User:Mazamadao

Imperfective: Conjugation table

Historically, the vowel u systemically fused with its preceding vowel into one long vowel, which yielded such pronunciation as Tōkyō (東京; /toukjau → toːkjoː/). These fusions are complete in some western dialects,^[3] but others still make exceptions for verbs ending in u. Compare the following, whereby the unfused forms are listed first: au, ō (会う; 'meet'), iwau, iō (祝う; 'celebrate'), ou, ō (負う; 'carry'), ōu, oō (覆う; 'cover'). In classical Japanese, the fused forms are traditionally used,^[4] regardless of the kana spelling, which is the case for not only the said example godan verbs, but also nidan verbs such as kangō (考(かんが)ふ; = kangaeru; 'deliberate'), although modern Tokyo speakers may rather use the spelling pronunciation kangau.^[5] Some highly elevated verbs such as tamau, tamō (給う; 'bestow') and notamau, notamō (宣う; 'say') accept the fused forms as standard rather than dialectal alternatives.^[6][4] Fusions occur more extensively in the gerund and perfective.

Among verbs ending in the vowel u, the verb 言う・云う exceptionally only takes the fused form yū, never the unfused *iu, not even in careful speech.^[7] Despite the pronunciation, its standard kana spelling is still いう, not ゆう,^[8][9] (although the latter is still listed in dictionaries,^[9] and can be used, apart from ゆー or just ゆ, as a nonstandard alternative to reflect the actual pronunciation^[10]). This convention, along with the particles wa (は), e (へ) and o (を), is retained from historical kana orthography for practical purposes. For yū (言う), the kana spelling いう is in keeping with other conjugational forms such as iwanai (いわない) and itta (いった). 言(い)う (yū; 'say') is possibly homophonous with 結(ゆ)う (yuu → yū; 'fasten'),^[7] except that the latter can be unaccented or accented, while the former is only unaccented.^[6][4] In this article, the more phonetically accurate spelling ゆう is used in the conjugation tables below not to obscure phonetic changes between verb forms. The yu‑ resulting from the fusion in yū has begun to spread to other forms, such as yuwa‑, yutte and yutta, whose statuses are certain, although the statuses of yui, yue and especially yuō are dubious. It has been claimed that there are dialects where yui nagara, yueba and yue have occurred.^[11][12]

Aru is now a full-fledged godan verb, but it used to belong to an irregular class called "r-row irregular conjugation" (ラ行変格活用, ra-gyō henkaku katsuyō) in classical Japanese. Although having been long displaced by its attributive aru, its distinct conclusive ari lingers on in some proverbial cliches, such as kono chichi ni shite kono ko ari (この父にしてこの子あり; transl. like father, like son), jinsei yama ari tani ari (人生山あり谷あり; transl. life has peaks and valleys), etc, or the pseudoclassical baseball cliche pinchi no ato ni chansu ari (ピンチの後にチャンスあり; transl. after a crunch comes a chance).

Certain ‑suru or ‑zuru verbs and their godan and ichidan equivalents are interchangeable (or at least sensitive to specifically what follows them) and even used in the same text, although it has been claimed that, at least for the conclusive/attributive form, the more classical/literary (文語, bungo)/western ‑zuru variants are more "formal" and "basically a written form",^[13] compared to the more modern/colloquial (口語, kōgo)/eastern ‑jiru variants.^[14] The ‑su variants are highly inconsistent across verbs, and even for highly "godan‑ized" verbs like aisuru (愛する), whose other forms are predominantly godan, the conclusive/attributive aisuru and conditional aisureba in particular are still preferred to the fully godan variants aisu and aiseba.^[15] In some cases it is not clear whether aisu is godan or actually pseudo-classical, for example in aisu beki (愛すべき) where all ‑suru verbs can optionally lose the ru. In classical or pseudo-classical literature, aisu is more likely to be conclusive and aisuru is more likely to be attributive or nominalized.

