ei -yey [yRy] -ê [ee]

*-Ry -ai -ay, -oy [ay £y] -ai [aay]

*-wRy -(w)ai -ay, -woy [ay oy] -ôi [oy]

The EMC rhymes *-ey and *-iRy are the most common rhymes for phonograms of all Shoki e-syllables except e itself. Therefore I could reconstruct the vowel *e for all OJ e-syllables in Shoki other than e. The SX and transcriptive evidence for all e-phonograms appearing more than once generally agree with this reconstruction (Table 8.43). The above phonograms account for 95.4 per cent (250/262) of the total. OJ e is the only e-syllable in Shoki which is never written with phonograms of the *-ey and *-iRy rhymes. It is always written in Shoki poetry with the phonogram
EMC *qRyh ‘love.’ In the prose of Shoki, it is also written with two other phonograms: (8.56) OJ Ph e
‘dust’ e
‘mourn’

EMC *qRy *qRy

CLMC *q(ay) *q(ay)

Kan ai ai

SK SV ay ai [aay] oy [£y] ai [aay]

All three phonograms belong to the EMC *-Ry rhyme (cf. OSV -o’i [RRy] ) which probably lowered to *-ay in CLMC (p. 228). There is no evidence in Shoki for a *e-like pronunciation of the OJ syllable e. The exclamation ee 248

THE RECONSTRUCTION OF OLD JAPANESE VOWELS

Table 8.43 Common e-phonograms in Shoki poetry OJ

Ph

EMC

CLMC

Kan

SK

SV

Tib. tr.

Ind. tr. (Am)

we




H



*®weyh *wiRyh *tey (probably *teyq *net

*h®*w*ta variant *t*nd-

kei wei tei of
) tei detu

hyey wuy tye

huq vq $ê

hywe, hwe ’we’i –

– – – ti, tc –

*dey

*t®-

tei

$Y nát niUt $V

– ’der




ci, tyey nal nyel si, tyey

–













*tey *ney(h) *neyq *liRyh *leyq *ley *\iRyh *dzey(h) *crεy *tsi *ciRyh *\iRyh

*t*nd*nd*l*l*l*\*ts®*cr*ts*c*\-

tei dei dei rei rei rei sei sei sai si sei sei

tyey ni ni, nyey lyey lyey lye syey cyey coy co cyey syey

$ê nê, nq nW lq lW lê thU tV trai, chay – chU thU




*sey

*s-

sei

sye

tây, tê








*sey *seyh *jiRyh *yiRyh *qRyh

*s*s*c®*y*q-

sei sei sei ei ai

sye syey sye yey oy

tê tU phq [sic] dq, duq ái

ti, te, de, de’i, de’t – ’de – – le, le’i – zhe – – – – she, she’i, she’t se, sye, ’she – se – – a, e, a’i

te te, de

de, ne ne re se

ze ye e

– de – – – le 5e, 5ai – – – ce – – – se – yi, ye, yai ai, ai [sic], e

Note The syllable ze appears only twice in Shoki poetry. All texts spell one attestation (8.1.4) with
EMC *jiRyh ‘divine by stalks.’ Some texts spell the second attestation (78.1.4) with this graph while others spell it with the similar but homophonous phonogram
EMC *jiRyh ‘bite’ (Kan-on sei, SK sye, SV thq).

(*ee?, spelled

EMC *qæh qæh) in Kojiki poem 9 does not appear in the Shoki version of the poem (NS 7). I will reconstruct OJ e in Shoki as *Ry. Amoghavajra does spell Indic e as well as ai and ai [sic] with
EMC *qRyh / CLMC *q(ayh) ‘love,’ but this does not necessarily mean that I should reconstruct OJ e in Shoki as *e. If
‘love’ were pronounced as *e in CLMC, its Kan-on reading should be e < OJ period Kan-on *e, not ai < OJ period Kan-on *ay. Kan-on has no syllable such as e which would have derived from OJ period Kan-on *e or *Ry. This suggests that CLMC had no syllables such as *e or *Ry.
CLMC *q(ayh) ‘love’ was only an approximation of Indic e. One might want to argue that I could reconstruct the vowel in other OJ e-syllables as *Ry because Amoghavajra spells Indic 5ai [\ay] and yai [yay] 249

OLD JAPANESE

with Shoki phonograms for OJ se and ye (
‘power’ and
‘drag’). However, Amoghavajra may have been forced to use these phonograms because LMC in general lacked syllables such as *\ay and *yay. Kan-on lacks the syllables syai and yai. There are no SK syllables such as syay or yay. SV has no syllables such as dai, day, dây [zaay zay zRy] < *yaay, *yay, *yRy. SV thay, thây [thay thRy] < *\ay, *\Ry do not exist. SV thai [thaay] could not derive from an LMC syllable such as *\aay because it corresponds to Kan-on tai, sai and SK thay, chay < LMC *th-, *tsh-. The -yey [yRy] found among the SK readings of Shoki e-phonograms is not necessarily proof for the reconstruction of OJ e as *Ry because premodern SK had no [e]. I will continue to reconstruct the vowel *e for the majority of OJ e-syllables in Shoki. Should I continue to reconstruct *-Ry for some of the OJ e-syllables in Kojiki? I do not want to claim that the writers of Kojiki and Shoki had different pronunciations of this vowel. The two works were compiled during the same period and shared many poems. Surely they more or less reflect the same phonology. I think it would be simplest to assume that OJ e was *e except in the syllable e (*Ry). The use of EMC *-ey (southern EMC *-ay ~ *-Ry) phonograms in Kojiki may simply be a carryover from pre-OJ usage rather than evidence for OJ *Ry. The only e-syllables in the Suiko inscriptions are te, ne, and re, spelled as H ‘phonogram for Jpn te’ (a variant of
EMC *tey; cf.
EMC *tey, Cnt dài [tay] ‘low’),
EMC *neyh ‘mire’ (cf.
EMC *neyh, Cnt nàih [nay] ‘mire’), and
EMC *leyq ‘rites’ (cf. Cnt láih [lay] ). Perhaps OJ te, ne, re were *tRy, *nRy, *rRy in the early seventh century, but they may have become *te, *ne, *re by the early eighth century. The innovative Shoki orthography reflected this shift whereas the more conservative Kojiki orthography did not. OJ e = *Ry was the last e-syllable which had not yet shifted to *e. Eventually it too would monophthongize to *e (cf. Middle Korean ey [Ry] > Modern Korean [e] ). After the OJ period, it would merge with OJ ye = *ye into a single syllable *ye.

OJ o OJ o (‘C-type o’) in Kojiki corresponds to six EMC rhyme categories (Table 8.44). The rhymes *-t and *-tR were previously found among the phonograms for Kojiki o-syllables. OJ o is exclusively written with three phonograms belonging to these rhymes: (8.57) OJ o o o

Ph
‘silt’
‘idea’
‘in’

EMC OSV equiv. of rhyme category Freq *qtR(h) -ea [tR] 44 *qth -d [RR] 33 *qtR -ea [tR] 1 250

THE RECONSTRUCTION OF OLD JAPANESE VOWELS

Table 8.44 OJ o in Kojiki poetry OJ \ EMC OJ type

*-t B

*-tR B

*-o A

*-uRn

*-uw

*-wRn

p b w $ Subtotals Total

0 0 0 33 33 280

0 0 0 42 42

1 0 0 0 1

1 6 134 0 141

42 0 0 0 42

21 0 0 0 21

These characters are all read with unrounded vowels (R and t) as nôm phonograms: (8.58) OJ o o o

Ph
‘silt’
‘idea’
‘in’

EMC *qtR(h) *qth *qtR

Nôm readings dd [zRR] ‘dirty’ Py [}Ry] ‘that’ (cf. LOC *qRòhB ) N [}RR] ‘in,’ J [}tt] ‘yes,’ ea [}tR] ‘to like’

I am ignoring a rare alternative reading of
, EMC *qo < OC *qaA ‘ah!,’ which belongs to the EMC *-o rhyme category corresponding to OSV -o [QQ] and CT -o. If OJ o were *o, it would not have been written only once with an ambiguous *-tR/*-o character. It would have been predominantly written with unambiguous *-o characters such as
EMC *qo ‘crow.’ I will reconstruct the OJ syllable o as B-type o (*R). Mabuchi has proposed that there were two types of OJ o in Kojiki: 1 2

oA, written with
EMC *qth ‘idea’ oB, written with
EMC *qtR(h) ‘silt’.

Bentley (1997: 92) has criticized this proposal: It should be stated from the outset that the case with o is less than convincing, simply because of the inconsistency with the orthography . . . It is thus interesting that even Ishizuka [Tatsumaro] (1929, 1:20) had noticed this orthographical overlap, “There are cases where
[EMC *qth ‘idea’] and
[EMC *qtR(h) ‘silt’] are used interchangeably.” As a simple example of this confusion, consider that the [OJ] word opo- [‘great’] appears in poetry and proper names a total of 61 times in the text of Kojiki. The initial syllable is written with
[EMC *qth ‘idea’] 54 times, while it appears with
[EMC *qtR(h) ‘silt’] only seven times . . . If we are to believe that these two graphs represent phonetically different phonemes, why the apparent confusion? 251

