ABSTRACT
A careful examination of the poetry in books 14 and 20 of Man’yōshū makes it clear that at least two dialects existed in Japan during the OJ period: the central or capital dialect, and an eastern dialect, hereafter referred to as Eastern Old Japanese (EOJ). Because of this split, some prefer to call OJ ‘Western Old Japanese’, but I will continue to call the language spoken in the center of the Yamato Basin simply OJ.
