上代日本語の音節「シ」「チ」の母音

要旨

The archaic Japanese has two different vowels which have changed into a single sound represented by “_??_” the one having been absorbed thy. the other. We can not, however, restore the real phonetic values of the two series. it is J usually accepted that one was a palatal [i] and the other was probably a kind of neutral vowel.<BR>At any rate, it is obvious that they were freely combined with some consonants, but not with others.I have here dealt with the latter case. At least, the vowel of “_??_” and “_??_” in the archaic Japanese was, in my opinion, rather a Russian hard i (bl) than [i] in the present-day Japanese. It is disputable, which of two vowels has survived the other during the aye of the classical Japanese.