A Grammar of Irabu, a Southern Ryukyuan Language
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A Grammar of Irabu, a Southern Ryukyuan Language Michinori Shimoji A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of The Australian National University December, 2008 Except where it is otherwise acknowledged in the text, this thesis is my original written work. Michinori Shimoji Date__________________ Signature_____________________________________ Acknowledgements My deepest gratitude goes to the people on Irabu Island. The following people taught me their language with patience, eagerness, and generousness: Kimiko Namihira, Setsuko Sugama, Kani Aguni, Koichi Taketomi, Hatsue Ameku, Hiroyasu Sawada, Chiko Shiokawa, Yukio Okuhama, Takeshi Tokuyama, Asako Shimoji, Miyo Karimata, and Yoshiko Kawamitsu. My fieldwork was also supported by many other people whose name I do not reveal here. My supervisors and advisors, Emeritus Professor Andrew Pawley, Emeritus Professor Malcolm Ross, and Dr. Peter Hendriks gave me continuous support and encouragement, without which I would have never been able to complete the thesis. Professor Nicholas Evans, Dr. John Bowden, Dr. Wayan Arka, and Dr. Mark Donohue also gave me strong support at various times. Dr. Shunichi Ishihara and Dr. Duck-Young Lee also helped me by reading and commenting on earlier drafts of my thesis. A special thank goes to the three external examiners of this thesis: Dr. Wayne Lawrence, Professor Shinsho Miyara, and Professor Matthew Dryer. They gave me very detailed comments and suggestions on my thesis, which made the arguments and descriptions in this revised thesis much clearer and much more refined than those in the thesis originally submitted for review. I am also indebted to Professor Shigehisa Karimata, a specialist of Miyako Ryukyuan and other Ryukyuan languages, for his continuous academic and personal support. He was always willing to spare his time to discuss the problem of Irabu grammar with me, and his advice and suggestions from his long experience of fieldwork on Miyako certainly sharpen the description in this thesis. The following scholars of Ryukyuan also helped me at various times, giving detailed comments on my thesis or other academic papers: Professor Hiroshi Yabiku, Associate Professor Satoshi Nishioka, Dr. Jo Nakahara, Professor Yoriko Takaesu, Professor Alexander Vovin, Dr. Shinji Ogawa, Dr. Kayoko Shimoji, and Ms. Yulia Koloskova. Thank also goes to Associate Professor Reijiro Shibasaki. The discussions with him concerning clause combining and grammaticalisation certainly broadened my linguistic view. Professor Shoichi Iwasaki and Associate Professor Tsuyoshi Ono gave me chances to discuss with them functional-typological issues of the grammars of Japanese and Ryukyuan. Associate Professor Toshihide Nakayama also gave me invaluable advice on my thesis, especially during the revision process. Interactions with Associate Professor Shigeto Kawahara and Associate Professor Yosuke Igarashi certainly enriched the discussion of the phonology in this thesis, and I learned much from their theory-informed and solid ways of phonological analysis. Associate Professor Daniel Long always encouraged me and gave me his insightful ideas about sociolinguistics. A series of discussions and interactions with Dr. Patrick Heinrich helped me maintain and enhance motivations for writing a grammar of a Ryukyuan language rather than a Japanese dialect . In this respect, Dr. Matthias Brenzinger and Mr. Bairon Fija were also great supporters of my PhD work. I cannot express my gratitude too much to Professor Yukinori Takubo. He encouraged me at various times both personally and academically. Not only did he give me detailed and insightful advice, but he also provided me with a lot of chances to interact with his fellow linguists with different backgrounds, theoretical or functional. Ms. Yuka Hayashi and Mr. Thomas Pellard, who are two specialists of Miyako Ryukyuan, working on Ikema and Ogami respectively, encouraged me both linguistically and personally, and the continuous discussions with them enhanced my understanding of Miyako Ryukyuan grammar and phonology. Dr. Masayuki Onishi and Professor Toshiki Osada gave me invaluable academic and personal support, and provided me with a number of occasions for discussion with them and other linguistic scholars such as Dr. Nozomi Kodama, Dr. Shuntaro Chida and Dr. Kazuya Inagaki. Professor Shinjiro Kazama, who was my supervisor when I was an M.A student at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, continued to give me various sorts of advice, all of which led me in the right direction. His approach of linguistics, where natural discourse is carefully examined and linguistic facts rather than analyses are primarily respected, has been and will remain my approach of linguistics. My study at the Australian National University was made possible by the financial support of Shoyu