The Historical Transition of Deare, Niseyo, and Nishiro

Abstract

This paper examines the historical transition of deare, niseyo, and nishiro. Deare and niseyo/nishiro are compound particles that contain an imperative from of ari or su(ru) and constitute an adversative hypothetical conditional sentence. Several studies have proved that deare occurred earlier than niseyo, but little attention has been given to when niseyo/nishiro arose and why, even though deare was already being used. Deare and its variants, the conjunctive form of a verb+moare and a noun+nimoare, appeared in the Early Middle Ages, evolved into nitemoare and demoare, and eventually became deare in the Early Modern Age. Niseyo/nishiro and their variants, the conjunctive form of a verb+moseyo, appeared in the first half of the Middle Age, evolved into nimoseyo/nimoshiro in the first half of the Edo period, and became niseyo/nishiro in the latter half. When the use of nimoseyo/nimoshiro began, the colloquial use of nitemo/demoare decreased, and gradually the use of niseyo and its variants exceeded that of deare. There were two causes for this shift: (i) The auxiliary verb su is suitable for expressing an adversative hypothetical conditional about action or motion, and (ii) Nimoseyo/nimoshiro are more convenient than deare because they can be connected to both substantives and inflections.