Reconstruction:Proto-Ryukyuan/ga

This Proto-Ryukyuan entry contains reconstructed terms and roots. As such, the term(s) in this entry are not directly attested, but are hypothesized to have existed based on comparative evidence.

Proto-Ryukyuan

Etymology

From Proto-Japonic *-nka (“genitive marker (in pronouns)”).

Particle

*ga

  1. nominative and genitive case marker

Usage notes

Ryukyuan languages use a hierarchy to determine which of its nominative and genitive markers, *ga and *no, to use. This hierarchy has two layers, consisting of higher and lower layers.[1]

  • The higher nominative and genitive marker is *ga, used primarily by pronouns referring to humans.
  • The lower nominative and genitive marker is *no, used by any nominals that do not use *ga.

This hierarchy is subject to much variation in the daughter languages. In the Yamatohama dialect of Northern Amami-Ōshima, genitive *ga is only used with demonstrative pronouns, while personal pronouns, names of humans, and kinship terms do not take any genitive marker. Meanwhile, in the Ishigaki-Shika and Hatoma dialect of Yaeyama, this term only attaches between the first person pronoun and an uninflectable noun, and this reflex is missing from the Taketomi dialect altogether.

Descendants

  • Northern Ryukyuan:
    • Kikai: が (ga)
    • Kunigami: が (ga)
    • Northern Amami Ōshima: が (ga)
    • Okinawan: が (ga)
    • Okinoerabu: が (ga)
    • Southern Amami Ōshima: が (ga)
    • Tokunoshima: が (ga)
    • Yoron: が (ga)
  • Southern Ryukyuan

See also

References

  1. ^ Pellard, Thomas (2018) “Ryukyuan and the reconstruction of proto-Japanese-Ryukyuan”, in Handbook of Japanese historical linguistics, De Gruyter Mouton.
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