OLD JAPANESE

Even Mabuchi (1957: 83) himself admits that the two graphs were sometimes used interchangeably. The phonological evidence for this distinction is scant. The two graphs involved do belong to different EMC rhyme categories (*-t and *-tR; cf. OSV -o’ [RR] and -u’a [tR] ). One could reconstruct OJ oA (written with *-t) as *t and OJ oB (written with *-tR) as *R, but then one would have to propose an allophonic lowering of *t to *R when not preceded by an initial consonant. Such an awkward rule would be necessary to prevent the vowel *t in OJ kiy, giy, piy, biy, miy (*kt, *Ygt, *pt, *mbt, *mt) from lowering to *R. (The vowel *t of these syllables fronted to *i in post-OJ.) I would rather not posit such a rule. Neither would I want to try to explain the overlapping usage of
EMC *qth ‘idea’ and
EMC *qtR(h) ‘silt’ for OJ o by claiming that the zero-initial syllables *t and *R were in free variation, even though OJ *Ct and *CR syllables were not in free variation. I will continue to reconstruct only a single variety of OJ o (*R). OJ wo is spelled with two phonograms of the *-uRn rhyme category: (8.59) OJ Ph EMC OSV equivs. of rhymes Freq wo
‘long gown’ *wuRn -uôn [uRn], -edn [tRn] 110 wo
‘distant’ *wuRnq -uôn [uRn], -edn [tRn] 24 ‘avoid’ *wuRnh -uôn [uRn], -edn [tRn] Unlike EMC, OSV distinguishes between -uôn [uRn] and -edn [tRn] after labial initials. This may reflect an LOC or southern EMC distinction absent from the Qieyun ‘language.’
EMC *wuRn ‘long gown’ is homophonous with
EMC *wuRn ‘garden,’ corresponding to OSV veIn [vtRn] ‘id.’ One vietograph for veIn ‘garden’ contains
EMC *wuRn ‘long gown’ as its base (phonetic element): v. Another homophone of
EMC *wuRn ‘long gown,’
EMC *wuRn ‘gibbon,’ corresponds to OSV ve%n [vtRn] ‘id.’ with an irregular n'ng tone. All this suggests that
EMC *wuRn ‘long gown’ and its near-homophone
EMC *wuRnq/h ‘distant’/‘avoid’ were pronounced as *wtRn and *wtRnq/h. I will tentatively reconstruct the OJ syllable represented by these two characters as *wR. OJ bo appears only in forms of the verb nobor- ‘climb.’ It is spelled with a single phonogram of the *-uRn rhyme category: (8.60) OJ Ph bo
‘trouble’

EMC *buRn

OSV Freq bu4n [(uRn] ‘sad’ 6

This phonogram could conceivably represent either *mbo or *mbR. On the one hand, Ôno Tôru (1962: 51) believes that
EMC *buRm ‘all’ (cf. its homophone
EMC *buRm / OSV bu4m [(uRm] ‘sail’) was a Suiko Period phonogram for A-type pwo (*po). Since
EMC *buRn ‘trouble’ is nearly homophonous with
EMC *buRm ‘all,’ I could reconstruct OJ bo as *mbo. 252

THE RECONSTRUCTION OF OLD JAPANESE VOWELS

On the other hand, the vowel *R is far more common than the vowel *o (Table 8.32). B-type mo (*mR) outnumbers A-type mwo (*mo) by a 3.65 : 1 (135 : 37) ratio in Kojiki. Any random OJ o is most likely to be a B-type o (*R). For the time being, I will reconstruct OJ bo as *mbR, though *mbo is also possible. OJ po is written with phonograms from four different EMC rhyme categories: (8.61) OJ Ph po
‘wealth’

po po po


‘book, origin’
‘phonogram for Indic bo’
‘trouble’

EMC *puwh < LOC *pRòhB *pwRn *bo *buRn

OSV cf. v% [vRR] ‘wife’ <
LOC *bRòqB

Freq 42

v3n [von] ‘origin’ (The OSV equiv. of this EMC rhyme is -o [QQ].) bu4n [(uRn] ‘sad’

21 1 1

On the basis of the EMC forms alone one might want to reconstruct OJ po as *po, though one could argue that
EMC *pwRn ‘origin’ < OC *pRnB and
EMC *buRn ‘trouble’ could have represented OJ *pR. Nagata (1934, 1935a, 1935b), Mabuchi (1957), and Bentley (1997) have claimed that there were two types of OJ po in Kojiki. I once rejected this claim because the EMC readings for all of the above characters contained labial vowels (*u, *o) and/or labial glides (*w). I saw no clear-cut evidence for reconstructing OJ po as *pR with a non-labial vowel *R. Yet
EMC *buwq < *bRòqB ‘wife,’ a near-homophone of the pophonogram
EMC *puwh ‘wealth,’ corresponds to LOC v% [vRR] with an unrounded vowel. Perhaps two pronunciations of OJ po existed: *pR, spelled with
LOC *pRòhB ‘wealth,’ and *po, spelled with
EMC *pwRn ‘origin.’ These two pronunciations probably did not represent two phonemically distinct syllables in eighth-century OJ. Bentley (1997: 170) thinks that the spellings of OJ po in Kojiki and Shoki reflect a distinction that was already lost “by the beginning of the seventh century (ca. 600).” Kojiki does not always preserve this distinction. For example, OJ moto posi ‘turn around’ was spelled twice with
EMC *pwRn ‘origin’ (implying A-type po = *po) as: (8.62)


! EMC *mRwq tRY pwRnq siR

(KJK 39.10, 109.4)

whereas the related verbs OJ moto pori ‘go around’ and OJ moto poro pu ‘go around’ were spelled with
LOC *pRòhB ‘wealth’ (implying B-type po = *pR) as: (8.63)


! EMC *mRw tRY puwh (LOC *pRòhB) ltq 253

(KJK 13.3)

OLD JAPANESE

(8.64)



!

EMC *mRw tRY puwh (LOC *pRòhB) ltRq poh (KJK 13.4, 34.4)

Presumably all three verbs share the same root (reconstructed by Martin 1987: 727 as *mo-topo- = my *mR-tRpR-). Bentley (1997: 133) considers the spelling in (8.62) for OJ moto posi ‘turn around’ to be a “misspelling.” The ‘correct’ spelling might have been (8.65)


! EMC *mRw tRY puwh (LOC *pRòhB ) siR

with
LOC *pRòhB ‘wealth’ instead of
EMC *pwRn ‘origin.’ Nevertheless, most OJ words containing the syllable po in Kojiki are consistently spelled either with phonograms implying *po (‘A-type’ pwophonograms) or with phonograms implying *pR (‘B-type’ po-phonograms) (Bentley 1997: 82–83). Below I list all of the po-phonograms in the poetry and prose of Kojiki along with their A/B-type classifications according to Bentley (1997: 77). Phonograms found only in the prose of Kojiki are marked with an asterisk (*). (8.66) OJ / Type pwo A pwo A po B po B po B

po B po B

Ph

EMC


‘book, origin’
‘phonogram for Indic bo’
‘wealth’

*pwRn < LOC *pRnqA (!) *bo -o [QQ]


‘trouble’
* ‘bold’ ‘place name’ ‘turn’
* ‘hedge’ ‘growth’
* ‘goods’

*puwh < LOC *pRòhB *buRn *pa *phan *phuRn *puRn *buRn *phimq < OC *phrRmqB

OSV equivs. of EMC rhymes -ôn [on]

-d [RR] -uôn, -edn [uRn tRn] -a [aa] -an [aan] -uôn, [uRn tRn] -uôn, -edn [uRn tRn] -uôn, -edn [uRn tRn] -im [im]

It is difficult to attribute the distinction between the two types of phonograms to chance. If A-type
EMC *pwRn ‘origin’ and B-type
LOC *pRòhB ‘wealth’ were truly interchangeable graphs, we would expect to see the second syllable of the high frequency OJ prefix opo- ‘large’ spelled with both graphs. But the po of OJ opo- is always spelled with B-type
LOC *pRòhB ‘wealth,’ implying that it had once been *pR. Skeptics may wish to point out that the A-type phonogram
‘origin’ belonged to the OC
*-Rn/*-Rr ‘literary’ rhyme. The medial *-w- in its 254

THE RECONSTRUCTION OF OLD JAPANESE VOWELS

EMC reading is an innovation absent in its OC and LOC readings (*pRrqA and *pRnqA). We cannot be absolutely certain that
‘origin’ was chosen for its EMC reading *pwRnq (cf. OSV v3n [von] ) rather than its LOC reading *pRnqA. If
‘origin’ is actually a phonogram for OJ *pR, then we would have to explain the spelling distinctions between
‘origin’ and
‘wealth’ as the byproduct of arbitrary traditions which had nothing to do with phonology. The remaining A-type phonogram for OJ po,
EMC *bo ‘phonogram for Indic bo’ is so rare that it cannot be considered to be sufficient evidence for a *po distinct from *pR. It appears only once in poetry and six times in the text (I: Age of the Gods): (8.67a)
 OJ pokyi ‘pray’ (once; KJK 39.7) (8.67b)
 OJ Ame no popyi ‘name of a god’ (five times; I: Age of the Gods) (8.67c)
OJ po (once; partial gloss for the above name; I: Age of the Gods) OJ pokyi ‘pray’ is also spelled as
 with
‘origin’ (for OJ *po or *pR?) in poetry (KJK 39.8) and in the text (KJK III: Nintoku). We could then simply regard the one spelling of this word with
EMC *bo ‘phonogram for Indic bo’ as an isolated anomaly or as further evidence for reconstructing OJ pokyi ‘pray’ as *poki. The issues involved in determining whether two types of po existed in Kojiki are highly complex. I advise the interested reader to consult Bentley’s (1997) MA thesis on OJ po and mo for a more detailed discussion of the subject. I will not reconstruct a phonetic value for OJ po until I examine the Shoki data. As for the other OJ o-syllables (o, bo, wo), I have reconstructed *R for all of them, though the evidence for OJ bo (*mbR?) is open to interpretation. OJ o in Shoki corresponds to a wide variety of EMC rhyme categories. Five of these rhyme categories (*-ik, *-it, *-uRn, *-uy, *-wan) appear only once: (8.68) OJ Ph o
‘100,000’ o
‘second Heavenly Stem’ bo
‘trouble’ po
‘spend’ wo
‘alarmed’

EMC *qik *qit

CLMC Kan SK *qyoku ek [Rk] *qitu ul [tl]

*buRn *f®*buy *f®*qwanh *q-

SV ú’c [}tk] Pt [}Rt]

han hi wan

pen [pRn] phiVn [fiRn] pi phí, phh [fii] wan oán [}waan]

hai kwai

poy ?

