Early Modern Japanese


Early Modern Japanese was the stage of the Japanese language after Middle Japanese and before Modern Japanese. It is a period of transition that shed many of the language's medieval characteristics and became closer to its modern form.
The period spanned roughly 250 years and extended from the 17th century to the first half of the 19th century. Politically, it generally corresponded to the Edo period.

Background

At the beginning of the 17th century, the center of government moved to Edo from Kamigata under the control of the Tokugawa shogunate. Until the early Edo period, the Kamigata dialect, the ancestor of the modern Kansai dialect, was the most influential dialect. However, in the late Edo period, the Edo dialect, the ancestor of the modern Tokyo dialect, became the most influential dialect, and Japan closed its borders to foreigners. Compared to the previous centuries, the Tokugawa rule brought about much newfound stability. That made the importance of the warrior class gradually fall and replaced it with the merchant class. There was much economic growth, and new forms of artistic developments appeared, such as Ukiyo-e, Kabuki, and Bunraku. That included new literary genres such as Ukiyozōshi, Sharebon, Kokkeibon, and Ninjōbon developed. Major authors included Ihara Saikaku, Chikamatsu Monzaemon, Matsuo Bashō, Shikitei Sanba, and Santō Kyōden.

Phonology

Vowels

There were five vowels: /i, e, a, o, u/.
In Middle Japanese, word-initial /e/ and /o/ were realized with the semivowels and before avowel, respectively, but became realized as simple vowels by the mid-18th century.
The high vowels /i, u/ became voiceless between voiceless consonants or the end of a word, as was noted in a number of foreign texts:
Middle Japanese had two types of long o: and. Both had merged into by the first half of the 17th century. During the transition, instances of temporarily had a tendency to become short in the Kamigata dialect.
In addition, all of the other vowels could be lengthened because of various contractions in the Edo dialect. Most are still used in Modern Japanese in both Tokyo and the rest of the Kanto region but are not part of Standard Japanese.
The long /uː/ had been developed during Middle Japanese and has remained unchanged.

Consonants

Middle Japanese had the following consonants:
BilabialAlveolarPostalveolarPalatalVelarUvularGlottal
StopVoiceless bilabial plosive| Voiced bilabial plosive|Voiceless alveolar plosive| Voiced alveolar plosive| Voiceless velar plosive| Voiced velar plosive|
Affricate Voiceless alveolar affricate| Voiced alveolar affricate|Voiceless postalveolar affricate| Voiced postalveolar affricate|
NasalBilabial nasal|Alveolar nasal| Uvular nasal|
FricativeVoiceless bilabial fricative|Voiceless alveolar fricative| Voiced alveolar fricative|Voiceless alveolo-palatal fricative|Voiceless palatal fricative| Voiceless glottal fricative|
Liquid
Approximant Palatal approximant|Velar approximant|

/t, s, z, h/ all have a number of allophones before the high vowels :
Several major developments occurred:
Middle Japanese had a syllable final -t, which was gradually replaced by the open syllable /tu/.

Labialization

The labial /kwa, gwa/ merged with their non-labial counterparts into .

Palatalization

The consonants /s, z/, /t/, /n/, /h, b/, /p/, /m/, and /r/ could be palatalized.
Depalatalization could also be seen in the Edo dialect:
Middle Japanese had a series of prenasalized voiced plosives and fricatives:. In Early Modern Japanese, they lost their prenasalization, which resulted in.

Grammar

Verbs

Early Modern Japanese has five verbal conjugations:
Verb ClassIrrealis
未然形		Adverbial
連用形		Conclusive
終止形		Attributive
連体形		Hypothetical
仮定形		Imperative
命令形
Quadrigrade -a-i-u-u-e-e
Upper Monograde-i-i-iru-iru-ire-i
Lower Monograde -e-e-eru-eru-ere-e
K-irregular -o-i-uru-uru-ure-oi
S-irregular -e, -a, -i-i-uru-uru-ure-ei, -iro

As had already begun in Middle Japanese, the verbal morphology system continued to evolve. The total number of verb classes was reduced from nine to five. Specifically, the r-irregular and n-irregular regularized as quadrigrade, and the upper and lower bigrade classes merged with their respective monograde. That left the quadrigrade, upper monograde, lower monograde, k-irregular, and s-irregular.

Adjectives

There were two types of adjectives: regular adjectives and adjectival nouns.
Historically, adjective were subdivided into two classes: those whose adverbial form ended in -ku and those that enddd in –siku. That distinction was lost in Early Modern Japanese.
Irrealis
未然形		Adverbial
連用形		Conclusive
終止形		Attributive
連体形		Hypothetical
仮定形		Imperative
命令形
-kara-ku-i-i-kere-kare

Historically, the adjectival noun was sub-divided into two categories: -nar and -tar. In Early Modern Japanese, -tar vanisheed and left only -na.
Irrealis
未然形		Adverbial
連用形		Conclusive
終止形		Attributive
連体形		Hypothetical
仮定形		Imperative
命令形
-da ra-ni
-de		-na
-da		-na-nare
-nara