日本語の音韻変化── 上代から現代まで ──

Abstract

The Japanese vowel system underwent processes of merger during the Nara period, while voiced consonants split off from voiceless counterparts by the Edo period.　The number of accent types has been decreasing since ancient times, merging into two in the present-day Tokyo dialect.　This paper aims at discovering universal principles of phonological change such as split, merger, rotation, by comparing the sound system of the Japanese language with that of other languages