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Revision as of 16:37, 13 November 2020

Proto-Japonic
Proto-Japanese–Ryukyuan
Reconstruction ofJaponic
Lower-order reconstructions

Proto-Japonic or Proto-Japanese–Ryukyuan is the reconstructed language ancestral to the Japonic language family. It has been reconstructed by using a combination of internal reconstruction from Old Japanese and by applying the comparative method to Old Japanese (including eastern dialects) and Ryukyuan languages.[1] The major reconstructions of the 20th century were produced by Samuel Elmo Martin and Shirō Hattori.[1][2]

Phonology

Proto-Japonic words are generally polysyllabic, with syllables having the form (C)V.

Consonants

The following proto-Japonic consonant inventory is generally agreed upon, except for the values of *w and *j (see below):[3]

Proto-Japonic consonants
Bilabial Alveolar Palatal Velar
Nasal *m *n
Stop *p *t *k
Fricative *s
Approximant *w *j
Liquid *r

It is agreed that the Old Japanese voiced consonants b, d, z and g, which never occurred word-initially, are derived from clusters of nasals and voiceless consonants.[4] In most cases, the two consonants were brought together by loss of an intervening vowel. A few words display no evidence for a former vowel, and scholars reconstruct a syllable-final nasal of indeterminate place preceding the voiceless obstruent, as in *tunpu > Old Japanese tubu > Modern Japanese tsubu 'grain', *pinsa > OJ piza > MJ hiza 'knee'. These nasals are unrelated to the moraic nasal of later forms of Japonic, which derive from contractions or borrowings from other languages such as Chinese.[5]

The other Old Japanese consonants are projected back to Proto-Japonic except that authors disagree on whether the sources of Old Japanese w and y should be reconstructed as glides *w and *j or as voiced stops *b and *d respectively, based on Ryukyuan reflexes:[3]

  • Southern Ryukyuan varieties have /b/ corresponding to Old Japanese w, e.g. ba 'I' and bata 'stomach' corresponding to Old Japanese wa and wata.[6] Two dialects spoken around Toyama Bay on the west coast of Honshu also have /b/ corresponding to initial /w/ in other Japanese dialects.[7]
  • Yonaguni, at the far end of the Ryukyu island chain, has /d/ in words where Old Japanese has y, e.g. da 'house', du 'hot water' and dama 'mountain' corresponding to Old Japanese ya, yu and yama.[6]

Many authors, including advocates of a genetic relationship with Korean and other northeast-Asian languages, argue that Southern Ryukyuan initial /b/ and Yonaguni /d/ are retentions of Proto-Japonic voiced stops *b and *d that became /w/ and /j/ elsewhere through a process of lenition.[8] However, many linguists, especially in Japan, prefer the opposite hypothesis, namely that Southern Ryukyuan initial /b/ and Yonaguni /d/ are derived from local innovations in which Proto-Japonic *w and *j underwent fortition.[9] The case for lenition of *d- > j- is substantially weaker, with the fortition hypothesis supported by Sino-Japonic words with Middle Chinese initials in *j also having reflexes of initial /d/ in Yonaguni, such as dasai 'vegetables' from Middle Chinese *jia-tsʰʌi (野菜).[10] An entry in the late-15th-century Korean annals Seongjong Taewang Sillok records the local name of the island of Yonaguni in Idu script as 閏伊是麼, which has the Middle Korean reading zjuni sima, with sima glossed in the text as the Japonic word for 'island'. That is direct evidence of an intermediate stage of the fortition *j- > *z- > d-, leading to the modern name /dunaŋ/ 'Yonaguni'.[11]

Vowels

Most authors accept six Proto-Japonic vowels:[12]

Proto-Japonic vowels
Front Central Back
Close *i *u
Mid *e *ə *o
Open *a

The vowels *i, *u, *ə and *a have been obtained by internal reconstruction from Old Japanese, with the other Old Japanese vowels derived from vowel clusters.[13][14] The mid vowels *e and *o are required to account for Ryukyuan correspondences.[15] In Old Japanese, they were raised to i and u respectively except word-finally.[14][16] They have also left some traces in eastern Old Japanese dialects[17] and are also found in some early mokkan and in some modern Japanese dialects.[18]

Reflexes of Proto-Japonic vowels[19]
Proto-Japonic Proto-Ryukyuan Old Japanese
*i *i i1
*e *e i1 (e1)
*u *u u
*o *o u (o1)
*ə o2
*a *a a

The other vowels of Old Japanese are believed to derive from sequences of Proto-Japonic vowels, with different reflexes in Ryukyuan and Eastern Old Japanese:[19][20]

Reflexes of Proto-Japonic vowel sequences
Proto-Japonic Proto-Ryukyuan[19] Old Japanese[19][21] Eastern Old Japanese[20]
*ui *i i2 i
*əi *e i2 (e2)
*ai e2 e
*iə e1
*ia a
*au *o o1 o1
*ua

