is a Japanese linguist. He makes a study of

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...

phonology and of Old

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

transcribed into Chinese characters by sound.

Work

He is renowned for a research on the '' Nihon Shoki''. He divides the history book into two groups and claims that Group α (Vol. 14–21, 24–27, 30) was documented by native speakers of the Northern Chinese dialect during the

Tang dynasty The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, t= ), or Tang Empire, was an imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdom ...

while Group β (Vol. 1–13, 22–23, 28–29) was written by Japanese. He noticed that Group α is standard written Chinese and applies Chinese characters consistently to Japanese words, but Group β is Japanized Chinese and indiscriminates some characters that were distinguished in Northern Chinese. He received the 20th Dr Kindaichi Memorial Award (1992) for ''Chronicles of Ancient Phonology (古代の音韻と日本書紀の成立』に対して)''.

References

Linguists from Japan Living people Phonologists 1949 births {{Japan-linguist-stub