言 語 研 究(Gengo Kenkyu)118(2000),5∼27 5

The Liquid and Stem-final Vowel Alternations

of Verbs in Ancient Japanese*

Teruhiro HAYATA
(Daitobunka University)

Key words: liquid, verb inflection, vowel alternation, regressive

assimilation, Ancient Japanese

The aim of this paper is to clarify the phonological motivation for the
stem-final /i-u/ and /e-u/ alternations of verbs, as well as properties of
liquids in Ancient Japanese. I explore the possibility of a connection
between the stem-final vowel alternations in verbs and certain proper-
ties of liquid consonants.
Present-day Japanese, at least the Tookyoo dialect, does not exhibit
stem-final /i-u/ and /e-u/ alternations of verbs. Some modern dialects,
e.g., those in Kyuushuu, exhibit alternation only in /e/-stem verbs, but
not in /i/-stem verbs. This /e-u/ alternation is a relic of Ancient
Japanese.
There has been only one liquid phoneme in Japanese throughout its
history, whose phonetic realization remains an issue for phonologists.

1. Partial paradigms of Ancient Japanese verbs

In Ancient Japanese, verbs are divided into consonant-stem verbs and
vowel-stem verbs with or without vowel-alternation. Stem-final sylla-
bles of vowel-stem verbs are of three types, namely, /Ci1/, /Ci2/ and

* An inaugural lecture given in Japanese at Chiba University on June 17 , 2000.

The original title was "Phonology of r and 1: especially in Ancient Japanese"
6 TeruhiroHAYATA

/Ce2/1).
Verbs consisting of a monosyllabic stem in the form /Cil/ exhibit no
vowel alternation, and will not be treated in this paper.
Partial paradigms of typical verbs /age2-/ `to raise' and /oki2-/ `wake
up' are shown in (1) :

(1) `to give' negative age2-zu

converb (ren' yoo) age2 age2-i
imperative age2-jot
aorist (shuushi) agu age2-u
imperfect adnominal (rentai) agu-ru age2-ru
perfect conditional (izen) agu-re age2-re
`to get up' negative oki
2-zu
converb (ren' yoo) oki2 oki2-i
imperative oki2-jo2
aorist (shuushi) oku oki2-u
imperfect participle (rentai) oku-ru oki2-ru
perfect conditional (izen) oku-re oki2-re

1) In 8th century Nara Japanese (henceforth Nara Japanese), syllables con-

taining /e/ or /i/ were divided into two classes, type 1 (koorui) and type 2
(oturui) if the syllables begin with labial or velar consonants, but there was no
such distinction if the syllables begin with coronal consonants. It has been
argued that the distinction between type 1 and type 2 was that of palatalization
of onsets, type 1 with palatalized onsets and type 2 with non-palatalized onsets.
I believe that the distinction between palatalized and non-palatalized con-
sonants is most easily realized in coronal consonants. The fact that coronal
consonants lacked that distinction in written records of Nara Japanese sug-
gests that palatalized coronal consonants had changed into affricates or frica-
tives, some perhaps into approximants, before the era of written records. I
consider the distinction between type 1 o and type 2 o to be that of vowel
quality, not the palatalization of onsets, but I will not discuss this issue here.
In this paper, type 1 syllables are represented with subscript "1", and type 2
syllables with subscript "2". To the syllables for which no orthographic dis-
tinction exists, no subscript is given. In the syllables Ci and Ce where C's are
coronal and have no orthographic distinction, the consonants were, in my
 The LiquidandStem-finalVowelAlternationsof Verbsin AncientJapanese 7

It is clear from (1) that the final vowels /e/ and /i/ of the verb stems
/age2-/ and /oki2-/ change into /u/ when followed by the `rentai' suffix /ru/
and the 'izen' suffix /re/. Since the surface stem-final vowel /u/ of the
'shuushi' form may be due to assimilation to or fusion with the 'shuushi'

suffix /u/, it comes into question why stem-final vowels /e/ and /i/ change
into /u/ before the suffixes /ru/ and /re/. When Morris Halle visited
Japan for the first time in July of 1969, Dr. Hattori Shiro expressed his
idea before Halle that the 'rentai' suffix must have been /uru/2).
Changes /age2-uru/ aguru, and /oki2-uru/ okuru are phonetically
plausible, but consonant-stem verbs, e.g. /kak-/ 'write', followed by
/-uru/, would. be likely to result in nonattested forms like *kakuru.
The attested form is kaku. Accordingly, the underlying form of 'rentai'
suffix is more likely /ru/ rather than /uru/, and that of 'izen'
suffix /re/. If this is so, it may be safe to say that stem-final vowels
change into /u/ when followed by /r/. It should be noted here, that
stem-final vowels change into /u/ when followed by an `inflectional'
suffix beginning with /r/, not before `derivational' affixes like potential-
passive affixes /-rare/, /-raje/ (e.g. nerajenu <-- /ne-raje-an-ru/ `cannot
sleep').
Even in the ancient written records, the alternation in question is
grammaticalized, i.e. the alternation occurs when followed by `rentai'
and 'izen' suffixes. I would like to consider the phonological motivation
for the above alternation before it was grammaticalized.