Club Foundation, Japan. I express my deep gratitude to Mr. Tadahisa Daigo and other people of the Foundation. Professor Hiroshi Sugita, my academic adviser when I was doing B.A., gave me the chance to apply for this scholarship. He opened the door for me to enter the wonderful world of field linguistics. Last but not least, I am grateful to my father and mother, who encouraged me in every aspect of my life. My father, Junji, was an important consultant of this thesis. I am proud of being the writer of the grammar of his own language, which is seriously endangered. Abstract This thesis is a descriptive grammar of Irabu Ryukyuan (Irabu henceforth), a Southern Ryukyuan language spoken on Irabu, which is one of the Miyako Islands, Okinawa, Japan. Irabu is an endangered Japonic language, with approximately 2,000 to 2,500 native speakers. This thesis serves as the first descriptive grammar of this language and of any particular Miyako Ryukyuan language. The grammar attempts to describe all major areas of this language, covering the phonological system to the complex clause structures. It clarifies a number of phonological and morphosyntactic features that have been little known but are highly noteworthy typologically. Among these are foot-based alternating rhythm of tone features, non-canonical object marking that helps distinguish between narrative and non-narrative uses of non-finite clauses of clause chaining, and word class assignment of property concept words, where a given property concept stem is transformed into a nominal, a verb, an adjective, or an adverb, thus demonstrating a ‘switch-adjectival’ system in the sense of Wetzer’s (1996) typology. Chapter 1 introduces the Irabu language and its speakers, providing such information as geographical and genealogical classification, socio-linguistic situations, and typological features. Chapter 2 treats the phonological system. Chapter 3 introduces basic descriptive units and categories employed in subsequent chapters. Chapter 4 describes nominal phrase structure. Chapter 5 examines nominal morphology. Chapter 6 deals with the verb morphology. Chapter 7 describes the predicate phrase, treating both nominal and verbal predicates. Chapter 8 investigates property concepts and related issues, and includes a description of the adjective word class. Chapter 9 describes clitics. Chapter 10 addresses various functional-typological issues that crosscut several morphosyntactic structures. Chapter 11 describes complex clause structure. These chapters are followed by Appendix, which lists two text materials. Table of contents CHAPTER 1 THE IRABU LANGUAGE AND ITS SPEAKERS 19 1.1. Geography 119919 1.2. Genealogy 221121 1.3. Notes on the settlement and political history of the Rykuku Islands 222222 1.4. Sociolinguistic overview 223323 1.4.1. The name of the language 23 1.4.2. Dialects 23 1.4.3. The number of speakers 26 1.5. Previous works on Irabu and other Southern Ryukyuan languages 226626 1.5.1. Detailed grammars 27 1.5.2. Grammatical sketches 27 1.5.3. Works on specific topics 28 1.5.3.1. Phonological studies 28 1.5.3.2. Morphosyntactic studies 28 1.5.4. Dictionaries, texts, and unpublished materials 29 1.6. A typological overview of Irabu 330030 1.6.1. Phonology 30 1.6.2. Morphosyntax 31 1.7. Method and data 333333 1.8. Organisation of this grammar 334434 CHAPTER 2 PHONOLOGY 35 2.1. Segmentation 335535 2.1.1. Grammatical word 36 2.1.2. Phonological word 37 2.2. Classes of phonemes 337737 2.2.1. Consonants 37 2.2.2. Glides 39 1 2.2.3. Vowel 39 2.2.4. Orthography 40 2.3. Minimal or quasi-minimal contrasts 404040 2.3.1. Consonants (stops, fricatives, and resonants) 40 2.3.2. Glides 41 2.3.3. Vowels 41 2.4. The structure of the root word 414141 2.4.1. Word template 42 2.4.2. Nucleic resonants 45 2.4.3. Heavy structures 46 2.4.4. Examples of root word structures 46 2.4.4.1. Examples of words with an initial syllable only 46 2.4.4.2. Examples of words with an initial and a non-initial syllable, showing the structure of the initial syllable 47 2.4.4.3. Examples of words with an initial and a non-initial syllable, showing the structure of the non-initial syllable 48 2.4.4.4. Examples of words with a presyllable plus initial syllable 49 2.5. Phonotactics of the word-plus 505050 2.5.1. Four primary phonotactic constraints of the word(-plus) 51 2.5.1.1. Final C 51 2.5.1.2. Medial cluster 52 2.5.1.3. Cluster of non-resonants 53 2.5.1.4. Ban on /C.(G)V/ sequence 53 2.5.2. Long vowels and diphthongs 54 2.5.3. Single onset of initial and non-initial syllables 55 2.5.4. Initial syllable onset cluster 55 2.5.5. Non-initial cluster 56 2.5.5.1. Geminates 56 2.5.5.2. Partial geminates (homorganic /n/ + C of any place of articulation) 57 2.5.5.3. Non-geminates (resonant C i + resonant/non-resonant C j) 58 2.5.6. Presyllable plus initial syllable onset 58 2.5.6.1. Geminates 59 2.5.6.2. Partial geminates (homorganic /n(n)/ + C of any place of articulation) 60 2.5.6.3.