Introduction

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Introduction 1 INTRODUCTION his introductory chapter gives the reader a brief background on Tthe Japanese and Ryukyuan languages, including their linguistic relation to each other as well as to other languages in the region. Cultural and historical settings are certainly not ignored. Another important purpose of this chapter is to introduce controversial issues that need to be kept in mind when one attempts to reconstruct the Proto-Japonic language. The term ‘Japonic language(s)’ was coined by Leon A. Serafim and has been widely accepted among Japanologists; it is meant to indicate the Japanese language spoken on the main islands of Japan (i.e., Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu) and the Ryukyuan language on the archipelago consisting of the three main island groups (i.e., Amami, Okinawa, and Sakishima) located between Kyushu and Taiwan. Lastly, this chapter also touches upon theoretical issues in suprasegmental phonology, and discusses a system of pitch accent in relation to moras, syllables, pitch, stress, and tones. 1.1 BRIEF INTRODUCTION ON JAPONIC LANGUAGE HISTORY This section of the chapter, consisting of three main parts, gives a brief overview of the history of the Japonic languages. The first part, introducing different views from the literature, deals with the question of what Proto-Japanese and Proto-Ryukyuan mean. The second part discusses the social and political history of the Japonic languages. The focus of the last part is on the Japonic languages in relation to other languages in the region. 2 ACCENTUAL HISTORY 1.1.1 Proto-Japonic and Proto-Ryukyuan According to Hattori (1959), Proto-Japonic was a language spoken by a people who settled in northern Kyushu (southwestern Japan) from the Korean peninsula around 300 B.C., and Ryukyuan branched off from Proto-Japonic before 300 A.D., i.e., no more than 600 years later. Thorpe (1983) also maintains that Ryukyuan and Japanese had diverged significantly earlier than the eighth century A.D. Both of the claims are based on the hypothesis that Proto-Mainland Japanese and Proto-Ryukyuan split from Proto- Japonic: (1) Proto-Japonic Proto-Ryukyuan Proto-Mainland Japanese However, another view claims that Proto-Southwestern Japanese branched off from Proto-Japonic and then Proto-Ryukyuan and Proto-Southwestern Kyushu developed from Proto-Southwestern Japanese. Many scholars prefer this view, especially those who know that there are similarities between Ryukyuan and Southwestern-Kyushu Japanese. Yukio Uemura (1972) is one of the proponents of this approach. (2) Proto-Japonic Proto-Southwestern-Japanese Proto-else Proto-Ryukyuan Proto-Southwestern-Kyushu There is another view proposed by Miller (1971), who argues that Middle Korean, Old Japanese, and Ryukyuan are sister languages which split from Proto-Korean-Japanese. (3) Proto-Korean-Japanese Middle Korean Old Japanese Ryukyuan.
Recommended publications
  • Drastic Demographic Events Triggered the Uralic Spread to Appear in Diachronica
    Drastic demographic events triggered the Uralic spread To appear in Diachronica Riho Grünthal (University of Helsinki) Volker Heyd (University of Helsinki) Sampsa Holopainen (University of Helsinki) Juha Janhunen (University of Helsinki) Olesya Khanina (Institute of Linguistics, Russian Academy of Sciences) Matti Miestamo (University of Helsinki) Johanna Nichols (University of California, Berkeley; University of Helsinki; Higher School of Economics, Moscow) Janne Saarikivi (University of Helsinki) Kaius Sinnemäki (University of Helsinki) Abstract: The widespread Uralic family offers several advantages for tracing prehistory: a firm absolute chronological anchor point in an ancient contact episode with well-dated Indo-Iranian; other points of intersection or diagnostic non-intersection with early Indo-European (the Late PIE-speaking Yamnaya culture of the western steppe, the Afanasievo culture of the upper Yenisei, and the Fatyanovo culture of the middle Volga); lexical and morphological reconstruction sufficient to establish critical absences of sharings and contacts. We add information on climate, linguistic geography, typology, and cognate frequency distributions to reconstruct the Uralic origin and spread. We argue that the Uralic homeland was east of the Urals and initially out of contact with Indo-European. The spread was rapid and without widespread shared substratal effects. We reconstruct its cause as the interconnected reactions of early Uralic and Indo-European populations to a catastrophic climate change episode and interregionalization opportunities which advantaged riverine hunter-fishers over herders. Keywords Uralic; Finno-Ugric; Indo-European; Yamnaya; Indo-Iranian; Siberia; Eurasia; Seima-Turbino, 4.2 ka event; linguistic homeland Note: In-text references have not yet been fully deanonymized. 2 Drastic demographic events triggered the Uralic spread (Contents, for convenience) Main text (pp.
