Verb Conjugation in the Miyako Language : Perfective, Negative, Past, and Continuative Forms

University of the RyukyusFirst Published: August 1, 2012 (in Japanese

Research Report on Miyako Ryukyuan : General Study for Research and Conservation of Endangered Dialects in Japan

National Institute for Japanese Language and LinguisticsFrench National Centre for Scientific ResearchKyoto UniversityHiroshima UniversityUniversity of the RyukyusHokusei Gakuen UniversityHitotsubashi UniversityHitotsubashi UniversityHitotsubashi UniversityFirst Published: August 1, 2012 (in Japanese

Challenges and Methodologies in Ryukyuan Language Phylogenetic Tree Studies

琉球語は、日本語と同系の言語であり、日本語の歴史の研究に重要な位置を占めることが知られるが、これまでの研究は、奈良期中央語と琉球語の一部の下位方言の比較研究が主であり、琉球語研究の成果が日本語の歴史研究に十分に活かされていなかった。琉球語の下位方言間の変異は、日本語諸方言のそれを超えるほど大きい。その多様性がどのように生成されてきたのかを明らかにすることが求められていた。琉球語、九州方言、八丈方言が日琉祖語からどのように分岐して現在に至ったか、琉球語内部でどのような分岐があったかを明らかにするため、言語地理学の研究成果に照らして検証しながら、音素別、意味分野別、文法項目別等、目的に応じて選定した複数の単語を組み合わせて系統樹を作成する。それぞれの系統特性を解明しながら重層的な変化過程を可視化させるための可能性と課題を提示する。Ryukyuan is in a sister relationship with Japanese, and is thus expected to play an important role in the historical study of Japanese. However, previous works focused mainly on comparisons between the Central dialect of the Nara period and a limited number of Ryukyuan languages, and no major attempt has been made to examine the surprising internal diversity of Ryukyuan and to uncover how it emerged. We aim to reveal how Ryukyuan, Kyūshū and Hachijō diverged from Proto-Japonic and how Ryukyuan diverged into various local varieties by constructing three different types of family trees: We have developed a method for quantifying linguistic features whereby a family tree can be generated even from a single lexeme. The method has been verified by comparing it with the findings of linguistic geography. Our method is applicable to different dimensions depending on whether our concern is phonology, semantics or grammar. The current approach thus enables us to visualize multidimensional processes of language change by taking into consideration the three major dimensions of language structure