One category appears only twice: (8.69) po
‘support’ wo
‘return’

*bwRy *®wRy

*p®*h®255

b4i [(oy] h4i [hoy]

OLD JAPANESE

Table 8.45 OJ o in Shoki poetry OJ \ LMC OJ type

*-aw A

*-tR B

*-o A

*-RY B

*-Rw A

p b m w $ Subtotals Total

13 0 2 20 17 0 0 0 8 1 28 0 30 0 84 0 0 111 0 0 0 71 0 0 0 41 71 143 28 102 423 (430 including the data in 8.69)

*-Ry B

*-uRY ?

*-uw A

*-wRY ?

4 0 0 0 0 4

0 0 15 0 0 15

0 0 14 0 0 14

0 0 0 5 0 5

Table 8.46 SX equivalents of rhyme categories for Shoki o-phonograms EMC Kan SK SV

*-aw -au -wo [o] -ao [aaw]

*-tR -yo -e [R] -e [tt]

*-o -o -wo [o] -ô [oo]

*-RY -ou -ung [tY] -#ng, -eng [aY] [tY]

*-Rw -ou -wu [u] -âu [Rw]

*-Ry -ai -ay, -oy [ay] [£y] -ai [aay]

*-uRY -(w)au -ang [aY] -uông [uRY]

*-uw -iu -wu [u] -eu [tw]

*-wRY -ou -wong [oY] -o#ng [waY]

I list all categories which appear more than once in Table 8.45. The categories in Table 8.45 correspond to the SX rhymes in Table 8.46. OJ o in Shoki is almost exclusively spelled with phonograms of the EMC *-tR category: (8.70) OJ o o o

Ph
‘in’
‘feast’
‘silt’

EMC *qtR *qtRh *qtR(h)

CLMC *q*q*q-

Kan yo yo yo

SK SV e [R] e [tt] e [R] E [tt] e [R] E [tt]

Freq 52 17 2

(Once again, I am ignoring a rare alternative reading of
, EMC *qo ‘ah!’) The SK and SV readings for these characters have unrounded vowels ( [R] and [tt] ) while the Kan-on readings have an initial y- that corresponds to zero in the other two SX branches. The SX readings may reflect front rounded vowels in different LMC dialects: (8.71) EMC LMC Borrowed as *-tR > *-ö? (north?) > SK -e [R] *-tR > *-yö? (CLMC) > Kan -yo (*yR?) *-tR > *-ü? (south?) > SV -e [tt] 256

Modern Chn reflexes Beijing Mdn yu [ü] Xi’an Mdn [ü] Cnt yu [ü]

THE RECONSTRUCTION OF OLD JAPANESE VOWELS

I would prefer to assume that they may be near-exact copies of the original LMC finals: (8.72) EMC LMC *-tR > *-R? (north?) *-tR > *-yR? (CLMC) *-tR > *-t? (south?)

Borrowed as > SK -e [R] > Kan -yo (*yR?) > SV -e [tt]

Modern Chn reflexes Beijing Mdn yu [ü] Xi’an Mdn [ü] Cnt yu [ü]

Pulleyblank (1991a: 11) reconstructs the LMC reflex of EMC *-tR as *-iR ~ *-üR. Coblin (1994: 54, 79) reconstructs the seventh- and eighth-century CLMC reflex of EMC *-tR as a mid front rounded vowel *-ø (cf. 8.71). Amoghavajra does not use any of the Shoki phonograms for OJ o or their near-homophones in his transcriptions. The CLMC readings of these characters must not have resembled anything in Indic, which lacked front rounded vowels (ü, ö) and the diphthong [tR]. Moreover, they were borrowed as Kan-on yo, so they must not have been exact matches for OJ o. There is no syllable o in premodern Kan-on orthography. (Modern Kan-on o was once spelled as wo.) I will reconstruct the OJ syllable o as *R in Shoki as well as Kojiki. This *R is unrounded and non-low like SK e [R] and SV u’ [tt]. It is also acoustically similar to [ö]. (Cf. Vietnamese bd [(RR] < French beurre [bœ*] ‘butter.’) The two rare phonograms for OJ o in (8.68),
‘100,000’ and
‘second Heavenly Stem,’ have SK and SV readings with unrounded non-low vowels (SK e [R], SV â [R], and SV u’ [t] ) which are consistent with my reconstruction of OJ o as *R. Both appear in the beta section (NS 2.2.1, 4.1.1) and may have been chosen for their Go-on readings:
Go-on oku < OJ Go-on *Rku? (cf. SK ek [Rk], LOC *qtkB < OC *qRkB ) and
Go-on otu < OJ Go-on *Rtu? (cf. SK ul [tl], LOC *qitB < OC *qrRtB ). 95.7 per cent (111/116) of OJ wo in Shoki are written with phonograms of the EMC *-o category which corresponds to SK wo [o] and SV ô [oo]: (8.73) OJ wo wo wo wo

Ph
‘crow’
‘alas’
‘wall’
‘particle’

EMC *qo *qo *qoq *®o

CLMC *q*q*q*h®-

Kan wo wo wo ko

SK wo [o] wo [o] wo [o] hwo [ho]

SV ô [oo] ô [oo] 7 [oo] h4 [hoo]

Freq 47 34 25 6

The other phonograms for OJ wo have SV and SK readings with labial glides (SV -o- [w] ) or vowels (SK wo [o], SV ô [o] ): (8.74) OJ wo wo wo

Ph
‘great’
‘return’
‘alarmed’

EMC *®wRY *®wRy *qwanh

CLMC *h®*h®*q257

Kan kou kwai wan

SK hwoyng hwoy wan

SV ho9ng [hwaY] h4i [hoy] oán [}waan]

Freq 4 1 1

OLD JAPANESE

The Shoki evidence strongly contradicts my previous reconstruction of OJ wo as *wR. OJ wo appears to have been *wo with a rounded vowel. How can I explain the vast discrepancy in spelling between the two texts? I once hypothesized that the Kojiki orthography reflected an older *wR that no longer existed, whereas the Shoki orthography reflected the then-current pronunciation *wo. If so, one would expect OJ wo to be spelled with characters such as
EMC *wuRn ‘long gown’ (cf. OSV vu’o’n [vtRn] for its homophone
EMC *wuRn ‘garden’) in pre-Kojiki texts. However, in the Suiko Period inscriptions, OJ wo was spelled with
EMC *®o < LOC *woA ‘question particle,’ which is also a Shoki phonogram for wo (8.73). The pronunciation *wo must have existed since the early seventh century. Perhaps *wo and *wR were once in free variation but had merged into *wo by the eighth century. I will reconstruct OJ wo as *wo. OJ po, bo, mo are spelled in Shoki with phonograms implying both rounded and unrounded vowels (Table 8.47). Should I reconstruct allophonic variation between *o and *R for these syllables: i.e., *po ~ *pR, *mbo ~ *mbR, *mo ~ *mR? Or should I reconstruct a phonemic distinction between *o and *R after *p, *b, *m? In his MA thesis, Bentley (1997) has proposed that Shoki partly preserved distinctions between (1) OJ *po and *pR and (2) OJ *mo and *mR. One cannot see these distinctions if one looks at Shoki as a whole. Bentley claims that they are present only in the beta section, which is written in a relatively more conservative orthography. He thinks that these orthographic distinctions represented phonological distinctions lost in eighth-century OJ. I cannot present his entire argument here, but I will summarize the highlights. (1) Bentley (1997) assumes that there were orthographic distinctions between (a) two kinds of OJ po (our *po and *pR) and (b) two kinds of OJ mo (our *mo and *mR) in Kojiki. I have already outlined the evidence for the former distinction above. Ishizuka Tatsumaro first discovered the latter distinction in his Kanazukai oku no yamamichi (The Mountain Road into the Secrets of Kana Usage; c. 1795). It was later confirmed by Ikegami (1932) and Arisaka (1932) and has been accepted by nearly all scholars ever since. (2) Bentley (1997) examined the poems shared by Kojiki and the beta section of Shoki and found that: (a) The Kojiki phonogram for A-type pwo (*po),
EMC *pwRn ‘origin’ (cf. OSV v3n [von] ) corresponds to the Shoki beta section phonogram
EMC *pawq / CLMC *p- ‘protect’ (cf. SK pwo [po], SV bko [(aaw] ). (b) The Kojiki phonogram for B-type po (*pR),
LOC *pRòhB ‘wealth’ (cf. OSV v% [vRR] ‘wife’ <
LOC *bRòqB ‘id.’) corresponds to the Shoki beta section phonogram
EMC *bRY / CLMC *p®- ‘friend’ (cf. SK pung [ptY], SV b9ng [(aY] ).

