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A History of the Japanese Language
Bjarke Frellesvig describes the development of the Japanese language from its recorded beginnings until the present day as reflected by the written sources and historical record. Beginning with a description of the oldest attested stage of the language, Old Japanese (approximately the eighth century AD), and then tracing the changes which occurred through the Early Middle Japanese (800–1200), Late Middle Japanese (1200–1600) and the Modern Japanese (1600–onwards) periods, a complete internal history of the language is examined and discussed. This account provides a comprehensive study of how the Japanese language has developed and adapted, providing a much needed resource for scholars. A History of the Japanese Language is invaluable to all those interested in the Japanese language and also students of language change generally.
462 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2010
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
February 15, 2023
Edit;
Finished reading it again for the second time
It just really fuckin slaps, plus it's really interesting to be able to read the old manyogana with a few more years of JP under my belt
___________________________
A really fantastic and well-organised chronological overview of the history of proto-Japanese to the modern day vernacular
Includes a very informative running description of the methods of representing and documenting the language both from internal and external sources, and the efficiencies and deficiencies of these forms - giving a clear image of how we came to know what we do about the history of the Japanese language, and how we've come to not know others
Only criticism would be that modern Japanese only takes up about 6% of the book - and is quite a scant run-through of 'this is pretty much the same as it was in the previous chapters but X was lost and Y was gained and Z came from nowhere.'
Although, to be fair, a huge overview of modern Japanese isn't required because of the thorough description of LMJ and its various forms means the Modern Japanese section really only has to cover some small phonological changes, some readjustment of politeness/honorofic paradigms, the use of loanwords, the socio-linguistic effects of such loanwords and... to be honest not much else.
Only thing I thought was truly missing was something on text-speak or SMS/computer-based language input forms' effects on the modern language, which I do think is an unforgivable oversight, but it's Oxford-based academia so likely considers itself above discussion of such, I'm sure, base and undeserving linguistic forms
Finished reading it again for the second time
It just really fuckin slaps, plus it's really interesting to be able to read the old manyogana with a few more years of JP under my belt
___________________________
A really fantastic and well-organised chronological overview of the history of proto-Japanese to the modern day vernacular
Includes a very informative running description of the methods of representing and documenting the language both from internal and external sources, and the efficiencies and deficiencies of these forms - giving a clear image of how we came to know what we do about the history of the Japanese language, and how we've come to not know others
Only criticism would be that modern Japanese only takes up about 6% of the book - and is quite a scant run-through of 'this is pretty much the same as it was in the previous chapters but X was lost and Y was gained and Z came from nowhere.'
Although, to be fair, a huge overview of modern Japanese isn't required because of the thorough description of LMJ and its various forms means the Modern Japanese section really only has to cover some small phonological changes, some readjustment of politeness/honorofic paradigms, the use of loanwords, the socio-linguistic effects of such loanwords and... to be honest not much else.
Only thing I thought was truly missing was something on text-speak or SMS/computer-based language input forms' effects on the modern language, which I do think is an unforgivable oversight, but it's Oxford-based academia so likely considers itself above discussion of such, I'm sure, base and undeserving linguistic forms
June 6, 2024
Great History
I learned a lot about this elegant and amazing language.
Although it is an extremely difficult language, it is really rewarding and colorful history.
I would very much recommend if you are interested in learning more about the history of the Japanese language.
I got a lot out of this!
4.0/5
I learned a lot about this elegant and amazing language.
Although it is an extremely difficult language, it is really rewarding and colorful history.
I would very much recommend if you are interested in learning more about the history of the Japanese language.
I got a lot out of this!
4.0/5
Read
December 29, 2020EXTREMELY academic
this is only for the most hardcore researchers, it has nothing for a casual reader
Probably good you know classical japanese already, modern japanese will not be enough
this is only for the most hardcore researchers, it has nothing for a casual reader
Probably good you know classical japanese already, modern japanese will not be enough
Read
November 18, 2025Warning all ye who enter here to at least have a general understanding of (Japanese) linguistics. You'll almost immediately come into steady contact with terms like /Q/ and /N/, diagrammatic depictions of language change, lots of IPA, etc etc. Obviously so, maybe. Bears mentioning still.
