UN1VERS1TY OF HAWAII! LIBRARY SMALL LINGUISTICS: PHONOLOGICAL HISTORY AND LEXICAL LOANS IN NAKIJIN DIALECT OKINAWAN A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE DIVISION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF HAWAI'I IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN EAST ASIAN LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES GAPANESE) MAY 2004 By Stewart A. Curry Dissertation Committee: Leon Serafim, Chairperson David Ashworth Anatole Lyovin Gerald Mathias Maryann Overstreet ©2004 by Stewart A. Curry iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Linguistic research is only as good as the data that undergoes analysis. I have been very fortunate to enjoy access to the Nakijin hagen jiten, Nakasone Seizen's carefully recorded and highly detailed monument to his native dialect, and an incomparable resource for the study of that dialect. Dr. Nakasone passed away in 1996, leaving an estimable body of work and inspiration for numerous linguists in Okinawa, Japan, Hawai'i and elsewhere. And beginning researchers are only as good as the senior scholars who guide them. I am greatly indebted, of course, to my eminently patient advisor, Dr. Leon Serafim, without whom this dissertation would never have happened. It was he who, when this writer was flailing about for a term paper topic in a graduate course on Japanese language history, handed over a hefty tome-the Nakijin dictionary-loaded with words featuring exuberantly long vowels, recorded in a (then-) arcane transcription system, and suggested that accent and vowel length in the dialect might indeed provide sufficient fodder for a paper. It did, and for a couple of others as well. Dr. Serafim's detailed review of progress on the present work has been invaluable in making it a readable thing, though he is surely not to be held accountable for any of this writer's mistakes, inaccuracies, odd conclusions, or gaps in logic. I am indebted as well to the members of my dissertation committee, Drs. David Ashworth, Anatole Lyovin, Gerald Mathias, and Maryann Overstreet, who waited long-years in some cases-for this product and then had to read in a scant two weeks the pre-defense draft. The comments and questions of these scholars contributed much to the improvement of this dissertation. On a somber note, I must mention the passing of Dr. Mitsugu Sakihara, specialist in Okinawan history and a member of the original committee formed to oversee this work. Dr. Sakihara passed away in January 2000, without ever being able to see the current work despite his expressed wish to do so. My example in failing to deliver it in a timely fashion should stand as a warning to procrastinating graduate students everywhere. iv A number of people among my colleagues and professors at the University of Hawaii provided moral support for this endeavor: Dr. Terry Klafehn, whose words of encouragement never failed to help; Mr. Jeffrey Hayden, a source of much useful information about things Chinese that turned up during research, and instigator of no small amount of diversion from the travails of graduate study; Dr. Robert Huey, who in his capacity as Graduate Chair for the Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures made frequent pointed but good-natured barbs about the slow progress on this work (I would like to thank him as well for his continued assurances on this writer's behalf to the Graduate Division that yes, another deadline extension would be a reasonable thing); and Evie Nakanishi of EALL, without whom the department would be in a dire state indeed. 1would also like to thank my parents, Bill and Judy Curry, whose support has been invaluable, and also Guadalupe Ha'ani, a faithful companion who never raised a suspicious eyebrow at odd turns of phrase in the text, or had anything but the most enthusiastic response to progress in this project, however slow. v ABSTRACT This dissertation presents a phonological and lexical history of Nakijin, a northern Okinawan dialect. It consists of three major parts: 1) the regular phonological history of the dialect, 2) a brief history of the Nakijin polity, and 3) a discussion of the various irregularities in the phonology and lexicon of Nakijin, with particular attention to those relatable to external influences as identified in the historical sketch. In tracing the regular phonological development of Nakijin, a set of sound changes is described that allows the derivation of modem Nakijin forms from proto-Rytikytian forms as reconstructed by Thorpe (1983). Reference is also made to comparative evidence from modem Japanese, as well as both Old Japanese and proto-Japanese as described by Martin (1987). In some cases alternative reconstructions based on hitherto unrecognized Nakijin phenomena are proposed as welL In the course of describing the regular phonological