The extenders beshi, beki, beku, mai, maji, majiki, majiku, etc, can stylistically take classical conclusives before them,^[16][17] including the irregular su (す; 'do')^[b] and ku (来; 'come'), and the nidan u (得; 'get'), tabu (食ぶ; 'eat'), kazou/kazō (数ふ; 'count'), otsu (落つ; 'fall'), etc. These can be substituted with the modern irregular suru (する) and kuru (来る), and the ichidan eru (得る), taberu (食べる), kazoeru (数える), ochiru (落ちる), etc. Some governmental institutions have shifted away from the nidan style (uku beki (受くべき; 'ought to receive')) in favor of the ichidan style (ukeru beki (受けるべき)).^[19][20] With the classical irregular conclusive ari (あり; 'exist') and its derivatives, however, the attributive is used instead, as in aru beki (あるべき; 'ought to be'), yokaru beki (良かるべき; 'ought to be good'), etc rather than *ari beki, *yokari beki, etc, and such exceptions coincide with the modern godan conclusives ending in aru of the same verbs and adjectives.^[16][21][22]

The irregular and nidan verbs all have attributives distinct from conclusives, which have been employed in writing for literary flair. However, the current convention is to steer away from these elevated archaisms, which means that instead of a classical nidan conclusive like the passive shinobaru (偲ばる; 'be recalled') and a nidan attributive like shinobaruru (偲ばるる), a modern ichidan conclusive/attributive like shinobareru (偲ばれる) is recommended.^[17]

When used in modern Japanese, nidan verbs are only formally distinct from their ichidan counterparts in their conclusives, attributives and provisionals, which all contain the vowel u instead of i or e. Certain nidan verbs, such as iku (生く)^[23][c] and nobu (伸ぶ),^[24] may have two ichidan counterparts for each, one being kamiichidan ("upper unigrade") with the vowel i, and the other being shimoichidan ("lower unigrade") with the vowel e, and they may differ in transitivity, which is made morphologically obvious in the ichidan conclusives, attributives and provisionals compared to their nidan ancestors.^[25][26]

Since nidan verbs can be used before extenders, so-called "yodan verbs" presumably can as well, but as their conclusives/attributives are indistinguishable from so-called "godan verbs," it is rather a matter of classical fused pronunciation versus modern unfused pronunciation than truly distinct verb forms.

The classical forms of the now ichidan verb dekiru (出来る; 'come into existence; be possible') are deku and dekuru (出来る), which belong to the same irregular class as ku and kuru (来る; 'come'). While deku can be used before beki, etc as in deku beki, etc, it is also possible to use the infinitive deki instead as in deki beki,^[27][28][29] etc.

The verb shinu (死ぬ; 'die') is now a full-fledged godan verb in mainstream Japanese, but it used to belong to its own irregular class (na‑gyō henkaku katsuyō (ナ行変格活用; 'n‑row irregular conjugation')) with the now obsolete inu (往ぬ; 'go'). It had a distinct attributive and provisional which have been used elevatedly.

The classical attributives of ‑ta/‑da are ‑taru/‑daru, which have been used elevatedly just like nidan attributives (compare the copular attributive na(ru)). The classical ‑tari/‑dari are not really used conclusively as true conclusives, where the modern ‑ta/‑da are still preferred; the formally identical infinitives ‑tari/‑dari evolved into modern representatives.

The politeness auxiliary ‑masuru is characterized as "pseudo-literary"^[30] or faux archaic.^[31] It was used in parliamentary speech during the 20th century, but usage drastically declined into the 21st century.^[32] Some examples include Wakayama ni orimasuru haha (和歌山に居りまする母; 'my mother who is in Wakayama'), Taku e de mo maitte iru yō ni itasō ka to zonjimasuru no de gozaimasu (宅へでも参っているように痛そうかと存じまするのでございます; 'I am wondering whether I should decide to come and stay perhaps at your house'), Sore ni gisei no tame o omotte mimasuru to, geshuku ni okimasu no wa ikaga de gozaimashō (それに犠牲の為を思って見ますると、下宿に置きますのはいかがでございましょう; 'And thinking of the victims' welfare, how about putting them in a boarding house?'). The conjugational similarity between ‑masu and suru suggests an etymological link.^[33]

