Changes

The ''Nihon shoki'' ([[720]]) and ''Kojiki'' ([[712]]) are generally considered the earliest surviving major-length works in Japanese. Other documents from the [[Shosoin|Shôsôin Imperial Repository]] of similar age should similar linguistic forms. While the ''Nihon shoki'' was written almost entirely in ''kanji'', the ''Kojiki'' employed a more thoroughly indigenous (non-Sinic) form. Buddhist texts written in Chinese began to be notated, or re-written, in various ways at this time to become legible as Japanese, marking the beginning of some of the earliest forms of ''kundoku''.

The ''Nihon shoki'' ([[720]]) and ''Kojiki'' ([[712]]) are generally considered the earliest surviving major-length works in Japanese. Other documents from the [[Shosoin|Shôsôin Imperial Repository]] of similar age should similar linguistic forms. While the ''Nihon shoki'' was written almost entirely in ''kanji'', the ''Kojiki'' employed a more thoroughly indigenous (non-Sinic) form. Buddhist texts written in Chinese began to be notated, or re-written, in various ways at this time to become legible as Japanese, marking the beginning of some of the earliest forms of ''kundoku''.