The Language of the Old-Okinawan Omoro Sōshi

Leon A Serafim, Ph.D. (1984), Yale, was Associate Professor of Japanese at the University of Hawai‘i. He has published articles on Japonic (Ryukyuan and Japanese) (pre)history, and helped edit the Okinawan-English Wordbook and J/K 19. His current interests are, especially, grammaticalization and historical syntax. Rumiko Shinzato, Ph.D. (1984), University of Hawai‘i, is Professor at Georgia Institute of Technology. She has published chapters/articles on aspect, evidentiality, subjectivity, grammaticalization and language maintenance. She and Leon A Serafim co-authored a book on Okinawan kakari musubi (Brill 2013).

Preface

List of Figures and Tables

Abbreviations and Conventions



1 Introduction

 1 What is the Omoro Sōshi?

 2 Types of omoro

 3 Versions

 4 Song Structure

 5 Overview of the Omoro Language



2 Spelling System and Phonology

 1 Introduction

 2 Reconstruction Methodology

 3 Suprasegmentals

 4 Consonants

 5 Processes

 6 Meter in Omoros

 7 The Question of External Evidence and Its Relation to That Presented Here

 8 Coda



3 Lexicon

 1 PJ Origin

 2 Loans from MJ

 3 Loans from Sino-Japanese

 4 Loans from Korean

 5 Origins Unknown

 6 Mishōgo (MO, Meanings Obscure)



4 Nominals

 1 Nouns

 2 Pronouns

 3 Numerals

 4 Nominal Prefixes

 5 Nominal Suffixes



5 Adjectives

 1 What is an Adjective?

 2 Evolution of Adjectives

 3 Functional Differences between/among Types

 4 Functions as Modifiers, Predicates, or Noun Formatives



6 Verbs

 1 Conjugation Types

 2 History of Conjugational Merger: ra-gyō yodan-ka

 3 Functional Split (mz)

 4 Development of the Gerund



7 Auxiliaries

 1 Passive/Exalting/Spontaneous -ari(·r)- ~ -uyi(·r)-

 2 Causative/Exalting -as-

 3 Negative -azɨ ~ -aɴ ~ -an-

 4 Negative -adana

 5 The Optative/Counterfactual Auxiliary -(a)masyi

 6 Inference/Intention: -aɴ, -a, and -ami

 7 Negative Inferential/Intentional -umazyi

 8 Past -syi

 9 Perfect -t˚ar-, -c˚yar-, -dar-, -ʣyar-

 10 Emphatic Locative: -ʔac˚ɨr-u

 11 Progressive: -ur-

 12 Progressive/Perfective -yaaryi

 13 Copula: -yar-, -nar-

 14 The Exalting Auxiliary Verb -(u)wa·r/s-

 15 Humilific Auxiliary -abir-

 16 Humilific Auxiliary tʰat°imac°ɨr-



References

Index