The sound sequence /Vi/, with /V/ being a vowel, is often colloquially and masculinely fused into a long vowel. Since all adjectival conclusive/attributive forms have this sound sequence, they are liable to such fusion. Most adjectives of this kind remain distinctly masculine, and their phonetic spellings are found in written dialog for masculine characters in fiction, such as nai → nē (ねえ・ねー; 'nonexistent'), urusai → urusē → ussē (うるせえ・うるせー・うっせえ・うっせー; 'noisy; pesky'), hayai → ha(y)ē (はええ・はえー; 'quick'), sugoi → sugē (すげえ・すげー; 'superb'), tsuyoi → tsu(y)ē (つええ・つえー; 'strong'), warui → warī (わりい・わりー; 'bad'), yasui → yashī (やしい・やしー; 'easy; cheap'), mazui → majī (まじい・まじー; 'unpalatable'), atsui → achī (あちい・あちー; 'thick; hot'), kayui → kaī (かいい・かいー; 'itchy'), etc. Non-masculine examples include yoi → (y)ē → ī (いい・いー; 'good'),^[22] and kawayui → kawaī (かわいい・かわいー; 'adorable'). See Japanese phonology § Vowel fusion for further citations.

The classical conclusives nashi and yoshi in particular are now more of cliches rather than catch-all representatives of adjectives in general. Nashi is often used as a nominal suffix meaning "without", "‑less" or "‑free", as in satō nashi no jōzai (砂糖なしの錠剤; 'sugar-free tablet'). Yoshi is often used as an interjection meaning "Good!" or "Alright!". The classical onaji has evolved into an adjectival noun (onaji da/de aru/desu, onaji (na), etc), and despite being originally conclusive, it is now prevalently attributive. Other examples of classical conclusives for cliched, proverbial and elevated uses include Tenki wa yoshi, kaze wa nashi, buratsuku no ni motte koi no hi da (天気はよし、風はなし、ぶらつくのに持ってこいの日だ; transl. The weather's nice, there's no wind, it's the perfect day to stroll), Genkin fuyō jidai, chikashi de aru (現金不要時代、まさに近しである; transl. The cashless era is nigh), Eyasuki mono wa ushinaiyasushi (得やすきものは失いやすし; transl. Easy come, easy go), Kyū kābu Jiko ōshi (急カーブ　事故多し; transl. Sudden curve: Many accidents),^[34] etc.

The classical attributive ending ‑ki, the ancestor of the modern attributive/conclusive ending ‑i, is still used in elevated cliches and titles for books and fictional characters, such as jinkaku naki shadan (人格無き社団; 'unincorporated association'),^[35] Osorenaki Tansasha, Akiri (恐れなき探査者、アキリ; 'Akiri, Fearless Voyager'),^[36] furuki yoki jidai (古き良き時代; 'the good old days'),^[35] yoki Samariya‑bito/‑jin / hitsujikai (善きサマリヤ人・羊飼い; 'the good Samaritan / shepherd'), Utsukushiku Aoki Donau (美しく青きドナウ; 'The Beautiful Blue Danube'), Aoki Me no Otome (青き眼の乙女; transl. Maiden with Eyes of Blue),^[37] Akaki Ryū (赤き竜; transl. Crimson Dragon),^[38] Atarashiki Mura (新しき村; lit. 'New Village'), Imawashiki Tsurīfōku (忌まわしきツリーフォーク; 'Ambominable Treefolk'),^[39] etc.

The attributive ending ‑karu, a fusion of the infinitive ending ‑ku and the verb aru, is uncommon in modern Tokyo Japanese. It has been found in such constructions with ‑beki as tanoshikaru beki (楽しかるべき; transl. that ought/is supposed to be joyful; that is otherwise happy).^[40] In Kyushu, ‑karu was reduced further to ‑ka,^[41] and yoka is used instead of either yoi or yoshi.^[42][d]

The classical adjectival extenders beshi, gotoshi and maji are still used in elevated language. Their attributives retain the ‑ki ending as in beki, gotoki, majiki, although the ‑i ending as in bei, majii has historically and dialectally occurred.^[43][44] For beshi in particular, its attributive beki can be used conclusively in the phrase beki da/de aru/desu. For more examples, see #Imperfective: Grammatical compatibility below.