2. The properties of liquids

If the alternation in question occurs when followed by /r/, the only liquid
in Japanese, the properties of liquids in general and especially in Ancient

opinion, not palatalized. The distinction between type 1 o and type 2 o is ob-
literated insyllables with a zero onset and labial onsets, /p/ /b/ and /m/, except
in one important document, 'Kojiki', where type 1 mo and type 2 mo are dis-
tinguished.
2) The idea that `rentai' and `izen' suffixes should have been /uru/ and /ure/
8 TeruhiroHAYATA

Japanese should be examined. Since there is no evidence that there

could have existed more than one kind of liquid in Ancient Japanese, we
should examine liquids in general, laterals as well as rhotics (r-sounds).
Liquids are, phonetically, the most sonorous of the oral consonants.
It is said that in languages allowing consonant clusters, liquids are the
sounds which can co-occur most freely with a variety of other con-
sonants. Since Japanese does not allow consonant clusters, liquids may
only be grouped with nasals and approximants under the name of
sonorant, where the voicing feature is not contrastive.

2. 1. The distinction between rhotics and laterals

Rhotics (r-sounds), commonly written with the letter `r', include a wide
variety of sounds. However, the most typical rhotics are trills made
with the tip or blade of the tongue &]). In contrast to rhotics, laterals
are defined by the manner of articulation. Although Ladefoged and
Maddieson (1996: 182) say that laterals "are sounds in which the
tongue is contracted in such a way as to narrow its profile from side to
side so that a greater volume of air flows around one or both sides than
over the center of the tongue," the most typical laterals occur "at the
dental, alveolar, retroflex and palatal places of articulation." (Ladefoged
1971) Briefly, a typical rhotic is [r], and a typical lateral [1].
Next to typical trilled [r]s, coronal taps or flaps ([r]), lateral flaps
([J]), fricatives and approximants ([.fl), and various other sounds, even
uvular trills ([R]) and fricatives ([is]) are also classed as rhotics. All
these r-sounds, in fact, occupy different phonological positions in
different languages. Classification of non-typical r-sounds seems to be
highly arbitrary. Consider (2), where I summarize at the risk of over-
simplification. Here I would like to show that `r-sounds' can occupy a
variety of positions.

respectively, had already been suggested in Smith (1969).

 The LiquidandStem-finalVowelAlternationsof Verbs in AncientJapanese 9

(2) English German & French Manchu & Sibe Mongolian Japanese

`r-sounds' in Indo-European languages are grouped together as a

rhotic class based on historical (dialectal) connections and on the use of
the letter Y. /t/ and /d/ in American English are flaps ([r]) in am-
bisyllabic position. However, Mongolian /t/ and /d/ are not flaps [r] even
in ambisyllabic position. The voiced uvular approximant ([IS]) sound is
/g/ for Japanese speakers, and is a typical allophone of intersonorant /X/
in the Sibe language (and presumably Manchu in the Ching Dynasty).
Since [1]in English is a realization of /1/, and [j] is a liquid contrasting
with [1],it is a matter of course that [.i]is regarded as a realization of /r/.
On the other hand, Sibe (and presumably Manchu) contrasts /1/ and /r/,
pronouncing both [1]and [r] in syllable-initial position, but Sibe treats [i]
as /1/ rather than /r/. The reason for this is that in Sibe, [1] and [r]
contrast in syllable-initial position, and [.i] and [r] contrast in syllable-
final position. [1] appears to occur syllable-finally at least phonetically,
but its phonological interpretation seems to me still open to question.
I conjecture that /a.le./, for instance ("." is a syllable boundary), with /e/
reduced, is pronounced [al.] or [a.l:. ] and that /al./, for instance, is
pronounced [a.fl. If my conjecture is right, it follows that syllable-ini-
tial [1]and syllable-final [i] are in complementary distribution, as in (3).

(3) The complementary distribution of [1] and [.i] in Sibe-Manchu

.la *al. (a.l:. )
*
.Ja ai.

cf. ra ar.
10 TeruhiroHAYATA

In Sibe both [1] and [i] are written with one and the same grapheme
(transcribed with 1 . In Manchu documents from the Ching Dynasty,
Chinese is written with the Manchu script transcribed as 'leo'
(presumably [lqu]), and as 'el' (presumably [Al]). There must be a
distinctive feature distinguishing /1/ [1- j], which is pronounced without
a trill, from /r/, which is pronounced with a strong trill.

