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Questions tagged [classical-japanese]

文語（古文）. The classical literary form of the language based on Early Middle Japanese.

189 questions
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using 未然形 and 已然形 with conditional ば

I am reading through Shirane Haruo's Classical Japanese: A Grammar, and I've come across what I think is a discrepancy. The example given for ナ変 verbs is 死ぬ: Mizenkei: 死なば一所で死なん. SHINA-ba issho de SHINA-n. If we are going to die (shina-ba), let us…
HotelCalifornia
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Medieval Japanese

Is reading early Medieval Japanese for a modern Japanese speaker like reading Chaucer for a modern English speaker? Ie, slow and head-scratching but otherwise can get the gist of it.
Alexander Kirk
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what is a meaning of しければ in a classical japanese?

I'm stuck with this sentence - "いかにも山の中に只だ独り居たるに人の気はひのしければ少し生き出づる心地して見出だしければ" It's part of the folktale "鬼に瘤取らるる事". I know that ば mean to indicate end of statement in classical japanese, so does it mean to be some sort of connection word in this…
RRRR
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「の」followed by 「...なき」

In the lyrics of a song by Utada Hikaru I came across two lines (starting from 0:40) saying: 開いたばかりの花が散るのを 見ていた木立の遣る瀬無きかな My questions: How to explain the 「の」 in the second line? I guess the 「かな」at the end is sort of an exclamation, then how can…
null
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What do 科 and 頼母しけれ mean here?

言語を慎みて多くす可らずとは、寡黙を守れとの意味ならん。諺に言葉多きは科少なしと言い、西洋にも空樽を叩けば声高しとの語あり。愚者の多言固より厭う可し。況して婦人は静にして奥ゆかしきこそ頼母しけれ。福澤諭吉の「女大学評論」より What does 科 work there? What does 頼母しけれ mean? Here's a online dictionary…
Iori
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Why 燃ゆる in a modern slogan?

The Kagoshima National Athletic Meet seems to have been postponed indefinitely from 2020 for obvious reasons. However, I'm more interested in its slogan 燃ゆる感動. 燃ゆる is indeed the 連体形 of 燃ゆ, so I believe this is grammatical in Classical Japanese. But…
jogloran
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Is it correct to use the word "戦うて" instead of "戦って"?

I'm watching a Japanese TV drama. It is the story of a student whose body sometimes is possessed by the spirit of a samurai. When the body of the student is owned by the spirit of the samurai, the student uses words that may belong to old periods. I…
farhad gharleghi
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why is the 未然形 for 形容詞 in classical japanese not written/in brackets in most conjugation tables?

Took from google some of the tables, some have it in brackets, some list it, some of them straight up remove it, why is that?
sieman
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How to differentiate between the meanings of けり?

けり has 2 meanings: 過去 and 詠嘆. Is there some sort of trick to find out which one is being used? (besides context, of course)
ssuga
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Meaning of ものかわ in a Haiku

Bashō: ふつかよい ものかわはなの あるあいだ. I’m completely lost by ものかわ. Any idea?
Snaut
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is the old perfective suffix り connecting to 命令形 because there were 2 types of e?

As i have heard, there were 2 types of e's, one got creating through connecting "a" + "i" (which i think is the e for 已然形) and one through "i + a" (which i think is the e for 命令形), And since the suffix り apparently developed through fusion of…
sieman
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Help understanding 案ずるより産むが易し

案ずるより産むが易し It is better to get down to work than (just) to worry about it (beforehand). ｜ Fear can magnify a danger. ｜ A danger is not as great as it seems in advance. ｜ We have nothing to fear but fear itself. I am a bad with classical Japanese…
user10216
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