Picking a Language in Early Japan: Recontextualizing Sinitic vs. Vernacular Writing
Speaker: JOSHUA FRYDMAN, Assistant Professor of Japanese, University of Oklahoma
Moderator: WESLEY JACOBSEN, Professor of the Practice of the Japanese Language and Director, Japanese Language Program, Harvard University
One question that has vexed scholars of early Japan (c. 6th-8th centuries CE) is how a writing system to represent vernacular Japanese developed alongside the widespread use of Literary Sinitic ("Classical Chinese"). This talk attempts to answer that question by looking at paradigms for the use of multiple written languages in other comparable premodern societies. Through doing so, I propose a relationship between vernacular Old Japanese and Literary Sinitic as components of a self-contained linguistic system, rather than as separate and opposing forces which the early Japanese court was forced to navigate.
Reischauer Institute Japan Forum
