Japanese consonant and vowel verbs

The Japanese language has two main types of verbs: ''godan'' verbs, or , and ''ichidan'' verbs, or .

Terminology

Categories are important when conjugating Japanese verbs, since conjugation patterns vary according to the verb's category. For example, and belong to different verb categories (quinquegrade and unigrade, respectively) and therefore follow different conjugation patterns. Most Japanese verbs are allocated into two categories:

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Statistically, there are about twice as many quinquegrade verbs than unigrade verbs.

Classical Japanese had more verb groups, such as and , which are archaic in Modern Japanese.

The word ''grade'' in ''quinquegrade'' and ''unigrade'' is translated from . In grammar, ''dan'' is a synonym for ''Daijirin'' and opposite to . The translations for ''dan''/''retsu'' and gyō vary, either of them can be translated as "row" or "column", but the distinction is simply that ''gyō'' is named after consonants, as , while ''dan''/''retsu'' is named after vowels, as in or . The consists the kana , , , , , which differ only by vowels; while the consists of the kana , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , which differ only by consonants.

The class consists of verbs whose inflection forms make use of all five grades, or five vowels. For example, the inflection forms of the verb are /, , , and . These verbs developed from the earlier class, after a historical sound change that turned such forms like into and resulted in an additional vowel (see Late Middle Japanese).

The class consists of verbs that occupy only one grade, or one vowel. Dictionaries'' Nihon Kokugo Daijiten'''' Daijisen''''Kōjien'' may further divide this class into ) if the vowel is the "upper" ''i'', and ) if the vowel is the "lower" ''e''. The verb , whose inflection forms are , , and /, is an example of an "upper unigrade" verb, and the verb is a "lower unigrade" verb. Some unigrade verbs evolved from earlier forms of bigrade verbs ( and ).

Dictionaries often list ancestral forms of modern verbs as well as their classes. Thus, the entry for ''kaku'' may include a note like , which means "verb, ''ka''-row, quinquegrade, formerly quadrigrade"); while the entry for may include , which means "verb, ''ka''-row, lower unigrade, lower bigrade equivalent in Classical Japanese is ".

Note that the choices of prefixes in these English terms by some authors are rather inconsistent: while ''mono-'' and '' penta-'' are Greek, ''uni-'', '' bi-'', ''quadri-'' and ''quinque-'' are Latin (see ). The word '' grade'' is actually Latin, not Greek in origin. While many authors use ''bigrade'' and ''quadrigrade'' consistently, they also use any combination of ''unigrade'', ''monograde'', ''quinquegrade'', ''quinquigrade'' and ''pentagrade''. Some dispense with altogether and prefer only even for modern Japanese (see ''Godan'' vs ''yodan'' below). Plain English alternatives to "unigrade", "bigrade", "quadrigrade" and "quinquegrade" include "one-grade", "two-grade", "four-grade" and "five-grade"; "one row", "two row" and "four row"; "one-step", "two-step", "four-step" and "five-step"; or "one-vowel", "two-vowel" and "four-vowel".

Some Western analyses refer to "quinquegrade" verbs as "consonant-stem" verbs. Such analyses may represent the root form of the verb as ''kak-'', emphasizing the unchanging consonant ''k''. "Unigrade" verbs are then referred to as "vowel-stem" verbs.

Here is a visualization that compares various verb conjugations to an extracted column of the gojūon table:

In the table above, the verb uses kana from all 5 rows of the gojūon table in its inflectional suffix—, , , and —amongst its conjugations. Thus, it is classified as a "class-5" (or more formally "''quinquegrade''") verb. Meanwhile, the verbs and each use kana from only 1 row of the gojūon table in their verb-stem's suffix— and respectively. Thus, they are classified as a "class-1" (or more formally "''unigrade''") verbs.

