古語. Old words or phrases no longer in general spoken or written use.
Questions tagged [archaic-language]
73 questions
9
votes
1 answer
archaic -an conjugation
This is a prayer uttered by someone who I presume is imitating archaic speech:
遍く邪悪より御身を守らん
What is the conjugation used in 守らん? It's doesn't seem like a negative which was my first thought.
HAL
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1 answer
What role do the Siddham characters have in Japanese?
The bonji, 梵字, are somewhat common. Are the only used as germ letters in Japanese, as has been explained to me, or are they used to form words and other higher concepts? Is this a living language process?
On a popular level, they are used as germ…
Ragaroni
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1
vote
1 answer
Why is the こおんな reading of 小女 considered "sensitive" when meaning a little maid?
I've stumbled on the こおんな ( 小女 ) word, which is labeled as archaic.
However, of the three meanings given (small woman, young woman, young maid), the third one is additionally labeled as "sensitive".
I'm wondering why, as none of the websites I…
Kzwix
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1 answer
Questions About Archaic Japanese
I recently came across this song that I really like, 「神居謡{かむいよう}」.
(Link to the full lyrics here.)
This sparked a few questions about archaic Japanese, which I know little of.
How would you translate 「神居謡」 anyway? "Kamuy Chant"? "Kamuy Hymn"?
In…
Senevir
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1
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1 answer
Oldest Japanese Pronunciation for "When Is It?"
I'm writing a story with some... very old people, so I'm chasing down some very outdated pronunciations. What's the oldest known pronunciation for the sentence "When is it?"
(I'm not directly asking for an archaic pronunciation of「今、いつか？」because…
linkhyrule5
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0
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2 answers
Power words: what are they, and what meanings do they have?
Can someone explain the “power words” in Japanese? I remember learning that it was once thought that Japanese had reached a level of completeness beyond many other languages because of certain words with complex meaning that distinctively occurred…
Ragaroni
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0
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あわれめ? (“Greetings”)?
Can あわれむ be used as the Sanskrit “hare”? My dictionary gives “enjoy the beauty of” as an obsolete definition. However, compassion, mercy, and sympathize are also listed, so it’s not clear to me. Most uses of this word may be more polar from what I…
Ragaroni
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