258

THE RECONSTRUCTION OF OLD JAPANESE VOWELS

(c) The Kojiki phonogram for A-type mwo (*mo),
EMC *maw ‘hair’ (cf. SK mwo [mo] ), corresponds to the Shoki beta section phonogram
EMC *maw / CLMC *mb- ‘hair’ (cf. SK mwo [mo], SV mao [maaw] ). (d) The Kojiki phonogram for B-type mo,
EMC *mRwq < LOC *mRòqA ‘mother,’ corresponds to three Shoki beta section phonograms (8.75) which have SV readings with unrounded vowels (â [R] and o [aw] of the final -ong [aw§] ): (8.75) OJ Ph mo B
‘lush’ mo B
‘hope’ mo B
‘mother’

EMC *mRwh *muRYh *mRwq

CLMC *mb*m(b)v*mb-

Kan bou bau bou

SK mwu mang mwu

SV Freq (β) mpu 46 vong 15 mRu 5

Only one of the SK readings has an unrounded vowel (
SK mang ‘hope’). The other two SK readings have rounded vowels (
SK mwu [mu] ‘lush’ and
SK mwu [mu] ‘mother’; the latter is read as SK mwo [mo] in modern Korean). This does not necessarily mean that the LMC readings also had rounded vowels because Korean does not permit [Rw] as a final. SK -wu [u] (-wuw in the prescriptive SK of the Tongkwuk cengwun dictionary) regularly corresponds to SV -âu [Rw] (Table 8.46). The unrounded vowels of SV and the -a- of
SK mang ‘hope’ are similar to the unrounded *R that I reconstructed for OJ B-type mo (p. 216). Bentley (1997: 30) also reconstructs “a central, unrounded vowel [R]” for OJ B-type mo. (3) Bentley regarded these correlations between Kojiki and beta section Shoki phonograms as vestiges for an earlier distinction between A-type wo (our *o) and B-type o (our *R) before OJ *p and *m. He does not think these correlations are due to chance: “To assign some amount of luck (or twisted fortuity) to the various poets and later compilers is absurd” (1997: 40). (4) The distinction between *o and *R before OJ *p and *m could not have been phonemic in the eighth century. Out of a total of 233 instances of OJ po and mo in the beta section of Shoki, Bentley (1997: 37–46, 134–136) has found that only 23 (9.9 per cent = 23/233) instances are spelled with the ‘wrong’ phonograms if one considers the Kojiki spellings to be ‘correct.’ There is no evidence for a distinction between *o and *R before OJ *p and *m in the alpha section of Shoki. Alpha section scribes used A- and B-type phonograms indiscriminately when writing OJ po and mo: (8.76) OJ sipwo ‘tide’ *sipo

Kojiki
 (108.1) A-type
EMC *pwRn ‘origin’ (cf. OSV v3n [von])

259

Shoki alpha section
=(87.1) B-type?
EMC *bRw / CLMC *p®- ‘collect’ (cf. SV biVu [(iRw])

OLD JAPANESE

opo- ‘great’ *RpR

imwo ‘beloved girl’ *imo

moto ‘base’ *mRtR


 (36.3) B-type
EMC *puwh < LOC *pRòhB ‘wealth’ (cf. OSV v% [vRR] ‘wife’
LOC *bRòqB ‘id.’)
 (8.4)


 (100.3, 101.3) A-type?
EMC *poq / CLMC *p- ‘record book’ (cf. SK pwo [po], SV ph7 [foo])
 (114.3)

A-type
EMC *maw ‘hair’ (cf. SK mwo [mo] )

B-type
EMC *mRw / CLMC *mb- ‘mother’ (cf. SV mRu [mRw] )
 (11.4)
 (114.1) B-type
EMC *mRw A-type?
EMC *mo < LOC *mRòqA ‘mother’ / CLMC *mb- ‘model’ (cf. SK mwo [mo], SV mô [moo] )

Bentley (1997: 65) regards instances in which Kojiki and Shoki alpha section spellings of mwo coincide as “chance (or ‘lucky’) etymological spelling.” The alpha section scribes were presumably using their innovative orthography to record their own phonology rather than the phonology implied by previous orthographic traditions. Their inconsistent spelling may indicate that *o and *R were in free variation after *p and *m. I will reconstruct OJ po and mo as *po and *mo, which may have phonetically varied between *[po mo] and *[pR mR]. I choose the symbol *o to represent both types of pronunciations because *R shifted to *o in post-OJ. OJ *o and *R might have been phonemically distinct after *p and *m in SJ readings: (8.77)
Kan ho < OJ Kan *po? ‘record book’ (cf. SK pwo [po], SV ph7 [foo] ) vs.
Kan hou < OJ Kan *pRw? ‘friend’ (cf. SK pung [ptY], SV b9ng [(aY] )
Kan mo < OJ Kan *mo? ‘model’ (cf. SK mwo [mo], SV mô [moo] ) vs.
Kan mo < OJ Kan *mR? ‘mother’ (cf. SV mRu [mRw] ) OJ bo is written with only three phonograms in Shoki poetry: (8.78) OJ bo bo bo

Ph
‘friend’
‘trouble’
‘collect’

EMC *bRY *buRn *bRw

CLMC *p®*p®*p®-

Kan hou han hou

SK pung [ptY] pen [pRn] pwu [pu]

SV b9ng [(aY] phiVn [fiRn] biVu [(iRw]

Freq 8 1 1

Five of the six SK and SV readings have unrounded vowels (SK u [t], e [R] and SV # [a], iê [iR] ). The rounded vowel of SK pwu [pu] for
‘collect’ probably reflects an LMC *-Rw. (Korean phonotactics forbid the final [Rw].) 260

THE RECONSTRUCTION OF OLD JAPANESE VOWELS

Table 8.47 Common o-phonograms in Shoki poetry OJ

Ph

EMC

CLMC

Kan

SK

SV

Tib. tr.

Ind. tr. (Am)

po












*bRY *bRw *pawq *bRY *mRwh *mRwq *maw *muRYh *muw

*p®*p®*p*p®*mb*mb*mb*m(b)v*mb-

hou hou hau hou bou bou bau bau bou

b9ng biVu bko b9ng mpu mRu mao vong meu

– – – – ’bu bu, ’bu ’be’u ’phwang –

– – – – – mu, vu – – (ú)bu [(m)bu]












*moh *mo *moh *qo *qo *qoq *®o *qtR *qtRh

*mb*mb*mb*q*q*q*h®*q*q-

bo bo bo wo wo wo ko yo yo

pung pwu pwo pung mwu mwu mwo mang mwu mwo mwo mwo mwo wo wo wo hwo e e

ms mô ms ô ô 7 h4 e E

– ma [sic] – – – – – i, u u’o

bu, mo mo – – – u – – –

bo mo

wo

o

Having reconstructed OJ po, mo, wo as *po, *mo, *wo, it would be odd to reconstruct OJ bo as *mbR, the only labial-initial syllable followed by an unrounded vowel. Purely for the sake of parallelism, I will write my reconstruction of OJ bo as *mbo, though this *mbo could have been pronounced as *[mbR]. If OJ bo were *[mbo], Shoki scribes could have written it with phonograms such as
EMC *mo / CLMC *mb- ‘model’ (cf. SK mwo [mo], SV mô [moo] ). *[mbo] may have existed only in OJ period SJ readings. The OJ Kan-on reading of
‘model’ may have been *mbo (> post-OJ Kan bo), which could have contrasted with the OJ Kan-on reading of
‘mother,’ *mbRw (> post-OJ Kan bou). The Indic and Tibetan transcriptive data for o-phonograms are too scanty to be of much use. In Table 8.47, I list all o-phonograms which appear more than five times in Shoki poetry. Out of these eighteen phonograms constituting 93.7 per cent (403/430) of the total, only seven have Tibetan transcriptions and only five appear in Amoghavajra’s Indic transcriptions. Two of Bentley’s (1997) phonograms for B-type mo have interesting Tibetan transcriptions and/or Indic transcription values.
EMC *mRwq / CLMC *mb- ‘mother’ and
EMC *mRwh / CLMC *mb- ‘lush,’ are transcribed with -u in Tibetan script. Amoghavajra used the former character to transcribe Indic mu and vu. Coblin (1994: 262) has reconstructed their seventh-century CLMC readings as *mou and *mou (cf. Kan-on bou and bou). If these two characters did have rounded vowels in CLMC, then their status as phonograms for B-type mo (*mR) in the beta section of Shoki might be questionable. 261

OLD JAPANESE

Then again, how would we explain the correlations between these two phonograms and the Kojiki phonogram for mo (*mR),
‘mother’ EMC *mRwq < LOC *mRòqA? Surely the beta section scribes were aware of the Go-on readings of
‘mother’ and
‘lush’ (Go mo and mou < OJ Go *mR and *mRw? < LOC *mRòqA and EMC *mRwh). Perhaps they selected these two phonograms on the basis of these older readings without rounded vowels and disregarded the newer Kan-on readings with rounded vowels (Kan bou and bou < OJ Kan *mbow and *mbow? < CLMC *mbow and *mbowh?). The issues concerning the reconstruction of OJ po and mo are extremely complicated. I recommend those interested in the subject to consult Bentley’s (1997) MA thesis on these two syllables. For now, I will reconstruct OJ o as: 1 2 3

*R in o (which could be rewritten as B-type o ) *o in wo *R ~ *o in free variation in po, bo, and mo. If I must choose one symbol for the vowel of these three syllables, it would be *o, though there is no phonogram evidence for an *o-pronunciation of bo.

The Kojiki evidence indicates that in pre-eighth-century Japanese: (1) Pre-OJ wo may have been pronounced as *[wR] (though the Suiko Period orthography indicates that wo was already being pronounced as *[wo] as in the eighth century). (2) Pre-OJ *o and *R were phonemically distinct after *p and *m in native words. Both of these vowels merged into [o] in post-OJ.

Summary I have reconstructed the eight ‘vowel’ system for OJ in Table 8.48. The reconstructed values of four of these ‘vowels’ (iy, ye, ey, wo) do not conflict with theories of their diphthongal origins: Table 8.48 The ‘vowels’ of OJ

High Mid Low

Front

Central

Back

Diphthong

‘A-type i’ yi = *i ‘A-type e’ ye = *e

‘B-type i’ iy = *t ‘B-type o’ o = *R a = *a

u = *u ‘B-type o’ wo = *o

‘B-type e’ ey = *Ry = o + yi

262

THE RECONSTRUCTION OF OLD JAPANESE VOWELS

(8.79) Pre-OJ *ui, *Ri *ai *ia, *iR *ua, *uR

> > > >

OJ *t ( [ty]?) = iy (‘B-type i’) *Ry = ey (‘B-type e’) *e = ye (‘A-type e’) *o = wo (‘A-type o’)

I have not reconstructed any OJ C-type ‘vowels’ (i, e, o) distinct from the OJ A-type and B-type ‘vowels.’ If the OJ C-type ‘vowels’ were truly separate entities, they would have had their own unique set of correspondences with EMC rhyme categories: (8.80) OJ EMC a, u : *-a, *-uw . . . ‘A-type’ vowels: yi, ye, wo : *-i, *-ey, *-o . . . ‘B-type’ vowels: iy, ey, o : *-ty, *-Ry, *-t . . . ‘C-type’ vowels: i, e, o : *-X, *-Y, *-Z . . . But in reality their correspondences overlap with those of the OJ A and B-type ‘vowels’: (8.81) OJ a, u ‘A-type’ vowels: yi, ye, wo ‘B-type’ vowels: iy, ey, o ‘C-type’ vowels: i, e, o

: : : :

EMC *-a, *-uw . . . *-i, *-ey, *-o . . . *-ty, *-Ry, *-t . . . *-i, *-ey, *-o, *-ty, *-Ry, *-t . . .

