ABSTRACT
I intend to reconstruct the segmental phonetics and phonology of the Old Japanese (OJ) language of the poetry of Kojiki and Nihon shoki. This reconstruction must be:
(1) Statistically based: I will not draw conclusions about OJ on the basis of the readings of a few phonograms. Neither will I treat all phonograms for an OJ syllable equally. I will examine phonogram frequency to avoid being misled by nonce oddities. I am interested in finding dominant patterns of phonogram usage throughout the entire corpus of Kojiki and Shoki poetry.
