Japanese language Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ===Old Japanese=== {{main|Old Japanese}} [[File:Genryaku Manyosyu.JPG|right|thumb|alt=Page from the Man'yōshū|A page from the {{Lang|ja-latn|[[Man'yōshū]]}}, the oldest anthology of classical [[Japanese poetry]]]] The [[Chinese character|Chinese writing system]] was imported to Japan from [[Baekje]] around the start of the fifth century, alongside Buddhism.{{sfn|Frellesvig|2010|p=11}} The earliest texts were written in [[Classical Chinese]], although some of these were likely intended to be read as Japanese using the {{lang|ja-latn|[[kanbun]]}} method, and show influences of Japanese grammar such as Japanese word order.{{sfn|Seeley|1991|pp=25–31}} The earliest text, the {{Lang|ja-latn|[[Kojiki]]}}, dates to the early eighth century, and was written entirely in Chinese characters, which are used to represent, at different times, Chinese, ''kanbun'', and Old Japanese.{{sfn|Frellesvig|2010|p=24}} As in other texts from this period, the Old Japanese sections are written in [[Man'yōgana]], which uses ''[[kanji]]'' for their phonetic as well as semantic values. Based on the Man'yōgana system, Old Japanese can be reconstructed as having 88 distinct syllables. Texts written with Man'yōgana use two different sets of ''kanji'' for each of the syllables now pronounced {{lang|ja|き}} (ki), {{lang|ja|ひ}} (hi), {{lang|ja|み}} (mi), {{lang|ja|け}} (ke), {{lang|ja|へ}} (he), {{lang|ja|め}} (me), {{lang|ja|こ}} (ko), {{lang|ja|そ}} (so), {{lang|ja|と}} (to), {{lang|ja|の}} (no), {{lang|ja|も}} (mo), {{lang|ja|よ}} (yo) and {{lang|ja|ろ}} (ro).<ref>Shinkichi Hashimoto (February 3, 1918)「国語仮名遣研究史上の一発見―石塚龍麿の仮名遣奥山路について」『帝国文学』26–11(1949)『文字及び仮名遣の研究(橋本進吉博士著作集 第3冊)』(岩波書店)。</ref> (The {{Lang|ja-latn|Kojiki}} has 88, but all later texts have 87. The distinction between mo<sub>1</sub> and mo<sub>2</sub> apparently was lost immediately following its composition.) This set of syllables shrank to 67 in [[Early Middle Japanese]], though some were added through Chinese influence. Man'yōgana also has a symbol for {{IPA|/je/}}, which merges with {{IPA|/e/}} before the end of the period. Several fossilizations of Old Japanese grammatical elements remain in the modern language – the genitive particle ''tsu'' (superseded by modern ''no'') is preserved in words such as ''matsuge'' ("eyelash", lit. "hair of the eye"); modern ''mieru'' ("to be visible") and ''kikoeru'' ("to be audible") retain a [[mediopassive voice|mediopassive]] suffix -''yu(ru)'' (''kikoyu'' → ''kikoyuru'' (the attributive form, which slowly replaced the plain form starting in the late Heian period) → ''kikoeru'' (all verbs with the ''shimo-nidan'' conjugation pattern underwent this same shift in [[Early Modern Japanese]])); and the genitive particle ''ga'' remains in intentionally archaic speech. Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page