In most cases, Proto-Japonic *əi corresponds to Old Japanese i2. Proto-Japonic *əi is reconstructed for Old Japanese e2 in the few cases that it alternates with o2 (< *ə). Some authors propose a high central vowel *ɨ to account for these alternations, but there is no evidence for it in Ryukyuan or Eastern Old Japanese.[22][23] The alternate reflex e2 seems to be limited to specific monosyllabic nominal stems such as se~so2 'back', me2~mo 'seaweed' and ye~yo2 'branch'.[24]

Accent

The Japanese pitch accent is usually not recorded in the Old Japanese script.[25] The oldest description of the accent, in the 12th-century dictionary Ruiju Myōgishō, defined accent classes that generally account for correspondences between modern mainland Japanese dialects.[26] However, Ryukyuan languages share a set of accent classes that cut across them.[27] For example, for two-syllable words, the Ruiju Myōgishō defines five accent classes, which are reflected in different ways in the three major accent systems of mainland Japanese, here represented by Kyoto, Tokyo, and Kagoshima. In each case, the pattern of high and low pitches is shown across both syllables and a following neutral particle. Ryukyuan languages, here represented by Kametsu (the prestige variety of the Tokunoshima language), show a three-way division, which partially cuts across the five mainland classes.

Pitch accent classes for two-syllable words, plus neutral particle[28][29]
Class Kyoto Tokyo Kagoshima Kametsu
2.1 HH-H LH-H LH-L LH-H
2.2 HL-L LH-L
2.3 LL-H (a)
HL-L		 (b)
LH-L
2.4 LL-H HL-L
2.5 LH-L

In some Ryukyuan dialects, including Shuri, subclass (a) is marked by a long vowel in the first syllable instead of a distinct pitch pattern, which led Hattori to suggest that the original distinction was one of vowel length.[30]

Vocabulary

Pronouns

The following personal pronouns can be reconstructed for Proto-Japonic, based on Old Japanese and Ryukyuan data.[31][32]

  • *a(ra), *wa 'I' (singular)
  • *wa(ja) 'we' (plural)
  • *u, *o 'you' (singular)
  • *uja, *ura 'you' (plural)

The form *na, which may have been borrowed from Koreanic, yielded an ambivalent personal pronoun in Japanese, a second-person pronoun in Northern Ryukyuan, and a reflexive pronoun in Southern Ryukyuan.[33][34]

The following interrogative pronouns can be reconstructed for Proto-Japonic.

  • *ta 'who'
  • *na 'what'
  • *etu 'when'
  • *e(ntu)ku 'where'
  • *eka 'how'

The question particle was *ka.

The following demonstrative pronouns can be reconstructed for Proto-Japonic.[35][36]

  • *i 'this' (proximal)
  • *sə 'that' (distal)

The daughter languages later innovated a mesial, causing a split within the demonstrative system. Eventually, proximal *i was lost and replaced by *kə. Distal *sə eventually became mesial, and *ka, which was apophonic to the newly-replaced proximal, became the distal pronoun in all modern languages. Proto-Ryukyuan later replaced *sə with *o, which was unrelated.[37]

Numerals

The Proto-Japonic numerals are as follows:

Japonic numerals
Proto-Japonic[38] Mainland Ryukyuan Peninsular[39]
Old Japanese[40] Shuri[41] Hatoma[42] Yonaguni[43]
1 *pitə pi1to2 tii pusu tʼu-
2 *puta puta taa huta tʼa-
3 *mi(t)- mi1 mii mii mii- *mit
4 *jə yo2 juu juu duu-
5 *itu itu ici ici ici- *yuci
6 *mu(t)- mu muu muu muu-
7 *nana nana nana nana nana- *nanən
8 *ja ya jaa jaa daa-
9 *kəkənə ko2ko2no2 kukunu kunu kugunu-
10 *təwə to2wo tuu tuu tuu *tək

The Proto-Japonic forms for '2', '6' and '8' appear to be derived from the words of which they are doubles ('1', '3' and '4' respectively) by vowel alternation.[33]

