Old Japanese: A Phonetic Reconstruction

by Miyake,Marc Hideo

• ISBN13: 9780415305754
• ISBN10: 0415305756
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-11-14
• Publisher: RoutledgeCurzon

Summary

What did eighth century Japanese sound like? How does one decode its complex script? This book provides the definitive answers to these questions using an unprecedented range of data from the past and the present, including Chinese, Vietnamese, Sanskrit and Tibetan sources, and enables the reader to approximate the original pronunciation of Old Japanese literature.

Table of Contents

Illustrations	viii
Acknowledgments	xii
Abbreviations, symbols, and conventions	xiii
Introduction	1	(4)
Early transcriptions of Japanese	5	(38)
Sinographs, semantograms, and (ongana) phonograms	5	(1)
Transcriptions of pre-Old Japanese in Chinese histories	6	(3)
Pre-Suiko-Period transcriptions	9	(3)
Suiko Period transcriptions	12	(5)
Post-Suiko-Period transcriptions	17	(11)
The transcriptions of Nihon shoki	28	(12)
Summary	40	(3)
Previous research on phonograms	43	(23)
Overview	43	(1)
Premodern research	43	(6)
Modern research	49	(12)
Summary	61	(5)
Japanese phonology through time	66	(23)
Overview	66	(1)
Consonants	67	(10)
Vowels	77	(9)
Summary	86	(3)
Old Chinese, Middle Chinese, and Sinoxenic	89	(69)
Overview	89	(2)
Internal sources for earlier Chinese	91	(7)
Sinoxenic (SX) sources for earlier Chinese	98	(37)
Other external sources for earlier Chinese	135	(3)
The reconstruction of Old Chinese	138	(5)
The reconstruction of Early Middle Chinese	143	(6)
The reconstruction of Late Middle Chinese	149	(7)
Summary	156	(2)
Goals and methodology	158	(6)
Goals	158	(1)
Methodology	158	(6)
The reconstruction of Old Japanese consonants	164	(34)
Overview	164	(1)
OJ p	164	(2)
OJ b	166	(2)
OJ m	168	(2)
OJ w	170	(1)
OJ t	171	(2)
OJ d	173	(2)
OJ n	175	(1)
OJ r	176	(1)
OJ s	177	(6)
OJ z	183	(3)
OJ y	186	(1)
OJ k	187	(4)
OJ g	191	(3)
OJ θ	194	(2)
Summary	196	(2)
The reconstruction of Old Japanese vowels	198	(67)
Overview	198	(1)
OJ a	198	(5)
OJ yi	203	(4)
OJ u	207	(4)
OJ o	211	(6)
OJ iy	217	(4)
OJ ye	221	(6)
OJ ey	227	(5)
OJ wo	232	(6)
OJ i	238	(6)
OJ e	244	(6)
OJ o	250	(12)
Summary	262	(3)
Conclusion	265	(8)
Bibliography	273	(12)
Index	285