Historical kana usage

The nihongo|historical kana usage|歴史的仮名遣|rekishiteki kanazukai refers to a "kanazukai" (system of spelling the Japanese syllabary) that is antiquated, because it is no longer in accord with the Japanese pronunciation nowadays. It differs from modern usage (Gendai Kanazukai) in the number of characters and the way those characters are used.

Historical kana spellings were widely used until after World War II. The modern system was adopted by Cabinet order in 1946. The historical system is also known as the nihongo|"kyūkanazukai"|旧仮名遣|old kanazukai, it was known as the nihongo|"seikanazukai"|正仮名遣|proper kana usage during the time it was employed.

The historical kana for words can be found in most Japanese dictionaries such as Kōjien. In the current edition of Kōjien, if the historical kana usage is different from the modern spelling, the old spelling is printed in tiny katakana between the modern kana and kanji forms of the word. Elipsis, used when the historical and modern spellings are identical, are used to save space. Older editions of the Kōjien gave priority to the historical kana usage.

General differences

:"This section uses Nihon-shiki romanization for "づ", "ず", "ぢ", and "じ"." In historical kana usage:
*Two kana are used that are obsolete today: ゐ/ヰ "wi" and ゑ/ヱ "we". These are pronounced as "i" and "e". Words that formerly contained those characters are now written using い "i" and え "e" respectively.
*Outside of its use as a particle, the を "wo" kana is used to represent the "o" sound in some, but not all, words.
*Yōon sounds, such as しょう "shō" or きょう "kyō", are not written with a small kana (ゃ, ゅ, ょ); depending on the word, they are written with either two or three full-sized kana. If written with two kana and the last one is や "ya", ゆ "yu", or よ "yo", then it represents a short syllable of one mora, such as きよ "kyo". If written with two or three kana and the last one is う "u" or ふ "hu", then it represents a long syllable of two moras. The first kana is not always the same as one used in the modern spelling, as in 今日 "kyō" 'today', written けふ "kehu". If written with three kana, the middle one will always be や "ya", ゆ "yu", or よ "yo", and the last kana will always be う "u" or ふ "hu", as in 丁 "tyō", the counter for tools, guns, etc., written ちやう "tiyau".
*The series of kana "ha" "hi" "hu" "he" "ho" are used to represent, in some words, the sounds "wa", "i", "u", "e", "o", respectively.
*Precedence is given to grammar over pronunciation. For example, the verb "warau" (to laugh), is written わらふ "warahu", and in accordance with Japanese grammar rules, "waraō", the volitional form of "warau", is written わらはう "warahau".
*The kana づ "du" and ぢ "di", which are mostly only used in rendaku in modern kana usage, are more common. Modern kana usage replaces them with the identically-pronounced ず "zu" and じ "zi" in most cases. For example, "ajisai" (hydrangea) is written あぢさゐ "adisawi".

Most of the historical kana usage has been found to accurately represent certain aspects of the way words sounded during the Heian era. As the spoken language has continued to develop, some orthography looks odd to the modern eye. As these peculiarities follow fairly regular patterns, they are not difficult to learn. However, some of the historical kana usages are simply mistakes. For example, : _ja. 或いは / 或ひは / 或ゐは "aruiwa" (or) should be _ja. 或いは,: _ja. 用ゐる / 用ひる "mochiiru" (use) should be _ja. 用ゐる, and: _ja. つくえ / つくゑ "tsukue" (desk, table) should be _ja. つくえ, according to the old pronunciations.

Some forms of unusual kana usage are not, in fact, historical kana usage. For example, writing _ja. どじょう "dojō" (loach, a sardine-like fish) in the form _ja. どぜう "dozeu" is not historical kana usage (which was _ja. どぢやう "dodiyau"), but a kind of slang writing originating in the Edo period.

Examples

Here are some representative examples showing the historical and modern spellings and the kanji representation.

The table at the bottom gives a more complete list of the changes in spelling patterns.

Historical kana usage can be used to look up words in larger dictionaries and dictionaries specializing in old vocabulary, which are in print in Japan. Because of the great discrepancy between the pronunciation and spelling and the widespread adoption of modern kana usage, historical kana usage is almost never seen, except in a few special cases. Companies, shrines and people occasionally use historical kana conventions such as ゑびす (Ebisu).

In addition, alternate kana letterforms, known as hentaigana (変体仮名), have nearly disappeared. A few uses remain, such as "kisoba", often written using obsolete kana on the signs of soba shops.

The use of を (historically pronounced /wo/), へ, and は for sentence particles instead of お, え, and わ is a remnant of historical kana usage.

Romanization

Readers of English occasionally encounter words romanized according to historical kana usage, although "we" and "e" are typically rendered "ye", in accordance with the pronunciation of the 16th through 19th centuries. Here are some examples, with modern romanizations in parentheses:

*Inouye (Inoue): a Japanese family name
*Yen (En): the basic unit of Japanese currency
*Tokugawa Iyeyasu (Ieyasu)
*Uyeno (Ueno): a place name
*Yedo (Edo): a former name of Tokyo
*Kwannon (Kannon): A Bodhisattva
* (Kaidan), meaning ghost story, the title of a collection of Japanese ghost stories compiled by Lafcadio Hearn
*Kwansei Gakuin University (Kansai): A university in Kobe and Nishinomiya
*Iwo Jima (Iō-jima): An island known as the site of a battle during World War II

External links

* [http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/j_oldkana.html Old Japanese Kana Usage]
* [http://www32.ocn.ne.jp/~gaido/kana/kana0e.htm Historical kana usage:How to read]