Why is 葉 'leaf' used in 言葉 and 万葉集? Why is it used for words, language, and speech?


Does 葉 mean leaf in Japanese? In 言葉 and 萬葉集, is 葉 derived from leaf? Why is it
used for words, language and speech? Thanks.




Let's discuss 言葉 first. It's useful here to distinguish speech from writing,
and Japanese from Chinese. If we keep in mind that Japanese had its own
independent existence before Chinese characters were even introduced, then we
start noticing some relationships between words which where obscured by kanji
distinctions. For example, 合う、会う、遭う etc. are all originally the same verb;
_akai_ , _akarui_ , _akiraka_ , _akatsuki_ etc. are based on the same root,
and so on.

If we think about things this way, then it becomes likely that _Koto_ =
"things, facts" (as in _Kotoyue_ "reasons; accident" or _Kotogara_ "affairs,
circumstances") is related to _Koto_ = "speech, word, language" (as in
_Kotowaza_ "proverb" or _Kotodzukeru_ "to message, to make excuses"). In the
oldest texts, the word for "word" was usually just _Koto_ , and _Koto-ba_ was
rare. Context distinguished _Koto_ as in "fact" from _Koto_ as in "word". In
time, _Koto-ba_ started getting traction, creating a clearer distinction
between them. There's no way to be sure what the _-ba_ originally meant; early
Japanese words were written in many different ways, so _Koto-ba_ was written
as 言葉、言羽、詞、辞 etc. (while _Koto_ itself could be written by sound as 許登, 去等 and
many others). The current consensus seems to be that the early Japanese word
_Pa/Ba_ (modern _Ha_ 端) was a general term for "edge, tip, splinter,
emanation", including not just leaves but things like _Han-pa_ 半端 "fragment"
or _Ko-ba_ 木端 "wood splinter". So _Koto-ba_ would be the "tip" or "chips"
coming off facts and events: language.

So you see, the question is not quite "what do 'leaves' have to do with
'words'", but rather "why is it that, of all possible ways of writing the
early Japanese word _Koto-ba_ , they eventually settled upon 言葉"? As it
happens, there's a clear answer for this question:

> やまとうたはひとのこころをたねとしてよろづのことの葉とぞなりける.
>
> Japanese songs start as **seeds** in the hearts of people, then flourish
> into the myriad **leaves** of things/words [ことの葉].

You can see this as a kind of folk etymology, a rationalization of the already
existing word: _Koto-ba_ are "leaves" because the heart (mind) is the "seed";
the words grow out of it. This passage is from Ki-no-Tsurayuki's _Kana
Preface_ to the _Kokin Wakashū_ , which was hugely influential in Japanese
thought (comparable to Aristotle's _Poetics_ in impact). From then on, you can
bet 言葉 would be analyzed as leaves.

* * *

What about 万葉集? Do not be misled by the use of the same kanji: this is a
Chinese-style word, _Man'yōshū_ , and the Chinese word _Yō_ is **not** the
same as the Japanese word _Ha_. One may translate the other, but whatever
associations we may find for one will not necessarily apply to the other.
Sure, it _may_ be the case that Japanese _Ha_ = word = leaf = Chinese _Yō_ ;
but it might as well be _not_. Recall that the "leaf" analysis of _Kotoba_
wasn't popular until the _Kokinshū_ ; but the _Man’yō_ predates it. There's no
"leaf=word" metaphor in the _Man'yōshū_ poems, nor "leaf=poem"; and the word
_Kotoba_ in it is written as 言羽 or 辞.

So why _is_ the book called "Anthology of the Ten Thousand Leaves"? The best
answer is: Who the hell knows? There's no explanation in the anthology itself,
nor in contemporary sources; so there are many respectable Japanese scholars
with different theories, without decisive evidence to placate the debate. One
theory is that the "leaves of the mind" metaphor silently antedates the
_Kokin_ , and is used here. Another is that the myriad poems are being
compared to the countless leaves of a magnificent tree; another is that the
huge, multi-volume collection has many paper "leaves", comparing the book
pages to tree leaves (the same metaphor as in English "leaf"). Yet another
possibility is that the "leaves" are a metaphor for the "generations" of
people, growing and falling in turn; and this is a collection intended to last
ten thousand generations. This metaphor appears in the previous work _Kojiki_
, and currently it's the most commonly accepted theory.