Imperfective: Grammatical compatibility

The imperfective conclusive/attributive form can be followed by various extenders.^[164]

Infinitive: Conjugation table

In the domestic tradition of grammar, all inflected words have their own ren'yōkei (連用形), regardless of whether they can stand alone or must be followed by auxiliaries. In western analyses, "infinitives" must be able to stand on their own, and forms with auxiliaries are treated separately. Thus, such forms as ‑mashi‑ (〜まし〜) and deshi‑ (でし〜) are considered ren'yōkei in the native tradition, but not infinitives in western analyses as they cannot be on their own^[171] and must be followed ‑te (〜て) or ‑ta (〜た).

The infinitive forms of the copulae and of adjectives function adverbially without additional auxiliaries just like those of verbs:

• Ame de kyaku ga naku, shōbai wa agattari da (雨で客がなく、商売は上がったりだ; lit. 'It being raining, customers being nonexistent, business is down', transl. Our business is down because nobody's coming because of the rain)^[35]

The verb aru, the adjective nai and the particle ‑te are instrumental in expanding copulae's and adjectives' conjugation by fusing with their infinitive forms:

• Imperfective:
  • ni + aru → na(ru)
  • de + aru → de aru → da/ja
  • ‑ku + aru → ‑karu
• Negative:
  • de + nai → de/ja nai
  • de + aran(u)/‑zu → de/ja aran(u)/‑zu
  • ‑ku + nai → ‑ku nai
  • ‑ku + aran(u)/‑zu → ‑karan(u)/‑zu
• Perfective:
  • de + atta → de atta → datta/jatta
  • ‑ku + atta → ‑katta
• Tentative:
  • de + arō → de arō → darō/jarō
  • ‑ku + arō → ‑karō
• Imperative:
  • de + are → de are
  • ‑ku + are → ‑kare
• Conditional:
  • ni + araba → naraba
  • de + areba → de areba
• Gerund:
  • ‑ku + te → ‑kute
  • ‑ku + atte → ‑katte

Just like how da can be "split", or unfused, back to de (wa) aru, with added particles, the above fused forms can be split, as in Akaku wa atta. (赤くはあった。; lit. 'Being red? It was indeed.').

The particle ‑te itself was once an infinitive form as well, and it combined with aru to make ‑ta and ‑tarō, although the latter of which is increasingly displaced by ‑ta darō or ‑ta deshō.

Unlike verbal infinitive forms which can combine with ‑masu(ru) to make polite forms, as in kakimasu(ru) (書きます(る); 'write'), adjectives use conclusive forms and desu instead, as in akai desu (赤いです; 'be red'), but occasionally also with infinitives and arimasu, as in akaku arimasu (赤くあります). When honorific godan verbs combine with ‑masu(ru), it is more common to drop the consonant r;^[172] keeping the r is obsolescent and has a sarcastic, dialectal or archaic connotation.^[173]

Apart from the standard ‑ku forms, adjectives also have forms ending in long vowels. They stem from a historical loss of the consonant k, which was complete in conclusive/attributive forms (akaki → akai (赤き→赤い; 'be red'). In infinitive forms, however, such loss was complete only in western dialects; in standard Japanese, it is restricted to formations with gozaimasu^[u] to make hyper-polite expressions, as in akaku → akō gozaimasu (赤うございます; 'be red'), compared to regularly polite akai desu (赤いです). Western sound changes of this type are obligatory in the affirmative, but optional in the negative,^[174] hence akō/akaku gozaimasen (赤う・赤くございません; 'not be red'). In cases where there are triply long vowels, such as ooku → oō (多う), the actual pronunciations may only involve doubly long vowels, as in ō gozaimasu. Cases like yowaku → yo(w?)ō (弱う) are phonetically suspect as to whether there is still a lingering w sound and whether there is a reduction to a doubly long vowel (yo(w)ō gozaimasu or yō gozaimasu (?)).^[174] Some of these hyper-polite adjectives have become idioms, such as ohayaku → ohayō (gozaimasu) (おはよう(ございます); lit. 'it's early', 'good morning'), omedetaku → omedetō (gozaimasu) (おめでとう(ございます); lit. 'it's wonderful', 'congratulations'), arigataku → arigatō (gozaimasu) (ありがとう(ございます); lit. 'it's rare', 'it's blessed; it's worthwhile; it's appreciated; thank you'). The sound changes resulting from the historical ‑u ending are usually spelt out in modern kana as shown below, although some historical spellings may still be used sometimes, such as しう instead of しゅう.^[175] For beshi (可し), there was such a historical sound change as beku → beu → byō,^[176][177] and byō gozaimasu (べうございます) has been attested.^[178]

