What exactly is a "taru adjective"


On the [talk page of the Wikipedia article on "Japanese
adjectives"](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk%3aJapanese_adjectives), user
Dougalg suggested nearly two years ago:

> I know these are falling out of use, but still exist. If anyone can give an
> explanation of the taru adjectives, I'm sure that would be helpful to many
> people

But nobody took up his suggestion in the article which leaves me to wonder
what it is that he was talking about. Can somebody shed some light on this
"taru forms" please?




Today these are mostly frozen forms that behave like attributives (連体詞, see my
answer [here](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/1008/why-does-
japanese-have-two-kinds-of-adjectives-i-adjectives-and-na-adjectives)). Verbs
in this class include 確たる ( _sure_ , _certain_ ) and 堂々たる (majestic). It's
really not such a big class.

Originally, they were descriptive nouns or descriptive verbs that were
followed by the auxiliary verb たり (itself a combination of the particle と and
the verb あり, _to be_ ). So an expression like 確とあり (`kaku to ari`), became 確たり
(`kakutari`), which could then be conjugated as if it were a verb.

Now, the forms ending in the vowel `i` are all the _conclusive forms_ (終止形),
which were used in classical Japanese for verbs in the end of the sentence.
Verbs that came before nouns used the familiar _attributive forms_ (連体形),
usually ending in `u`, which are now used indiscriminately both in the end of
the sentence and before nouns - so 確たり became 確たる in Modern Japanese.

Besides ～たる adjectives, there are also ～なる adjectives in Modern Japanese.
Their history is quite similar: they used to be descriptive nouns or verbs
followed by the old copula なり (like the auxiliary verb たり, the old copula also
ultimately comes from a particle + verb combination, this time に + あり). Modern
examples of such verbs include 単なる ( _mere_ , _simple_ ) or 聖なる ( _holy_ ).




Today these are mostly frozen forms that behave like attributives (連体詞, see my
answer [here](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/1008/why-does-
japanese-have-two-kinds-of-adjectives-i-adjectives-and-na-adjectives)). Verbs
in this class include 確たる ( _sure_ , _certain_ ) and 堂々たる (majestic). It's
really not such a big class.

Originally, they were descriptive nouns or descriptive verbs that were
followed by the auxiliary verb たり (itself a combination of the particle と and
the verb あり, _to be_ ). So an expression like 確とあり (`kaku to ari`), became 確たり
(`kakutari`), which could then be conjugated as if it were a verb.

Now, the forms ending in the vowel `i` are all the _conclusive forms_ (終止形),
which were used in classical Japanese for verbs in the end of the sentence.
Verbs that came before nouns used the familiar _attributive forms_ (連体形),
usually ending in `u`, which are now used indiscriminately both in the end of
the sentence and before nouns - so 確たり became 確たる in Modern Japanese.

Besides ～たる adjectives, there are also ～なる adjectives in Modern Japanese.
Their history is quite similar: they used to be descriptive nouns or verbs
followed by the old copula なり (like the auxiliary verb たり, the old copula also
ultimately comes from a particle + verb combination, this time に + あり). Modern
examples of such verbs include 単なる ( _mere_ , _simple_ ) or 聖なる ( _holy_ ).