Hence I reanalyzed the C-type ‘vowels’ as A- and B-type ‘vowels.’ Some syllables containing C-type ‘vowels’ were consistently pronounced with A- or B-type ‘vowels’ while others could be pronounced with either type of ‘vowel’ (Table 8.49). In EMJ, the eight ‘vowels’ of OJ had been reduced to five: a, i, u, e, o (*a, *i, *u, *e, *o). Jerome Packard and an unidentified graduate student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign pointed out to me during a 1999 lecture of mine that this reduction could be viewed as the result of ‘peripheralization.’ The B-type ‘vowels’ consist of two central vowels (*t and *R) and a diphthong containing a central vowel (*Ry = *Ri) whereas the remaining vowels (*a, *i, *u, *e, *o) are on the periphery of the vowel triangle (Figure 8.1). The B-type ‘vowels’ (*t, *Ry, *R) seem to have dispersed outward toward the edges of the triangle, merging with their A-type counterparts (*i, *e, *o) in the process (Figure 8.1). These shifts had already begun before the OJ period: (1) Pre-OJ B-type *t and *Ry had shifted to A-type *i and *e after coronal initials (*t, *nd, *n, *r, *s, *nz) and glides (*y and *w). A contrast between

263

OLD JAPANESE

Table 8.49 OJ syllables with C-type ‘vowels’ Type Vowel p b m w t d n r s z y $

*[p] *[mb] *[m] *[w] *[t] *[nd] *[n] *[r] *[s] *[z] *[y]

A yi *[i]

B iy *[t]

A~B yi~iy *[i t]

A ye *[e]

B ey *[Ry]

A~B ye~ey *[e Ry]

A wo *[o]

B o *[R]

A~B wo~o *[o R] po bo (?) mo

wi ti di ni ri si zi

we te de ne re se ze ye

wo

i

e

*i

o

*i

*u

*Cy *e

*C

*o

*a

Figure 8.1 The ‘peripheralization’ of the OJ B-type ‘vowels’

A-type *i, *e and B-type *t, *Ry remained only after grave initials other than *w (*p, *mb, *m, *k, *g). (2) By the eighth century, *R had assimilated to *o after the labial glide *w. *R and *o were no longer phonemically distinct after labial initials (*p, *mb, *m, *w), though the distinction remained after all other initials (*t, *nd, *n, *r, *s, *nz, *y, *k, *g). The above statements may have applied only to native words. The full paradigm of ‘vocalic’ distinctions after all initials could have persisted in OJ period Go-on and Kan-on readings. In my final chapter, I will outline my hypotheses about eighth-century Sino-Japanese phonology after reconstructing the syllabic structure of OJ.

264

CONCLUSION

9 CONCLUSION

In the previous two chapters, I have reconstructed the consonants and vowels of OJ. In (4.34), I provided a crude formulation of OJ syllable structure: (9.1) *C + ‘vowel’ I am now able to supply specific values for the variables ‘C’ and ‘vowel’: C = {*p, *mb, *m, *w, *t, *nd, *n, *r, *s, *nz, *y, *k, *Yg, *Ø} ‘vowel’ = {*a, *i, *t, *u, *e, *Ry, *o, *R} I find the formulation of OJ syllable structure in (9.1) to be somewhat awkward because it treats the diphthong *Ry as a single ‘vowel.’ I cannot reanalyze OJ syllables such as key (*kRy) as two-syllable sequences (i.e., as *kR + *i) because: (1) Most phonograms represented single OJ syllables. If OJ key were composed of two syllables, it might have been written with two phonograms as *
 EMC *ktR qyi. Yet scribes never wrote OJ key or any other ey-‘syllable’ with sequences of phonograms. (2) For the purposes of poetic meter, OJ ey-syllables were treated as single syllables and not as syllabic sequences. Instead of breaking up ey-syllables to force them into a rigid CV structure, I could rewrite (9.1) as (9.2) to accommodate them: (9.2) *CV1(V2 )

V1 = {*a, *i, *t, *u, *e, *o, *R}

V2 = {*i}

(9.2) would appear to account for a handful of native OJ words containing V1V2 combinations other than *Ri such as kai ‘oar’ and kui ‘regret.’ But these apparent CVV monosyllables are always spelled with phonogram sequences implying disyllables:

265

OLD JAPANESE

(9.3) kai ‘oar’


 EMC *kæ qyi
 EMC *®ah (< LOC *gah) qyi)

(MYS 153.9, etc.) (MYS 1052.5)

(9.4) kui ‘regret’
 EMC *kuR qyi / CLMC *k- q(NS 124.7) (cf. SK kwu i [ku i], SV cu y [kuu }ii] ) If these words were truly monosyllabic in the eighth century, we would expect them to have been transcribed with single phonograms such as
EMC *kayh ‘cover’ and
EMC *kuyh ‘valuable.’ These words cannot be used to justify (9.2). I would rather rewrite (9.2) as: (9.5) *C(G)V(G)

G = {*w, *y}

V = {*a, *i, *t, *u, *e, *o, *R}

This formulation might account for OJ period SJ syllables as well as native OJ syllables. (1) Unlike native Japanese, SJ may have allowed initial clusters of the types *Cw and *Cy, represented in post-OJ kana orthography as Cu-w- and Ci-y-. Cy clusters are still found in MSJ (e.g. Tôkyô [tookyoo] < tou kyau (to-u ki-ya-u) <
 EMC *tRwY kiRY ‘eastern capital’), though the Cw clusters are now obsolete. Some modern Japanese dialects still preserve the SJ clusters kw- and gw- (Martin 1987: 72). (2) Post-OJ SJ readings contain the diphthongs in Table 9.1. The diphthong oi occurs only in a Tô-Sô-on reading hoi (p. 231) for
EMC *bwRyh ‘dry over heat.’ This -oi entered the language centuries after the OJ period and was not part of the original system of OJ diphthongs. Did OJ period SJ lack diphthongs such as *-oi or *-Ri which would have merged into post-OJ -oi? This seems unlikely because SK, OSV, and SV have finals resembling those two diphthongs: (9.6) SK

OSV

SV

[oy] -woy
hwoy ‘turn’ -ôi
$ôi ‘double’ -ôi
h4i ‘turn’

[Qy] –

[RRy] –

[Ry] –

-oi
mii ‘every’ –

-o’i
$Ii ‘generation’ –

-ây
tây ‘west’ –

266

[£y] -oy
poy ‘multiply’ –

–

CONCLUSION

Table 9.1 Post-OJ SJ diphthongs V1 \ V2

a

i

u

e

o

a i u e o

– – – – –

ai – ui ei (oi)

au iu uu eu ou

– – – – –

– – – – –

The SX rhymes above correspond to the following OJ ‘vowels’ and SJ finals: (9.7) SK/SV OJ Go Kan

[oy] ey (*Ry) -(w)e, -(w)ai -(w)ai

[Qy] ey (*Ry) -e, -ai -ai

[RRy] ey (*Ry) -e, -ai -ai

[Ry] ey (*Ry) -e, -ai -ai

[£y] ey (*Ry) -e, -ai -ai

I believe that Go-on -e (< OJ -ey = *Ry?) is the ‘missing’ *-Ri. There is no definite evidence for an *-oi in OJ period Go-on or Kan-on. Such an *-oi would have become post-OJ -oi unless it had shifted to -we. (3) I would like to reconstruct OJ -ey = *Ry and the OJ period forms of post-OJ SJ finals such as -ai, -au, etc. as combinations of vowels and glides (/Ry ay aw/) rather than as vocalic sequences (/Ri ai au/). I do not think that the OJ period SJ readings of characters such as
Kan-on kai (cf. SK koy [k£y], SV khai [xaay] ) ‘open’ were bisyllabic like OJ kai ‘oar’ or kui ‘regret.’ Such characters were used to write Japanese monosyllables:
‘open’ was the most frequent phonogram for OJ key (*kRy). Perhaps they were also borrowed as Japanese monosyllables ending in glides (i.e., nonsyllabic vowels): the OJ Kan-on reading of
‘open’ would have been *kay which would have been distinct from disyllabic OJ kai (*kai) ‘oar.’ On p. 238, I noted that *Ry was an “aberrant diphthong” which detracted from an otherwise neat vowel system (Tables 8.32 and 8.48). The glide coda hypothesis would enable me to reanalyze *Ry as the vowel *R followed by the glide *y. *Ry would no longer be a solitary diphthong. Instead, it would be but one of many vowel–glide sequences. All of these sequences with the exception of *Ry (and *t = *[ty]?) would only be in OJ period SJ (Table 9.2). Leon Serafim (p.c.) suggested the possibility of an OJ period SJ *-tw which became postOJ SJ -iu. This final would correspond to SK -wu [u] and SV -eu [tw]. I have placed this final in parentheses since I cannot verify its existence. (4) Vowel-glide sequences may date back to pre-OJ. Pre-OJ diphthongs ending in *-i and *-u might have been VG sequences: *-ay, *-aw, etc. They may have retained their VG structure in OJ, though their vowels sometimes assimilated to the following glide:

267

OLD JAPANESE

Table 9.2 OJ period SJ vowel–glide sequences V\G

OJ *-y

*a *i *t *u *e *o *R

*ay – *ty = *t *uy *ey – *Ry

(9.8) Pre-OJ *ay > *Ry > *uy >

OJ *Ry *t (*[ty]?) *t (*[ty]?)

