What happened to original, pre-Kanji, Japanese words?


Some of the most common words in Japanese seem to have their origin in
Chinese:

会議、日本、世界、先生、。。。

The evidence for this is, as far as I know, the fact that these words are
written with characters, whose **on-yomi** is used to read that particular
word.

Further evidence is that there usually is a synonym or an archaic form, that
is written using characters whose **kun-yomi** is used:

会議 ＝ 出会い 日本 ＝ 八洲 （やしま）according to tangorin.com

I imagine that these words were used by the Japanese **before** the
introduction of Chinese characters to Japan.

However, some words do not have this form:

世界 ＝ ？ 先生 ＝ ？

How did the Japanese folks say these things before the introduction of Kanji
and what happened to these words?




Your question is too broad to give a specific answer, so I'll try to give you
a few pointers instead.

Given how early in Japanese history kanji were introduced, compounded with the
fact that there was no writing system in Japan prior to their introduction,
we're very much delving into the realm of conjecture.

I imagine that some words simply fell out of use, especially among the (newly)
literate upper classes who started to use the prestigious new kanji-based
words. In other cases, kanji may have been adopted as 当て字 for the original
word.

If you want to look into it further, I'd suggest researching 大和言葉 and 漢語, and
possibly looking up research on the various dialects, some of which may retain
words derived from an older, pre-kanji influence Japanese word.




Your question is too broad to give a specific answer, so I'll try to give you
a few pointers instead.

Given how early in Japanese history kanji were introduced, compounded with the
fact that there was no writing system in Japan prior to their introduction,
we're very much delving into the realm of conjecture.

I imagine that some words simply fell out of use, especially among the (newly)
literate upper classes who started to use the prestigious new kanji-based
words. In other cases, kanji may have been adopted as 当て字 for the original
word.

If you want to look into it further, I'd suggest researching 大和言葉 and 漢語, and
possibly looking up research on the various dialects, some of which may retain
words derived from an older, pre-kanji influence Japanese word.