''Godan'' vs ''yodan''

All modern ''godan'' verbs are derived from historical ''yodan'' verbs. The distinction between these two classes relies solely on the interaction between the and the auxiliary (historically, ). Consider the verb :
*''kaka-'' + ''-mu'' → ''kakamu'' (historical form) → ''kakau'' (historical form) → ''kakō'' (modern form)

The shift of vowels from ''au'' to ''ō'' was regular and expansive during Late Middle Japanese, and it practically introduced an additional to the inflectional forms of ''yodan'' verbs:

The term is a fairly modern coinage. During the time when modern kana usage was being adopted to write in place of historical kana usage, one of the changes concerned how such a form as ''kakō'' should be spelt. The modern spelling was proposed along with ''godan'' as the name for the modernized ''yodan'' class. Traditionalist grammarians, on the other hand, would insist on such spelling as to reflect the historical pronunciation ''kakau'', and on the modern pronunciation being inferred from such spelling. Some argued that a single interaction with the auxiliary ''u'' did not justify creating an entire new grammatical class, given that the ''mizenkei'' does not involve a vowel shift with any other auxiliary:
*''kaka-'' + ''-nai'' → ''kakanai''
*''kaka-'' + ''-nu'' → ''kakanu''
*''kaka-'' + ''-n'' → ''kakan''
*''kaka-'' + ''-zu'' → ''kakazu''

Moreover, the auxiliary ''-ta'' and the particle ''-te'' also notably alter the ''ren'yōkei'':
*''kaki'' + ''-ta/-te'' → ''kaita/te''
*''omoi'' + ''-ta/-te'' → ''omotta/te''
*''yomi'' + ''-ta/-te'' → ''yonda/de''

Yet, such alterations are not reflected by either the term ''yodan'' or the term ''godan'' at all, despite occurring in both these supposedly different inflections (although in , these alterations in pronunciation must be inferred from the spellings). This means that exceptional interactions with auxiliaries and particles like these ought not to be the basis for naming verb classes.

Obviously, the spelling reform took place and the term ''godan'' became mainstream. Historical kana usage is now reserved only for the writing of classical Japanese, and ''yodan'' verbs are largely considered a classical Japanese class while ''godan'' verbs make up a fundamental part of modern Japanese.

Japanese language education

Within Japanese language education, various terminologies are used in lieu of the Japanese nomenclature for "quinquegrade" and "unigrade" verbs.

In literature adopting the "Group I / II / III" terminology, the terms (I), (II) or (III) may be notated beside verbs.
Similarly, (う) or (る) may be notated beside verbs in literature adopting the " / " terminology.

Consonant and vowel nomenclature

The terms "consonant stem verbs" and "vowel stem verbs" come from a pattern that emerges from studying the actual structure of the words rather than the written representation. When considering the invariant part of the verb (the verb stem), the final phoneme determines the classification of the verb group. If the verb stem's final phoneme:
* is a consonant, then it is a consonant stem verb (quinquegrade verb)
* is a vowel, then it is a vowel stem verb (unigrade verb)

There are criticisms of the consonant and vowel nomenclature:
# When quinquegrade verbs end with , the verb's invariant stem always ends with a vowel, yet is still classified as having a consonant stem. For example, has the vowel "a" as the invariant suffix, yet it is still categorized as a "consonant stem verb".
In these cases, this apparent expection is resolved by realizing that the verb's invariant stem ends in the consonant ''w''. The ''w'' is normally suppressed, but surfaces in the negative form, as seen in . Traditionally these verbs ended in ''-hu,'' which is still seen on occasion in historical kana usage, and thus unambiguously ended in ''h''.


# When godan verbs end with , the verb's invariant stem always ends with an "s" rather than a "t". Since the consonant stem terminology focuses on rōmaji, this could lead to conjugation errors. For example, in its negative conjugation does not become as the consonant stem system might have one believe; the correct conjugation is . The matter is resolved when phonemic notation of "tu" used by Kunrei-shiki romanization is applied instead.


# In the case of the past-tense and ''te'' forms of conjugation, the 'invariant' stem changes such that the consonant is removed from all godan verbs (except verbs ending in or ). This means the defining characteristic of consonant stem verbs cannot be used to define consonant stem verbs for the past-tense or ''te'' forms. The true "invariant stem", which is consistent amongst all conjugations, precedes the so-called "invariant consonant".