Post-OJ

*-w

>

-ai

> > >

-i -ui -ei

>

-e

*aw *iw (*tw *uw *ew *ow *Rw

Post-OJ > > > > > > >

-au -iu -iu ?) -uu -eu -ou -ou

(low *a raised to mid *R before *y) (mid *R raised to high *t before *y) (*u lost its rounding before *y)

OJ speakers already had indigenous *Vy sequences (*Ry and perhaps *ty), so they could have borrowed Chinese *Vy sequences such as *ay, *ey, and *uy without much effort. There may not have been any indigenous Vw sequences in OJ, so *Vw sequences were probably restricted to Chinese loans. (5) Even medial glides may have had precedents in pre-OJ. The *i and *u of pre-OJ syllables such as *Cia, *CiR, *Cua, *CuR might have been glides (*y and *w). These glides could have survived in OJ, though the phonogram evidence is ambiguous: (9.9) Pre-OJ OJ *Cya, *CyR > *Ce *Cwa, *CwR > *Co

(*e = *[ye]?) (*o = *[wo]?)

If medial *-y- and *-w- did exist in indigenous OJ words, they were predictable and non-phonemic. OJ did not have any contrasts between *Ce and *Cye or *Co and *Cwo. Nonetheless, it would not be difficult for OJ speakers to borrow Chinese medial *-y- and *-w- and pronounce them before vowels other than *e and *o. The SJ medials *-y- and *-w- must have been phonemic, since post-OJ SJ does differentiate between CV and CGV syllables: (9.10)
Kan-on ka
Kan-on kya
Kan-on kwa

< OJ Kan *ka? < OJ Kan *kya?

‘song’ (cf. SK ka, SV ca [kaa] ) ‘phonogram for Indic g(h)a, g(h)a’ (cf. SK ka, SV già [zaa] < *kyaa) < OJ Kan *kwa? ‘halberd’ (cf. SK kwa, SV qua [kwaa] )

It is even possible that *-y- was phonemic after *e in OJ period SJ: 268

CONCLUSION

(9.11)
Kan-on ken
Kan-on ken

< OJ Kan *k(y)en? ‘erect’ (Grade III) (cf. SK ken [kRn] ) < OJ Kan *kyen? ‘send’ (Grade IV) (cf. SK kyen [kyRn] )

There is no evidence for a *wo: *o distinction in MC, so I doubt that *-wwas phonemic after *o in OJ period SJ. (6) I could go even further by reformulating (9.5) as: (9.12) *C1(G)V(C2) C1 = {*p, *mb, *m, *w, *t, *nd, *n, *r, *s, *nz, *y, *k, *Yg, *Ø} G = {*w, *y} V = {*a, *i, *t, *u, *e, *o, *R} C2 = {*p, *m, *w, *t, *n, *k} (SJ only); {y} (both native words and SJ) The notion of final stops (*p, *t, *k) for OJ period SJ readings may at first seem outlandish because MSJ permits a uvular nasal [N] as a coda only in word-final position. Other codas are possible only in word-medial position: (9.13) -N#: -p-: -m-: -t-: -n-: -s-: -ã-: -k-: -Y-:

MSJ SJ MSJ SJ MSJ SJ MSJ SJ MSJ SJ MSJ SJ MSJ SJ MSJ SJ MSJ SJ












in ippai inbai ittai intai issai inja ikkai ingai

[iN] [ippai] [imbai] [ittai] [intai] [issai] [iãj_9a] [ikkai] [iYgai]

‘stamp’ ‘a cupful’ ‘prostitution’ ‘one body’ ‘seclusion’ ‘all’ ‘hermit’ ‘once’ ‘outside the Diet’

< < < < < < < <

itsu + hai in [iN] + bai itsu + tai in [in] + tai itsu + sai in [in] + sha [\a] itsu + kai in [in] + gai

These word–medial codas are invariably homorganic with the following consonant, though this is not always conveyed by the romanization (e.g., -nb- is [mb] ). MSJ does not permit medial clusters such as *-np- or *-pt-. However, non-homorganic clusters with [t] as their first element and a word-final [t] appear among the seventeenth-century SJ words recorded in the 1603 Japanese–Portuguese dictionary and the Korean textbook of Japanese Chephay sine (Rapid Understanding of a New Language; 1676) (Martin 1987: 73): (9.14) ‘one brush’


17th c. SJ itpit (Chephay sine) itpit (1603 J–P dictionary) cf. EMC *qyit pit LT it 7 ‘one,’ pit7 ‘brush’ 269

20th c. SJ ippitsu [ippitsT] < itsu ‘one’ + hitsu ‘brush’ (spelled in kana as itupitu < itu + hitu)

OLD JAPANESE

This [t] corresponded to the MC coda *-t. It is generally believed that MC final consonants were borrowed as *Ci and *Cu syllables in the OJ period (Miller 1967: 208, Martin 1987: 73). Hence MC *-t would have been borrowed as OJ period SJ *-ti or *-tu. By the seventeenth century, some of these *-ti and *-tu had been reduced to [t] whereas others shifted to [c\i] and [tsu]. The Japanese–Portuguese dictionary lists doublets ending in [t] and [c\i]/[tsu]: (9.15) ‘today’


17th c. SJ (1603 J–P dict.) 20th c. SJ connit [konnit] ~ connichi [konnic\i] konnichi [konnic\i] cf. EMC *kim ãit < OC *k(r)RmB nitB

Why were only *-ti and *-tu sometimes reduced to *[t]? One might expect *-pu and *-ki/*-ku to be similarly reduced to *[p] (or *[φ], *[h], *[$] ) and *[k]. And why was the reduction of *-ti and *-tu limited to loanwords? Martin (1987: 73) hypothesizes that “it is likely that the -t pronunciations go back to the original borrowings from the Chinese, despite the kana orthography with ‘-tu’.” I could go even further than Martin and hypothesize that all MC final consonants were originally borrowed as single Japanese consonants. At least some of those Japanese who had learned Chinese from continental scholars could have learned how to pronounce final stops. Other Japanese speakers would have added vowels (*i and *u) after the final stops. After Japan lost contact with the continent, the final stop pronunciations largely died out with the exception of *-t. Why was *-t the sole survivor? I am not certain, but I suspect that some instances of seventeenth-century final [t] originated from a final glottal stop *q (*[}] ). There are a number of irregular SJ readings (kan’yô-on; lit., ‘customary pronunciations’) which have -tu corresponding to MC *-p and *-k. I list two below from Vance’s (1985) extensive list: (9.16) Sg EMC Go Kan SK SV Kan’yô-on
*lip ‘stand’ rihu rihu lip lpp [lRp] ritu
*chrεyk ‘volume’ syaku saku choyk sách [sac] satu [tsh£yk] Most of these irregular -tu characters are relatively frequent. The rarer irregular -tu characters such as
Kan’yô-on ratu ‘break’ (cf. EMC *lRp, Go rohu, Kan rahu, SK lap, SV lfp [laap] ) contain relatively frequent irregular -tu characters as their phonetic elements. I suspect that the OJ period SJ codas *-p, *-t, *-k were neutralized as a glottal stop *-q (*[}] ) in rapid speech. This *-q then merged with *-t, the only other permissible final stop, which in turn merged with [tsu] after the seventeenth century (9.17; cf. the variation between [}] and [t] as a coda in modern English). 270

CONCLUSION

(9.17) MC *-p *-k *-t *-p/k/t

OJ > > > >

(8th c.) EMJ *-p(u) > *-φu *-k(i/u) > *-ki/ku *-t(i/u) > *-t(i/tu) *-p/k/t > *-q

LMJ (17th c.) > [u] > [ki ku] > [t]~[c\i tsu] > [t]~[c\i tsu]

MSJ (20th c.) > [T] > [ki kT] > [c\i tsT] > [c\i tsT]

I would like to posit a shift of *-p and *-k to *q because it is otherwise hard to imagine that the Japanese would have: 1 2

borrowed Chinese *-p and *-k as *-t(i/u) shifted *-p(u) and *-k(u) to *-t(u).

The issues surrounding the reconstruction of final consonants in OJ period SJ are rather complex, so I will not delve into them any further here. I realize that the proposals presented here for the reconstruction of OJ period SJ phonology are highly speculative. Nevertheless, even if one rejects my proposals for medial glides and final consonants, one must admit that eighth-century Japanese still had a large number of syllables (Table 9.3). OJ speakers could have reproduced Chinese syllables fairly well without medial glides or final consonants by combining their indigenous syllables into sequences whenever necessary: (9.18)
EMC *kiRY ‘capital’ > OJ Go *kiyau > post-OJ Go kyau (or *kyaw?) (MSJ [kyoo] ) (spelled ki-ya-u in kana)

Table 9.3 The syllabic inventory of OJ C \‘V’

