Editing Classical Japanese (section)

{{short description|Literary form of Japanese, used until the early 20th century}}
{{Distinguish|Early Middle Japanese}}

{{Infobox language
| name             = Classical Japanese
| nativename       = 文語
| altname          = Late Old Japanese
| states           = [[Japan]]
| era              = [[Heian period]], [[Shōwa period]]
| familycolor      = Altaic
| fam1             = [[Japonic languages|Japonic]]
| fam2             = [[Old Japanese]]
| fam3             = [[Early Middle Japanese]]
| ietf             = 
| script           = [[Kanji]] ([[Kyūjitai]]), [[Kana]] ([[Man'yōgana]], [[Hiragana]]{{notetag|including [[Hentaigana]] variants}}, and [[Katakana]]; using [[Historical kana orthography]])
}}

The '''classical Japanese language''' ({{nihongo2|文語}}, ''bungo'', "literary language"), also called {{nihongo|"old writing"|古文|kobun}} and sometimes simply called "Medieval Japanese", is the [[Literary language|literary form]] of the [[Japanese language]] that was the standard until the early [[Shōwa period]] (1926–1989). It is based on [[Early Middle Japanese]], the language as spoken during the [[Heian period]] (794–1185), but exhibits some later influences. Its use started to decline during the late [[Meiji period]] (1868–1912) when novelists started writing their works in the spoken form. Eventually, the spoken style came into widespread use, including in major newspapers, but many official documents were still written in the old style. After the [[End of World War II in Asia|end of World War II]], most documents switched to the spoken style, although the classical style continues to be used in traditional genres, such as [[haiku]] and [[Waka (poetry)|waka]]. Old [[Law of Japan|laws]] are also left in the classical style unless fully revised.

The terms {{lang|ja|文語}} (''bungo'', "written language") and {{lang|ja|口語}} (''kōgo'', "spoken language") are still used for classical and modern Japanese,<ref>{{cite book|title=スーパー大辞林|trans-title=Super [[Daijirin]]}}</ref> respectively. Their literal meanings are only historical, as classical Japanese is no longer used, while modern Japanese is the only current written language, despite its name. These terms are often used in descriptions of grammar to distinguish classical and modern inflections. For example, the ''bungo'' inflection of the verb 書く (''kaku,'' "to write") is quadrigrade (''kaka'', ''kaki'', ''kaku'', ''kake''), but its ''kōgo'' inflection is quinquegrade due to a historical sound change (''kaka'', ''kakō'' < ''kakau'' < ''kakamu'', ''kaki'', ''kaku'', ''kake'').