Full Description
Japanese is definitely one of the best-known languages in typological literature. For example, typologists often assume that Japanese is a nominative-accusative language. However, it is often overlooked that Japanese, or more precisely, Tokyo Japanese, is just one of various local varieties of the Japonic language family (Japanese and Ryukyuan). In fact, the Japonic languages exhibit a surprising typological diversity. For example, some varieties display a split-intransitive as opposed to nominative-accusative system. The present volume is thus a unique attempt to explore the typological diversity of Japonic by providing a collection of grammatical sketches of various local varieties, four from Japanese dialects and five from Ryukyuan. Each grammatical sketch follows the same descriptive format, addressing a wide range of typological topics.
Contents
Contents
Preface
List of Figures and Tables
Abbreviations
1 The Japonic Languages: an Introduction
Michinori Shimoji
2 Tokunoshima (Kagoshima, Northern Ryukyuan)
Kanji Kato
3 Iheya (Okinawa, Northern Ryukyuan)
Salvatore Carlino
4 Kin (Okinawa, Northern Ryukyuan)
Koji Tamamoto
5 Aragusuku (Okinawa, Southern Ryukyuan)
Wang Danning
6 Shiraho (Okinawa, Southern Ryukyuan)
Yuko Urabe
7 Nambu (Aomori, Eastern Japanese)
Natsuko Nakagawa
8 Izumo (Shimane, Western Japanese)
Tatsuya Hirako
9 Yanagawa (Fukuoka, Kyūshū Japanese)
Aoi Matsuoka
10 Shiiba (Miyazaki, Kyūshū Japanese)
Michinori Shimoji and Naoyuki Hirosawa
Index
