上二段活用

Japanese

Kanji in this term
上	二	段	活	用
かみ Grade: 1	に Grade: 1	だん Grade: 6	かつ Grade: 2	よう Grade: 2
kun'yomi	goon		kan'on

Etymology

Compound of 上 (kami, “upper”) +‎ 二段活用 (nidan katsuyō, “bigrade conjugation”).

Literally, 上二段 (kami nidan, “upper bigrade”) refers to how the inflected endings are located in the gojūon table. 上 (kami, “upper”) means the vowel イ (i), which is written above the vowel エ (e), the other inflection-related vowel. 二段 (nidan, “two grades”) means two vowels are involved, since each 段 (dan, “row”) of the table contains one vowel. Thus this can be understood as “two-voweled conjugation in i”.

Pronunciation

• (Tokyo) かみにだんかつよー [kàmí nídáń káꜜtsùyòò] (Nakadaka – [6])
• IPA^(key): [ka̠mʲi ɲ̟ida̠ŋ ka̠t͡sɨjo̞ː]

Noun

上(かみ)二(に)段(だん)活(かつ)用(よう) • (kami nidan katsuyō) ^{←かみにだんくわつよう (kami nidan kwatuyou)?}

1. (Classical Japanese grammar) a verbal conjugation class which has the following inflections: -i/-i/-u/-uru/-ure/-i[yo]

	未然形 Irrealis	連用形 Adverbial	終止形 Conclusive	連体形 Attributive	已然形 Realis	命令形 Imperative
起く (ok-, “to rise”)	起き (oki2 → oki)	起き (oki2 → oki)	起く (oku)	起くる (okuru)	起くれ (okure)	起き (oki2 → oki) 起きよ (oki2yo2 → okiyo)
落つ (ot-, “to fall”)	落ち (oti → ochi)	落ち (oti → ochi)	落つ (otu → otsu)	落つる (oturu → otsuru)	落つれ (oture → otsure)	落ち (oti → ochi) 落ちよ (otiyo2 → ochiyo)
老ゆ (oy-, “to age”)	老い (oi)	老い (oi)	老ゆ (oyu)	老ゆる (oyuru)	老ゆれ (oyure)	老い (oi) 老いよ (oiyo2 → oiyo)

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.

Usage notes

• Verbs in this class are superseded in modern Japanese as intransitive 上一段活用 (kami ichidan katsuyō, “upper monograde conjugation”) verbs:

  起(お)く (oku) → 起(お)きる (okiru, “to rise”)

  落(お)つ (otsu) → 落(お)ちる (ochiru, “to fall”)

  老(お)ゆ (oyu) → 老(お)いる (oiru, “to age”)

• Some verbs in this class also make way into modern Japanese as transitive 五段活用 (godan katsyō, “quintigrade conjugation”):

  起(お)く (oku) → 起(お)こす (okosu, “to raise”)

  落(お)つ (otsu) → 落(お)とす (otosu, “to drop”)

Related terms

• 上(かみ)一(いち)段(だん)活(かつ)用(よう) (kami ichidan katsuyō)
• 下(しも)一(いち)段(だん)活(かつ)用(よう) (shimo ichidan katsuyō)
• 下(しも)二(に)段(だん)活(かつ)用(よう) (shimo nidan katsuyō)
• 五(ご)段(だん)活(かつ)用(よう) (godan katsuyō)
• 四(よ)段(だん)活(かつ)用(よう) (yodan katsuyō)
• カ行(ぎょう)変(へん)格(かく)活(かつ)用(よう) (kagyō henkaku katsuyō)
• サ行(ぎょう)変(へん)格(かく)活(かつ)用(よう) (sagyō henkaku katsuyō)
• ナ行(ぎょう)変(へん)格(かく)活(かつ)用(よう) (nagyō henkaku katsuyō)
• ラ行(ぎょう)変(へん)格(かく)活(かつ)用(よう) (ragyō henkaku katsuyō)

 

See also

• Category:Japanese kami nidan verbs