『呵刈葭』論争における上田秋成の依拠学説 : 礪波今道『喉音用字考』をめぐって  [in Japanese] Tonami Imamichi's Ko-on Yojiko as the Theoretical Background of Ueda Akinari's View Presented in the Kagaika Controversy  [in Japanese]

本居宣長と上田秋成の間で交わされた古代日本語音韻に関する『呵刈葭』論争において、上田秋成はその学問的根拠の大半を友人礪波今道に依拠したことを表明している。今道の名は宣長の裁断によって学説史から消滅したが、彼の著書『喉音用字考』(静嘉堂文庫蔵)を検討すると次の諸点において没却し得ない内容を持っている。(1)「近世仮名遣い論の要諦「喉音三行弁」を『韻鏡』開合、声母、等位を組み合わせた説明に成功した。」(2)「古代日本語に存したア行の「衣」とヤ行の「延」の区別を予見した。」(3)「上代漢字音に存した唇内撥韻尾mと舌内撥韻尾nの区別を発見、論証した。これは従来その創見を言われる東条義門『男信』に数十年先行する。」しかし、上田秋成は今道の画期的な業績を正しく理解せず、宣長が言う半濁音pをいわゆるハ行転呼音と誤解して宣長説を論い、さらに今道が上代の漢字音だけに絞ったmn韻尾の区別を当時の大和言葉に拡大解釈して主張した。宣長は秋成との論争を通じて今道説を知るに過ぎなかったので、秋成もろともに今道を葬り去る結果となった。

In the controversy between Motoori Norinaga and Ueda Akinari, written in Kagaika published in 1787, Akinari stated that the theoretical background in his phonological studies was based on Tonami Imamichi's view. (Imamichi is the author of Ko-on Yojiko (1777), whose manuscript (1778) has been preserved in the Seikado library, Tokyo.) Akinari's view was based on his misunderstanding of Imamichi's viewpoints and was consequently denied by Norinaga, who insisted on the insufficiency of Akinari's view. However, Imamichi's view has theoretical importance that should not been neglected in the history of Japanese linguistics. First, he is the first linguist to discover the phonological distinction of the final /m/ and /n/ in Old Sino-Japanese. Second, he presented a hypothesis about the distinction of /e/ and /je/ in the Old Japanese syllabic system. Third, he gave the correct phonological interpretation of the Ko-on Sangyoben that had so far been an essential notion about Japanese traditional kana orthography (Kanazukai). These discoveries by Imamichi occurred prior to the theories established by Tojo Gimon (1835) and Ota Zensai (1815).