This feature began with an overview and has read the P sound of the ha-row, gemination, the standard language, and “Kokugo to kokka to” in Ueda Kazutoshi’s original. To close, we sort out how each is treated today.
Note that the “present treatment” in this article is a generally known summary of Japanese linguistics, not a one-by-one check of individual papers. To avoid overstatement, we separate what is firm from what is not.
The skeleton of the accepted view — the P sound of the ha-row
Ueda’s inference that the ha-row was originally a P sound is today the skeleton of the accepted view in the history of Japanese. The course is: the ha-row sound went from p, through a fricative made with the lips brought close (ɸ, a sound like fa), to the present h. It agrees in broad outline with the course Ueda drew as “P → ph/f → H.” The way of piling up several kinds of evidence seen in Close reading 1 — the correspondence with voiced sounds, how Sanskrit sounds were written, Japanese words in Ainu, and the remark that F sounds abound in southern Kyushu and Okinawan dialects — was carried on in later research.
However, on whether the ha-row sound of high antiquity was p or ɸ, debate continues even today. In that sense, Ueda’s conclusion survived in its broad frame, while its details were made more precise by later research.
Still used — the account of gemination
Ueda’s sorting of gemination — as in mochite → motte, the earlier consonant assimilates to the following one, the intervening vowel drops, and a small tsu is born — is still widely used today as an account of Japanese sounds. The question of the origin of gemination that Ueda left “to a later study” (did it exist from high antiquity, or come from Sino-Japanese pronunciation?) has been, in later research too, often discussed in relation to Sino-Japanese pronunciation.
Remaining as an idea — the standard language
Ueda’s view of the standard language — that it was originally one dialect, polished and developed by human hands — is shared in modern linguistics too. The understanding is that a standard language is not a “model” that exists naturally but something society makes and maintains. And Ueda’s judgment that a written language that can be put down only in writing and has no rhythm in the mouth is a “dead language” faced the same direction as the genbun itchi movement, which aimed at writing closer to speech.
Questioned again — “Kokugo to kokka to”
On the other hand, the claim in “Kokugo to kokka to” — keep the unity of language, and of race, as a task of the state — was greatly questioned in later ages.
- Language and race are different things. Modern linguistics does not equate language with race. A view that treats the unity of race as something to be kept has no scholarly basis.
- What the frame of kokugo pushed aside. Later researchers point out that modern Japan’s national-language policy also worked toward placing languages apart from the Japanese standard — dialects, Ainu, Ryukyuan — at the periphery. Ueda’s claim is often taken up as one part of that background. As seen in Close reading 2, Ueda himself did turn his eyes to the languages within the empire, but assessments of how he treated them differ among researchers.
- The very idea of “kokugo.” The view that the concept of “kokugo” was made together with the modern state is something recent research, such as Lee Yeounsuk’s “Kokugo” to iu shisō, has examined critically.
Reading the two faces separately
Ueda Kazutoshi’s work has two faces. One is that of a researcher of sounds working from evidence, who reasons out a sound of more than a thousand years ago from the “po” of okorippoi. The other is that of a child of his time, who spoke of language as a task of the state. The work of the former survived, in outline, to today. The claim of the latter should be read as the words of its time and remembered together with later criticism.
To see both at once within one person is perhaps the most honest way of reading Ueda.
From Ueda Kazutoshi to the people of this series
Of the people we’ve read in this “Modern Classics of Japanese” series, Hashimoto Shinkichi and Shinmura Izuru belong to the generation Ueda taught. Ueda also translated Sayce’s Language (Gengogaku, 1898) together with Kanazawa Shōzaburō (per the National Diet Library record). Hashimoto’s way of piling up “checkable facts” and Shinmura’s etymology that lays out evidence have something in common with the way of “P-on-kō,” which piles up evidence from many directions. Kanazawa Shōzaburō we read in another installment of this feature.
Summary
| Verdict | Subject |
|---|---|
| Skeleton of the view | The ha-row P sound. The course p → ɸ → h. p or ɸ still debated |
| Still used | The assimilation account of gemination. The origin question left open |
| Remains as an idea | Standard language = once a dialect, developed by hands; same direction as genbun itchi |
| Questioned again | The “Kokugo to kokka to” claim to keep the unity of language and of race |
| How to read | An evidence-based researcher of sounds, and a child-of-his-time advocate of kokugo; read the two faces separately |
In a nutshell — Ueda Kazutoshi’s inference about a sound survived in outline. The claim that spoke of “kokugo” as a task of the state was greatly questioned in later ages. We remember both, together with the original.