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 ......................................................................................................... 3 2. Previous research ......................................................................................................... 6 2.1. Ainu ...................................................................................................................... 6 2.2. Altaic and Koreanic ............................................................................................... 7 2.3. Koguryŏic .............................................................................................................. 9 2.4. Austronesian ....................................................................................................... 10 2.5. Mixed language ................................................................................................... 11 2.6. Japonic proto-language and Ryūkyūan ................................................................ 12 2.7. Minor theories .................................................................................................... 12 2.8. Conclusion .......................................................................................................... 13 3. Genealogy ................................................................................................................... 14 3.1. Mitochondrial DNA ............................................................................................ 16 3.2. Y-DNA Haplogroups .......................................................................................... 18 3.3. Language transfer during the Jōmon-Yayoi transition ........................................ 22 4. Chinese sources .......................................................................................................... 25 4.1. The Wa and their language ................................................................................. 25 4.2. The Wa and their lands ....................................................................................... 27 4.3. First mention of the Wa ..................................................................................... 28 4.4. Gold seals and their inscriptions .......................................................................... 31 4.5. The Wa people and Wu Taibo ............................................................................ 33 5. Japonic spoken on the Korean peninsula .................................................................. 35 5.1. Japonic toponyms on the Korean peninsula ........................................................ 35 5.2. Japonic speakers on the Korean peninsula ........................................................... 38 5.2.1. Koguryŏ ....................................................................................................... 39 5.2.2. Paekche ........................................................................................................ 40 5.2.3. Kaya ............................................................................................................. 42 5.2.4. Silla .............................................................................................................. 43 5.3. Conclusion .......................................................................................................... 45 iii 6. Geography and archaeology ....................................................................................... 47 6.1. The political center in the Late Yayoi Period ...................................................... 47 6.2. Eastward move of the capital ............................................................................... 49 6.3. Farming/language dispersal hypothesis ................................................................ 50 6.4. Introduction of wet-rice agriculture to Japan ...................................................... 51 6.5. Japanese rice vocabulary ....................................................................................... 53 6.6. The route of the Austronesian elements of the Japanese language ...................... 54 6.7. Rice and millet agriculture in the Korean peninsula ............................................ 57 6.8. Conclusion .......................................................................................................... 60 7. Mythology .................................................................................................................. 61 7.1. Creation myth ..................................................................................................... 62 7.2. The three noble children ..................................................................................... 64 7.2.1. Susanowo, Amaterasu and their offspring .................................................... 64 7.2.2. The heavenly rock cave ................................................................................ 64 7.2.3. Food production .......................................................................................... 65 7.3. White rabbit of Inaba .......................................................................................... 66 7.4. Heavenly descent ................................................................................................. 68 7.4.1. Ninigi ........................................................................................................... 68 7.4.2. Ko no Hana Sakuya Hime............................................................................ 69 7.5. The magical fish hook ......................................................................................... 70 7.6. The eastern expedition by Emperor Jinmu .......................................................... 72 7.7. Conclusion .......................................................................................................... 73 8. Ethnology ................................................................................................................... 74 8.1. The Wa frontiers ................................................................................................. 74 8.1.1. The Kona chiefdom ..................................................................................... 75 8.1.2. The Kumaso people ..................................................................................... 76 8.1.3. The Hayato people ....................................................................................... 80 8.1.4. The immigration of the Kumaso and Hayato people ................................... 81 8.1.5. Language of the Kumaso and Hayato people ............................................... 82 8.2. Conclusion .......................................................................................................... 83 9. Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 85 Bibliography ...................................................................................................................... 87 Appendix A: Abstract (English) ....................................................................................... 99 Appendix B: Abstract (German) ...................................................................................... 99 iv List of figures Figure 1: Simplified chart of selected mtDNA haplogroup frequencies .................................... 16 Figure 2: Location of DNA samples (Adachi et al. 2014:409) .................................................. 17 Figure 3: Migration of the major Y-DNA haplogroups. Dotted and dashed lines display alternative routes of migration (from Wang and Li 2013:4) ...................................................................... 18 Figure 4: Simplified chart of selected Y-DNA haplogroup frequencies ..................................... 19 Figure 5: Na Gold Seal; mirrored image of the base (Inscription: 漢委奴國王) ........................ 31 Figure 6: Dian Seal; mirrored image of the base (Inscription: 滇王之印) ................................