Re: Japanese (was Re: Allophony)

On Sat, 6 Nov 1999, Nik Taylor wrote:

> Kenji Schwarz wrote:
> > Yep, that's my understanding that you're understanding!
>
> So, then, what evidence exists that there really were 8 vowels in Old
> Japanese?
I frankly don't remember.  My vague recollection padded out with guesswork
is that it's based on dialect data and on inscriptions where two versions
of those vowels seems to have been made.  I'd like to go find out what the
arguments were, but it's not likely I'll get to it real soon, so if you're
interested...

Kenji