*a

*i

*t

*u

*e

*Ry

*o

*R

*p *mb *m *w *t *nd *n *r *s *nz *y *k *Yg *$

*pa *mba *ma *wa *ta *nda *na *ra *sa *nza *ya *ka *Yga *a

*pi *mbi *mi *wi *ti *ndi *ni *ri *si *nzi

*pt *mbt *mt

*pu *mbu *mu

*pRy *mbRy *mRy

*kt *Ygt

*po ~ (*mbo?) *mo ~ *wo *to *ndo *no *ro *so *nzo *yo *ko *Ygo

*pR *mbR *mR

*ki *Ygi *i

*pe *mbe *me *we *te *nde *ne *re *se *nze *ye *ke *Yge

*tu *ndu *nu *ru *su *nzu *yu *ku *Ygu *u

271

*kRy *YgRy *Ry

*tR *ndR *nR *rR *sR *nzR *yR *kR *YgR *R

OLD JAPANESE

Table 9.3 has many gaps because not all of the possible combinations of consonants and ‘vowels’ existed in native words. Some syllables which would fill the gaps in Table 9.3 (e.g., *nt) might have existed only in Chinese loans: (9.19)
EMC *ãt ‘and’ > OJ Go *nt (?) > post-OJ Go ni (MSJ [nyi] ) I have only begun to explore the problem of the SJ component of OJ phonology. There are several other topics related to OJ phonology which I intend to pursue: (1) Non-standard OJ phonology. I have said very little about the Eastern (Azuma) dialects of OJ because I believe that a reconstruction of Central OJ is necessary for the reconstruction of the other dialects which were written in an orthography originally designed for Central OJ. However, now that I have reconstructed the phonetic values of Central OJ phonograms, I will be able to apply this knowledge to the reconstruction of the Eastern OJ dialects. (2) OJ pitch accent orthography. In this study I have restricted myself to reconstructing only the segmental phonology of OJ. In the future I plan to work on the suprasegmental phonology of the language by examining the Chinese tones of OJ phonograms. (3) Pre-eighth century Japanese phonology. I also plan to analyze the phonograms of pre-OJ data in Chinese histories and pre-OJ inscriptions with the aid of post-Karlgrenian Chinese reconstructions and the earlier layers of Sinoxenic. (4) The Korean peninsular origins of Japanese phonogram orthography. I intend to compare the phonograms used in Korean peninsular and Japanese transcriptions to determine the exact nature of the relationship between the writing systems of the two regions. There is almost no doubt that Japanese orthography is related to peninsular orthography, but whether the former is a direct descendant of any specific branch of the latter (e.g., Paekche orthography) or is an amalgam of several Korean orthographic systems is open to question. I will conclude with a poem (KJK 30) in which the legendary hero Yamato Takeru praises his homeland of Yamato shortly before his death. (An English translation is in Keene (1993: 49).) I can only hope that I have succeeded in resurrecting the dead sounds of Yamato:
 *yamatR





 ! pa kuni nR maporRmba



 ! *tatananduku


 ! awokaki


w

 *yamaYgRmRreru yamatR


si


 ! urupasi 272

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284

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INDEX

Cantonese xv, 113, 127, 162, 224–5, 227–9, 246, 250, 256–7 Central Old Japanese see Old Japanese Cenwun okphyen xviii, 114, 160, 207, 244 Chang’an xvi, 23, 30–1, 91, 99, 105–6, 113, 120, 137, 144, 225, 240 Chang’an Early Middle Chinese 137 Chang’an Late Middle Chinese 30–2, 150–6 Chaozhou 213 Chephay sine 74, 85, 88, 269 chu nôm see nôm Coblin, W. S. 31–2, 93, 97–8, 105–6, 135, 137, 144, 150–6, 166, 171, 224, 231, 257, 261 Csongor, B. 137, 187 C-type ‘vowels’ 53, 81–4, 163, 198, 238–64

Achiki 9, 104, 109 a.chung 155, 185 alpha section 57–61, 106, 160, 165, 167, 181, 190–1, 215, 259–60 Ametsuchi no kotoba 47 Amoghavajra 137, 171, 201–3, 206, 211, 216, 219–20, 226, 230–1, 240–3, 247, 249–50, 257, 261 Aoki H. 65 Arabic 137 Arisaka H. 55, 61–3, 65, 112–13, 157, 258 arithmogram 27 Asayama N. 56 A-type syllable see Type A/B distinction A-type ‘vowels’ 50–7, 61–5, 79–84, 159, 163, 198, 203–7, 221–7, 232–8, 262–4 Azuma Old Japanese 159, 272 Barat, K. 135, 137, 155, 161, 177, 187 Barker, M. A. 122–3 Barker, M. E. 122–3 Baxter, W. H. 7, 63, 92, 135, 138–40, 144–6 Bentley, J. R. 4, 9, 19, 28, 30, 37–8, 40–4, 46–8, 61, 82, 110–11, 114, 180, 182–3, 198, 239, 251, 253–5, 258–61 Best, J. W. 9, 30, 109 beta section 57–60, 106, 160, 165, 167, 215, 229–30, 257–9, 262 Brahmi 137 B-type syllable see Type A/B distinction B-type ‘vowels’ 50–7, 61–5, 79–84, 159, 163, 198, 211–20, 227–31, 262–4 Burmese 135 Bussokuseki no uta 19–20

DeFrancis, J. 118 denasalization 31 Dharmaksema 245–6 Downer, G. B. 122, 132–4, 157 Early Middle Chinese 90–1, 93–5, 98, 143–9; see also Chang’an Early Middle Chinese Early Middle Japanese 67, 74, 76–7, 84–5, 102, 237–8, 271 Eastern Han 90, 109, 131, 141–2, 157, 176 Eastern Old Japanese see Azuma Old Japanese Engishiki 21 Eom I. 110–12, 190 Erickson, B. 74, 88, 193 Eta Funayama inscription 10, 12, 19

285

INDEX

feature shuffling 123 Frellesvig, B. 74, 193 French 257 fudoki 19 Gage, W. W. 119–23, 127, 157 Gishi see Wei zhi gisho 26–7, 159 goals 158 Go-on 12, 14, 21, 36, 40, 44, 89, 95, 100–9, 129–30, 134, 144–8, 171, 189, 193, 197, 205, 215, 218, 224–5, 231, 234, 245, 247, 257, 264, 267, 271 graphemogram 26–7 Gregerson, K. J. 119, 157 Guangyun 93–5, 97–8, 105, 171, 199 Habein, Y. S. 18, 21, 27, 44 Hakka 113, 162, 224–5 Hamada A. 56, 193 Han 105–6 hankul 113–17, 233 Han shu 106, 154 Hashimoto, M. J. 127–8, 162 Hashimoto, O. Y. 162 Hashimoto S. 48–53, 62, 65, 70 Hattori S. 55–6, 62, 67, 68, 79 Haudricourt, A. G. 121–2, 138 Heian 3 Henderson, E. 123 Himiko 8, 11, 41 Hmong-Mien 140 Hua-Yi yiyu 7 hyangchal 111, 129 ideograph 5 Igarashi J. 17, 40, 61, 72 Ikegami T. 61, 258 Ilopha 52 Inariyama inscription 10, 12, 19, 72 Indic 148, 151, 153, 191, 203, 206, 211, 214, 218–20, 222, 224, 226, 228, 230–1, 235, 240–3, 245–7, 249–50, 257, 261; see also Prakrit, Sanskrit Inukai T. 61 Iroha 47 Ishizuka T. 47–50, 62, 258 itwu 111 Iwabuchi E. 49, 51 Japonic 66 Jiankang 104, 120

Jiaozhi 117, 127, 130, 157 Jiaozhou see Jiaozhi jindai moji 8 Jingdian shiwen 95 Jnanagupta 137, 200–1, 205, 208, 214, 218–19, 222, 224, 228 Jôgûki 41 Kaifûsô 21 Kakyô hyôshiki 21 Kamei T. 193 kana 43–4 Kanabukuro 49 Kanazukai oku no yamamichi 47, 258 Kane, D. 7 Kang S. 114–15 Kangxi zidian 114 Kan-on 14, 31–2, 35, 40, 44, 89, 95, 100–9, 112–13, 129–30, 134–5, 137, 150, 155, 171, 186, 189, 202, 206, 211, 215–16, 219, 223–6, 229–31, 234–6, 240, 247–9, 255–7, 259–61, 264, 267–9; see also New Kan-on Karlgren, B. 52–3, 57, 63–5, 90–5, 97, 99, 111–12, 138–9, 143–5, 150–1, 153, 272 Kaya 109 Keene, D. 1, 4, 18–21, 272 Keichû 45–7, 61 Khmer 123 Kikusawa S. 55–6, 62 Kim W. 116 Kim-Renaud, Y. 157 Kindaichi K. 55, 62 Kiyose, G. N. 55–6, 62–3, 74, 111, 157, 193 Kobayashi A. 63 Kobayashi H. 156 Kogen betsuon shô 48 Kogen seidokukô 48 Koguryo xv, 10, 21, 109–11, 233 Kojiki 18–19 Kojiki-den 46, 246 kokugaku 44, 61 Konkômyô-saishôô-kyô ongi 39 Kôno R. 53–4, 112 Korean xv, 10, 14, 100, 104, 110, 151, 201, 236, 241, 250, 259–60, 272; see also Sino-Korean Koryo 134 Kudara see Paekche kungana 25–8

286

INDEX

Kusakado N. 49 kwukyel 111 Lange, R. 20, 24, 43, 52, 55–7, 61–3, 65, 176, 226 Late Middle Chinese 90–1, 95–8, 149–56 Late Middle Japanese 67, 74–6, 85–6, 175–6, 186–8, 196, 211, 216, 271 Late Old Chinese 6–7, 10–16, 22, 24, 37, 40–1, 90, 99, 104, 109–11, 134, 156, 176, 212, 215, 218, 245, 253–5, 257–60, 262; see also Chang’an Late Middle Chinese Lee, H. 109–10, 112–13 Lee, K. 109 Li F. xvii, 92, 139, 224 Li R. 145 Liu G. 137 Luo C. 31, 96–7, 112, 127, 135–6, 150, 154, 161, 177 Lushei 143 Lyu L. 110 Mabuchi K. 61–3, 180, 198, 239, 251–3 Malmqvist 105 Mandarin xv, 5, 6, 41, 91, 256–7 Manomaivibool, P. 224 man’yôgana 27–8 Man’yôshû 1, 4, 6, 10, 17, 20–1, 24–8, 33, 40, 60, 65, 81, 159, 173, 214, 245 Martin, S. E. xv, xvii, 38–9, 42, 45, 50, 66–7, 69–71, 73–7, 80–1, 85–8, 98–9, 102, 114–17, 188, 269–70 Maruyama T. 63 Maspero, H. 112, 126, 137, 145 Matsumura A. 19, 41–2, 74–6, 85 methodology 158–63 Miller, R. A. xvii, 54–5, 62–3, 65, 70, 87, 104, 193, 270 Mimana see Kaya Min 95, 144–5, 213; see also Chaozhou, Proto-Min, Taiwanese Miner, E. 28 Mineya T. 65, 119, 121, 126, 151, 160, 228 Mino census 81 Miyake, M. H. xvii, 61–4, 70, 79, 104, 116, 127, 141 Miyake T. 55–6 Mizutani S. 31, 137

