Table of Contents

List of tables, maps and figures; Acknowledgements; List of abbreviations; Introduction; Part I. Old Japanese: 1. Early writing in Japan and Old Japanese sources; 2. Phonology; 3. Grammar; 4. Loanwords; 5. Eastern Old Japanese; Part II. Early Middle Japanese: 6. Writing and sources; 7. Phonology; 8. Grammar; 9. The sinification of Japanese; Part III. Late Middle Japanese: 10. Sources; 11. Phonology; 12. Grammar; Part IV. Modern Japanese: 13. Varieties of Modern Japanese; 14. Phonology; 15. Grammar; 16. Eastern dialect features of the standard language; 17. The westernization of Japanese: loanwords and other borrowings; Appendix. Summary of the main regular phonemic changes between Old Japanese and conservative Modern Japanese; References; Index of main grammatical forms; General index.

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Describes the development of the Japanese language from its recorded beginnings until the present day.

Reviews

Review of the hardback: 'This book provides a ready resource on pre-modern Japanese for linguists throughout the world.' Satoshi Kinsui, Osaka University

Review of the hardback: '… monumental … it is likely to have an impact for decades to come …' John Whitman, Cornell University

'The field … owes a great debt of gratitude to Bjarke Frellesvig for producing this comprehensive, well-organized, and eminently useful monograph. It not only does the job splendidly but also sweeps away cobwebs and introduces some fresh perspectives on the premodern language … His history will, I think, be the standard textbook for the next generation of students, a stimulus to researchers, and the first place for linguists not specializing in Japanese to check when they have diachronic queries about Japanese. It is a solid contribution to the field.' Language