history of Nakijin, a number of exceptions to regular rules and other remarkable features are identified; this section often provides some accounting of the reasons for such irregularities, but in general defers the greater part of those arguments to the final section. The human history of Nakijin is considered in order to inform the discussion of external influences, in particular lexical loans and lexical-phonological loans, on the Nakijin language. In this brief sketch, a contrast is drawn between Nakijin as a self-contained locale and independent petty state on the one hand, and Nakijin as an outpost of the centralized Okinawan and later Ryukyuan kingdom on the other. In that latter part of Nakijin history, the populace and language of Nakijin are seen to undergo considerable influence from southern Okinawa, in particular, though not exclusively, in areas that can generally be identified with political factors and state-level economic concerns. In the final section of the dissertation, an evaluation of exceptional Nakijin phonological and lexical phenomena is presented. The generalizations reached by Dorian (1981) on language death, Clyne (2003) on language contact and convergence, and Thomason and Kaufman (1988) vi on language contact in the historical context are referenced, and specific Nakijin lexical items are considered in light of the influence of the Shuri (southern Okinawa) dialect on them. The items considered for analysis in this section are identified both through the exceptional phonology they demonstrate, as well as through a parsing along semantic lines that identifies areas of the lexicon that might have been susceptible to external influence. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgments .iv Abstract vi List of Maps xi CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 Okinawa-Nakijin dialect and the purpose of this study 1 1.2 Identifying the geographical scene 3 1.3 Identifying the historical scene 8 1.4 Identifying the linguistic scene 10 1.5 Transcribing Nakijin and other Rynkyuan languages 12 1.5.1 Nakijin Transcription 12 1.5.2 Other Rynkynan dialects 19 1.5.3 Japanese 19 1.6 Previous looks at Nakijin 20 1.6.1 Nakasone 20 1.6.2 Lawrence 22 1.6.3 Martin 23 1.6.4 Thorpe 24 1.6.5 Shimabukuro 24 1.6.6 Others 25 1.7 Methodological background 25 1.7.1 Language Death-Dorian 1981 25 1.7.2 Language Contact-Clyne 2003, Thomason and Kaufman 1988 27 1.7.2.1 Clyne 2003 27 1.7.2.2 Thomason and Kaufman 1988 29 CHAPTER 2: NAKIJIN PHONOLOGY SYNCHRONICALLY AND DIACHRONICALLY 31 2.1 Features of Nakijin phonology 31 2.1.1 Aspiration and Devoicing in Nakijin word-initial vowels 32 2.1.2 Medial glottalization/deaspiration 33 2.1.3 Vowel lengthening 33 2.1.4 Accent and Pitch 34 2.2 Nakijin historical phonology .53 2.2.1 Overview of Ryukynan phonology and Nakijin's place there 53 2.2.2 Historical changes from proto-Ryukyuan to Nakijin .56 2.2.2.1 Sound changes shared with other Rynkynan dialects .57 2.2.2.1.1 Vowel Raising 57 2.2.2.1.2 Monosyllable Lengthening 61 2.2.2.1.3 Progressive Palatalization 61 2.2.2.1.4 Fronting of *u 63 2.2.2.1.5 Palatalization/Affrication 64 2.2.2.1.6 Vowel Sequence Levelling 66 Vlll 2.2.2.1.7 Loss of pRk *r 68 2.2.2.1.8 High Vowel Loss 78 2.2.2.1.9 Assimilation 83 2.2.2.1.10 Glottal Generation 85 2.2.2.2 Nakijin-specific developments 87 2.2.2.2.1 Vowel Lengthening 87 2.2.2.2.2 Vestigial Rhythmic Gemination 96 2.2.2.2.3 Velar Lenition 107 2.2.2.2.4 Medial Consonant Loss 119 2.2.2.2.5 Initial Deaspiration (and Medial Deaspiration) 127 2.2.2.2.6 Regressive Reaspiration and Initial Vowel Devoicing 129 2.2.2.2.7 Lenition of *t 136 2.2.3 Comments on interesting features in Nakijin phonology 139 2.2.3.1 Glottalized and smooth initial segments 139 2.2.3.1.1 Glottal initials contrasted with smooth onset vowels 140 2.2.3.1.2 Glottal initial glides contrasted with smooth onset glides 141 2.2.3.1.3 Glottalized nasals 143 2.2.3.2 Aspirated and deaspirated consonants 145 2.2.3.2.1 ph-p' 145 2.2.3.2.2 th-t' 147 2.2.3.2.3 kh-k' 154 2.2.3.2.4 ch-c' 156 2.3 Glottochronological considerations 166 CHAPTER 3: NAKIJIN HISTORY 172 3.1 Introduction 172 3.2 Nakijin and historical human change 173 3.3 Nakijin historical survey-pre-history to the end of the Ryukyu Kingdom 174 3.3.1 Pre-Hokuzan Nakijin 175 3.3.2 Economic activity in pre-unification (makyo- and anji-period) Nakijin 176 3.3.2.1 Agriculture and agricultural tools 177 3.3.2.2 Fishing and fishing implements 179 3.3.2.3 Boats 180 3.3.2.4 Housing and other construction 181 3.3.2.5 Cloth and weaving 182 3.3.2.6 Other topics 184 3.3.3 Hokuzan 184 3.3.3.1 Nakijin Castle-the center of cosmopolitan Hokuzan 187 3.3.3.2 The Hokuzan royal line 188 3.3.4 Nakijin under the Wardens of Hokuzan 192 3.3.5 Nakijin in the Satsuma period and later 194 IX CHAPTER 4: RELATING THE EXTRALINGUISTIC RECORD TO THE LINGUISTIC.