Modern Japanese 67 Modern Standard Japanese 67, 74–7, 85–6, 88, 100–1, 103, 175–6, 188, 193, 196, 211, 216, 238, 266, 269–71 Mori H. 28, 30, 37–9, 42, 57–60, 62–5, 160, 165, 167, 176, 181, 190–1, 215 Morimoto T. 62 Motoori N. 46–7, 50, 61 Morohashi T. xviii, 102, 105, 107, 231 Myôgishô 37 Nagata K. 55, 61–2, 253 Nam K. 114 Nan Qi shu 8 Nara 99 Nara Period 1, 3, 134 New Kan-on 107 Ngu thien tu 119, 132, 162 Nguyen D. 118, 130–1 Nguyen N. S. 131 Nihon ryôiki 21 Nihon shoki 28–30 nôm 3, 4, 90, 118–19, 129–35, 140–1, 157, 162, 200, 205, 212–14, 217, 222, 251 norito 17 Norman, J. 91–3, 95, 98, 125, 138, 143, 148 Oh S. 116 Ôjin 9 Okimori T. 57 Old Chinese 90–3, 138–43; see also Eastern Han, Late Old Chinese, Western Han Old Japanese: coda inventory 266–71; consonant inventory 74, 196, 265–6, 269; consonant reconstructions 164–96; glide inventory 266–9; glide reconstructions 170–1, 186–7; orthography 12–41; previous reconstructions 43–65; syllabic inventory 271–2; syllable structure 265–71; vowel inventory 84, 262–9; vowel reconstructions 198–262 Old Mandarin 112 Old Sino-Korean 110–11 Old Sino-Vietnamese 97, 100, 112, 117–19, 123–9, 131, 134, 141–2, 144–8, 162, 199, 204–5, 207–9, 212–13, 217–18, 221–4, 226–9, 231–3, 239, 245, 251–4, 258–60, 266

287

INDEX

Omodaka H. 7, 24, 40, 42, 178 Ômori A. 20, 26 onbin 74 Ôno S. 43, 49, 51, 53, 56, 65, 81, 160, 197 Ôno T. 13, 21, 23, 32, 41–2, 61, 107, 178–9, 183, 188, 192, 194, 197, 252 onomatogram 27 Osada N. 63 Packard, J. 263 Paekche 9–10, 16, 21, 109–11, 233, 272 Pak P. 112 Period A Shuri 78 peripheralization 263 phonogram 6 Pierson, J. L. 52–3, 61, 63 pitch accent 37–9, 272 Portuguese 74–6, 85, 101, 175, 176, 269–70 Prakrit 137 Pre-Old Japanese 66 Proto-Japanese-Korean see ProtoKoreo-Japonic Proto-Japonic 66, 216, 239 Proto-Japonic-External 67, 78–9 Proto-Japonic-Internal 66, 78–9 Proto-Koreo-Japonic 66 Proto-Min 125, 140 Proto-Tai 141, 225, 246 Proto-Viet-Muong 122 pseudo-Go-on 104–5 pseudograph 184 pseudo-Kan-on 105 Pulleyblank, E. G. xvi, 9, 15, 23, 31, 34, 41–2, 54–5, 59, 62–5, 90–9, 101, 104–6, 112, 121–2, 124–5, 137–56, 160–1, 166, 176, 187, 199, 205, 213, 223, 225, 228, 230, 242–3, 257 Qieyun 93–5, 98, 101, 106, 125–6, 137, 140, 144, 149, 153, 157, 199, 252 quoc ngu 118–20 Ramsey, S. R. 56–7, 62, 64, 68–73, 87, 130, 168, 186 Ray, D. T. 125 Rhodes, A. de 118–19, 130, 132 Ruc 125 Ryu M. 110 Ryukyuan 66, 75, 188

Samghabhara 224, 246 Samkwuk saki 9 Sandness, K. 61, 63, 179 Sanskrit 51, 137–8, 151, 171, 177, 187, 214; see also Amoghavajra, Indic, Jnanagupta Schuessler, A. 138–40 scribal error 160, 184 Seeley, C. 8–10, 28, 45–6 semantogram 6, 24–5, 159 senmyôgaki 17–19, 21 Serafim, L. A. 9, 66, 68, 79, 267 Shiga Island 8 Shijing 92, 138, 140 Shin’yaku Kegon-kyô ongi shiki 21 Shôgaitô, M. 137 Shoku nihongi 21 Shorto, H. L. 123 Siamese see Thai Silla 10, 109–13, 190, 233 Sin cacen 114 sinograph 5 Sino-Japanese xv, xvii–xviii, 3, 60, 98–109, 140, 266–71; see also Go-on, Kan-on Sino-Kaya 109–10 Sino-Koguryo 109–11 Sino-Korean xviii, 3, 9, 30, 35, 51, 53, 60, 64, 87, 89–90, 95, 98–101, 104, 108–17, 127, 129–30, 134, 140, 145, 153, 160, 162, 166, 171–2, 185, 190, 202–3, 206–7, 209–11, 213–16, 219–20, 223, 225–6, 228–31, 233–6, 240–4, 247–50, 255–7, 259–61, 266–70; see also Sino-Kaya, SinoKoguryo, Sino-Paekche, Sino-Silla Sino-Paekche 9, 11–12, 14, 16, 21–2, 30, 35, 41, 89, 99, 103–4, 109–11, 125 Sinor, D. 137 Sino-Silla 109–13, 190 Sino-Tibetan 135–6, 138 Sino-Tibetan Treaty Inscription 136 Sino-Vietnamese 3, 31, 51, 53, 64, 87, 89–90, 95, 98–101, 104, 108, 113, 117–35, 140, 145, 151, 153, 157, 160, 162, 166, 171–2, 174–5, 184–5, 200–3, 206–7, 209–11, 213–16, 219–20, 223–6, 229–30, 234–6, 240–3, 248–50, 255–61, 266–8, 270; see also Old Sino-Vietnamese Sinoxenic 3, 16, 54, 95, 98–135, 139–40, 143, 150, 160–2, 184, 202,

288

INDEX

210, 215, 223, 228–9, 234, 240, 248, 256, 272; see also Old SinoVietnamese, Sino-Japanese, SinoKorean, Sino-Paekche, Sino-Vietnamese Sino-Xenic see Sinoxenic Sin Y. 112 Sizang Chin 143 Song shu 8 Starostin, S. xvi, xvii, 7, 9, 14–16, 41, 63, 90–3, 99, 101, 135, 138–46, 149, 156–7, 218, 225, 232-3 Suda Hachiman inscription 10, 12, 19 Suiko Period transcriptions 12–17, 33, 67, 72, 178–9, 183, 188, 194, 196, 252, 258 System A 11, 40 System B 11, 40, 99, 104; see also Sino-Paekche System-B-based transcription 11–12; see also Eta Funayama inscription, Inariyama inscription, Suda Hachiman inscription System C 12, 40, 104 System-C-based transcription 13–17; see also Suiko Period transcriptions System D 21–2, 40, 103–4 System-D-based transcription 23–8 System E 30–2 System-E-based transcription 32–40 Tai 145–6, 244 Taihô census 245 Taiwanese xv, xviii, 108, 113, 146, 200, 205, 208, 213, 218, 222–6, 230, 232–3, 235, 246–7 Takayama M. 37 Tangut 135 tawamuregaki see gisho Thai 128 Thompson, L. 118–23 Tibetan 135 Tibetan transcription xviii, 113, 126–7, 135, 137, 151–4, 166–7, 171–2, 174, 176, 185, 201–3, 206, 211, 215–16, 219–20, 226, 229–31, 234–6, 241–3, 249, 260 Tibeto-Burman 135, 143 Ting P. 14, 23, 92, 140 Tôdô A. xvii, 31, 53, 62–4, 102, 105–8, 154–6, 171, 176 Toh S. 110

tonal spelling xvi tone 37–9, 117, 126, 128 Tongkwuk cengwun 113–17, 172, 233, 244, 259 Tô-Sô-on 100, 107–8, 231, 266 Tsukishima H. 45 Type A/B distinction 139, 142–3; see also Old Chinese Uighur transcription 136–7, 155, 177, 187 Unger, J. M. 56–7, 62–3, 67–73, 77–8, 80, 87–8, 168, 186, 195–6, 218, 226, 237 University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign 263 Vance, T. J. 67, 76–7, 270 variant phonograms 159–60 Varley, H. P. 9, 30, 107, 109 Vietnamese xviii, 2, 100, 104, 117–35, 145, 157, 224, 236, 241, 257; see also Sino-Vietnamese Vovin, A. 41, 66, 68, 70, 76, 87, 110, 112–13, 116 Wajinden see Wei zhi Waji shôranshô 45 Wang L. 124, 126, 141 Wani 9, 104, 109 Wei zhi 2, 6–9, 11–12, 29 Wenck, G. 55 Western Han 90, 109, 112, 117, 120, 131, 142 Whitman, J. B. 56–7, 62–3, 66–71, 77–8, 80–2, 87–8, 216, 218, 226, 231 wordprinting 30 Wo ren zhuan see Wei zhi Wu 104, 106, 144, 157 Wylie romanization xviii, 136, 157 Yagi Y. 49 Yale romanization 50–1, 87, 112, 115, 164, 236 Yamada Y. 6 Yamaguchi Y. 69–70, 80–1 Yamato Takeru 163, 272 Yasuda K. 55–6, 62 Yayoi Period 8 Yi K. 111, 113 Yiqiejing yinyi 95 Yôrô census 21

289

INDEX

Yoshitake S. 53, 61–3, 65 Yu C. 60, 109–11 Yuchi Z. 137 Yue 127; see also Cantonese

Yunjing 51, 95–8, 101, 105, 115, 150 Yunying 95, 144, 149, 153 Yupian 95

290

INDEX

291