ProtoLanguage-JapaneseFormants.htm

JAPANESE FORMANTS

by Patrick C. Ryan



(11/11/2000)

What is supremely interesting about Japanese is that, in stress-accented syllables, it retains the earliest Proto-Language vowels, which have been lost in most major branches of the language. In stress-unaccented positions, PL vowels appear as -a- or -0- in Japanese.

Therefore, we can easily see the effects of three most important (because commonest) "verbal" formants inherited from the Proto-Language:



1. (F[H]A/)FA, imperfective;



2. (HHA/)żA, perfective;



3. T[H]O/(T[?]O), iterative;



and żE, which forms adjectives from nouns.

1. The Japanese imperfect verbal form ending is -u after consonantal stems, and -ru after vowel stems;

a. This form is called by some grammars the "present tense" (Shibatani 1996: "conclusive/attributive") because it indicates that an action has not been successfully completed; this is the classic definition of the imperfective.







b. The alternate form, -ru, is the result of a shortening of áru, "be at, exist", in its imperfective form.







c. Japanese -u is the residue of a reduction of -*wa, which represents PL F/F[H]A.







d. Exx.: Ano ko wa yoku hon o yomu, "that child reads well"; sonna hon wa yomu na, "do not read such (a) book(s)!"

2. The Japanese hypothetical/imperative (Shibatani 1996) verbal form ending is -e;

a. While it may be disputable whether the "hypothetical" implies perfective completion of the activity, the imperative certainly envisions it;







b. Japanese -e is the residue of a reduction of -*"CVya, which represents PL ż/HHA.







c. Exx.: Motto hon o yome ba ii noni, "if you/he/she, etc.(judged from the context) read(s) many more books, it would be better for you"; motto hon o yome, "read more!".

3. The Japanese perfect verbal form ending is -ta (not *-i-ta as some would have it);

a. In verbs like káku, "write", we should reconstruct an habitual root *kák(a) paired with a perfective root *kái; the perfect káita thus represents a large definite number of successfully completed "cuts", referring to the method of writing before paper and brushes; this is analogous to the "weak" verbs in Egyptian which add -t to an already perfective verb form in -i to form an infinitive;







b. This form is called by some grammars the "past tense" because it indicates that an action has ceased;







c. If we remember that the iterative designates a definite if large number of repetitions, we will easily understand how it could function as a Japanese "past" tense; it does not, however, imply a completion of the verbal activity --- only a cessation after significant activity;







d. Exx. Hon o yonda, "(I) have read the book".

4. The Japanese adverbial (Shibatani 1996) verbal form ending is -i;

a. This form is called by some grammars the infinitive because it indicates an action that accompanies the main verbal idea; here an originally adjectival ending is functioning adverbially;







b. Japanese -i is the residue of a reduction of -*V"ya, , which represents PL żE.







c. Exx. Hon o tóri ni ikimáshita, "(I) went to pick up the book".







d. this ending, -i, characterizes Japanese "adjective verbs".

5. The Japanese irrealis verbal form ending is -a, according to Shibatani (and others);

a. This form is so-called by some grammars because of its use in negative forms: e.g. Ano ko wa hon o yoma nai, "that child does not read books."







b. In the absence of a marker for non-singular, I interpret this as a "singular" verbal form, i.e. the sentence above is properly: "that child does not even once read books."







c. Japanese -a is the residue of the original stress-unaccented vowel of the root (*e-*a-*o); it is not an inflection but rather it is the absence of an inflection;









1) What strongly suggests that this is true is that verb stems that end in a vowel, such as mi- from míru, "look at", and tabe(:)- from tabéru, "eat", do not add -a to the root for this form.







2) Japanese vowel stems, e.g. mi- and tabe(:)- ("eat"), are the result of a reduction from *mVy- and *tabVy-; Japanese inherited only *e-*a-*o from the Proto-Language.











a) -i and -e are the result of different stress-accents: -CV"y -> -Ci; "CVy -> -Ce(:).

6. The Japanese cohortative/imperative verbal form ending is -oo (o:) for consonant stems, -yo for vowel stems;

a. these both derive from PL ?O, "mouth, say", as a marker of the alethic modality, which is the basis for the IE subjunctive, which Lehmann has shown is to be reconstructed as -e/o- (Lehmann 1974:105);











1) cf. Japanese oóu, "reply";







2) Japanese imperative forms in -yoo after vowel stems in -i should be analyzed as y-glide + oo;













b. the cohortative is a little stronger than a translation of "let's read many books!" for hon o takusan yomoo! suggests. The connection of this form with the imperative clearly indicates a meaning of "(I/we, etc. say we) read many books!".







c. for sake of completeness, we have added this discussion of -oo even though it is a modal rather than an aspectual inflection.

Postscript

1. The Japanese gerund in -te is a combination of the perfect in -ta + -i, the adverbial ending (-> -te);

a. In the words of one grammar, the gerund "focuses our interest on the fact that the action lasts for a while";







b. Exx. hon o yónde kara, uchi e kaerimáshita, "After reading the book, I returned home".

SUMMARY

In this short essay, we have shown that there are considerable reasons for linking PL aspectual formants with Japanese verbal bases.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Lehmann, Winfred P. 1974. Proto-Indo-European Syntax. Austin, Texas and London: University of Texas Press

Shibatani, Masayoshi. 1996. The Languages of Japan. Cambridge Language Surveys. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

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Patrick C. Ryan * 9115 West 34th Street - Little Rock, AR 72204-4441 * (501)227-9947

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