Re: Questions about Japanese historical phonology.

Steven Williams wrote:
> Didn't Japanese at some stage have eight vowels, in
> addition to [a], [i], [u], [e] and [o]? I just read a
> book about them, and the only conclusion I could come
> to was that these vowels were possibly [E], [@] and
> [y/1]. The book didn't provide a decent phonetic
> transcription, so, except in the case of [@] (which
> I'm pretty sure about), the other two vowels were
> guesswork on my part.
Yes, OJ had a bigger vowel system.  The qualities are uncertain.
Miller's "The Japanese language" and also his "Japanese and the other Altaic
languages" (controversial, I guess, though it convinced me) provide some
info.  You may already know of them.
> > > "Alle Idole müssen sterben."
> > > "All idols must die."
> >
Is that a take on the chorale, "Alle Menschen müssen sterben"?  (Engl.
version IIRC "In Adam's fall we sinnèd all", the tune is used for other
hymns too)

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