Pattern in onyomi for middle Chinese -p and -ng finals


I've been thinking recently about patterns between onyomi and their respective
Chinese counterparts (as presumably existed in middle Chinese and are now
reflected across modern Chinese dialects). Japanese certainly does reflect a
lot of the consonant endings that existed in middle Chinese that have been
lost in some dialects (particularly Mandarin, which only preserves -r, -n and
-ng as consonant finals) (cf. 六 - Mandarin liù, Cantonese luk6, Japanese roku)
(cf. 七 - Mandarin qī, Cantonese cat1, Japanese shichi)

I was wondering in particular about the phenomenon regarding the -p final and
the -ng final, both of which seem to be widely represented in modern Japanese
by the elongation of the vowel sound (cf. 十 - Mandarin shí, Cantonese sap6,
Japanese jū) (cf. 零 - Mandarin líng, Cantonese ling4, Japanese rē/rei). Is
there any evidence of earlier Japanese having -ng as a valid phoneme, and if
not, is there any particular reason why Japanese would have borrowed these
elongated-vowel readings as substitutes for the -ng and the -p finals
(especially in the case of the latter, which seems like it would be replicable
by Japanese phonology)




It's actually due to a couple of things.

For *-p, Japanese actually did originally borrow it as *-pu. Subsequent sound
changes have turned Old Japanese *p into /w/ between vowels, and the resulting
-(w)u has combined with the vowel before it. (Note that Modern Japanese /p/ is
actually a Middle Japanese reintroduction from Chinese; where Old Japanese *p
isn't modern /w/ it's /h/.)

十 is an example - MC *dʑip > OJ *dʑipu > MJ *dʑiwu > *dʑiu > *dʑuu > NJ /dʑuu/

For *-ŋ, Japanese originally borrowed it as *-u, because Old Japanese didn't
have anything like Modern Japanese's /N/ phoneme (which is new from Middle
Japanese). Again, this -u has undergone additional interactions with the vowel
before it.

名 is an example - MC *mjᴇŋ > OJ *mijau > MJ *mjɔɔ > NJ /mjoo/

Japanese later borrowed a different set of pronunciations (漢音, as opposed to
the above 呉音), where MC *-jᴇŋ finals were borrowed as *-ee instead of *-jau.
This is why 名 can also be read /mee/.




It's actually due to a couple of things.

For *-p, Japanese actually did originally borrow it as *-pu. Subsequent sound
changes have turned Old Japanese *p into /w/ between vowels, and the resulting
-(w)u has combined with the vowel before it. (Note that Modern Japanese /p/ is
actually a Middle Japanese reintroduction from Chinese; where Old Japanese *p
isn't modern /w/ it's /h/.)

十 is an example - MC *dʑip > OJ *dʑipu > MJ *dʑiwu > *dʑiu > *dʑuu > NJ /dʑuu/

For *-ŋ, Japanese originally borrowed it as *-u, because Old Japanese didn't
have anything like Modern Japanese's /N/ phoneme (which is new from Middle
Japanese). Again, this -u has undergone additional interactions with the vowel
before it.

名 is an example - MC *mjᴇŋ > OJ *mijau > MJ *mjɔɔ > NJ /mjoo/

Japanese later borrowed a different set of pronunciations (漢音, as opposed to
the above 呉音), where MC *-jᴇŋ finals were borrowed as *-ee instead of *-jau.
This is why 名 can also be read /mee/.

