Late Old Japanese

Introduction

Late Old Japanese is a stage of the Japanese language used between 794 and 1185, a time known as the Heian Period. It is the successor to Old Japanese. Late Old Japanese further evolved to Middle Japanese.

The verb

The 9 verbal conjugations in Old Japanese

Lower Monograde (下一段) was introduced in Late Old Japanese

Verb Class	Irrealis 未然形	Adverbial 連用形	Conclusive 終止形	Attributive 連体形	Realis 已然形	Imperative 命令形
Quadrigrade (四段)	-a	-i	-u	-u	-e	-e
Upper Monograde(上一段)	-	-	-ru	-ru	-re	-(yo)
Upper Bigrade (上二段)	-i	-i	-u	-uru	-ure	-i(yo)
Lower Monograde (下一段)	-e	-e	-eru	-eru	-ere	-e(yo)
Lower Bigrade (下二段)	-e	-e	-u	-uru	-ure	-e(yo)
K-irregular (カ変)	-o	-i	-u	-uru	-ure	-o
S-irregular (サ変)	-e	-i	-u	-uru	-ure	-e(yo)
N-irregular (ナ変)	-a	-i	-u	-uru	-ure	-e
R-irregular (ラ変)	-a	-i	-i	-u	-e	-e

Consonant / vowel stem

Verbs having a base that ends in a consonant are known as consonant-stem. These are exhibited by the following conjugation classes: Quadrigrade, Upper Bigrade, Lower Monograde, Lower Bigrade, S-irregular, R-irregular, K-irregular, and N-irregular.

Verbs having a base that ends in a vowel are known as vowel-stem. These are exhibited by the following conjugation classes: Upper Monograde.

Irregular verbs

There are several verbs with irregular conjugations.

• K-irregular: k- "come"
• S-irregular: s- "do"
• N-irregular: sin- "die", in- "go, die"
• R-irregular: ar- "be, exist", wor- "be, exist"

The conjugation class for each is named after the final stem consonant.