    [Show full text]
  • Origins of the Japanese Languages. a Multidisciplinary Approach”
    MASTERARBEIT / MASTER’S THESIS Titel der Masterarbeit / Title of the Master’s Thesis “Origins of the Japanese languages. A multidisciplinary approach” verfasst von / submitted by Patrick Elmer, BA angestrebter akademischer Grad / in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts (MA) Wien, 2019 / Vienna 2019 Studienkennzahl lt. Studienblatt / A 066 843 degree programme code as it appears on the student record sheet: Studienrichtung lt. Studienblatt / Masterstudium Japanologie UG2002 degree programme as it appears on the student record sheet: Betreut von / Supervisor: Mag. Dr. Bernhard Seidl Mitbetreut von / Co-Supervisor: Dr. Bernhard Scheid Table of contents List of figures .......................................................................................................................... v List of tables ........................................................................................................................... v Note to the reader..................................................................................................................vi Abbreviations ....................................................................................................................... vii 1. Introduction ................................................................................................................. 1 1.1. Research question ................................................................................................. 1 1.2. Methodology ........................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Aleksandra Jarosz, Miyako-Ryukyuan and Its Contribution to Linguistic
    Miyako-Ryukyuan and its contribution to linguistic diversity Aleksandra Jarosz (Adam Mickiewicz University Poznan) Abstract The paper provides introductory information on Miyako-Ryukyuan (Miyakoan). Miyakoan belongs to the Sakishima branch of the Japonic language family, the concept of which counterbalances the until-recently prevalent notion that Japan should be a linguistically homogenous country, and Japanese a language isolate with many unintelligible “dialects”. Following the statement that the endangered Miyako- Ryukyuan language is in an urgent need of extensive documentation and in-depth description, as well as producing more works in English devoted to it, the author introduces a few topics that may be of interest to Japanese/ Japonic linguists and language typologists alike: the “apical” vowel, syllabic consonants, focus marking strategies and formal modality markers. Each topic has been exemplified by Miyako- Ryukyuan samples from Nikolay Nevskiy’s Taishō-era handwritten fieldnotes, as retrieved and analyzed by this author. 1 Foreword The goal of this paper is to exemplify the ways in which Miyako-Ryukyuan (or Miyakoan), an endangered language of the southern periphery of Japan, contributes to the linguistic diversity in Japan and worldwide. The concept of Japonic languages – i.e. of the family to which Miyako-Ryukyuan belongs – which interprets the ethnolects of Japan as multiple related languages rather than as Japanese and its dozens of often unintelligible “dialects”, is still relatively new, only gaining popularity in the last ten-fifteen years. Few research results have so far been made available to the English-speaking readers1, and therefore, the topic of Japan’s endangered languages is still often absent from discussions concerning language documentation or linguistic typology.
    [Show full text]
  • Genomic Insights Into the Formation of Human Populations in East Asia
    Article Genomic insights into the formation of human populations in East Asia https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03336-2 The deep population history of East Asia remains poorly understood owing to a lack 1,2 Received: 19 March 2020 of ancient DNA data and sparse sampling of present-day people . Here we report genome-wide data from 166 East Asian individuals dating to between 6000 bc and Accepted: 5 February 2021 ad 1000 and 46 present-day groups. Hunter-gatherers from Japan, the Amur River Published online: 22 February 2021 Basin, and people of Neolithic and Iron Age Taiwan and the Tibetan Plateau are linked Check for updates by a deeply splitting lineage that probably reflects a coastal migration during the Late Pleistocene epoch. We also follow expansions during the subsequent Holocene epoch from four regions. First, hunter-gatherers from Mongolia and the Amur River Basin have ancestry shared by individuals who speak Mongolic and Tungusic languages, but do not carry ancestry characteristic of farmers from the West Liao River region (around 3000 bc), which contradicts theories that the expansion of these farmers spread the Mongolic and Tungusic proto-languages. Second, farmers from the Yellow River Basin (around 3000 bc) probably spread Sino-Tibetan languages, as their ancestry dispersed both to Tibet—where it forms approximately 84% of the gene pool in some groups—and to the Central Plain, where it has contributed around 59–84% to modern Han Chinese groups. Third, people from Taiwan from around 1300 bc to ad 800 derived approximately 75% of their ancestry from a lineage that is widespread in modern individuals who speak Austronesian, Tai–Kadai and Austroasiatic languages, and that we hypothesize derives from farmers of the Yangtze River Valley.
