Early Modern Japanese

At the beginning of the 17th century, the center of government moved to Edo from Kamigata under the control of the Tokugawa shogunate and Japan closed its borders to foreigners.

New literary genres such as Ukiyozōshi, Sharebon (pleasure districts), Kokkeibon (commoners), and Ninjōbon also developed.

Major authors included Ihara Saikaku, Chikamatsu Monzaemon, Matsuo Bashō, Shikitei Sanba, and Santō Kyōden.

Depalatalization could also be seen in the Edo dialect: Middle Japanese had a series of prenasalized voiced plosives and fricatives: [ŋɡ, ⁿz, ⁿd, ᵐb].

Specifically, the r-irregular and n-irregular regularized as quadrigrade, and the upper and lower bigrade classes merged with their respective monograde.