Like ‑ku, ‑zu can fuse with ‑aru as well to expand its own conjugation (‑zaru, ‑zareba) independent of ‑n(u), though these forms are largely confined to elevated language or cliches like mizaru kikazaru iwazaru (見猿聞か猿言わ猿; 'not seeing, not hearing, not speaking'), manekarezaru kyaku (招かれざる客; 'uninvited guest'), motazaru (持たざる; 'have-not'), irazaru (要らざる; 'uncalled-for', synonymous with iran(u) (要らん・要らぬ)^[179][180]), etc.^[181]

Infinitive: Grammatical compatibility

Infinitives allow "splitting",^[221] or adding particles like wa or mo between the infinitives and a following verb/adjective to redirect focus. The following verb/adjective is aru/arimasu or nai/arimasen with copulae and adjectives, and suru/shimasu or shinai/shimasen with other verbs. There is a strong tendency to focus on negatives,^[222] namely nai/arimasen and shinai/shimasen. In the following examples, the focused information is underlined in the Japanese originals, and in all-caps in the English translations to emulate spoken emphasis.

• de aru / da → de wa aru, de atta / datta → de wa atta, de arimasu / desu → de wa arimasu, de arimashita / deshita → de wa arimashita
  • Katsura da (桂だ; transl. It's KATSURA) → Katsura de wa aru (桂ではある; transl. It IS Katsura)
• de/ja nai → de wa nai, de/ja nakatta → de wa nakatta, de/ja nai desu / arimasen → de wa / ja(a) nai desu / arimasen, de/ja nakatta desu / arimasen deshita → de wa / ja(a) nakatta desu / arimasen deshita
  • Zura ja nai (ヅラじゃない; transl. It isn't ZURA) → Zura de wa nai (ヅラではない; transl. It's NOT Zura)
• ii/yoi → yoku wa aru, yokatta → yoku wa atta, ii/yoi desu → yoku wa arimasu, yokatta desu → yoku wa arimashita
  • Ii (いい; transl. It's GOOD) → Yoku wa aru (よくはある; transl. It IS good)
• yoku nai → yoku wa nai, yoku nakatta → yoku wa nakatta, yoku nai desu → yoku wa nai desu / arimasen, yoku nakatta desu → yoku wa nakatta desu / arimasen deshita
  • Yoku nai (よくない; transl. It isn't GOOD) → Yoku wa nai (よくはない; transl. It's NOT good)
• iku → iki wa suru, itta → iki wa shita, ikimasu → iki wa shimasu, ikimashita → iki wa shimashita
  • Iku (行く; transl. I'll GO) → Iki wa suru (行きはする; transl. I WILL go)
• ikanai → iki wa shinai, ikanakatta → iki wa shinakatta, ikimasen → iki wa shimasen, ikimasen deshita → iki wa shimasen deshita
  • Ikanai (行かない; transl. I won't GO) → Iki wa shinai (行きはしない; transl. I will NOT go)
• suru → shi wa suru, shita → shi wa shita, shimasu → shi wa shimasu, shimashita → shi wa shimashita
  • Sore wa suru (それはする; transl. I'll DO it) → Sore o shi wa suru (それをしはする; transl. I WILL do it)
• shinai → shi wa shinai, shinakatta → shi wa shinakatta, shimasen → shi wa shimasen, shimasen deshita → shi wa shimasen deshita
  • Sore wa shinai (それはしない; transl. I won't DO it) → Sore o shi wa shinai (それをしはしない; transl. I will NOT do it)

