435

On the Non-Trivial Role of the otsu Vowels in Old Japanese Verb

Donald L. Smith University of Michigan

I. Background The earliest extensive records we have of Japanese are from the eighth century, written in a phonetic script adapted from Chinese called ManyOgana after a collection of poems, the ManyOsha One of the most interesting observations made of this syllabary is that with certain consonants there are eight mutually exclusive sets of characters. This fact was first observed by Motoori Norinaga and his student Ishizuka Tatsumaro in the late eighteenth century but was brought to the attention of linguists in this century only, after Hashimoto Shinkichi in 1917, apparently inde- pendently, rediscovered this fact. Ishizuka's book was not printed until 1929.1 From studies made of the phonological system of eighth century Japanese, it appears that there was an eight vowel system, five vowels enjoying relatively free distribution in CV combina- tions with all the consonants except and .3i, and three vowels having a rather restricted distribution. Shortly after the eighth century it appears that the inventory of vowels rapidly diminished to five, the number we have in modern Japanese. The three "extra!' vowels are viewed as having been lost, merging with i, e, and o. A traditional distinction has been set up between the five basic vowels and the "extra" vowels called the ko-otsu distinction and the vowels will be referred to here as the ko vowels and the otsu vowels respectively. Work and speculation on what might have been the exact phonetic shape of the ko and otsu vowels has been exten- sive, and has required of those who have done justice to the study, a phenominal amount of work in old Chinese, , studies of scribal practices, etc.2 More recently work has been going on with what few earlier texts there are for evidences of the eight vowel system and also in internal reconstruction, with the expected conclusions that in earlier stages of Japanese the otsu vowels enjoyed a wider, less restricted distribution. This paper is concerned with the hitherto unobserved morphophonemic role of the ko-otsu distinction in the verb in- flectional system and will not touch directly on either of the above mentioned topics. The only original research done on eighth century morphology within the tradition of American was a morphemic analysis in the cut and classify tradition of Bernard Bloch by his student Masako Yokoyama in 1950, who, unfortunately, failed to take account of the eight vowel system or of the contributions of traditional Japanese linguists at all. Consequently she arrived at a classification of verb stem types which has nothing to do with the underlying types necessary to account for the facts of the verb inflections which are widely known but by 436

accident were not included in her corpus. Roy Miller, in his recent book The Japanese , although observing her failure to incorporate the otsu vowels in her analysis, has nevertheless adopted her mistaken classification of stems and gone on from there to produce a completely confused internal reconstruction of old Japanese verb inf1ections.3 This analysis follows closely the classifications made in traditional Japanese linguistics and since there is almost univer- sal consensus on this particular classificatory system, we will stick fairly closely to the traditional termino1ogy.4 The claim here is that though for entirely different reasons, the verb class distinctions made by traditional Japanese linguists are the correct ones to make, the three basic types, ichi-dan, ni-dan, and yo-dan (sometimes called go-dan), representing under- lying ko vowel stems, otsu vowel stems, and consonant stems respec- tively. The only basic difference in old Japanese verb stem types from those of modern Japanese are in the existence of the ko-otsu distinction in the underlying verb stems ending in a vowel, i.e., the ichi-dan ni-dan distinction.

II. The otsu Vowels The cdncept of the phonological system employed here is as it is described by Hashimoto Shinkichi and other linguists relating to the most informative text of the time, the ManyOsha (645-760 A.D.). Japanese is viewed as having a purely CV, open structure except for the possibility of word initial vowels. Liquids do not occur initially and there is.word initial neutrali- zation of voicing. Palatal-non palatal contrasts, voicing of initial stops, syllabic nasals, etc. are thought to be later innovations and borrowings, especially influenced by the heavy influx of Chinese loans which began about that time. The otsu vowels which merged with i and e occur only after the grave consonants which are k, L, p, F, b and m. The otsu vowel which merged with o occurs only after the non-labial consonants which are k, s, z, t, d, n, z, and r. There have been many different proposals for the shapes of the otsu vowels. Here we will simply adopt the umlaut notation and remain fairly noncomMittal on their phonetic values. The loss of the otsu vowels might be most easily characterized as the loss of one distinctive feature which can be assumed to be that of rounding, which is, of course, not a dis- tinctive feature with the present five vowel system. Certainly other characterizations are possible, but the particular distri- butions of these vowels in connection with a distinction involving rounding seems to be more appealing than say a solution involving tenseness.5 For the purposes of my arguments here I will fairly arbitrarily mark the otsu vowels I ocback -0(roundl

III. Verb Inflections There is widespread agreement on the form of the verb paradigms for the ManyL5shu in the traditional Japanese grammatical format. Forms referred to here are primarily the forms found in Sasaki's paradigm in his ManyOsha Dictionary, however, since he very care- fully marks which contain otsu vowels as well as 437

forms and distinguishing the Azuma dialectal forms from standard forms not attested in the Many6sha itself.

Figure I (traditional paradigm) . mizen reny8 shashi rental izen meirei (imperf.)(adverb.)(conclus.)(attrib.)(perfect)(imper.) yo-darl verbs kik-e (to hear) kik-a kik-i kik-u kik-u kik-e! ichi-dan verbs (to see) mi mi mi-ru mi-ru mi-re mi-yo ni-dan verbs (to awake)°kV' old' ok-u ok-uru ok-ure okY-yo nak-ure nake-yo (to cry) flake' nake nak-u nak-uru

Figure one is part of a traditional paradigm including in the final examples of the major classes having velar consonants otsu vowels syllables to illustrate the possible occurrences of the take place. in the derived forms where neutralization will not own. Japanese The breaks given between vowels in the charts are my of syllabic notation requires a break before the last consonant helps to explain the stem in the yo-dan and ni-dan paradigms which be made between why they haven't noted the obvious distinction to it is the vowel-final and consonant-final stems. Notice here that paradigms ni-dan verbs which have final otsu vowels. In larger mentioned this also is somewhat obscured because of the above Conclusive, neutralization of otsu and eafter acute consonants. formed by attributive, perfenTald imperative forms are all forms on the regular suffixation. The imperfective and adverbial in a and i other hand are simply listed to show the differences from the affixa- vowel insertion after consonantal stems resulting The tion of two different sets of consonant-initial auxilaries. same kind of vowel insertion can be found in modern Japanese. will see McCawley states it as one rule in modern Japanese. We rules. that there is reason to write it here as two different They are: 1-cns Negative I +voc l+cnsi A. Conjecture 0 +back 'Verb = 1 +low

1-cns +voc rons l = Past B. -back Verb i Perfective +high Below, in order to account for some irregularities in the verbs kuru and suru, it will be necessary to place a rule between rules =and B.. At that point we will also discuss the environments for A. and B. 438

Figure II (underlying forms) shfishi rental izen meirei (imperf.)(adverb.)(conclus.)(attrib.)(perfect)(imper.) yo-dan verbs kik-a kik-i kik-ru kik-uru kik-urg kik-yo ichi-dan verbs mi ml mi-ru Ad-uru mi-ure mi-yo ni-dan verbs oki oki oki-ru okr-uru oki=ure okr-yo flake nakg nakg-ru nak&uru nakg-ure nakg-yo

Figure II is of the same paradigm showing the underlying forms proposed. The claim is that morphophonemically the otsu vowels show unlimited distribution. They enter into a unique role in the phonological rules and at a much lower level the ko-otsu distinction is neutralized after certain consonants. Aside from the support this claim gains in terms of system, there is historical evidence to lend some degree of support to this claim. Mabuchi, Ono, Miller, and others have shown that the otsu vowels were once more freely distributed so that we are not positing completely anomalous forms. Also, the gradual loss of the ni-dan inflections follows shortly after the loss of the ko-otsu distinction in sur- face and it seems likely that theynot unrelated events. In modern Japanese, most of the old ni-dan verbs have resulted in their respective vowel stem verb forms as one might expect from the given underlying forms and the given neutralization of the vowel distinction. Other arguments for the posited underlying forms are in the formulation of the phonological rules and the possible explanations for the exceptions which exist. The formulation of rules given below is to be taken as an outline of the sort of rules necessary and by no means as complete. Some of the rules are quite natural in that they still exist in modern Japanese and are of the sort found for independent reasons such as morpheme structure adjust- ment rules in compounds, etc. Some of the rules, however, are quite artificial looking but at present seem to be about the best that can be done. These are the areas where obviously further discussion as to the exact form of the otsu vowels in addition to just a more detailed study of Nara phonology should prove to be of considerable value. Rules A. and B. above, operate on consonant stem verbs. Yokoyama gives the ni-dan verbs as consonant stem verbs but notice that if we do that there will be no simple explanation for the insertion of r / i and 6./ e rather than a or i in the 'imperfect' and 'adverbial' forms. Giving these vowels as basic does offer a simple explanation for these facts. 439

+cns I "‘ -voc I -cns +voc -cns 1. Rule +high +voc +back aback ground)

Rule 1. deletes u in =uru and =urgwhen following consonantal and ko vowel stems. One might argue that =ru and =re would provide more natural underlying forms with the otsu us vowels going to u before r. However, this would only force to claim that the conclusive =ru differed in some obscure way from the above =ru and .rW mgrthat the preceding otsu vowels would were all deleted. One possible way to patch up this rule be to rewrite it for u insertion rather than u deletion since other there is a later rule which deletes otsu vowels before for reasons vowels. Rule la would be the reformed rule which stated below may be a slight improvement over 1.

Rule la. -cns I 1::; +voc • I Attributive 0 +high aback ' Perfect +back o(round =ru and Rule 2 deletes otsu vowels before the conclusive must follow Rule 1.

-ens rens I +voc 0 Rule 2. = +cont aback -strid -Oround

Rule 3 is found in modern Japanese,

l+cns -voc +cnsi Rule 3. +cor Verb

+cont 1 I and This rule deletes r following verb stems ending in consonants follow- otsu stem verbs in theconclusive case. It also deletes s in Wconsonant stem verbs. Thus in .addition to affecting 'forms only the conclusive it also deletes the r in the passive =Taye only imperfect form attested) and the .s Ma the causative .sase Imperfect form attested and the s in a form of light respect =semi. An exception seems to be another causative form =sime though when the auxilaries are more completely worked out this may prove to be not the case. Notice that by this point in the derivation the otsu vowel V which occurs in the perfect case after consonantal stems is accounted for. 440

-cns -cns +voc Rule 4. --V...0 +voc o(back +high -o(round +back

Rule 4 is a special case of a rule which reduces vowel sequences to one vowel in Nara Japanese. We will not go into a discussion of the more general form of the rule at this time. At this point all the forms given in the above paradigm have been accounted for except the imperative. Imperatives might be derived from underlying the combination Ey2 fronting the o to e with a later deletion of z immediately following a consonant. Another candidate might be the non-existent 22!, but either of these proposals would be too dependent on a stronger commitment as to the exact form of the otsu vowels, in addition to the fact that there is no other obvious motivation at the moment for the two rules needed to derive imperatives from either of these underlying forms. The above analysis permits us to account for the derivations of the irregular verbs. Figure 3 gives the traditional paradigms of these verbs.

Figure III mizen LaY1 shashi rentai izen meirei (imperf.)(adverb.)(conclus.)(attrib.)(perfect)(imper.) aru(to have) (ar-)" ar-a ar-i ar-i ar-u ar-e ar-e sinu(to die) (sin-) sin-a sin-i sin-u sin-uru sin-ure sin-e suru(do do) se se s-u S-111T. s-ure se-yo (se-) s-i kuru(to come) k& kt). k-u k-uru k-ure kO-yo k-i

aru is obviously a consonant stem verb and irregular to the extent that in the conclusive form the final u is fronted to i. sinu can be accounted for by the given rules if we take it as a consonantal stem verb with the exception that rule lb., u insertion,must apply. In the historical process, sinu becomes a regular .consonantal stem verb. suru and kuru will be nearly regular if taken as otsu vowel stems of the for7 -70 and kU. A minor rule will be necessary for these two verbs which will have to apply after rules l-4 and the imperative rules but before vowel insertion rule B or possibly before A and B. It appears in fact that these two verbs in the imperfect and adverbial forms may give a hint as to an original phonological environment for rules A and B, the auxilaries for i insertion by rule B all having been non-labial and those for A having been either labial obstruents or continuents. The necessary rule for suru and kuru will simply delete the final stem vowel before all obstruents after the application of rule A and before that of B or delete final vowels before all non-labial obstruents before the application of both A and B. I.e., Rule Aa. 441

-ens +cns +voc Rule Aa. ----A.-0 -woe' aback -cont 1 -around

The only other rules needed to complete the above deriva- otsu tions are those which account for the neutralization of the as vowels in the proper environments. These can be formulated follows to came as very low level rules.

-cns +cns +voc -woe Rule C. -low pant Cotback -pcor -around

-ens I +cns +voc -voc Rule D. -low round' +cor aback -around

Footnotes 1 A very interesting early work on the vowel system of ancient Japanese was written in English by Yoshitake in 1934, but went unnoticed by Western and Japanese scholars for years. 2 See no Susumu, Sidai no kenkya for a good summary on this work. Also Wenk, Gunther, Japanische Phonetik. 3Roy Miller has indicated to me that he is himself not happy with the portion of his book on old Japanese verb inflections. 4 Miller discusses this terminology to some extent in The . See also Henderson, Handbook of . 5Arisaka suggests a solution, namely one employing z before the i and e and an O which we might call the rounded counterpart of o on the basis of its non occurrence with w. This is an extremely appealing solution in the light of several facts. First of all, acute consonants appear to have been palatalized before i and e since Nara times. If they were palatalized in the , this would help explain the lack of the ko-otsu distinction after these consonants, i.e., of i and, e and. Secondly, the otsu verb stems behave in some ways as consonantal stem verbs so the use of comes immediately to mind. However, with the increase of Chinese loans during the eighth century, there was the introduction of palatal-non palatal contrasts before back vowels and it seems a bit strange that with this added contrast in loan words that the same contrast should diminish in native words. 442

References

Arisaka Hideo, Kokugo on'inshi no kenkya (Studies in Japanese historical phonology), 1957. Hashimoto Shinkichi, Kokugo on'in no kenkyi (Studies in ), 1950. Henderson, Harold Gould, Handbook of Japanese Grammar, Boston, 1943. Miller, Roy Andrew, The Japanese language, Chicago, 1967. Mabuchi Kazuo, Nihon ongakushi no kenkya (Studies in the history of phonology In ), 2 1962-3. 6no Susumu, Odai kanazukai no kenkyn (Studies on the old Japanese spellings), 1953. Sasaki Nobutsuna,..Many5shil jiten CA dictionary of the Manynsha),1956. Weak, Gunther, Japanische Phonetik, 4 vols., Wiesbaden, 1954-9. Yoshitake S., The phonetic system of ancient Japanese, London, 1934. Yokoyama Masako, The inflections of 8th-century Japanese, Language dissertation no. 45, Language supplement, 26:3, 1950.