This is the revised, updated and enlarged second edition of the first detailed descriptive grammar in English dedicated to the Western Old Japanese. The grammar is divided into two volumes, with the first volume dealing with sources, script, phonology, lexicon, nominals and adjectives. The second volume focuses on verbs, adverbs, particles, conjunctions and interjections.
Together with Part 1 of the same grammar (Sources, Script and Phonology, Lexicon and Nominals), this two-volume set represents the most detailed and exhaustive description ever done of any language, including Japanese of the Old Japanese language of the Yamato region during the Asuka Nara period. It presents hundreds of examples drawn not only from the major Old Japanese texts such as the Man’yoshu, the Senmyo, the Kojiki kayo and the Nihonshoki kayo but also from all minor extant texts such as the Fudoky kayo, the Bussoku seki ka, and others. It also includes comparative material from Eastern Old Japanese once spoken in the area roughly corresponding to present-day southern Chubu and Kanto regions, as well as from Ryukyuan and occasionally from other surrounding languages. Part 2 is accompanied by exhaustive and cumulative indexes to both volumes, including separate indexes on all grammatical forms described, linguistic forms, personal names, as well as an index of all Old Japanese texts that are used as examples in the description.
"This is the revised, updated and enlarged second edition of the first detailed descriptive grammar in English (indeed, in any language other than Japanese and more complete than even any grammar in Japanese) dedicated to the Western Old Japanese, which was spoken in the Kansai region of Japan during the seventh and eighth centuries. The grammar is divided into two volumes, with the first volume dealing with sources, script, phonology, lexicon, nominals and adjectives. The second volume focuses on verbs, adverbs, particles, conjunctions and interjections. In addition to descriptive data, the grammar also includes comparisons between Western Old Japanese and Eastern Old Japanese and Ryukyuan, occasionally with a critical analysis of various external parallels"--
Together with Part 1 of the same grammar (Sources, Script and Phonology, Lexicon and Nominals), this two-volume set represents the most detailed and exhaustive description ever done of any language, including Japanese of the Old Japanese language of the Yamato region during the Asuka Nara period. It presents hundreds of examples drawn not only from the major Old Japanese texts such as the Man'yoshu, the Senmyo, the Kojiki kayo and the Nihonshoki kayo but also from all minor extant texts such as the Fudoky kayo, the Bussoku seki ka, and others. It also includes comparative material from Eastern Old Japanese once spoken in the area roughly corresponding to present-day southern Chubu and Kanto regions, as well as from Ryukyuan and occasionally from other surrounding languages. Part 2 is accompanied by exhaustive and cumulative indexes to both volumes, including separate indexes on all grammatical forms described, linguistic forms, personal names, as well as an index of all Old Japanese texts that are used as examples in the description.--Publisher's website.
Book seventeen of the Man’yōshῡ (‘Anthology of Myriad Leaves’) continues Alexander Vovin’s new English translation of this 20-volume work originally compiled between c.759 and 782 AD. It is the earliest Japanese poetic anthology in existence and thus the most important compendium of Japanese culture of the Asuka and Nara periods. Book seventeen is the fifth volume of the Man’yōshῡ to be published to date (following books fifteen (2009), five (2011), fourteen (2012) and twenty (2013)). Each volume of the Vovin translation contains the original text, kana transliteration, romanization, glossing and commentary.
Book twenty (20.4293-4516) of the Man’yōshū comprises 224 poems (218 tanka, six chōka) with unspecified genres. It is important for both the history of the Japanese language, and the history of Japanese literature: it contains many poems written in Eastern Old Japanese and provides an interesting literary background to the political struggles that were taking place at this time at the Nara court.
This new translation, the lifework of the author, is fully academically oriented. Given that it is the largest Japanese poetic anthology and thus the most important compendium of Japanese culture of the Asuka period (AD 592–710) and most of the Nara period (AD 710–784), it is very much more than a work of literature, which has been the single focus of previous translations by Pierson and Suga.Thus, in this translation the author has sought to present the Man’yōshῡ to the reader preserving as far as possible the flavour, sounds and semantics of the original poems. The result is a more literate but true translation. In addition, because the realia of the Man’yōshῡ are mostly alien to both Westerners and modern Japanese, the text contains appropriate commentaries that illuminate the context. Also unique to this new version is the appearance of the original text, kana transliterations, romanization and glossing with morphemic analysis for the benefit of specialists and students of Old Japanese. The entire translation will consist of 20 volumes, paralleling the original twenty books. The first to be published is volume 15 (announced here) one of six books written mostly in phonographic script. The author argues that the importance of book 15 lies in the fact that it contains a large number of Western Old Japanese grammatical forms and constructions that are not attested in any other Western Old Japanese text, but are extremely important in understanding this language, thereby providing a valuable foundation for all the other Man’yōshῡ texts, including those written in semantographic text. The publication sequence and anticipated dates of the remaining volumes will be announced at a future date.
Book one of the Man’yōshū (‘Anthology of Myriad Leaves’) continues Alexander Vovin’s new English translation of this 20-volume work originally compiled between c.759 and 785 AD. It is the earliest Japanese poetic anthology in existence and thus the most important compendium of Japanese culture of the Asuka and Nara periods. Book one is the seventh volume of the Man’yōshū to be published to date (following books fifteen (2009), five (2011), fourteen (2012), twenty (2013), seventeen (2016) and eighteen (2016). Each volume of the Vovin translation contains the original text, kana transliteration, romanization, glossing and commentary.
This book offers fresh perspectives on shared grammaticalization, a state whereby two or more languages have the source and the target of a grammaticalization process in common. While contact-induced grammaticalization has generated great interest in recent years, far less attention has been paid to other factors that may give rise to shared grammaticalization. This book intends to put this situation right by approaching shared grammaticalization from an integrated perspective, including areal as well as genealogical and universal motivations and by searching for ways to distinguish between these factors. The volume offers a wealth of empirical facts, presented by internationally renowned specialists, on the Transeurasian languages (i.e. Japonic, Koreanic, Tungusic, Mongolic, and Turkic) the languages in focus as well as on various other languages. Shared Grammaticalization will appeal to scholars and advanced students concerned with linguistic reconstruction, language contact and linguistic typology, and to anyone interested in grammaticalization theory.