References

  1. ^ a b Frellesvig & Whitman (2008a), p. 1.
  2. ^ Martin (1987).
  3. ^ a b Frellesvig & Whitman (2008a), p. 3.
  4. ^ Whitman (2012), p. 27.
  5. ^ Frellesvig (2010), p. 43.
  6. ^ a b Shibatani 1990, p. 195.
  7. ^ Vovin 2010, pp. 38–39.
  8. ^ Vovin 2010, p. 40.
  9. ^ Vovin 2010, pp. 36–37, 40.
  10. ^ Vovin 2010, p. 41.
  11. ^ Vovin 2010, pp. 43–44.
  12. ^ Whitman (2012), p. 26.
  13. ^ Martin (1987), p. 67.
  14. ^ a b Frellesvig & Whitman (2008a), p. 5.
  15. ^ Vovin (2010), pp. 32–34.
  16. ^ Frellesvig (2010), p. 47.
  17. ^ Vovin (2010), p. 34.
  18. ^ Osterkamp 2017, pp. 46–48.
  19. ^ a b c d Pellard (2008), p. 136.
  20. ^ a b Frellesvig (2010), p. 152.
  21. ^ Frellesvig (2010), pp. 50, 152.
  22. ^ Frellesvig (2010), pp. 45–47.
  23. ^ Vovin (2010), pp. 35–36.
  24. ^ Frellesvig & Whitman (2008b), p. 32.
  25. ^ Miyake (2003), pp. 37–39.
  26. ^ Shibatani (1990), pp. 210–212.
  27. ^ Frellesvig & Whitman (2008a), p. 8.
  28. ^ Shibatani (1990), p. 212.
  29. ^ Shimabukuro (2008), p. 128.
  30. ^ Shimabukuro (2008), pp. 134–135.
  31. ^ Vovin (2010), pp. 62–65.
  32. ^ Thorpe (1983), pp. 218–223.
  33. ^ a b Whitman (2012), p. 33.
  34. ^ Vovin (2010), pp. 63–65.
  35. ^ Vovin (2010), pp. 66–67.
  36. ^ Frellesvig (2010), pp. 142–143.
  37. ^ Vovin (2010), p. 71.
  38. ^ Whitman (2012), pp. 31, 33.
  39. ^ Vovin (2017).
  40. ^ Bentley (2012), p. 199.
  41. ^ Shimoji (2012), p. 357.
  42. ^ Lawrence (2012), p. 387.
  43. ^ Izuyama (2012), p. 429.

Works cited

  • Bentley, John R. (2012), "Old Japanese", in Tranter, Nicolas (ed.), The Languages of Japan and Korea, Routledge, pp. 189–211, ISBN 978-0-415-46287-7.
  • Frellesvig, Bjarke (2010), A History of the Japanese Language, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-65320-6.
  • Frellesvig, Bjarne; Whitman, John (2008a), "Introduction", in Frellesvig, Bjarne; Whitman, John (eds.), Proto-Japanese: Issues and Prospects, John Benjamins, pp. 1–9, ISBN 978-90-272-4809-1.
  • ———; ——— (2008b), "Evidence for seven vowels in proto-Japanese" (PDF), in Frellesvig, Bjarne; Whitman, John (eds.), Proto-Japanese: Issues and Prospects, John Benjamins, pp. 15–41, ISBN 978-90-272-4809-1.
  • Izuyama, Atsuko (2012), "Yonaguni", in Tranter, Nicolas (ed.), The Languages of Japan and Korea, Routledge, pp. 412–457, ISBN 978-0-415-46287-7.
  • Lawrence, Wayne P. (2012), "Southern Ryukyuan", in Tranter, Nicolas (ed.), The Languages of Japan and Korea, Routledge, pp. 381–411, ISBN 978-0-415-46287-7.
  • Martin, Samuel Elmo (1987), The Japanese Language through Time, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, ISBN 978-0-300-03729-6.
  • Miyake, Marc Hideo (2003), Old Japanese: A Phonetic Reconstruction, London; New York: RoutledgeCurzon, ISBN 978-0-415-30575-4.
  • Osterkamp, Sven (2017), "A mokkan Perspective on Some Issues in Japanese Historical Phonology", in Vovin, Alexander; McClure, William (eds.), Studies in Japanese and Korean Historical and Theoretical Linguistics and Beyond, Languages of Asia, vol. 16, Brill, pp. 45–55, doi:10.1163/9789004351134_006, ISBN 978-90-04-35085-4.
  • Pellard, Thomas (2008), "Proto-Japonic *e and *o in Eastern Old Japanese", Cahiers de Linguistique Asie Orientale, 37 (2): 133–158, doi:10.1163/1960602808X00055.
  • Shibatani, Masayoshi (1990), The Languages of Japan, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-36918-3
  • Shimabukuro, Moriyo (2008), "A reconstruction of proto-Japanese accent for disyllabic nouns", in Frellesvig, Bjarne; Whitman, John (eds.), Proto-Japanese: Issues and Prospects, John Benjamins, pp. 126–139, ISBN 978-90-272-4809-1.
  • Shimoji, Michinori (2012), "Northern Ryukyuan", in Tranter, Nicolas (ed.), The Languages of Japan and Korea, Routledge, pp. 351–380, ISBN 978-0-415-46287-7.
  • Thorpe, Maner Lawton (1983), Ryūkyūan language history (PhD thesis), University of Southern California.
  • Vovin, Alexander (2010), Korea-Japonica: A Re-Evaluation of a Common Genetic Origin, University of Hawaii Press, ISBN 978-0-8248-3278-0, JSTOR j.ctt6wqz03.
  • ——— (2017), "Origins of the Japanese Language", Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Linguistics, Oxford University Press, doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780199384655.013.277, ISBN 978-0-19-938465-5.
  • Whitman, John (2012), "The relationship between Japanese and Korean" (PDF), in Tranter, Nicolas (ed.), The Languages of Japan and Korea, Routledge, pp. 24–38, ISBN 978-0-415-46287-7.

Further reading

Wiktionary has a list of forms reconstructed by Vovin at Appendix:Proto-Japanese Swadesh list
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Proto-Japonic_language&oldid=988508039"