奈良

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Chinese

orthographic borrowing
trad. (奈良) 奈良
simp. #(奈良) 奈良

Etymology

Orthographic borrowing from Japanese 奈良 (Nara).

Pronunciation

Proper noun

奈良

  1. (～縣) Nara (a prefecture of Japan)
  2. (～市) Nara (a city in Nara Prefecture, Japan)

Japanese

Kanji in this term
奈 良
な
Grade: 4
(ateji) 		ら
Grade: 4
(ateji)
goon nanori
Alternative spellings
寧楽
平城
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Etymology

From Old Japanese. Attested from at least the early 700s.[1] The kanji are ateji (当て字).

Various ancient spellings suggest forms ending in -ku or -ki. This latter element is not attested past the Old Japanese stage:

奈羅, 那羅, 楢, 儺羅 名良, 奈良, 那良 那楽, 寧楽 平城 →  ⟨nara⟩  ⟨nara⟩  ⟨naraku⟩  ⟨naraki2⟩ →   /nara/  */naraᵑ/  */narakʉ/  */narakɨ/ → /nara/

According to the Nihon Shoki (720 CE), the placename is derived from the Japanese verb 均す, 平す (narasu, “to flatten”).[2] In The Study of Place Names, Kunio Yanagida stated, “Nara stands for ‘flatland’.”[3]

However, an analysis of Old Japanese phonetic spellings (man'yōgana) reveals that the city name was often spelled with a final -ku or -ki element, which makes it phonologically unlikely that the city name derives directly from the verb narasu. The root from which the verb itself derives, nar-, appears in various terms related to “flat” or “flatness”, a fitting descriptor for the local geography. The final -ku or -ki element in the ancient spellings may be Old Japanese 城 (ki2 → ki, “palisade, stronghold, fortress, castle”), as also suggested in the alternative kanji spelling 平城 (literally “flat stronghold”). See also the discussion of the city name's etymology on Wikipedia.

Pronunciation

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Proper noun

奈(な)良(ら) or 奈良(proper) • (nara or proper) [[Category:Japanese Lua error in Module:debug at line 160: Invalid part of speech.
|なら]]

  1. a placename, especially:
    1. Short for 奈良県 (Nara-ken): Nara Prefecture
    2. Short for 奈良市 (Nara-shi): the capital city of Nara in northern Nara Prefecture
  2. a surname

Derived terms

Derived terms

See also

References

  1. ^ “奈良・平城・寧楽”, in 日本国語大辞典 [Nihon Kokugo Daijiten]‎[1] (in Japanese), concise edition, Tokyo: Shogakukan, 2006
  2. ^ On the tenth year of Emperor Sujin's reign, Water Rat day of the ninth month, “then, leading selected soldiers, (the rebels) went forward, climbed Nara-yama (hills lying to the north of Heijō-kyō) and put them in order. Now the imperial forces gathered and flattened trees and plants. Therefore, the mountain is called Nara-yama.”
  3. ^ 柳田国男 YANAGIDA Kunio (1936), 『地名の研究』 (The Study of Place Names), 古今書院, pp.217-219
  4. ^ NHK Broadcasting Culture Research Institute, editor (1998), NHK日本語発音アクセント辞典 [NHK Japanese Pronunciation Accent Dictionary] (in Japanese), Tokyo: NHK Publishing, Inc., →ISBN

Old Japanese

Alternative forms

Etymology

From the Nihon Shoki (720 CE):

則率二精兵一、進登二那羅山一而軍之。時官軍屯聚、而蹢二跙草木一。因以號二其山一曰二那羅山一。〈蹢跙、此云二：布瀰那羅須一〉
The selected soldiers went forward, climbed Nara-yama, and put them in order. Now the imperial forces gathered and flattened trees and plants. Therefore, the mountain is called Nara-yama (“Flattened” is read as fuminarasu).

However, analysis of phonetic spellings reveals that the placename was often spelled with a final -ku or -ki2 element.

Proper noun

奈良 (Nara) (kana なら)

  1. a placename in 大和 (Yamato2, “Yamato Province”), the seat of power of the ancient Yamato court

Derived terms

See also

Descendants

  • Japanese: 奈良 (Nara)
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