Old, Middle and New: The Problem of Language Periodisation in Diachronic Research on Japanese

The paper discusses the problem of the periodisation of the Japanese language history, raising both the question of the division into periods itself and the terminological issues as well. The former aspect, that of establishing the time boundaries between periods, is a most basic element of any diachronic description, and yet most historical linguists of Japanese appear to settle for adopting the socio-political periodisation as it comes, which is hardly satisfying or even acceptable in linguistic research. Terminology, on the other hand, can be regarded as purely arbitrary and conventional, as well as language-bound, but certain names of periods – even if this is not fully intended – do suggest a stronger connexion between particular stages of language development. The meta-analysis of the proposals to date, with a focus on any deviations from the socio-political history, leads the author to offer a different periodisation scheme which may serve as a much more effective tool in further diachronic research of Japanese.