It is based on Early Middle Japanese, the language as spoken during the Heian period (794–1185), but exhibits some later influences.
A few examples follow, with the old characters on the left and the new characters on the right: The kana spelling of a kanji is not unique; e.g. in modern Japanese, note the difference in the reading of 体 between 体 (からだ, "physical body") and 政体 (せい‐たい, "forms of government").
Finally, probably the most common type of simplification is to change one component of the character to reduce the number of strokes and/or make it easier to write, a strategy exemplified by the fifth and sixth examples.
Broadly speaking, the differences are: Some examples follow (old spellings are on the left, new spellings on the right; kana in parentheses represent the pronunciation of the preceding character):[6][7][8][9] 幸せ (しあはせ)shiahase→→幸せ (しあわせ)shiawase "happiness"{幸せ (しあはせ)} → {幸せ (しあわせ)}shiahase → shiawase小さし (ちひさし)chihisa-shi→→小さい (ちいさい)chiisa-i "small" (the -shi ending is the classical conclusive form of modern 小さい (ちいさい) chiisa-i){小さし (ちひさし)} → {小さい (ちいさい)}chihisa-shi → chiisa-i合ふ (あふ)af-u→→合う (あう)a-u "come together" (note that every quadrigrade verb that currently ends in う u once ended in ふ fu){合ふ (あふ)} → {合う (あう)}af-u → a-u前 (まへ)mahe→→前 (まえ)mae "front"{前 (まへ)} → {前 (まえ)}mahe → mae炎 (ほのほ)honoho→→炎 (ほのお)honō "flame"{炎 (ほのほ)} → {炎 (ほのお)}honoho → honōThere are some exceptions to this sound change, although they are rare.
Sometimes, as in the case of the first two exceptions, the sound change form exists, usually with a slightly different meaning (はわ hawa is a hyper-formal and very respectful term for mother) or is used in different contexts (ほお hō is generally used in isolation, while ほほ hoho is generally used in compounds).
In writing, the distinction is preserved in single morphemes in cases where a sequence ちぢ (chidi) or つづ (tsudu) was historically produced by rendaku (such as in 縮む (ちぢむ) chidim-u, "shorten", and 続く (つづく) tsuduk-u, "continue", pronounced as if ちじむ chizim-u and つずく tsuzuk-u, respectively), or in compounds where a phonemic /ti/ or /tu/ has been voiced to /zi/ or /zu/ (such as in 身近 (みぢか) mi-dika "one's surroundings" and 仮名遣 (かなづかい) kana-dukai "kana usage", pronounced as if みじか mi-zika and かなずかい kana-zukai, respectively).
In modern Japanese, the small kana ゃ/ャ, ゅ/ュ, and ょ/ョ (ya, yu, and yo) are used to indicate palatalized consonants (拗音 Yōon) when following an I-column (イ段 I-dan) kana of the K-, G-, N-, B-, P-, M-, or R-rows (カ～, ガ～, ナ～, バ～, パ～, マ～, ラ行; Ka-, Ga-, Na-, Ba-, Pa-, Ma-, Ra-gyō).
In native Japanese words, this symbol can be used before kana of the K-, S-, T-, and P-rows.
For example, Voiced geminates are generally prohibited by Japanese phonological rules, but they occur in a few loanwords (although they are sometimes pronounced by native speakers as if they were their voiceless counterparts).
These examples of the geminate consonant marker, along with those found in loanwords, are written with large つ (tsu) in historical kana.
The most common way for geminates to be produced in Sino-Japanese words is by the elision of a vowel from the kana き, く, ち, or つ (ki, ku, chi, or tsu).
The reason for this is that in Early Middle Japanese, when these sounds were borrowed from Middle Chinese, the Japanese language acquired a final /t/ in the Sino-Japanese morphemes that currently end in ち (chi, /ti/) or つ (tsu, /tu/).
So the semantic difference between Sino-Japanese syllables ending in /ti/ or /tu/ is almost always trivial, and the historical pronunciation was identical, so they were not distinguished in writing.
Therefore, the previous examples would be written: Occasionally, gemination may also result from a loss of a vowel after ふ (fu, originally /pu/).
Furthermore, since these vowels are elided in some compounds but not others, this usage obscures the difference in a way that is essentially impossible to predict.
Syllable final nasals are believed by many scholars to have existed in Proto-Japonic, but all agree that they were lost by the time of Old Japanese.
They are From the elision of a vowel following /m/ or /n/ From the elision of a full mora From the preservation of an Old Japanese pre-nasalized consonant in a modern Japanese word From abbreviation of another pronunciation on this list From multiple processes From some semantic (rather than phonetic) process Of course, there are also some words with this sound that either lack Chinese characters or were coined in the modern or Early Modern Japanese eras, when ん (n) had been fully incorporated into the language.
Sometimes, this convention may be preserved by modern writers, but standard historical kana distinguishes む (mu) from ん (n).
In classical Japanese, there is an auxiliary verb (助動詞 jodōshi) む (mu) which indicated the volitional.
However, the conventions of standard historical kana call for this auxiliary verb (and any word derived from it) to be written with む (mu) even though they are pronounced as ん (n).
Since the auxiliary verb む (mu) is non-existent in modern Japanese, there are no dialects that preserve the distinction expressed in this rule.
Ruby text is still widely used in modern Japanese, but only for characters with non-standard or ambiguous pronunciations, or sometimes in materials designed for children or foreigners.
The second difference is that, especially in legal documents, Katakana were often used in the way that Hiragana are used in modern Japanese, to write out adjective and verb inflections, suffixes, and particles (送り仮名 Okurigana), and for the aforementioned ruby text.
For an example of a major document written in the classical style, see as an example the original text of the 1890 Meiji Constitution, which is written in classical Japanese using historical kana, old character forms, kana iteration marks, and Katakana in place of Hiragana (although it lacks universal ruby text).
Classical Japanese has the following verb classes and stem forms: Inflectional form = (stem) + Inflectional suffix 活用の種類 活用形 Note that most S-irregular is the combination of a noun and 爲; for example, 期す is a combination of the noun 期 ('date') and 爲.
The よ (yo) at the end of the imperative forms is optional in classical Japanese, although exceedingly common.
The upper bigrade class is small (about 56 non-compound verbs), but sizable enough to make an exhaustive list difficult.
Some scholars assume that the ancient construction called ク語法 (Ku-gohō "Ku-grammar") uses the irrealis form to form nouns from verbs and adjectives; e.g., 安し (やすし) (yasu-shi "peaceful") → 安け (やすけ) (yasu-ke) + ～く (-ku) → 安けく (やすけく) (yasukeku "peace of mind").
灯台Toudai下moto暗しkurashi灯台 下 暗しToudai moto kurashi女Wonnaはwa三界にsangai-ni家なしihe-nashi女 は 三界に 家なしWonna wa sangai-ni ihe-nashi