In the colloquial Japanese language of the medieval period, hon-ni was used as a predicative modifier attached before the predicate verb, acting as an extension of a noun or adjectival verb. From the 17th century to the early 18th century, hon-ni came to be used as an adverb to emphasize the meaning and subject matter of the following predicate, after which it came to sometimes be used as a discourse marker. While hon-ni continued to be used late into early modern times, its meaning became gradually more abstract, until usage of it declined during the Meiji period. On the other hand, usage of honto-ni began to expand within the Edo and Tokyo dialects during the same period. The background process underlying this phenomenon was not simply a change in the usage of hon-ni as an adverb, but encompassed an overall transition in the usage of the basic noun hon and its derivational forms: 1) A decrease in use with predicates such as hon-de-gozaru. 2) The coexistence of the predicative modifier hon-ni and the attributive modifier hon-no forms. 3) Standardization and abstraction of the forms, followed by a decline in usage of one of the two forms. In conclusion, honto-ni expanded in use from the basic form of honto in a process paralleling that of the development of hon-ni.

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This article investigates three calendar day words in Ancient Japanese: 吉日 (a lucky day when the wishes are realized), 最吉日 (the luckiest day when the wishes are realized), and 最上吉日 (the very luckiest day when the wishes are realized). First, I examine the examples of the word 吉日 used in ancient manuscript texts and assert that 吉日 used in the text of Konzyaku-monogatarisyu written during the late Heian period (the Insei period) should be read as yokifi. I also argue that the manuscripts written in the last years of the Edo period can be used to infer the forms of the word including kitiniti. Second, I investigate two words, saikitiniti (最吉日) and saijaukitiniti (最上吉日), and report two facts which correct previous views. (i) Saikitiniti (最吉日) has been regarded to appear only in the Tomatubon of Okagami written in the same period when the Konzyaku-monogatarisyu was written. In fact, we can find other examples of the word in ancient Japanese documents around the year 1100. (ii) The oldest example of the word saizyaukitiniti (最上吉日), which often appeared in the documents of the Muromachi period (1336-1573), was found in documents of the Eicho era (1096-1097).

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This paper demonstrates the historical change of the meaning of the word mizu-kusai (mizu 'water', -kusai 'smell of'), focusing on the coexistence with the synonym mizu-ppoi (-ppoi '-ish'). In Modern Japanese, mizu-ppoi expresses the literal meaning of 'watery', and mizu-kusai simply expresses the metaphorical meaning of 'not frank, reserved'. Mizu-kusai appeared at the end of the first half of the medieval period, and originally expressed the literal meaning of 'watery', especially the meaning "(sake) to be thin". By the first half of the early modern period, it expanded to mean "(food) to be tasteless, thin, weak" and developed the metaphorical meaning "(person) not to be frank". In the Edo dialect, which was to become the central dialect of Japan in the latter half of the early modern period, the synonym mizu-ppoi had already been used to express the literal meaning, and therefore the meaning of mizu-kusai had been limited to the metaphorical one.

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