Comparative historical research on Ryukyuan by using linguistic family trees
About this project
- Japan Grant Number
- JP17H06115
- Funding Program
- Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research
- Funding organization
- Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
- Project/Area Number
- 17H06115
- Research Category
- Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (S)
- Allocation Type
-
- Single-year Grants
- Review Section / Research Field
-
- Humanities and Social Sciences > Humanities > Linguistics > Japanese linguistics
- Research Institution
-
- University of the Ryukyus
- Project Period (FY)
- 2017-05-31 〜 2022-03-31
- Project Status
- Completed
- Budget Amount*help
- 176,280,000 Yen (Direct Cost: 135,600,000 Yen Indirect Cost: 40,680,000 Yen)
Research Abstract
The aim of the project has been to uncover the phylogenetic relationship between the Ryukyuan languages and Kyushu dialects by using methods applied in population genetics. The methods include transforming various linguistic information of these languages into numerical sequences, plotting the information as genetic network figures and ADMIXTURE and combining them with geolinguistic maps. The results show that of the three Southern Ryukyuan languages, Miyako, Yaeyama and Yonaguni, the former two constitute a subgroup against Yonaguni, against the general consensus that the latter two constitute a subgroup. Another finding is about grammatical and lexical differences (tense-aspect systems and vocabularies of rice cultivation) between Northern and the Southern Ryukyuan languages in a diachronic perspective. Such differences may support our hypothesis that there were two waves of massive migration from Kyushu to the area where Northern Ryukyuan was spoken.