This study attempts a structural analysis of the inflected forms of 8th-centur Japanese, applying the principles and techniques of current descriptive linguistic theory. Although an interest in historical linguistics has prompted this undertaking, this is not a historical study, but a purely descriptive one. Grammars based on this same material have been written by native and foreign scholars. Although these are important works which have contributed greatly to the general knowledge of ancient Japanese, certain limitations are found in them. These should be attributed, not to the particular grammarians but to the period in which the grammars were written. Descriptive linguistics as we know it today is hardly two decades old. Its purpose and methodology differ radically from those found in earlier linguistic studies. Any criticism made of these particular studies of the Japanese language can, in general, be made of many grammars which are contemporaneous with them.