乐播传媒

Author: Richy Hayes
Nominator: Hannah Haynie
Course: LING 4420 Morphology and Syntax, Fall 2021
LURA 2022

Let鈥檚 suppose that one day we all wake up in the same alternate reality 鈥� a rather boring one where everything is the same, aside from an island not so far east of Washington. It鈥檚 been there the whole time in this reality, and to President Biden鈥檚 great surprise, it鈥檚 the 51st state. Regardless, we still have our 50-star flag, and the Dakotas firmly refuse to be merged as one large Dakota, so without consulting any vexillologists, President Biden, himself, puts the 51st star on the bottom left corner of the blue part in Microsoft Paint, and with his team, he heads over to this state. When they arrive in South Alaska (the name of the state he discovers from a 鈥淲elcome to South Alaska鈥� sign at the airport) he is greeted by the Governor, the two shake hands and the Governor says 鈥淭o鈥檚 neece yo noot sou Anster Biden.鈥澨�

If, after President Biden鈥檚 visit to South Alaska, some linguists headed over to try to understand South Alaskan, and following a bit of ostentation they discover that South Alaskan is nearly grammatically identical to English but the words vary greatly (President Biden鈥檚 greeting being translated as 鈥淚t鈥檚 nice to meet you Mister Biden鈥�), would South Alaskan and English be the same language?听

Let鈥檚 return from that miserable modal reality and consider the case of the well known language, Japanese, and the lesser known, Ryukyuan. While Japanese is spoken by 120 million people (Kaiser 2013), Ryukyuan is spoken primarily by elderly individuals, and the actual number of speakers is unknown (Shimoji 2010). Additionally, the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger recognizes six languages of the Ryukyu Islands (Yaeyama, Yonaguni, Amami, Kunigami, Uchinaa, and Miyako) all of which are endangered.听

Similar to how species can be endangered or go extinct, when a language鈥檚 speakers begin to dip in numbers, the language can become endangered or even go extinct. To further this analogy, similar to how different organisms can be related on a phylogenetic tree, languages can as well. Japanese and Ryukyuan are part of the Japonic family of languages, and they are 鈥渟ister languages,鈥� meaning that they both originated from the same 鈥渕other language,鈥� or origin. Although, some linguists posit that Ryukyuan might actually be a dialect, or a daughter language of Japanese. This is a tough distinction to make. Just how similar are they? Let鈥檚 look at an example:

Ryukyuan:

t扫gan=ba 听 听 jud-扫听 听 听 听 听 听 k-on

letter=ACC read-MED 听 come-NEG.NPST

鈥�(He) will not go to read the letter and come back鈥�

Japanese:

tegami=o 听 听 jonde 听 听 konai

Letter=ACC read-MED听 come-NEG.NPST

鈥�(He) will not read the letter and come back鈥�

You might've noticed the verb (read) comes after the object (letter). Japanese and Ryukyuan are Subject-Object-Verb (SOV) languages, while English is a Subject-Verb-Object (SVO) language. In this example we have a verbal predicate. If you recall back to your last grammar class, sentences typically consist of a subject and a predicate. Take the English example, 鈥淩ichy studies linguistics.鈥� 鈥淩ichy鈥� is the subject (this sentence is about him), 鈥渓inguistics鈥� is the object (the entity which is acted upon, or objectified), and 鈥渟tudies鈥� is the predicate, which is often a verb; the 鈥減redicate鈥� predicates (i.e., states, affirms, or asserts) something about the subject. Let鈥檚 look at another example:

Ryukyuan:

ar蓹蓹听 听 听听 听扫n听 听 ja-ta

that.TOP dog COP.PST

鈥楾hat was a dog鈥�

Japanese:

a删e (砂a)听 听in莎 da蕯ta

That.TOP dog COP.PST

鈥楾hat was a dog鈥�

In this example, we have a copular predicate (ja-ta/da蕯ta). I spoke above about sentences having a subject and predicate, but the predicate in these examples is essentially 鈥渨as.鈥� That doesn鈥檛 really predicate anything about 鈥渢hat,鈥� does it? Instead, 鈥渨as鈥� (or 鈥渋s鈥�) is a copula, which is a verb that serves to link the subject to the predicate complement 鈥� the part of the sentence that provides information about the subject (Kroger, p. 174). In the above examples, 鈥渄og鈥� is the predicate complement and ja-ta/da蕯ta are the copulas, respectively. Now let鈥檚 look at a grammatical feature that doesn鈥檛 appear in English:

Ryukyuan:

扫n=nu 听 听 听 听 wu-i

dog=NOM exist-NPST

鈥楾here is a dog鈥�

Japanese:

in莎=ga听 听 听 i删莎

dog=NOM exist-NPST

鈥楾here is a dog鈥�

In our final example, we have a unique feature in Japanese and Ryukyuan which doesn鈥檛 appear in English 鈥� the existential phrase (and no, not a phrase you shout in your early-fifties when you鈥檙e discontent with your perceived unfulfilled potential). In English, if I wanted to point out the presence of a dog near me, I would say 鈥渢here is a dog,鈥� not just 鈥渋s a dog.鈥� English requires a dummy subject (i.e., there & it). Japanese and Ryukyuan are pronoun-dropping (pro-drop) languages (Kroger, p. 80), so saying 鈥渋s a dog鈥� is not only acceptable, but grammatically preferred.听

Additionally, Ryukyuan and Japanese have an animacy hierarchy; that is, different existential verbs for animate and inanimate objects. Contrast the previous existential sentences above to these existential sentences with inanimate subjects:

Ryukyuan:

k扫扫=nu听 听 听 听 a-i

tree=NOM exist-NPST听

鈥楾here is a tree.鈥�

闯补辫补苍别蝉别:听

ki=ga 听 听 听 听 听 a删莎

tree=NOM 听 exist.NPST

鈥楾here is a tree.鈥�

From all the above examples, you might鈥檝e caught on to the stunning similarities between Japanese and Ryukyuan. Let鈥檚 quickly revisit my made-up language, South Alaskan. Is it the same language as English? According to Carol Genetti in 鈥淗ow Languages Work,鈥� the benchmark for making this distinction is: mutual intelligibility (p. 12). President Biden was at a loss by the greeting, regardless of the identical grammar structure, so no, they are not the same language. Now are Japanese and Ryukyuan mutually intelligible? In most instances that go beyond very basic expressions, no; their sound systems differ too greatly. Furthermore, there are specific grammatical trends and diachronic innovations observed amongst the various Ryukyuan dialects that cannot be found in Japanese and its dialects (Heinrich 2015). It follows that Japanese and Ryukyuan are not the same language, but more likely sister languages, dominated by (originating from) a similar mother language, where they inherited their morphosyntactic similarities, rather than Ryukyuan having come from Japanese.

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Header image credits:听 &

Genetti, Carol (ed.). 2019. How Languages Work: An Introduction to Language and Linguistics. Cambridge University Press.

Heinrich, Patrick, Shinsho Miyara, & Michinori Shimoji. 2015. Handbook of the Ryukyuan Languages: History, Structure, and Use. The Asia-Pacific Journal 7(9). 1-20.

Kaiser, Stefan, Yasuko Ichikawa, Noriko Kobayashi & Hirofumi Yamamoto. 2013. Japanese: A Comprehensive Grammar. London: Routledge.

Kroeger, Paul. 2005. Analyzing Grammar: An Introduction. Cambridge University Press.

Shimoji, Michinori & Thomas Pellard (eds.). 2010. An Introduction to Ryukyuan Languages. Tokyo University: ILCAA.