Does anybody with in-depth knowledge of Old Japanese know why vowel-based verbal stems could only end in -e or -i (leading to the える/いる or type 2 class of verbs in Modern Japanese)? Why are there no cases of vowel based verbal stems ending in e.g. -a, -o or -u?
It is a very peculiar feature when compared to other languages that have conjugations based on the last letter/vowel of the verbal stem (such as Latin, Greek and Sanskrit)… Unfortunately my Japanese is rather rudimentary and my Old Japanese practically non-existent…
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