Highly academic and occasionally very challenging history of Japanese phonology, grammar, morphology. Stellar as a reference or a handbook if you're writing about those particular topics.
While there are some sections that talk about general developments, the text is very much focused on the "language" - meaning those terms above (phonology, etc) - and not as much on the social aspects of language. In other words, this is definitely not a book about the sociolinguistic history of Japanese. Nyôbô kotoba and Arinsu are mentioned only very briefly. Understandable, I suppose, since it's "only" 400 pages for 1200+ years of history.
The sections about old phonetics and grammar were especially difficult to get into, likely because I'm used to modern Japanese to such an extent that many of the forms found in Old Japanese don't do anything for me but raise question marks, of the type "what would X be in modern Japanese?...". Though, it is a wonderful feeling to read the transcriptions of old texts and actually learn to make sense of them. I've long since given up on texts before 1889... Actually being able to parse some bits felt like revenge.
Difficult to say much of value about the contents since it's such a long, detailed, and academic text. Here are a few lines from my notes (8x cluttered post-it notes):
- Ga and No were both genitive markers in OJ: eg. waga-ko from the short version of 1PP Wa(re). The role of Ga was increasingly specialized, eventually only used for persons. Eventually it switched to being a subject marker, likely due to recoding of sentences waga [yuki michi] -> [waga yuki] michi.
- One purpose that Ga had was as a complementizer - almost like a relative pronoun. This was also one way to use tokoro no in old parsings of Chinese. This makes me want to re-read Kanaya's Nihongo ni Shugo wa Iranai...
- Adjectives had two endings, one conclusive (-si, car is blue) and the other adnominal (-ki, blue car). They merged in late middle Japanese, but -ki lives on in the list particle ~shi! My favourite particle. 知ってるし、フン。
- Adjective infinitive is what gave rise to "ohayou": hayai -> hayou
- Space deixis: three in ancient sources, two in old, but three in middle Japanese. The third was clearly too important to get rid of.
- /p/ -> /f/ -> /h/ is a surprisingly recent change, the last step taken in NJ (Edo). For ages there were actual appreciable differences between Hi and Hi!... Or to clarify, Pi (sun) and Pwi (fire).
- Na-adjectives stem from Nari losing its rV mora! Makes sense. Sei naru seems to be a stickler though.
- The role of simple past -ki was overtaken by the stative -(i)tar, -> -ta-. However, -ki can still be found in one role: -kke! (Sono zu doko dattakke?)
- Yahari stems from hypercorrection! Yappari was the original pronounciation, but this was spelled just like Yahari (やはり) due to markers for gemination and handakuten both missing from the text. The reason Yappari remained was due to /p/ not becoming /w/ after /Q/.
- Both Iru (originally wir-) AND Oru (originally wor-) come from verbs about sitting, and are antonymically related to tatsu and tateru, respectively! I've heard of this before (getting confirmation from a reliable source is appreciated though), but the part that really got me was the comparison Frellesvig did with Danish (and by extension, my native language, Swedish) -- the Japanese present continuous is structured just like the makeshift way we do it in Swedish! like "sitta och äta [sit and eat = eating]". You even use the same stative verb most of the time!
- Anata used to be 3PP; it only became a 2PP in modern Japanese.
- The structure of Kanojo is Ka no Jo - that woman over there. Kare, however, is an old old word.
Highly academic and occasionally very challenging history of Japanese phonology, grammar, morphology. Stellar as a reference or a handbook if you're writing about those particular topics.
While there are some sections that talk about general developments, the text is very much focused on the "language" - meaning those terms above (phonology, etc) - and not as much on the social aspects of language. In other words, this is definitely not a book about the sociolinguistic history of Japanese. Nyôbô kotoba and Arinsu are mentioned only very briefly. Understandable, I suppose, since it's "only" 400 pages for 1200+ years of history.
