Rendaku in Okinawan
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Leon A. Serafim
Abstract
This paper provides a thorough synchronic and diachronic account of rendaku in the Shuri dialect of Okinawan, which is the best documented variety in the Ryukyuan branch of the Japonic family. Rendaku in Shuri Okinawan is abundant, and its phonetic manifestation is very similar to that in Tokyo “standard” Japanese. Since many Shuri words exhibiting rendaku have no Japanese cognates, rendaku was not introduced into Okinawan by borrowings from Japanese but was a characteristic of proto-Japonic (the common ancestor of Ryukyuan and Japanese). One particularly interesting historical development in the Shuri dialect is that some elements in which sound change eliminated a medial voiced obstruent lost their immunity to rendaku because Lyman’s Law no longer applied.
Abstract
This paper provides a thorough synchronic and diachronic account of rendaku in the Shuri dialect of Okinawan, which is the best documented variety in the Ryukyuan branch of the Japonic family. Rendaku in Shuri Okinawan is abundant, and its phonetic manifestation is very similar to that in Tokyo “standard” Japanese. Since many Shuri words exhibiting rendaku have no Japanese cognates, rendaku was not introduced into Okinawan by borrowings from Japanese but was a characteristic of proto-Japonic (the common ancestor of Ryukyuan and Japanese). One particularly interesting historical development in the Shuri dialect is that some elements in which sound change eliminated a medial voiced obstruent lost their immunity to rendaku because Lyman’s Law no longer applied.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents vii
- List of contributors ix
- Introduction 1
- Generative treatments of rendaku and related issues 13
- Psycholinguistic studies of rendaku 35
- Rendaku and Identity Avoidance 47
- Rendaku awareness of Japanese learners in Taiwan 57
- The Rendaku Database 79
- Rosen’s Rule 107
- Rendaku and individual segments 119
- Rendaku in Okinawan 139
- Rendaku in Tōhoku Japanese 173
- Rendaku in cross-linguistic perspective 195
- A rendaku bibliography 235
- References 251
- Index 273
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents vii
- List of contributors ix
- Introduction 1
- Generative treatments of rendaku and related issues 13
- Psycholinguistic studies of rendaku 35
- Rendaku and Identity Avoidance 47
- Rendaku awareness of Japanese learners in Taiwan 57
- The Rendaku Database 79
- Rosen’s Rule 107
- Rendaku and individual segments 119
- Rendaku in Okinawan 139
- Rendaku in Tōhoku Japanese 173
- Rendaku in cross-linguistic perspective 195
- A rendaku bibliography 235
- References 251
- Index 273
