Late Middle Japanese (中世日本語, chūsei nihongo?) is a stage of the Japanese language following Early Middle Japanese and preceding Modern Japanese. It is a period of transition in which the language sheds many of its archaic features and becomes closer to its modern form.
The period spanned roughly 500 years extending from the 12th century through the 16th century. It is customarily split into an Early and Late division. Politically, the first half of Late Middle Japanese consists of the end of the Heian period known as Insei and the Kamakura period; the second half of Late Middle Japanese consists of the Muromachi period.
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Famous quotes containing the words late, middle and/or japanese:
“It is a mischievous notion that we are come late into nature; that the world was finished a long time ago. As the world was plastic and fluid in the hands of God, so it is ever to so much of his attributes as we bring to it. To ignorance and sin, it is flint. They adapt to themselves to it as they may; but in proportion as a man has anything in him divine, the firmament flows before him and takes his signet and form.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“After sixty, the self-questioning of middle age is obsolete.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“The Japanese have perfected good manners and made them indistinguishable from rudeness.”
—Paul Theroux (b. 1941)