Introduction

Among the classical languages of the world, Old Japanese (OJ), the literary language of Japan up to the Nara Period (710–794 CE), ¹ has fared quite well. While some other classical languages are remembered only among scholars, most Japanese have been exposed to OJ and other varieties of premodern Japanese in secondary school. This situation is quite unlike that of, say, the United States, where no high school students are exposed to Old English except in translation. Untranslated Old English texts are difficult to find at non-academic bookstores, but one can easily find a copy of the OJ poetic anthology Man'yôshû (Collection of Ten Thousand Leaves) in ordinary Japanese bookstores. Although OJ is no longer a living language, it is far from forgotten. Even Japanese high school students are familiar with the rudiments of its morphology and lexicon.