Verb classification

Classifying verbs is simple in theory:
# Take the verb in its plain, negative form. The result will be: verb-stem +
# If the last character of the verb-stem (ignoring the ""):
::* rhymes with , then it is a quinquegrade verb
::* rhymes with or , then it is a unigrade verb

This classification system works for all Japanese verbs, with three exceptions: is a quinquegrade verb, and both and are instead classified as irregular verbs.

Dot notation

In some Japanese dictionaries, the readings of conjugable words may have the stem and the inflectional suffix separated by a dot (・). For example, the adjective may be written as to separate the static prefix from the dynamic suffix.

This system also describes the verb group classification: in quinquegrade verbs, the dot is placed before the last kana; in unigrade verbs, the dot is placed before the last 2 kana (except for 2-kana unigrade verbs, which have no dot).

However, regardless of the dot's position, the inflectional suffix is always the last kana of any unigrade verb.

Naive verb classification

A caveat of accurately classifying verb groups is that you must have pre-existing knowledge of the verb's negative form. In practice, people tend to learn the verb's plain form first. As such, Japanese language educators usually teach strategies for naive verb classification. Whilst such strategies are not comprehensive, they generally remain useful in the context of regular daily conversations that language beginners will likely encounter. Here is one such strategy:

Naive strategies, such as this one, tend to misidentify quinquegrade verbs ending with —specifically, when quinquegrade verbs rhyme with or . Therefore, when a unigrade verb is concluded from a naive strategy, it is more efficient to confirm the verb's classification in a dictionary. However, there are other rules-of-thumb to more accurately discriminate such verbs.

Rules of thumb

If a dictionary is unavailable, it becomes difficult to discriminate quinquegrade verbs from unigrade verbs when they rhyme with or . The following heuristics aim to improve the accuracy of naive classification:

* There are far more quinquegrade verbs than unigrade verbs.
* Verbs that do not rhyme with or are quinquegrade verbs.
:This includes verbs that rhyme with , and , which are quinquegrade verbs.
* The majority of verbs that rhyme with are quinquegrade verbs.
:248 of the 419 verbs a. 60%listed in JMdict are quinquegrade verbs.
*The majority of verbs that rhyme with are unigrade verbs.
:2886 of the 3013 verbs a. 95%listed in JMdict are unigrade verbs.
Kana and kanji based heuristics for and verbs:
*Verbs written entirely in hiragana are quinquegrade verbs. For example, and are quinquegrade verbs.
*Kanji verbs with 1 okurigana and 3+ syllables are quinquegrade verbs. For example, and are quinquegrade verbs.
*Kanji verbs with 2 okurigana are usually unigrade verbs. For example, and are unigrade verbs.
*Kanji verbs with 2 syllables are inconclusive. For example, and are both 2-syllable verbs, yet belong to different categories (quinquegrade and unigrade, respectively)

Quinquegrade verbs resembling unigrade verbs

There are many quinquegrade verbs which may be mistaken for being unigrade verbs in some cases . On the surface, this may seem like a problem that only affects conjugation patterns, since quinquegrade verbs and unigrade verbs conjugate differently . However there are many verbs that, despite having the same spelling, have different meanings and belong to different verb groups. For example:

When reading verbs such as these, the correct word meaning can be ascertained through the different kanji or accentuation. However, ambiguity is usually removed if the verbs have been conjugated somehow, because different word groups conjugate with slightly varying pronunciations. For example:

Since there are so many quinquegrade verbs that resemble unigrade verbs, it is impractical to create or memorize an exhaustive list of words.

See also

* Japanese verb conjugation
* Honorific speech in Japanese
* Japanese adjectives
* Japanese particles
* Japanese grammar
* 五段活用

Notes

References

Bibliography

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External links

Archive of the Usenet newsgroup sci.lang.japan forums
a non-exhaustive list of ~iru and ~eru quinquegrade verbs

Aeron Buchanan's Japanese Verb Chart
a concise summary of all Japanese verbs conjugations on one sheet of A4

Godan and ichidan verbs
Japonic verbs

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