1887
Volume 20, Issue 1
  • ISSN 0176-4225
  • E-ISSN: 1569-9714
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Abstract

Many Japanese historical linguists reconstruct a four-vowel system without *e and *o for Proto-Japonic (PJ), the ancestor of the Japanese and Ryukyuan languages. However, a few (Unger 1993 [1977], Hattori 1978–79, Thorpe 1983, Serafim 1999a, 1999b) have reconstructed PJ *e and *o. Until now, arguments for PJ *e and *o have been based on (a) Japonic internal and comparative reconstructions and (b) Japonic languages attested from the eighth century onward. In this paper I test the PJ *e and *o hypothesis using two other types of evidence: pre-eighth century transcriptions and Sino-Japanese readings borrowed prior to the eighth century.

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/content/journals/10.1075/dia.20.1.06miy
2003-01-01
2024-12-06
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  • Article Type: Research Article
Keyword(s): Chinese; historical phonology; Japonic; Old Japanese; Ryukyuan; transcription; vowel raising; vowels
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