Editing Japanese language (section)

===Old Japanese===
{{main|Old Japanese}}
[[File:Genryaku Manyosyu.JPG|right|thumb|alt=Page from the Man'yōshū|A page from the {{Lang|ja-latn|[[Man'yōshū]]}}, the oldest anthology of classical [[Japanese poetry]]]]
The [[Chinese character|Chinese writing system]] was imported to Japan from [[Baekje]] around the start of the fifth century, alongside Buddhism.{{sfn|Frellesvig|2010|p=11}} The earliest texts were written in [[Classical Chinese]], although some of these were likely intended to be read as Japanese using the {{lang|ja-latn|[[kanbun]]}} method, and show influences of Japanese grammar such as Japanese word order.{{sfn|Seeley|1991|pp=25–31}} The earliest text, the {{Lang|ja-latn|[[Kojiki]]}}, dates to the early eighth century, and was written entirely in Chinese characters, which are used to represent, at different times, Chinese, ''kanbun'', and Old Japanese.{{sfn|Frellesvig|2010|p=24}} As in other texts from this period, the Old Japanese sections are written in [[Man'yōgana]], which uses ''[[kanji]]'' for their phonetic as well as semantic values.

Based on the Man'yōgana system, Old Japanese can be reconstructed as having 88 distinct [[Mora (linguistics)#Japanese|morae]]. Texts written with Man'yōgana use two different sets of ''kanji'' for each of the morae now pronounced {{Nihongo krt||き|ki}}, {{Nihongo krt||ひ|hi}}, {{Nihongo krt||み|mi}}, {{Nihongo krt||け|ke}}, {{Nihongo krt||へ|he}}, {{Nihongo krt||め|me}}, {{Nihongo krt||こ|ko}}, {{Nihongo krt||そ|so}}, {{Nihongo krt||と|to}}, {{Nihongo krt||の|no}}, {{Nihongo krt||も|mo}}, {{Nihongo krt||よ|yo}} and {{Nihongo krt||ろ|ro}}.<ref>Shinkichi Hashimoto (February 3, 1918){{lang|ja|「国語仮名遣研究史上の一発見―石塚龍麿の仮名遣奥山路について」『帝国文学』}}26–11(1949){{lang|ja|『文字及び仮名遣の研究(橋本進吉博士著作集 第3冊)』(岩波書店)。}} {{in lang|ja}}.</ref> (The {{Lang|ja-latn|Kojiki}} has 88, but all later texts have 87. The distinction between mo<sub>1</sub> and mo<sub>2</sub> apparently was lost immediately following its composition.) This set of morae shrank to 67 in [[Early Middle Japanese]], though some were added through Chinese influence. Man'yōgana also has a symbol for {{IPA|/je/}}, which merges with {{IPA|/e/}} before the end of the period.

Several fossilizations of Old Japanese grammatical elements remain in the modern language – the genitive particle ''tsu'' (superseded by modern ''no'') is preserved in words such as ''matsuge'' ("eyelash", lit. "hair of the eye"); modern ''mieru'' ("to be visible") and ''kikoeru'' ("to be audible") retain a [[mediopassive voice|mediopassive]] suffix -''yu(ru)'' (''kikoyu'' → ''kikoyuru'' (the attributive form, which slowly replaced the plain form starting in the late Heian period) → ''kikoeru'' (all verbs with the ''shimo-nidan'' conjugation pattern underwent this same shift in [[Early Modern Japanese]])); and the genitive particle ''ga'' remains in intentionally archaic speech.