四段活用

Japanese

Kanji in this term
四	段	活	用
よ Grade: 1	だん Grade: 6	かつ Grade: 2	よう Grade: 2

A compound of 四段 (yodan, “four grades”) and 活用 (katsuyō, “conjugation”).

四段活用 (hiragana よだんかつよう, rōmaji yodan katsuyō, historical hiragana よだんくわつよう)

(grammar) quadrigrade conjugation; a verbal conjugation class consisting of four alternating bases: /-a/, /-i/, /-u/, /-e/. Examples:

	Irrealis	Adverbial	Conclusive	Attributive	Realis	Imperative
sak-	sak-a	sak-i₁	sak-u	sak-u	sak-e₂	sak-e₁
kak-	kak-a	kak-i₁	kak-u	kak-u	kak-e₂	kak-e₁
yom-	yom-a	yom-i₁	yom-u	yom-u	yom-e₂	yom-e₁

The subscripts in the table above indicate differences in vowel class that were already being lost in Old Japanese. It remains unclear what those different vowel classes may have meant. See the Syllables section in the Wikipedia article on Old Japanese for more details.

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