2. 2. How was /r/ pronounced in the phonetic history of

Japanese?
`r-sounds' in some languages are pronounced with lip rounding and

protruding. It is said that the lip rounding and protruding combined

with other articulatory mechanisms produce fricative or approximant
rhotics in alveolar or post-alveolar position ([j]), and this is typical of
American English /r/. However, rhotics with the tongue tip with a
single or repeated closures ([r] [r] [1]etc.) and uvular rhotics ([R][K]etc.)
lack lip protruding. If the `r-sound' of Ancient Japanese was an apical
fricative or approximant like that of English, we would have to pay at-
tention to lip rounding. However, there is no evidence to suggest that
Ancient Japanese /r/ was a fricative or approximant.
According to Ladefoged and Maddieson (1996), trills, apical as well
as uvular (p. 219, 225), and flaps (p. 240) can be preceded by a brief
prothetic vowel-like -segment (as in Italian, Swedish, and Warlpiri).
Since there is no report that these prothetic vowel-like segments could
be rounded, it would be futile to resort to such a vowel-like segment for
resolving the problem of stem-final /u/-alternation when the stem is
followed by the /r/-sound in Ancient Japanese.
There is no type 1-2 distinction in the perfect conditional (`izen' )
morpheme /re/ since the initial consonant is coronal. However, when
preceded by a stem ending in a consonant, the onset /r/ of /re/ is deleted.
Then, if the stem-final consonant is non-coronal, the type 1-2 distinction
appears as in (4), where the resulting syllable is always of the type 2
variety, i.e. the syllable in question begins with a non-palatalized con-
 TheLiquidandStem-final
VowelAlternations
ofVerbsinAncientJapanese 11
sonant. Therefore it is reasonable to suppose that the underlying form
of the morpheme must consist of the type 2 syllable /re2/.

(4) asolb-e2 do2 mo asolb-re (2) do2 mo 阿蘇倍等母

(Man'yooshuu V-836)
`although one plays'

kolpu-re (2)do2 mo kolpi2-re (2) do2 mo 古布礼騰毛

(Man'yooshuu XIX-4209)
`although one loves'

/asolb-e2/ is derived from /aso1b-re2/, while /kolpu-re2/ is derived from

/kolpi2-re2/ with the /i2-u/ alternation. A type 2 syllable ending in /e/
whose onset is not palatalized is best considered to be derived di-
achronically from Cai as in (5). Hattori (1979) also gives only *ai as a
proto-Japanese form of /e2/, /eel/ in the Central dialects of the Nara
Period. See (13).

(5) *Cai > Ce2

It follows that the morpheme /re2/ of Ancient Japanese was formerly

/rai/.
Since the single liquid of Ancient Japanese, /r/, was written with
Chinese characters for words whose onset was most likely [1], and
Chinese words beginning with [1]were introduced into Japanese with the
/r/ sound, it seems safe to say that this Ancient Japanese /r/ cannot have
been a uvular sound like [R]nor [x]. Chinese at that time does not seem
to have had rhotics. Hence, it seems reasonable to suppose that /r/ of
Ancient Japanese could have been an apical liquid with a brief contact
with the upper teeth or the alveolus. Hattori (1979: 115) suggests that
"/r/ of pre -proto Japanese was a flapped `r' like that of present-day

Japanese or Korean intervocalically, and an apical alveolar `1'somewhat

palatalized with a clear quality like Korean final `-l', ..."
12 TeruhiroHAYATA

In the 16th-17th century, authors of Christian documents used the

letter `r' in transcribing Japanese /r/, without any discussion in their
Portuguese, Spanish and Latin documents. Portuguese 'rosario' was
introduced into Japanese as /rozairo/ and /rozarijo/, 'raxe' as /rasja/,
`raxeita' as /raseita/
, 'rabeca' as /rabeika/, 'rosa' as /rouza/, 'Roma' as
/roma/, etc. Portuguese `1' was, of course, introduced into Japanese
with the same phoneme /r/, e.g. `limbo' as /rinbo/.
All the above considerations suggest that the syllable-initial liquid of
Japanese from Ancient to Modern has been consistently a trill or a flap
or a lateral flap sound, which of course does not contrast with [1]. Only
the word-initial liquid remains a problem. Although no liquid occurred
word-initially in native Ancient Japanese words, many Chinese words
beginning with the [l]-sound were accepted as Sino-Japanese words be-
ginning with a liquid. Did the masses unfamiliar with Chinese accept
Chinese words with initial [1]without any difficulty? If they accepted at
least some of the [1]-initial Chinese words into Japanese with some
modification of the [l]-sound into another sound, then what sound could
have been substituted for the initial [1]? I would like to consider Chinese
[l]-initial words under the ancient disguise of native Japanese.
In connection with the fact that Chinese had no rhotics, the ri-mu
(H a) onset should be considered. In present-day Peking Chinese the
ri-mu onsets are represented with `r' in the pin yin notation, e.g. Ri-Ben
(H *). The corresponding Sino-Japanese go-on and kan-on readings of
the present-day ri (H) are /niti/ and /zitu/ respectively. The /z/ of the
kan-on reading may appear to be similar to a liquid, but in my opinion the
'dakuon' consonants of Ancient Japanese were not simply voiced ob -

struents but voiced prenasalized obstruents. Accordingly, both /niti/

and /zitu/ began with nasal consonants at that time, and this /z/ has no
relation to liquids.
In Altaic languages, [r] does not occur word-initially, while [1] does
occur word-initially. Matsumoto (1994: 47) observes that there are
many languages where [r] does not occur word-initially. As mentioned
 The Liquidand Stem-finalVowelAlternationsof Verbsin AncientJapanese 13