Accentually, if a verb is to be accented, all their forms without auxiliaries or particles are minimally accented on the second mora from last, for example, tabe (食べ; 'eat', [tábè] → [tábè wà ɕìnàì]).^[6] However, infinitives are capable of being unimoraic, which means they can only be accented on the last and only mora they have. Furthermore, if an unaccented verb is followed by a particle, the particle places an accent on the verb's last mora anyway, resulting in a handful homophonous pairs such as these:^[223]

• Unaccented: i (居; 'exist', [ì] → [í wà ɕìnàì])
• Accented: i (射; 'shoot', [í] → [í wà ɕìnàì]); i (鋳; 'cast', [í] → [í wà ɕìnàì])
• Unaccented: ki (着; 'wear', [kì] → [kí wà ɕìnàì])
• Accented: ki (来; 'come', [kí] → [kí wà ɕìnàì])

The infinitive form is also compatible with an extensive list of particles and auxiliaries.^[224] Of these, the polite auxiliary ‑masu used to have s‑irregular conjugation (サ変格活用, sa‑hen katsuyō),^[225] whose prototype is the verb suru. As shown elsewhere in this article, unlike suru which has normal eastern shapes and elevated western shapes in Tokyo Japanese, ‑masu retains its western shapes.^[226]

• Suru's general shapes: su^[v], suru
• Suru's eastern shapes: shinai, shinakatta, shiyō, shiro
• Suru's western shapes: sen^[w]/senu^[x], senanda^[y], shō^[z], seyo/sē^[z]/sei^[z]
• ‑Masu's general shapes: ‑masu, ‑masuru^[x]
• ‑Masu's eastern shapes: ‑mashinai^[aa], ‑mashinakatta^[aa], ‑mashi
• ‑Masu's western shapes: ‑masen/‑masenu^[x], ‑masenanda^[y], ‑mashō, ‑mase/‑masē^[z]/‑masei^[aa]

Derivation from the infinitive

As a type of verbal stem, the infinitive has been used to derive several categories of words:

• Verbal nouns ("reading," "shooting," etc.): kari (狩り; 'hunting; hunt'), kai (買い; 'buying; sales'), yomi (読み; 'reading'), etc.
• Compound verbs, before a verb: kakikuwaeru (書き加える; 'insert textually'), yomiayamaru (読み誤る; 'misread'), mimawaru (見回る; 'patrol'), etc.
• Compound verbal nouns: kakikuwae (書き加え; 'textual insertion'), yomiayamari (読み誤り; 'misreading'), mimawari (見回り; 'patrol'), etc.
• Compound nouns, before a noun ("reading glasses," "shooting star," etc.): mihon (見本; 'sample'), tabemono (食べ物; 'foodstuff'), kakikotoba (書き言葉; 'written language'), etc.
• Compound nouns, after a noun ("speed reading," "mass shooting," etc.): ushikai (牛飼い; 'cowherd'), shinbun'uri (新聞売り; 'news vendor'), hitokui (人食い; 'man-eating; man-eater; cannibal'), etc.
• Compound nouns, after an adjectival root: tōmi (遠見; 'distant view'), chikazuki (近付き; 'acquaintance'), fukaoi (深追い; 'relentless pursuit'), etc.
• Compound adjectives, before an adjective: minikui (見難い・醜い; 'hard to see; ugly'), utagaibukai (疑い深い; 'deeply suspicious'), etc.

These derivatives above are not arbitrarily derived but idiomatic, except for politeness or subject exaltation^[235] with the prefix o‑ (御), in which case verbs can be arbitrarily turned into nouns in the shape of o‑<infinitive>: okotowari shimasu (お断わりします; 'I decline'),^[236] oyasumi nasai (お休みなさい; 'good night', lit. 'please rest'), otsukai kudasai (お使いください; 'please [do me a favor and] use'). This nominalization is analogous to the use of the homographic Sino-Japanese prefix go‑ (御) with Sino-Japanese nouns with verbal meanings:^[237] gomen nasai (ご免なさい; 'I'm sorry', lit. 'please forgive me'), goshiyō kudasai (ご使用ください; 'please [do me a favor and] use').