Historical Study of Hentai Kanbun: in Terms of its Vocabulary and Writing System

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 16H06696
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Research Field: Japanese linguistics
• Research Institution: The University of Tokyo
• Principal Investigator: Tanaka Sota 東京大学, 大学院人文社会系研究科(文学部), 助教 (20778758)
• Project Period (FY): 2016-08-26 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: 変体漢文 / 平安時代語 / 古記録 / 古文書 / 漢文訓読

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The aim of this study was to clarify linguistic features of Hentai Kanbun (変体漢文) in the Heian period, in terms of its vocabulary and writing system. Hentai Kanbun is a system of writing Japanese in the form of Chinese. This system used to be so popular in the history of the Japanese written language.
(1) I picked up some words from Hentai Kanbun and compared them with those from Kanbun Kundokubun (漢文訓読文), and pointed out that these two are not so similar as expected, when examined in terms of their meaning and usage.
(2) Hentai Kanbun represents Japanese language in the form of Chinese. I analyzed and classified how this writing feature influences its language, with several points of view.

Free Research Field

日本語史