above, a trill of the tongue tip [r] is difficult to pronounce word-initially

and prothetic vowel-like segments tend to occur instead. Generally, [r]
is more difficult to pronounce word-initially and is apt not to occur
word-initially, while [1] is easy to pronounce, and often does occur,
word-initially. If the liquid of Ancient Japanese had been [1], this [1]
should, therefore, have not been difficult to pronounce word-initially.
Since no liquids in fact occurred word-initially, it follows that the liquid
of Ancient Japanese was not an [l]-like sound but rather an [r]-like
sound. Notwithstanding this, the initial [1]-sounds of Chinese words
were represented as Japanese liquids from the very beginning of written
records in Japan. Consequently, it might be assumed that the Chinese
word-initial [l]s were accepted into Ancient Japanese as .[1],which was
the easier one to pronounce, at least word-initially. Word-initial liquids of
present-day Japanese are pronounced [1]by many people including me.

2. 3. With what sounds did Ancient Japanese /r/

alternate?
To understand the properties of Ancient Japanese liquids, we should
consider how the /r/ alternated in cognate words. A couple of Ancient
Japanese examples are given in Kamei (1973ab, first published in 1953,
1954 respectively), as shown in (6) :

(6) turu - tadu `crane'

(`turn' is colloquial, 'tadu' poetic)
kaperu - kapadu `frog'
(the palatalization of /p/ in /pe/ is unknown
for philological reasons. 'kaperu' is colloquial, 'kapadu' poetic)

Leaving aside the question of the relatedness of 'turu' with Korean

`turumi' discussed in Kamei
, the alternation between [r] and [d] is pho-
netically plausible. Note that the typical sound change, /d/ > /r/, is
found in modern Japanese, e.g. /karo no uron'ja/ < /kado no udon'ja/
14 TeruhiroHAYATA

meaning `an udon shop on the corner' in the Hakata dialect of Fukuoka.
However, as I have often argued, the contrast between 'seion' and
'dakuon'
, namely /p t k s/ vs. /b d g z/, in Ancient Japanese must have
been that between non-nasal obstruents versus nasal obstruents, rather
than that between voiceless versus voiced obstruents. It follows that
the /r/-/d/ alternation must have been that between [r -.r] vs. ["d]. The
alternation is different in nature from that of [d] > [r] rhotacism.
Rather, the not uncommon series of sound changes [nr] > [ndr] > [ - dr]
> [-d] was more likely to have occurred. It seems reasonable to sup-
pose that /tadu/ followed the process *tanru > *tandru > *ta dru >
to du /tadu/, and that /kapadu/ followed the process *kapanru >
*kapandru > *kapa dru > kapa du /kapadu/ . /kaperu/ may possibly

have been /kape2ru/ with a non-palatalized p and have been *kapairu

formerly. /*kapanru/ and /*kapairu/ seem to be doublets and share the
morpheme /kapa/ `river', while the origins of the following /-nru/ and
/-iru/ remain unclear. It may be that /*kapanru/ comes from /*kapa-
no2-iru/ (river-Gen.-'iru') and /*kapairu/ from /*kapa-iru/ (river-`iru'),
while /*tanru/ might come from /*ta-n02-turu/ (rice field-Gen.-crane) .
Throughout the period of written records down to the present day,
the contrast between /r/ (intransitive and passive) and /s/ (transitive
and causative) has been evident, but no etymological connection is
found between them.
Passive affixes /raje/ found in the Nara Period and /rare/ used
throughout the history of Japanese down to this day must be cognate
without doubt. Although the era of /raje/ precedes that of /rare/, the [j]
> [r] sound change is not common. Therefore, the difference is com-
monly considered dialectal. A proto-form like *rat'ai (or *rarjai) is
supposed to have yielded *rarai in the Central dialects through the
sound change * > r, and *rajai through * > j, as shown in (7) :

(7) *
rarai *
*rarai Central dialects in general
rajai Southern Central dialect]]
 The Liquidand Stem-finalVowelAlternationsof Verbsin AncientJapanese 15

Imperative affixes have been /jot/ (/jo/ in present-day dialects) in

Central Japan, and /roe/ (/ro/ in present day dialects) in Eastern and
Western Japan. Examples from the Man'yooshuu (in the Nara Period)
are shown in (8) :

(8) Central dialects

oki2jo2 oki2-jo2 < *akai- 起余 (XVI-3873) `get up!'
sake1[sakje]←sak-jo2<*sak- 左家 (XX-4446)`bloom!'

Eastern dialects

tuke2ro2 tuke2-cot < *tukai-Aa 都氣 呂 (XX-4420) `attach!'

pake2 3) pak-Ao2 < *pak-Aa 波氣 (XIV-3399) `wear!'