    [Show full text]
  • Origins of the Verbalizer Affixes in the Japonic Languages
    ORIGINS OF THE VERBALIZER AFFIXES IN THE JAPONIC LANGUAGES Tyler Lau Advisors: Claire Bowern and Stephen R. Anderson May 1st, 2012 ABSTRACT The affix that verbalizes adjectives in the Japonic languages is traditionally viewed as deriving from one of two constructions: *ku a(r)-, an adverbializer + existential verb, or *-sa a(r)-, a nominalizer + existential verb (Martin 1987, Bentley 2001, Chamberlain 1895, etc.). However, Izuyama (1997) argues that this view is taken at face value and ignores phonological correspondences with the southern Japonic languages, notably Yaeyama and Yonaguni. She argues instead that the form originates in the completive forms of three or four reconstructed verbs *s(u), *k(u), *i(r ∼s), all meaning ‘to do’. In my work, I gathered comparative morphological and phonological evidence from wordlists, grammars and my own fieldwork with a speaker of Okinawan, to test these hypotheses. However, my findings also lead me to reject Izuyamas reconstruction of *i(r~s) as a valid reconstruction of ‘to do’ or as relevant to the verbalizer affix. Rather, I establish its origins in a Proto-Ryukyuan verb *er- ‘to get,’ descending from Proto-Japanese *e- that grammaticalized to attach to consonant-stem verbs, to create an inchoative or valency-changed class of vowel-stem verbs. I also tentatively reconstruct the verb ‘to do’ as *as-, a transitive form of the verb *ar- ‘to exist.’ In agreement with Izuyama, however, I found that there is ample evidence supporting the hypothesis that the verbalizer affix originates in the completive and/or past form of verbs meaning ‘to do’ and provide both comparative and theoretical evidence for this claim.
    [Show full text]
  • Uhm Phd 4271 R.Pdf
    UNIVERSITY OF HAWAI'I LIBRARY A RECONSTRUCTION OF THE ACCENTUAL HISTORY OF THE JAPANESE AND RYUKYUAN LANGUAGES 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 LINGUISTICS DECEMBER 2002 BY Moriyo Shimabukuro Dissertation Committee: Leon A. Serafim, Chairman Robert Blust Kenneth Rehg Patricia Donegan Robert Huey llJ ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Looking back upon my life in Honolulu, I have realized how wonderful my life has been. Vivid memories come back as if I am turning pages of a picture album. People that I have met made my life here precious. My studies at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa have been very fruitful. Since the day I arrived, I have learned a great number of things about the Japonic languages from Leon A. Serafim, my advisor. I have really enjoyed myself being with him. This dissertation could not have been completed without his valuable comments, insightful suggestions, and encouragement. lowe him a great amount, especially his time and energy that he spent with me while I was writing my dissertation. To express my appreciation, I would like to say "Ippee nihwee deebiru." I would also like to thank my other committee members, Ken Rehg, Robert Blust, Patricia Donegan, and Robert Huey, for reading this dissertation and giving me insightful comments. I learned a lot from discussions with them. I am grateful to them for being on my committee. I would also like to express my gratitude to Alexander Vovin, who has taught me a lot in class and outside classrooms while I was at the university.
    [Show full text]
  • Predicative Possession in the Novgorod Birch Bark Documents in the Ural-Altaic Context1
    SUSA/JSFOu 97, 2019 Chingduang Yurayong (Helsinki) Predicative possession in the Novgorod Birch Bark documents in the Ural-Altaic context1 This paper discusses predicative possessive constructions in the East Slavic languages, with a particular focus on the Old Novgorod Slavic dialect, in connection to the neigh- bouring Ural-Altaic languages. An areal-typological investigation shows that the East Slavic languages prefer the use of a locational possessive (mihi est), while the rest of Slavic and Europe’s Indo-European languages primarily use a have-possessive (habeo). Serving as primary data for this study, the dialect written in the Novgorod Birch Bark documents confirms a preference of the locational possessive over thehave -possessive. The current study also evaluates three hypotheses on the origin of the East Slavic loca- tional possessive, proposed in earlier studies: 1) a Uralic substrate, 2) a Slavic archa- ism and 3) a Northern Eurasian areal pattern. Given the typological survey as well as the empirical and historical comparative investigation, the locational possessive can be considered a preferred areal pattern across Northern Eurasia. Being a part of the macro contact zone of Northern Eurasia, the choice of locational possessive in the East Slavic languages is reinforced by the areal diffusion, especially from the close neighbouring languages, Uralic and Turkic. 1. Introduction This paper deals with 11th–15th-century Novgorod Birch Bark documents, the first of which were found on 26 June 1951 by Nina Fedorovna Akulova, a member of the Russian archaeology research group visiting the site (Nosov, Ribina & Janin 1993: 49; Schaeken 2012: 84). Since then, more documents have been continuously excavated, and the current number of birch bark documents found is ca.
