上代語「うらうら」の語義について

要旨

The word uraura, a modifier which means the serenity and sunniness of spring days, has existed up to the present day following a semantic shift at the end of the Nara Period (c.600-c.800) when it meant 'not enough', 'improper.' The Japanese interpretation of the Chinese word 遅々 as recorded in the Ruijūmyōgishō, a dictionary which was compiled at the end of the Heian Period (1251), reads uraura． Presumably this was the corresporiding word for oro 鈍 frequently used in literature in the Heian Period (c.801-c.1100) and the Kamakura Period (c.1101- c.1300). This corresoondence previously recognized between ura 遅 and örö 鈍，which is the origin of oro in the preceding times, illustrates one pattern of semantic differentiation in those days, that is an example of the disyllabic word correspondences in the form of u-a: ö-ö. In this sense it may be said that it possessed a remarkable Semantic structure.

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