From the phonological point of view, the /A02/ of the Eastern and
Western dialects must be the older form. I hold the opinion that the
underlying form of the imperative affix in the Central dialects of Ancient
Japanese must have been /j02/ (Hayata 1980). I thought I was the first
to have this idea, but in fact Smith (1969: 440) already had taken /yo/
(or /ye/) as an underlying form for this morpheme. In summing up the
main points in (7) and (8), the historical development of *c is shown as
in (9):

(9)
r /Eastern dialects

*A > /passive affix in the Central dialects

j /the Central dialects in general (except of passive affix)

/passive affix in the Southern Central dialect

It should be noted that the correspondences are different between the

imperative suffix and the final particle interdialectally as in (10) :

3) Many questions on the phonology of the ancient Eastern dialects are left
open.
16 TeruhiroHAYATA

(10) Central dialects Eastern and Western dialects

imperative suffix jot [ja - je] 02 [ra - e]
final particle J02' j02 j02

The difference of correspondences shown in (10) suggests the impera-

tive suffix and the final particle `jo2' might not have been cognate,
though suffixes and particles are different in status.
On pre-proto Japanese liquids Hattori (1979: 106, 115) had in-
teresting ideas, which I quote in (11) including the part already given
before:

(11) while *-i of converbs (ren yookei) *'akai [ > oki2] `gets up and',
*'akai [ > ake] `opens and'
, *makai [ > make] `is defeated and',
etc. must have been a vowel morpheme with a meaning like
`nominalization'
, ancestors of the other *-i are, I think, various
consonants etc. one of which is *-r. (p. 106)
The sound change **-r [-r of pre-proto Japanese] -f *-i may
appear peculiar, but if /r/ of pre-proto Japanese was a flapped `r'
like that of present-day Japanese or Korean intervocalically, and
an apical alveolar `1' somewhat palatalized with a clear quality like
Korean `-1' finally, such a sound change is fully possible. (p. 115)

Assuming that such a syllable-final /r/ existed, i.e. that "1>> i" is pho-
netically possible, Hattori (pp. 114, 115) observed that proto-Japanese-
Korean forms such as **pur [[puh]] `fire' > *pui [ > pi2] and **mer [[meli]]
or **mVr [[mVli]] `water' > *me [mel] are possible. He added that
"th
e above suggestions are not yet linguistically verified" but "the more
similarities indicated between Japanese and other languages, the better."

3. Is the alternation between /i, e/ and /u/ really related to

liquids?
It is no wonder that the phonetic value of /r/ in Ancient Japanese in-
 TheLiquidandStem-final
VowelAlternations
ofVerbsin AncientJapanese 17
volved a trill of the tongue tip, i.e. [r]. The /r/ in question is a syl-
lable-initial but not word-initial sound, and has nothing to do with the
prothetic vowel-like segment, which tends to occur word-initially.
Rounding and protruding of lips accompanying /r/ of English and other
languages must be also irrelevant to the /r/ in question of Ancient
Japanese. Rounding and protruding are said to occur with fricative
rhotics. /r/s of present-day Japanese dialects are generally apical, and
fall into the range of lateral [1],trilled [r], lateral flap [J]or (stoplike) flap
[r]. Typical fricative [j] in Japanese has not been reported, to my
knowledge. There is no compelling evidence that the /r/ of Ancient
Japanese was a liquid with lip rounding and lip protrusion.
From considerations so far, it follows that /r/ of Ancient Japanese
had no phonetic properties that could contribute to the rounding of the
preceding vowels. If this /r/ came from *t or *d, there would be no
tendency to round the preceding vowels. This means, as regards to
accounting for the alternations of stem-final vowels with /u/, we cannot
dwell on the phonetic properties of /r/ and we must change tracks.

4. Imperfect adnominal (participle)

The imperfect adnominal (participial) endings of verbs in the Nara
Period, /ru/ of the Central dialects and /rot/ of the Eastern dialects, must
be cognate. Some example of /rot/ of the Eastern dialects are shown in
(12) :

(12) Corresponding forms of the Central dialects are shown in paren-

theses.
pur o1jo2ki1not (guru jukil not) `snow which falls'
(Man'yooshuu XIV-3423)
ko2jo2piltoe no2r-ar-o1wa ga sena pa (... no2r-er-u....)
`my lover who said "I'll come to you this evening"'

(Man'yooshuu XIV-3469)
oso2ki1not ar-o1ko2so2yesi mo (... ar-u ko2so2yo2si mO)
18 TeruhiroHAYATA
`having clothes is good' (Man'yooshuu XIV -3509)

awoyagi2 not par-ar-o1 kapato1 ni (... par-er-u

`on the ford where willows are sprouting'

(Man'yooshuu XIV-3546)

Just as the imperfect adnominal endings of verbs are /ru/ in the Central
dialects and /rot/ in the Eastern dialects, the adnominal endings of ad-
jectives are /kit/ [kii] in the Central dialects and /ke1/ [kie] in the Eastern
dialects. /kit/ and /ke1/ must have been cognate, as Takeda (1949) and
Fukuda (1954ab) observed as early as half a century ago. They both
regarded /ke1/ as an older form.
Hattori (1979b: 98) claims that there was a distinction between long
and short vowels even in the Heian Period, not to mention the Nara
Period. He gave a list of vowels of proto-Japanese reconstructed from
the correspondences between Nara Japanese and those of the Okinawa
dialects, probably also based on other considerations. Omitting the
correspondences with the Okinawa dialects, I show the list in (13),
where the conditions of vowel-shortening in the Nara Period are not
given:

(13) proto-Japanese Central dialects of the Nara Period

*i /i/ (koorui) [ii]
*e /i/ (koorui) [ii]
*a /a/
*0 /u/
*u /u/
The Liquidand Stem-finalVowelAlternationsof Verbsin AncientJapanese 19
*ia /e/
, /ee/ both koorui Lie, iee]
*au /o/
, /oo/ [both koorui, i.e. 01, 001]
*ee /e/
, /ee/ both koorui [ie, Jee]
20 TeruhiroHAYATA

5. Ku-nominalization
In Ancient Japanese a process called 'ku-gohoo' (ku-nominalization) was
active. Some examples are: ipu ipaku `the fact that (one) says', ko1
puru ---*ko1puraku `the fact that (one) loves', ipilsi ipilsiku `the fact
that (one) said', nakil nakelku [nakieku] `the fact that (one) is ab-
sent'. From the data of tones in the Heian Period, the form of ku-
nominalization is `an adnominal form of verbs and adjectives + a high-
pitched monosyllabic noun'. It has been proposed that ku-nominaliza-
tion is `an adnominal form + aku' (Okada 1942, though this may pos-
sibly be Dr. Kindaichi Kyoosuke's original idea (Fukuda 1954b: 36)).
However, this aku-theory would yield nonattested forms as in (15),
where nonattested forms are preceded by the symbol "x" rather than "*"
to avoid the confusion between nonattested forms and reconstructed
forms:

(15) imperfect adnominal ru + aku raku

past adnominal isi + aku xiseku
the attested form is isiku.
adnominal of adjective kit + aku kelku [kieku]

It is clear from (15) that `an adnominal form + aku' would yield correct
attested forms in the cases of imperfect adnominals of verbs and ad-
nominals of adjectives, but the case of the past adnominal remains a
problem. I follow the theory of Okada (1900) and Fukuda (1954a, b)
that the ku-nominalization is `an adnominal form + ku', rather than '...
+ aku'. Explicitly, ku is a formal noun, and the preceding ra, isi and
ke1 [kie] in ra-ku, isi-ku and ke1-ku [kie-ku] are petrified adnominal forms
respectively, of which only isi remained unchanged in the Nara Period.
If these three morphemes are adnominal endings, then ra (and ru) and
ke1 (and kit) must be cognate with rot and kel, respectively, in the
Eastern dialects. Four candidates *rau, *rua, *roo, or *ro have been
posited above for a protoform of an adnominal ending of verbs. If ra is
 The Liquidand Stem-finalVowelAlternationsof Verbsin AncientJapanese 21

to be posited as a petrified form of the adnominal ending, the candidates

seem to be winnowed down from four to two, i.e. either *rau or *rua.
At the stage when neither *au > 001 nor *ua > 001 had occurred, *rau
+ ku or *rua + ku should have been petrified into raku. On the other
hand, *rau or *rua not followed by ku underwent the above-mentioned
sound change turning into *roo, and then reducing to *ro word-finally.
This *ro changed into ru in the Central dialects by Hattori's hypothesis
(13), while it remained unchanged in the Eastern dialects. If the pro-
to-form of adnominal of adjectives had been *ke, the ku-nominalization
form *ke + ku would be xkilku in Nara Japanese by Hattori's hypothesis
(13). Therefore, it follows that the proto-form must be *kee. This *kee
must have reduced into *ke just as in the case of *roo word-finally. This
*ke changed into kit in the Central dialects by Hattori's hypothesis
,
while it remained unchanged in the Eastern dialects.
So far the candidates have been reduced to *rau or *rua as a verb-
ending and *kee as an adjective ending.

6. Perfective conditional (izen) form

The adnominal verb endings *rau or *rua remind me of one point
regarding the conditional ending. It has been already mentioned that
the underlying form of the conditional ending in Nara Japanese must
have been re2, where r is not palatalized. It has also been mentioned
that e preceded by unpalatalized consonants must have been formerly
*ai (5) . This means that the conditional re2 must have been formerly
*rai . *raai should be rejected since it would yield raa or ra, rather than

re2, in the Nara Period (Hattori 1979: 114). It is most natural to assume
that a certain intervocalic consonant was deleted in *ai. This deleted
consonant might best be considered to be [g] among others, since [g] is
apt to be palatalized before [i] and indeed changes into [j] eventually. In
short, the development of the conditional ending is, in my opinion, *ragi
> *raji > *rai > re2.
I propose that *ragi arises at the stage of non-nasal dakuon. In the
22 TeruhiroHAYATA

pre-Nara period, it is likely that there was a series of non-nasal voiced

obstruents /b d g z / etc., which later changed into approximants. Some
/z/ forms may have changed into /s/. Subsequently, nasal + vowel +
obstruent sequences yielded a new nasal dakuon series, e.g. ami1 + para
`net + belly' - ambara `rib' . Dakuon occurrences in the Nara period

were these new nasal obstruents.

