On the Vowel of Syllables “シ” and “チ” in the Archaic Japanese

Abstract

The archaic Japanese has two different vowels which have changed into a single sound represented by “_??_” the one having been absorbed thy. the other. We can not, however, restore the real phonetic values of the two series. it is J usually accepted that one was a palatal [i] and the other was probably a kind of neutral vowel.
At any rate, it is obvious that they were freely combined with some consonants, but not with others.I have here dealt with the latter case. At least, the vowel of “_??_” and “_??_” in the archaic Japanese was, in my opinion, rather a Russian hard i (bl) than [i] in the present-day Japanese. It is disputable, which of two vowels has survived the other during the aye of the classical Japanese.