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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.

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