Interestingly, in the present-day Saga dialect there is a conditional
expression which is in the form of 'ru + gi', where ru is an adnominal
ending and gi seems to function as a formal noun. See (16).

(16) tabe + ru + gi -f taburu + gi tabur + gi tabuggi

`if one eats'

for + ru + gi tore + gi for + gi toggi

`if one takes'

kak + ru + gi kaku+gi
`if one writes'

/r/ of this dialect does not occur in this ending except as an assimilated
sound before /r/, but /ru/ should be taken as an underlying form of this
ending (Hayata 1998). Just as the conditional ending of the present-
day Saga dialect /ru + gi/ is `an adnominal ending + a formal noun', so
the *ragi of the pre-Nara period appears to be analyzable into `an ad-
nominal ending + a formal noun', i.e. /*ra + gi/. Indeed, the semantic
difference between the two endings different in time might be called into
account, but this is not a grave problem seeing that the conditional
/re2/ has undergone not a small amount of semantic change during the
long period of written records.
By analyzing the conditional ending of Ancient Japanese into an
adnominal ending + a formal noun, apparently anomalous forms of the
`past' ending isi (adnominal) proves to be parallel with the imperfect

endings as in (17) :
 The Liquidand Stem-finalVowelAlternationsof Verbsin AncientJapanese 23

(17) present-day Saga Ancient Japanese

imperfect imperfect past
ru *ra isi adnominal
ru-gi *ra-gi isi-ka conditional

From comparison with the Tungus languages, Ikegami (1978)

postulated that the conditional ending re2 of Ancient Japanese could be
derived from *ra + i or *ra + Ci. My postulation, however, is not
based on comparison with other languages.
Even if the adnominal ending is supposed to have come from *ra +
gi, it has not yet been decided whether this *ra could trace back to *rau
or to *rua.

7. The adnominal ending, the conditional ending and the

passive ending
Now recollect the first problem. Why do verb-stem-final vowels alter-
nate with /u/ before the imperfect adnominal ending /ru/ and the perfect
conditional ending /re2/, while they do not alternate before the passive
affix /rare/ - /raje/, though all these endings begin with /r/.
Since age2- `to raise', for instance, must contain the same root mor-
pheme with agar- `to rise', they could be assumed to have been formerly
*aga-i- and *aga-r respectively . The adnominal form and the condi-

tional form of *aga-i- were aguru and agure respectively in the Nara
Period. In accordance with the choice between *rau or *rua, two
processes a) or b) will work as in (18) :
24 Teruhiro HAYATA

(18) stem-final i-u-alternation ra-petrification

a *aga-i-rau *aga-u-rau
b) *aga-i-rua *aga-u-rua
a) *aga-i-rau-gi *aga-u-rau-gi > * (aga-u) -ra-gi >
b) *aga-i-rua-gi *aga-u-rua-gi > * (aga-u) -ra-gi >

Hattori (13) 4)
g > j > 0 O
no (14)
> *ago-ro > aguru
> *ago-ro > aguru
* (aga-u) -rai > *ago-rai > agure
* (aga -u) -rai > *ago-rai > agure

In the stem-final i-u alternation, if process a) applies, /i/ alternates with

/u/ before /rau/, while if process b) works, /i/ alternates with /u/ before
/rua/. Since the passive /rarai/ and /rajai/ do not yield the u-alternation
of the preceding /i/, process a) is peculiar in that the preceding /i/ does
change into /u/ before /rau/, although both the passive and adnominal
morphemes begin with /ra/. If process b) applies, in contrast, we can
speak of the difference of phonological environment, that is, before /rua/
the stem-final /i/ does change into /u/, while before /rarai/ and /rajai/ the
/i/ does not change. Since the consonant /r/ itself has proved to have no
effect on the vowel alternation, the vowel /u/ after /r/ may bring about
regressive assimilation changing the preceding /i/ to /u/. From these
considerations, *rua rather than *rau seems the most likely candidate to
be taken as the adnominal form in the pre-Nara period. This *rua ap-

4) I will cite other types of vowel-stem verbs containing *a and *o as root-final

vowels: *aka-i- (rau/rua) *aka-u- (...) --* oku-ru `to get up', *kopo-i-
(raulrua) --),*kopo-u- (...) -p ko1pu-ru `to love, to miss'. The two lines *au >
/uu/, /u/ and *ou > /uu/, /u/ should be added to Hattori's hypothesis in (13).
Seen from the processes *aka-i-i *aka-i > oki2 [akai], *kopo-i-i *kopo-i >
kolpi2 [kopoi] (both converbs (ren yoo)), *ka-i > ki2 [kii] `tree (isolated form)',
*ka- (na-ure) > ko2-(nure) '(the end of) tree' and so on , the above two lines
of processes appear natural.
 The Liquidand Stem-finalVowelAlternationsof Verbsin AncientJapanese 25

pears to have come from something like *ruCa. It is open to question

what kind of consonant should be posited as this C.