The sections about old phonetics and grammar were especially difficult to get into, likely because I'm used to modern Japanese to such an extent that many of the forms found in Old Japanese don't do anything for me but raise question marks, of the type "what would X be in modern Japanese?...". Though, it is a wonderful feeling to read the transcriptions of old texts and actually learn to make sense of them. I've long since given up on texts before 1889... Actually being able to parse some bits felt like revenge.
Difficult to say much of value about the contents since it's such a long, detailed, and academic text. Here are a few lines from my notes (8x cluttered post-it notes):
- Ga and No were both genitive markers in OJ: eg. waga-ko from the short version of 1PP Wa(re). The role of Ga was increasingly specialized, eventually only used for persons. Eventually it switched to being a subject marker, likely due to recoding of sentences waga [yuki michi] -> [waga yuki] michi.
- One purpose that Ga had was as a complementizer - almost like a relative pronoun. This was also one way to use tokoro no in old parsings of Chinese. This makes me want to re-read Kanaya's Nihongo ni Shugo wa Iranai...
- Adjectives had two endings, one conclusive (-si, car is blue) and the other adnominal (-ki, blue car). They merged in late middle Japanese, but -ki lives on in the list particle ~shi! My favourite particle. 知ってるし、フン。
- Adjective infinitive is what gave rise to "ohayou": hayai -> hayou
- Space deixis: three in ancient sources, two in old, but three in middle Japanese. The third was clearly too important to get rid of.
- /p/ -> /f/ -> /h/ is a surprisingly recent change, the last step taken in NJ (Edo). For ages there were actual appreciable differences between Hi and Hi!... Or to clarify, Pi (sun) and Pwi (fire).
- Na-adjectives stem from Nari losing its rV mora! Makes sense. Sei naru seems to be a stickler though.
- The role of simple past -ki was overtaken by the stative -(i)tar, -> -ta-. However, -ki can still be found in one role: -kke! (Sono zu doko dattakke?)
- Yahari stems from hypercorrection! Yappari was the original pronounciation, but this was spelled just like Yahari (やはり) due to markers for gemination and handakuten both missing from the text. The reason Yappari remained was due to /p/ not becoming /w/ after /Q/.
- Both Iru (originally wir-) AND Oru (originally wor-) come from verbs about sitting, and are antonymically related to tatsu and tateru, respectively! I've heard of this before (getting confirmation from a reliable source is appreciated though), but the part that really got me was the comparison Frellesvig did with Danish (and by extension, my native language, Swedish) -- the Japanese present continuous is structured just like the makeshift way we do it in Swedish! like "sitta och äta [sit and eat = eating]". You even use the same stative verb most of the time!
- Anata used to be 3PP; it only became a 2PP in modern Japanese.
- The structure of Kanojo is Ka no Jo - that woman over there. Kare, however, is an old old word.
December 31, 2013
I don't usually give technical works ratings, mainly because I assume a rating to be based on how well the book is written, and my knowledge of the field is certainly not enough to know whether a technical work is well written from the perspective of the field. However, I'm going to break that philosophy since I really did enjoy this work; since I studied historical linguistics and Japanese this past semester, it was an entertaining extension of my ongoing introductions in both areas.
September 11, 2014
Exactly what it says on the tin. It's a history of the Japanese language, from proto-Japanese to contemporary moonspeak. I could confirm some of my suspicions and correct some of the misconceptions I had. I wish I bought the paperback though, because this doorstopper is so huge, so gigantically huge, it would freeze my poor Kobo every 5 minutes. It would freeze so often I felt really cool in my pants. Because I kept my Kobo in my pocket.
Perhaps that's too much information.
Perhaps that's too much information.
December 28, 2024
Despite reading the reviews beforehand, I expected it to be an easy read, but boy was I wrong. My knowledge of Japanese is limited so chapters about grammar were not as enjoyable as those about the writing system, phonetics and loanwords. I did learn a lot and would definitely recommend reading this to anyone who's both into Japanese and linguistics.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews