Re: Questions about Japanese historical phonology.

Steven Williams scripsit:

> Did [p] shift to [h] at some point, as evidenced by
> the order of the kana ([ha], [ba] <ha + voicing mark>,
> [pa] <ha + circle>)?
Yes.

> If so, about when did this occur?
I'm not sure. Somewhen in the Middle Ages.
You should ask Nik Taylor (he is now available at <conculture> list), he may
know better.

> While I'm at it, can someone show me what the
> (reconstructed) phonetic inventory of the earlier
> stages of Japanese was like?
How early? Old Japanese? Or Proto-Japanese? According to Starostin [1975,
1991] the inventory was like this:

PJ         OJ
*p         p
*m         m
*b-, -w-   w
*t         t
*n-, -N    n, -Ø
*d-, -j-   j
*-r-       r
*s         s
*k         k
*i         i
*u         u
*@         o
*a         a

Other changes from PJ > OJ:
- voicing after *n:
*-mp- > b
*-nt- > d
*-ns- > z
*-nk- > g
- simplification of diphthongs:
*ia > ie
*ua > uo
*ui > ii
*@i > ii
*ai > e

> I've got quite a few
> niggling little questions, like why there seems to be
> quite a few words that switch nasals with voiced stops
> in certain environments (like one of the verb
> conjugations, which, for the life of me, I can't
> remember).
Well, synchronicly that is simple:
-tsu, -ru, -u (older -fu) > -tta
-mu, -bu, -nu > -nda
-ku > -ita
-gu > -ida
-eru, iru > -eta, -ita.

Why it is so, ask Nik. It has something to do with assimilation processes.

> =====
> "Alle Idole müssen sterben."
> "All idols must die."
A nice phrase. And a good reason to apply ObConlang rule: So, in Kuman-Tyli
it may sound like "Bary ydol ölürýe kerek"...

-- Yitzik

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