    [Show full text]
  • The Comparative Study of the Japonic Languages
    The comparative study of the Japonic languages NINJAL International Symposium Approaches to endangered languages in Japan and Northeast Thomas Pellard Asia: Description, documentation and revitalization, Tachikawa: 6–8 August 2018 CNRS,CRLAO [email protected] Why do we compare? (5) The goal of comparative linguistics is and has always been to explain languages and their evolution (1) Goals and methods of science Another and not less important reason, which makes a • to advance our understanding of the world critical comparison of the Sanskrit with its European sis- • answering “what?” (observation) is not sufficient, we also ters, worthy to be undertaken, is the light thrown thereby need to ask “how?” and “why?” (explanation) upon each of the languages compared, and the clearer • the hallmark of the scientific method is the artificial ex- view we thence obtain of the most ancient forms of each periment, but such experiments are often not possible or respectively, and probably some conception of the original ethical in many fields, especially those who study the past and primitive signification of a great part of the grammat- and unique events: evolutionary biology, archaeology, but ical inflections common to all. It is chiefly by comparison also epidemiology, ecology, sociology, etc. that we determine as far as our sensible and intellectual • one alternative to the controlled experiment is the “nat- faculties reach, the nature of things. Frederic Schlegel justly ural experiment”, or “comparative method”: manipulation expects, that comparative grammar will give us quite new is replaced by comparison with other attested cases explications of the genealogy of languages, in a similar • comparison has a long history and has been a standard way as comparative anatomy has thrown light on natural method of enquiry in anatomy for centuries philosophy.
    [Show full text]
  • Altaic Languages
    Altaic Languages Masaryk University Press Reviewed by Ivo T. Budil Václav Blažek in collaboration with Michal Schwarz and Ondřej Srba Altaic Languages History of research, survey, classification and a sketch of comparative grammar Masaryk University Press Brno 2019 Publication financed by the grant No. GA15-12215S of the Czech Science Foundation (GAČR) © 2019 Masaryk University Press ISBN 978-80-210-9321-8 ISBN 978-80-210-9322-5 (online : pdf) https://doi.org/10.5817/CZ.MUNI.M210-9322-2019 5 Analytical Contents 0. Preface .................................................................. 9 1. History of recognition of the Altaic languages ............................... 15 1.1. History of descriptive and comparative research of the Turkic languages ..........15 1.1.1. Beginning of description of the Turkic languages . .15 1.1.2. The beginning of Turkic comparative studies ...........................21 1.1.3. Old Turkic language and script – discovery and development of research .....22 1.1.4. Turkic etymological dictionaries .....................................23 1.1.5. Turkic comparative grammars .......................................24 1.1.6. Syntheses of grammatical descriptions of the Turkic languages .............25 1.2. History of descriptive and comparative research of the Mongolic languages .......28 1.2.0. Bibliographic survey of Mongolic linguistics ...........................28 1.2.1. Beginning of description of the Mongolic languages .....................28 1.2.2. Standard Mongolic grammars and dictionaries ..........................31 1.2.3. Mongolic comparative and etymological dictionaries .....................32 1.2.4. Mongolic comparative grammars and grammatical syntheses...............33 1.3. History of descriptive and comparative research of the Tungusic languages ........33 1.3.0. Bibliographic survey of the Tungusic linguistics.........................33 1.3.1. Beginning of description of the Tungusic languages ......................34 1.3.2.
    [Show full text]
  • 186 GLIMPSES of the ETHNOLINGUISTIC PREHISTORY of NORTHEASTERN INDIA the World's Two Most Populous Families of Languages Meet In
    186 MARK W. POST Post, M. W. and R. Blench. 2011. Siangic: A new language phylum in North East India. Paper presented at the 6th International Conference of the North East Indian Linguistics Society, Tezpur University, Tezpur, Assam, India. GLIMPSES OF THE ETHNOLINGUISTIC PREHISTORY Post, M.W. and Y. Modi (in press). Language contact and the genetic position of Milang in Tibeto-Burman. Anthropological Linguistics. OF NORTHEASTERN INDIA --in press-b. Prosody and typological drift in Austroasiatic and Tibeto-Burman: Against "Sinosphere" and "Indosphere." Mon-Khmer Studies. GEORGE VAN DRIEM Ross, M., A. Pawley and M. Osmond. 2007 [2003]. The Lexicon of Proto-Oceanic: The Culture and Environment of Ancestral Oceanic Society. Volume 2: The OLD AND NEw LINGUISTIC PHYLA IN THE NoRTHEAST OF THE SuBCONTINENT Physical Environment. Canberra: Australian National University Press. Sun, T.J. 1993. A Historical-Comparative Study of the Tani Branch of Tibeto­ Burman. Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Linguistics, University of The world's two most populous families of languages meet in the California, Berkeley. Himalayas. These are Tibeto-Burman, which includes Cantonese and Thomason, S.G. and T. Kaufman. 1988. Language Contact, Creolization and Genetic Mandarin, and Indo-European, to which languages such as English and Linguistics. Berkeley: University of California Press. Bengali belong. In addition to these two great linguistic phyla, Kra-Dai alias Daic, Austroasiatic and Dravidian language communities skirt the eastern Himalayan region. For example, the Austroasiatic language Khasi is spoken in the Indian state of Meghalaya. Ahom, a now extinct Kra-Dai tongue, was once a prominent cultural language in northeastern India, where scattered Daic language communities are still settled today.
