2006 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary

A Study of a Japanese Historical Phonology in Chinese Materials

Research Project

Project/Area Number	16520282
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Section	一般
Research Field	Japanese linguistics
Research Institution	Kyushu University
Principal Investigator	TAKAYAMA Michiaki Kyushu University, Faculty of Letters, Associate Professor, 大学院人文科学研究院, 助教授 (90179565)
Project Period (FY)	2004 – 2006
Keywords	Phonetics / Japanese Linguistics / Chinese / Chinese characters / Phonological History
Research Abstract	The purpose of this study is to examine the aspects of a Japanese Historical Phonology by the phonetic Transcription by Chinese Characters. Originally, Japanese accents were understood with the paradigm of Chinese tones such as hyo-sho (平声), Jo-sho (上声), or kyo-sho(去声). In transcribing Sanskrit sounds in the Chinese Buddhist Literature, the tones of the Chinese characters were used to stand for vowel length. This paper will research the relationship between Old Japanese accents and the tonal values of Chinese characters used in poems and reading notes of Nihon-Shoki (日本書紀), which was written under the strong influence of the Chinese Buddhist literatures. The author argues that (i) it is plausible that some of the Chinese characters reflect Old Japanese accents, (ii) some of the Chinese characters may reflect the distinctions of vowel length in Old Japanese.

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