LINGUIST List 6.1005

Tue Jul 25 1995

Sum: Japanese historical linguistics

Editor for this issue: Ann Dizdar <dizdartam2000.tamu.edu>

Directory

1. , Summary: Japanese historical linguistics

Dear World,

A while ago I asked for help in compiling a list of books and articles
on Japanese historical linguistics, written/published in English or German.
I thank

 Chris Brockett <chrisbrohalcyon.com>
 Gerald B Mathias <mathiasuhunix.uhcc.hawaii.edu>
 Nicholas Ostler <nostlerchibcha.demon.co.uk>
 Timothy J. Vance <tjvanconncoll.edu>
 Alexander Vovin <AVVOVINMIAMIU.ACS.MUOHIO.EDU>

for the references they sent me, and I apologise to everyone
for releasing the summary later than I had promised. Here it is:

 * * *

Ikeda, T.
 _Classical Japanese Grammar Illustrated with Texts_.
 Soka Gakkai, 1975.

Lange, Roland.
 _The Phonology of Eighth-Century Japanese_.
 Monumenta Nipponica Monographs. Tokyo: Sophia University, 1973.

Lewin, Bruno.
 [a grammar of Classical Japanese in German --AV]

Martin, Samuel E.
 _The Japanese Language Through Time_.
 New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1987.
 [Humongous. Compendious. Essential for anyone starting out. --CB]
 [This book is an unparalleled achievement in Proto-Japanese
 reconstruction, and all current work in the field is mainly
 based on Martin's reconstruction. --AV]
 [Has its own very thorough bibliography. --GM]

Miller, Roy Andrew.
 _The Japanese Language_.
 Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1967.

Miller, Roy Andrew.
 _Japanese and the Other Altaic Languages_.
 Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1971.

Sansom, George Bailey.
 _An Historical Grammar of Japanese_.
 Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1928.
 [Seriously outdated, but still useful. --AV]

Serafim, Leon A.
 _Shodon: The Prehistory of a Northern Ryukyuan Dialect of Japanese_.
 Yale University dissertation, 1984.

Shibatani, Masayoshi.
 _The Languages of Japan_.
 Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990.

Unger, J. Marshall.
 `Studies in Early Japanese Morphophonemics'.
 In: _Indiana University Linguistics Club_, Bloomington, 1977.
 [Reprint of Yale University dissertation;
 recently available in a revised edition? --CB]

Vance, Timothy J.
 `On the origin of voicing alternation in Japanese consonants'.
 _Journal of the American Oriental Society_ 102 (1982): 333-341.

Wen(c)k, Gunther.
 _Japanische Phonologie_.
 [Old but very valuable. --CB]

Whitman, John B.
 _The Phonological Basis for the Comparison of Japanese and Korean_.
 PhD, Harvard University, 1985.
 [This is supposed to appear from the U of Michigan
 press in the not too distant future. --CB]

Whitman, John B.
 `A Rule of Medial -r- Loss in Pre-Old Japanese'.
 In: Philip Baldi (ed.), _Linguistic Change and Reconstruction
 Methodology_, Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 1990, 511-545.
 [This is *the* paper that shows how to do historical comparison
 between Japanese and other languages. Whitman's evidence that -r-
 loss correlates with pitch accent in Middle Korean is the Japanese
 linguist's answer to Verner's Law, demonstrating beyond all doubt
 the historical relationship between Japanese and Korean. --CB]

-
`Man, is that no terrible? [...] Ah wunner whit we should dae wi ye?'
Ivan A Derzhanski (iadcogsci.ed.ac.uk) (J Stuart, _Auld Testament Tales_)
* Centre for Cognitive Science, 2 Buccleuch Place, Edinburgh EH8 9LW, UK
* Cowan House E113, Pollock Halls, 18 Holyrood Pk Rd, Edinburgh EH16 5BD, UK