Abstract
The general consensus of Japanese historical linguists is that the orthography in Kojiki (712) preserves more phonemic distinctions than Nihon shoki (720) – specifically the spelling of two varieties (mwo and mo) of what later merged to become mo – but the chronological proximity of these two works makes this consensus difficult to accept. This paper examines the phonetic orthography in Nihon shoki, and parts of Man'yoshu, to demonstrate that a careful screening of these data reveals vestiges of the orthographic tradition preserved in Kojiki in other records as well. The beginnings of the merger of mwo and mo are explored, and a tentative dating for this spelling change is proposed.
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