8. Summing up
In verbs of Ancient Japanese, stem-final oturui-vowels, i.e. vowels not
preceded by palatalized consonants, change into /u/ when followed by
the adnominal ending /ru/ and the conditional ending /re2/ which both
begin with /r/, while stem-final vowels do not change when followed by
the passive affixes /rarai/ nor /rajai/ which similarly begin with /r/.
I argue from several points of view that this /r/ has been phonetically
r-like sound through the history of Japanese, and it is clear that the
phonetic properties of /r/ have nothing to do with the u-alternation. The
reconstructed forms *rua (adnominal) and *rua gi (conditional)
through comparison between the Central dialects and the Eastern di-
alects of the Nara Period, and through internal reconstruction, etc.
appear to account for the alternation, since the alternation occurs only
before segments beginning with /ru/ but not before segments beginning
with /ra/. The alternation suggests regressive assimilation in verb with
stem final oturui vowels.
26 TeruhiroHAYATA

References
Fukuda, Yoshisuke 1954a Kodaigohoo songi (1) : E-retu-on no ren-
taikei. Bungaku Kenkyuu 48: 39-48.
1954b Kodaigohoo songi (2) : Ku-gohoo ni tuite. Bungaku
Kenkyuu 50: 31-41.
Hattori, Shiro 1979 Nihon-sogo ni tuite (20). Gekkan Gengo 10:
105-115.
Hayata, Teruhiro 1998 Saga-hoogen no doosi-mikanryoo-rentaisetu-
zi no kiteikei. Kyuudai-gengogaku-kenkyuusitu hookoku 19: 1-4.
Ikegami, Jiroo 1978 Arutaigo-keitooron, Iwanamikooza Nihongo 12
Nihongo no keitoo to rekisi.
Kamei, Takashi 1973a (first published in 1963) Are Japanese turu
and ito related to Korean turumi and sil respectively? Nihongo-
keitooron no miti /Kamei Takashi ronbunshuu 2: 55-65. Yoshikawa
Koobunkan.
1973b (first published in 1954) Turu to ito, Nihongo-
keitooron no miti /Kamei Takashi ronbunshuu 2: 67-90. Yoshikawa
Koobunkan.
Ladefoged, Peter and Ian Maddieson 1996 The sounds of the world's
languages. Cambridge: Blackwell.
Matsumoto, Katumi 1994 Nihongo-keitooron no minaosi: Makuro no
rekisi-gengogaku kara no teigen. Nihongoron 2-11: 36-51.
1998 Ryuuon no taipu to sono tiriteki bunpu: Nihongo ra-

gyoo-on no jinrui-gengositeki haikei. Ippan-gengogaku-ronsoo 1: 1-

47.
Okada, Mareo 1942 Ku-gohoo no setuzoku ni tuite. Kokugo-kokubun
11-9.10.
Smith, Donald L. 1969 On the non-trivial role of the otsu vowels in
Old Japanese verb inflections. Papers from the fifth regional meet-
ing Chicago Linguistic Society, April 18-19, 1969: 435-441.
Takeda, Yuukichi 1949 Man'yooshuu zen-chuushaku. Kaizoosha.
 The Liquid and Stem-final Vowel Alternations of Verbs in Ancient Japanese 27

上 代 日本 語 の 流 音 と動詞 語幹 末 母 音 交 替

早 田 輝 洋

(大 東 文 化 大 学)

上 代 日本 語 の 二 段 活 用 動 詞 は 終 止形・ 連 体 形・ 已然 形 で語 幹 末 母 音 が/u/と 交

替 す る.こ の 交替 は文 献 時代 で は既 に文 法 化 して い た.し か し,文 法 化 す る以 前

の 音 韻 的 条 件 は 何 だ った の で あ ろ うか.語 幹 末 母 音 が/u/と 交 替 す る のは,乙 類

音 節 で 終 る語 幹 末 母音 の 次 に終 止語 尾/-u/,連 体 語 尾￨-ru￨,已 然語 尾/-re/の 来 る

時 で あ る が,終 止 語 尾/-u/の 場 合 は 母 音 の 融 合 か も知 れ ぬ ゆえ 考 察 か ら外 す と

/-ru//-re/の前,即 ち/-r/の 前 とい う こ とに な る.し か し,受 身 接 辞/-rare//-raje/

の 前 で は 交 替 は起 きな い.日 本語 の歴 史 を通 じて,そ の/r/の 音 はr的 な音 で あ

る こ と,そ の音 が 当面 の母 音 交 替 に 関係 な い こ とを論 じ,つ い で奈 良 時 代 の 東 西

方 言 の 対応 や 服部 仮説 か ら連 体 接 辞 の祖 形*rua,巳 然 接 辞 の 祖形*rua-giを 再構

す る と,当 該 の 母 音 交 替 は 後 続 音 節*ruaの 母 音*uに よ る逆 行 同 化 を 思 わ せ る

もの とな る こ と を示 す.過 去 接 辞/-isi//-isi-ka/の 形 態 素 構 成 に も示 唆す る所 が

あ る。

(受理 日 2000年8月10日)