    [Show full text]
  • Chapter 43 the Homelands of the Individual Transeurasian Proto
    This is a draft version of a chapter that appears in Robbeets, M and A. Savelyev (eds). The Oxford Guide to the Transeurasian Languages (OUP, 2020)' see https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-oxford-guide-to-the- transeurasian-languages-9780198804628. The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Research Council under the Horizon 2020 Program/ ERC Grant Agreement n. 646612 granted to Martine Robbeets. Chapter 43 The homelands of the individual Transeurasian proto-languages Martine Robbeets, Juha Janhunen, Alexander Savelyev and Evgeniya Korovina Abstract This chapter is an attempt to identify the individual homelands of the five families making up the Transeurasian grouping, i.e. the Turkic, Mongolic, Tungusic, Koreanic and Japonic families. Combining various linguistic methods and principles such as the diversity hotspot principle, phylolinguistics, cultural reconstruction and contact linguistics, we try to determine the original location and time depth of the families under discussion. We further propose that the individual speech communities were originally familiar with millet agriculture, while terms for pastoralism or wet- rice agriculture entered their vocabularies only at a later stage. Keywords: Japonic, Koreanic, Tungusic, Mongolic, Turkic, Transeurasian, homeland, time depth, agriculture, cultural reconstruction, contact linguistics 43.1 Introduction The aim of this chapter is to estimate the location and time depth of the individual families that make up the Transeurasian grouping and to suggest evidence for the presence of agricultural vocabulary in each of the proto-languages. In the present context, farming or agriculture is understood in its restricted sense of economic dependence on the cultivation of crops and does not necessarily include the raising of animals as livestock.
    [Show full text]
  • Origins and Migrations in the Extended Eastern Himalayas Brill’S Tibetan Studies Library
    Origins and Migrations in the Extended Eastern Himalayas Brill’s Tibetan Studies Library Edited by Henk Blezer Alex McKay Charles Ramble VOLUME 16/4 The titles published in this series are listed at brill.nl/btsl Origins and Migrations in the Extended Eastern Himalayas Edited by Toni Huber and Stuart Blackburn LEIDEN • BOSTON 2012 Cover illustration: Tadé Mihu, an Idu Mishmi shaman (igu), leading the soul of a deceased person to the place of origins during a brohfee ritual. Anini, Arunachal Pradesh (photograph by Toni Huber, 2007) Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Origins and migrations in the extended eastern Himalayas / edited by Toni Huber and Stuart Blackburn. p. cm. -- (Brill’s Tibetan studies library, ISSN 1568-6183 ; v. 16/4) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-90-04-22691-3 (hbk. : acid-free paper) -- ISBN 978-90-04-22836-8 (e-book) 1. Tibeto-Burman peoples--Himalaya Mountains--Origin. 2. Tibeto-Burman peoples-- Migrations--History. 3. Tibeto-Burman peoples--Himalaya Mountains--History. 4. Tibeto-Burman peoples--Himalaya Mountains--Social life and customs. 5. Mountain people--Himalaya Mountains. 6. Himalaya Mountains--Emigration and immigration--History. 7. Himalaya Mountains--Social life and customs. 8. Himalaya Mountains--Ethnic relations. 9. Ethnology--Himalaya Mountains. I. Huber, Toni, 1956- II. Blackburn, Stuart H. DS25.5.O75 2012 954.96--dc23 2012000054 ISSN 1568-6183 ISBN 978 90 04 22691 3 (hardback) ISBN 978 90 04 22836 8 (e-book) Copyright 2012 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Global Oriental, Hotei Publishing, IDC Publishers, Martinus Nijhofff Publishers and VSP.
    [Show full text]