상대일본어의 エ열의 구분표기의 음운적 성격에 대하여

Abstract

Regarding a distinct uses of e-retsu in Ancient Japanese, the Japanese academia have considered that it was due to the differences of vowels. In recent society of Japanese language however, it seems that it is more prevalent to see it as a consequence of consonant difference. People who support the recent viewpoint assert that it is the difference between palatalized consonants and non-palatalized consonants. The advantage of this perspective is that it allows us to provide a phonetic and phonological explanations on why the proper use of e-retsu was performed only with ‘ka, ’ga’, ‘pa’, ‘ba’, ‘ma’ gyo. But phonetically, it is not clear if the palatalization of consonant happens before the middle vowel e. Furthermore, with this viewpoint, it is difficult to explain some phonological phenomena of Japanese language, such as conjugation of yodan verb in ancient Japanese or onbin. From many respects, for example the sound of Chinese character used as manyogana, it is likely that there was a opposition between palatalization and non- palatalization in the proper use of e-retsu. However, according to the phonological phenomenon such as a generation of e-retsu’s sound or a division of izenkei and meireikei of yodan verb, it seems more reasonable to see the proper use of e-retsu as an opposition between palatalizing vowels and non-palatalizing vowels, rather than the consonant differnce.