本論は,筆者が手掛けてきたオーストロネシア語比較言語学のわくを,日本
語の系統論にまで拡大しようとするものである。日本語の系統は,現在も,南
イソドあたりまでルーツを求めにゆくなど,けっして安定した研究期にはいっ
たとは言えない側面がある。筆者は,このような異常な状況を生み出してきた
のは,縄文時代以降,日本語が形成されるにさいして経過した長い歴史,また
それと関連するが,日本列島に居住していた異なる民族間で発生した言語混合
による結果であるととらえ,すでに幾本かの論文を発表してきた。さいわい,
昨秋,日本言語学会におけるシソポジウムで,これまでの論拠を集大成する機
会が与えられたのを機に,会の限られた時間内で十分報告できなかったこと,
またそのときのコメントにも答える形で,本論を仕上げている。
It is becoming evident that "mixed languages," such as Medniy
Aleut (Russia) , Maisin (Papua New Guinea) , or Michif (Canada) , do
exist. Japanese may have arisen as such a mixed language, combining
Tungusic and Austronesian elements.
It is believed that Ancient Japanese (AJ) introduced a pitch accent
and long vowels as compensation for the loss of an Austronesian
syllable. Some evidence comes from roots where Austronesian has two
syllables, of which Group 1 in AJ preserves the penult (ex. PMP *tangan
'hand' > AJ *taa > *ta -i (determinative) > Kyoto dialect tee) and
Group 2 the final (ex. PMP *apuy 'fire' > AJ *poi > Kyoto d. hii) .
Accent is irrelevant in words in Group 3, which are estimated to have an
even tone in PAN (ex. PWMP *esung 'mortar' > AJ usu > Kyoto d.
usu).
Next I refer to the AJ pronoun system reconstructed from Old
(Nara period) Japanese (OJ) data, on the left:
Singular Plural Singular Plural
I *a, (*na) | we *mai < *a, (*ya) *mey
you *na, (*i) | you —< (* (k) u) (* (k) wa)
he/she/it *i, *i-e | they *si, *se < *i, *e, *na *si, *se
The right hand column indicates Proto-Central-Eastern Malayo-
Polynesian forms reconstructed by A. Capell (1969, 1976) and revised
by myself.
There is also important syntactic evidence. In most CEMP languages,
pronominal affixes usually occur in a verb complex in what I call
a rigid "affix order," i.e., the verb itself may take prefixes and suffixes
that are grammatically fixed. In OJ also we find traces of similar
affixation:
Kena-no waku-go i pue-puki-noboru. (Nihon-Shoki, vol. 17)
"A
young prince of Kena, HE (= i, III sg.) is going up (a river)
blowing a flute."
Tosi-no-pa ni, ayu si pasira-ba, (Man'yo-Shu, vol. 19)
"Every year when ayu fishes, THEY (=si, III pl.) run,"
I cannot agree with the view that *-i can be explained more successfully
through 'Altaic.' OJ as well as Austronesian i have a locative
function, which the Altaic suffix never does.
オーストロネシア語族と日本語の系統関係
KH_025_4_001.pdf
(1.15MB)
