The Classical Japanese language (文語, bungo?) is the literary form of the Japanese language that was the standard until the early Shōwa period. It is based on Early Middle Japanese, the language as spoken during the Heian era, but exhibits some later influences. Its use started to decline during the late Meiji period when novelists started writing their works in the spoken form. Eventually, the spoken style came into widespread use, including in major newspapers, but many official documents were still written in the old style. After World War II, most documents switched to the spoken style, although the classical style continues to be used in traditional genres such as haiku. Old laws are also left in the classical style unless fully revised.
Orthography
Grammar
See also
External links
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
