Bjarke FRELLESVIG and John WHITMAN (2008). Proto-Japanese: Issues and Prospects. Amsterdam; Philadelphia: John Benjamins. 229 p.

Abstract

P  Cahiers de linguistique -Asie orientale ( ): ( ) B Fv  J Wm ( ). Proto-Japanese: Issues and Prospects. Amm; P: J Bm. .  vm  vw        P-J (PJ) y      . P-J      mm    J     Ryy ō     w  mmy    P-J   w (S m ō My ō P ō Vv ).    -v v      Workshop on Proto-Japanese    XVI International Conference on Historical Linguistics (Cō ).  vm v   ---     PJ  w  w    v y  : m yō  vō ō  m-yx.  vm  w   mmz     O J (OJ)  PJ.     z    v     -.   ō R   m vy ō  w -     m y.   ō y B. Fv  J. Wmō     v vw ŋ   PJ vw ym     OJ -o  w  -wi (< ŋ )  -e (< ŋ ). I  ō J. U     v    PJ ŋ . H     w     m mx PJ  ym (Rmy & U ).  m       v  w   y  m  OJ. W    PJ   y m xvy    v     OJō  y v  m  m   v m    J    Ryy .       w     ō U     . T. O xm  m   v   J        . H   x   m v w E  W   m J       m     m w E  W J.  x  y L.A. S m    m  Ryy   y   y  J.  - v  v      w J  Ryy  w  Ryy     m vw  PJ. O   ō S m    Ryy v m   y m    J.    w  mmy     y-      kakari musubi y . I  vm  vwō  otsurui y    Cwiō Ce  Coō w  k rui   ...

2 Ryukyuan and the reconstruction of proto-Japanese-Ryukyuan

“…Polysyllabic verb stems ending in *ui (or *oi) have been analogically reshaped in the Southern Ryukyuan languages, and the distinction between the different origins of oj Cwi is thus faithfully preserved in nouns only. Thorpe (1983: 355) proposes that the bound stem of 'moon' reconstructs as pJR tuko-rather than tuku-, which would entail the reconstruction of the free form as *tukoi, but the basis for his reconstruction is not clear (Pellard 2013b). In any case, that reconstruction is compatible with the system proposed here, as explained in §3.3.…”

“…The most important contribution of Ryukyuan to the reconstruction of pJR is perhaps the reconstruction of two mid vowels *e and *o and a six-vowel system instead of the previous standard four-vowel system. This hypothesis was first proposed by Hattori (1976;2018[1979) and subsequently further developed by Thorpe (1983), Serafim (2008), and Pellard (2008;2013b).…”

“…6 See also Arisaka (1934), Hattori (19322018), Serafim (2008), andPellard (2013b). Polysyllabic verb stems ending in *ui (or *oi) have been analogically reshaped in the Southern Ryukyuan languages, and the distinction between the different origins of oj Cwi is thus faithfully preserved in nouns only.…”

“…Cwi ~Co-minimal pair with abundant Ryukyuan cognates. 7 If we ignore for the sake of the discussion Frellesvig & Whitman's (2008) (Vovin 2011;Pellard 2013b). 8 This is the case of verb stems like oj 'exhaust' tukwi-tukusor 'pass' sugwi-~sugus-, which correspond to pR *tukos-and *sugos-.…”

“…the different sources of oj Cwi. On the other hand, reconstructing a seventh pJR vowel *ɨ, as proposed by Frellesvig & Whitman (2008), finds no support in Ryukyuan, and the seventh vowel *ü posited by Hattori (2018Hattori ( [1979) to account for some Japanese-Ryukyuan correspondences proves to be unnecessary too (Pellard 2013b).…”