Reading Old Kana Spelling: いふ, ゐる and てふてふ
Hiroki Obara · Developer
The basis for how Japanese is spelled in kana today is 現代仮名遣い (Modern Kana Usage), issued as a Cabinet notice on July 1, 1986. Its preface says that historical kana usage was the general standard from the Meiji era until the first modern rules came out in 1946, and that people still have many chances to read texts written in it.
Aozora Bunko holds a lot of editions in this historical spelling, usually called 旧仮名遣い (old kana). いう is written いふ, いる is written ゐる, and ちょうちょう (butterfly) becomes てふてふ. The first time you see it, it can look like another language. The number of rules, though, is small.
The four rules to learn first
The Agency for Cultural Affairs publishes a comparison table of modern and historical spelling. You do not need all of it. I think four rules are enough to start.
1. は ひ ふ へ ほ in the middle or at the end of a word are read わ い う え お. This is the one you will meet most. いふ is いう, 思ひ is 思い, 考へる is 考える, and かは (river) is かわ. At the start of a word they stay as they are: 花 is still はな.
2. ゐ is read い, and ゑ is read え. ゐる is いる, 植ゑる is 植える, and こゑ (voice) is こえ. Neither kana is used today, so they are easy to spot.
3. を inside a word is read お. をとこ (man) is おとこ, and とをか (the tenth day) is とおか. The particle を is still written を, so that part does not change.
4. あう, かう, えう, けう and てふ become long vowels. This is the one that takes some getting used to. かう is こう, さう is そう, and やう is よう. けふ is きょう (today), and てふ is ちょう. So てふてふ is ちょうちょう.
With these four, you can read a good part of an old-kana text. There are others, such as くわじ (fire) being read かじ, but it is fine to learn them when they come up.
No small っ or ゃ
Separately from spelling rules, older books often print the small っ, ゃ, ゅ and ょ at full size. The old-kana edition of Natsume Sōseki’s Botchan is titled 坊っちやん, with a full-size や.
Anzai Fuyue’s poem 春 (Spring) is a single line:
てふてふが一匹韃靼海峡を渡つて行つた
A butterfly crossed the Tartar Strait. てふてふ is ちょうちょう, and 渡つて行つた is 渡って行った. Rule 4 and the full-size kana are both in that one line.
Reading aloud
Historical kana is a spelling system. The sounds are the same as today. You do not pronounce いふ as “ifu”. You say いう, which sounds like “yū”. Once you know the rules, the work is to swap the kana you see for the modern kana in your head. It is slow at first, and after a few pages it gets faster.
Old kanji: 國, 學, 氣
Aozora Bunko also marks editions as 新字 (new kanji forms) or 旧字 (old kanji forms). Old forms are the shapes kanji had before the postwar simplification. 國 is 国, 學 is 学, 氣 is 気, 體 is 体, and 會 is 会.
The 2010 常用漢字表 (List of Kanji for General Use) adds the traditional form in brackets for some of the characters whose shape changed, as in 国(國). When you cannot place an old form, you can find its modern shape there.
Spelling and kanji forms changed separately, so Aozora Bunko has 新字旧仮名 editions (modern kanji, old kana) and 旧字旧仮名 editions (both old), among others.
Modern edition or old-kana edition?
When a work has both a 新字新仮名 (modern kanji, modern kana) edition and an old-kana one, I recommend the modern one. The reason is the dictionary. Learner dictionaries are built for modern spelling. Look up いふ or ゐる as written and you often find nothing.
Some works exist only in old kana. Miyazawa Kenji’s 雨ニモマケズ is 新字旧仮名 and written in katakana. サウイフモノニ is そういうものに, and ワラッテヰル is わらっている. Rules 1, 2 and 4 cover it. A short piece like this is good practice for getting used to old kana.
Telling editions apart in Niho
I make Niho, a free reader for iPhone and iPad that holds the Aozora Bunko catalogue of more than 17,000 works.
A work’s detail screen shows its spelling as Modern kana, Old kana, Old kanji & kana, or Old kanji. The genre shelves show only modern editions. Old-kana editions appear in search only, and before you download one, Niho shows this note: “This edition uses historical kana spelling (旧仮名遣い), which the dictionary does not always recognise. A modern edition is easier going.”
Niho’s dictionary can take an inflected form back to its dictionary form, like 食べました to 食べる, but this does not work for historical spelling. When you read an old-kana edition, I think it is best to convert the word to modern kana in your head first, using the rules above. The Jisho item in the selection menu also lets you check a web dictionary.
Furigana is shown only where the source edition has it, and you can turn it off. I wrote about when to drop it in When to Stop Using Furigana, and about reading Aozora Bunko’s catalogue cards in What Is Aozora Bunko?
