Grammatical changes due to 歷史假名遣 use?

Question

basically, I am wondering to what extent use of 歷史假名遣 before 1946 would influence grammatical forms in texts from the period between roughly 1900 to 1946. As I understand it, most 歷史假名遣 pertains to parts of words usually written in kanji anyways (e.g. 今日). I also understand that 歷史假名遣 also has an impact on certain verb endings though. That seems straightforward for forms like ている --> てゐる, as this change just reflects replacing い with ゐ. However, as I understand it, verbs ending in う in modern Japanese end in ふ with when using 歷史假名遣. But does 歷史假名遣 have any major impact on conjugation?

For instance, I would think that 思う-->思ふ would be negated 思はない using 歷史假名遣. However, I have also seen the form 思はず as the negative form of 思う in older texts.

Basically, I want to know whether 歷史假名遣 in pre-1945 texts have any impact on grammar (instead of just on orthography) if the text in question otherwise follows modern Japanese grammar.

Thanks!

Answer 1

Grammar and kana orthography are two different things. By definition, kana orthography only defines the spelling of words, and it says nothing about grammar. 思わない and 思わず are two different types of negation, and the difference lies not in kana orthography but in grammar. 思わない and 思はない are exactly the same phrase written in two different kana orthographies.

In terms of grammar, 1900-1946 was a transitional period from classical Japanese grammar to modern Japanese grammar (see genbun itchi). In this period, you would see many novels written in modern grammar but with historical kana orthography. For example, Natsume Soseki's 吾輩は猫である was first published in 1905 in modern grammar and with historical kana orthography (see the picture in this article), but the same novel can be written in modern kana orthography, too. People today actually read this novel usually in modern kana version like this. Things written before 1900 were written in classical grammar and historical kana orthography, and things written after 1946 are normally written in modern grammar and modern kana orthography.

Theoretically speaking, it is also perfectly possible to write a news article issued today in historical kana orthography, but no one do that because it's meaningless.

EDIT: German also underwent a major orthography reform relatively recently, but this does not mean people suddenly changed how they speak German in 1996.