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+--- Thread: on the origin of 今日 (/thread-8852.html)
on the origin of 今日 - Mesqueeb - 2011-12-30
So my title is not perfect. But my question relates "old Japanese."
We were playing a game in which you had to read tanka the other day. And the word きょう was written as けふ。When I asked someone why they told me it that けふ must be the old way of pronouncing 今日。Is this correct? Does anyone have some knowledge about this?
Thanks!
-Mesqueeb
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waka_(poetry)#Tanka
on the origin of 今日 - Fillanzea - 2011-12-30
Here is a useful link on Late Old Japanese phonology (Heian period, roughly). It is my understanding, which may be wrong, that the old-style spellings persisted for a while after the pronunciation had become more modern.
http://www.temcauley.staff.shef.ac.uk/lojphon.shtml
on the origin of 今日 - JimmySeal - 2011-12-30
According to this page, the pronunciation of 今日 has gone through quite a number of changes:
http://www2.plala.or.jp/kamkamkam/gimon2/no69/mojiretu.htm
kepu ＞ kefu＞ kewu＞ keu ＞kyou
It's also worth noting that a number of other common words were originally written with ふ:
言ふ -> 言う
会ふ -> 会う
買ふ -> 買う
on the origin of 今日 - yudantaiteki - 2011-12-30
The け is the same as in 今朝（けさ）. Apparently the ふ is 日 but I don't see any independent use of that syllable.