古事記伝(一)󰡕｢仮字の事｣の再考

Abstract

This study reexamined Motoori, Norinaga’s discussion of ancient special kana usage in ‘Kana no koto’ from “Kojiki-den(1)”, the earliest known reference to this phonological phenomenon. It assessed Motoori’s contribution to Japanese linguistics through his discovery of kana distinctions in the ancient period and considers his views on the relationship between ‘kana’(仮字, phonetic kana) and ‘karimoji’(借字, borrowed characters), the distinction between ‘オ’(/o/) and ‘ヲ’ (/wo/), and his interpretation of kana involving consonantal elements. It is well known that Motoori identified the kana orthography used in the “Kojiki” as the most accurate, noting distinctions such as between voiced and voiceless sounds, and even among homophones, where the character used varies depending on the word’s meaning. While previous studies have primarily focused on the differentiation of kana, this paper confirms that Motoori also displayed insight in estimating the phonetic values of vowel syllables. Although he inherited Keityu’s kana usage framework, Motoori further independently systematized the phonetic distinction between ‘オ’ and ‘ヲ’ by correcting their placement based on his own reasoning, which is a point Keityu had overlooked. Two issues remain open. First, ‘Kana no koto’ makes no mention of the confusion among the ‘Yotsugana(四つ仮名)’, which arose due to the palatalization of ta/da-row sounds during the Edo period. Second, in the phonology of the ancient period, kō/otsu (甲/乙) distinctions appear in kana rows such as /ki/, /gi/, /bi/, and /mi/, but not in the sa/ta-rows, except in the /-i/ and /-e/ syllables. These points are left as questions for future study.