This complete description of the language of the golden Heian period (794-1185) features an innovative morphological analysis to facilitate reference usage and provides a comprehensive reference work for students of classical Japanese.
This is the revised, updated and enlarged second edition of the first detailed descriptive grammar in English dedicated to the Western Old Japanese. The grammar is divided into two volumes, with the first volume dealing with sources, script, phonology, lexicon, nominals and adjectives. The second volume focuses on verbs, adverbs, particles, conjunctions and interjections.
This book presents for the first time all texts constituting the Eastern Old Japanese corpus as well as the dictionary including all lexical items found. Unlike its relative Western Old Japanese, Eastern Old Japanese is not based on the language of just two geographic localities, but is stretched along several provinces of Ancient Japan along the Pacific Seaboard (modern Aichi to Ibaraki) and across the island of Honshū from Etchū (Modern Toyama and parts of Ishikawa) province to Shinano and Kai provinces (modern Nagano and Yamanashi). Therefore, references to places of attestation are included into our dictionary, too.
Together with Part 1 of the same grammar (Sources, Script and Phonology, Lexicon and Nominals), this two-volume set represents the most detailed and exhaustive description ever done of any language, including Japanese of the Old Japanese language of the Yamato region during the Asuka Nara period.
The Japonic (Japanese and Ryukyuan) portmanteau language family and the Korean language have long been considered isolates on the fringe of northeast Asia. Although in the last fifty years many specialists in Japonic and Korean historical linguistics have voiced their support for a genetic relationship between the two, this concept has not been endorsed by general historical linguists and no significant attempts have been made to advance beyond the status quo. Alexander Vovin, a longtime advocate of the genetic relationship view, engaged in a reanalysis of the known data in the hope of finding evidence in support of this position. In the process of his work, however, he became convinced that the multiple similarities between Japonic and Korean are the result of several centuries of contact and do not descend from a hypothetical common ancestor. In Koreo-Japonica, Vovin carefully reviews recent advances in the reconstruction of both language families. His detailed analysis of most of the morphological and lexical comparisons offered so far shows that whenever the proposed comparisons are not due to pure chance, they can almost always be explained as borrowings from Korean into a central group of Japanese dialects from roughly between the third and eighth centuries A.D. The remaining group of lexical (but not morphological) comparisons that cannot be explained in this way is, he argues, too small to serve as proof of even a distant genetic relationship. In this volume, a leading historical linguist presents a significant challenge to a view widely held by Japonic and Korean historical linguistics on the relationship between the two language families and offers material support for the skepticism long espoused by general historical linguists on the matter. His findings will both challenge and illuminate issues of interest to all linguists working with language contact and typology as well as those concerned with the prehistory and early history of East Asia.
The echo of the stone/ where I carved the [Buddha's] honorable footprints/ reaches the Heaven, [...]". This book presents the transcription, translation, and analysis of Chinese (753 AD) and Japanese inscriptions (end of the 8th century AD) found on two stones now in the possession of the Yakushiji temple in Nara. All these inscriptions praise the footprints of Buddha, and more exactly their carvings in the stone. The language of the Japanese inscription, which consists of twenty-one poems, reflects the contemporary dialect of Nara. Its writing system shows a quite unique trait, being practically monophonic. The book is richly illustrated by photos of the temple and of the inscriptions"--
This is the revised, updated and enlarged second edition of the first detailed descriptive grammar in English dedicated to the Western Old Japanese. The grammar is divided into two volumes, with the first volume dealing with sources, script, phonology, lexicon, nominals and adjectives. The second volume focuses on verbs, adverbs, particles, conjunctions and interjections.
The Japonic (Japanese and Ryukyuan) portmanteau language family and the Korean language have long been considered isolates on the fringe of northeast Asia. Although in the last fifty years many specialists in Japonic and Korean historical linguistics have voiced their support for a genetic relationship between the two, this concept has not been endorsed by general historical linguists and no significant attempts have been made to advance beyond the status quo. Alexander Vovin, a longtime advocate of the genetic relationship view, engaged in a reanalysis of the known data in the hope of finding evidence in support of this position. In the process of his work, however, he became convinced that the multiple similarities between Japonic and Korean are the result of several centuries of contact and do not descend from a hypothetical common ancestor. In Koreo-Japonica, Vovin carefully reviews recent advances in the reconstruction of both language families. His detailed analysis of most of the morphological and lexical comparisons offered so far shows that whenever the proposed comparisons are not due to pure chance, they can almost always be explained as borrowings from Korean into a central group of Japanese dialects from roughly between the third and eighth centuries A.D. The remaining group of lexical (but not morphological) comparisons that cannot be explained in this way is, he argues, too small to serve as proof of even a distant genetic relationship. In this volume, a leading historical linguist presents a significant challenge to a view widely held by Japonic and Korean historical linguistics on the relationship between the two language families and offers material support for the skepticism long espoused by general historical linguists on the matter. His findings will both challenge and illuminate issues of interest to all linguists working with language contact and typology as well as those concerned with the prehistory and early history of East Asia.
Together with Part 1 of the same grammar (Sources, Script and Phonology, Lexicon and Nominals), this two-volume set represents the most detailed and exhaustive description ever done of any language, including Japanese of the Old Japanese language of the Yamato region during the Asuka Nara period.
This book deals with Chinese and Japanese inscriptions (8th century AD) about the footprints of Buddha. The language of the Japanese inscription reflects the contemporary dialect of Nara. Its writing system presents a special interest being practically monophonic.
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