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Paper short abstract

By examining vowel correspondences across the Japonic languages, this paper argues that /oː/ existed in the earlier Naha vowel system and was raised and merged with /uː/ before the monophthongization: ai, ae > eː and au, ao > oː. Conversely, the evidence suggests that the vowel /eː/ was not raised.

Paper long abstract

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether vowel raising occurred in the mid-long vowels (/eː/ and /oː/) of the Naha dialect of Okinawan, one of the Ryukyuan languages spoken throughout the Ryukyu archipelago in Japan.

It is widely accepted that Ryukyuan underwent a sound change known as Vowel Raising, in which the mid-vowels /e/ and /o/ were raised. In Okinawan specifically, these vowels were raised and merged with /i/ and /u/, respectively. Consequently, a five-vowel system (i, u, e, o, a) shifted to a three-vowel system (i, u, a). However, research on Vowel Raising has typically focused on short vowels, while long vowels have rarely been discussed.

Modern Naha possesses five long vowels (iː, uː, eː, oː, aː). It is generally believed that the mid-long vowels developed later through the monophthongization of two short vowels (ai, ae > eː and au, ao > oː). By conducting a thorough investigation into vowel correspondences across the Japonic languages, this paper argues that /oː/ existed in the earlier Naha vowel system and was raised and merged with /uː/ prior to the monophthongization. Conversely, the evidence suggests that the vowel /eː/ was not raised.

Regarding the vowel /eː/, another question remains. In modern Naha, there are some cases where /eː/ does not regularly correspond to ai or ae in Japonic cognates. A well-known example is the /eː/ in ʔaːkeːdʒuː (‘dragonfly’). While researchers have noted this irregularity, its cause remains unknown. This paper examines the history of /eː/ in this word, alongside two similar cases–naːbeːraː (‘sponge gourd’) and haːbeːruː (‘moth’)–to account for this phenomenon. Our analysis concludes that this /eː/ can be reconstructed as Proto-Ryukyuan *e. Specifically, the /eː/ was originally a short /e/ in earlier Naha that subsequently lengthened. This lengthening must have occurred before the period of Vowel Raising; otherwise, the vowel would have been raised to /i/.