Verb Classification Based on Inflectional Patterns in the Hisamatsu Dialect of Miyako Ryukyuan: A Focus on Irregular Verbs

<p>The Miyakoan dialects, spoken in the Miyako Islands of Okinawa Prefecture, Japan, have two types of regular verbs; however, the identification of irregular verbs varies among dialects depending on their respective grammatical descriptions. Previous studies have not investigated the potential unique characteristics that may be exclusively associated with irregular verbs, but are not present in regular verbs. Moreover, the use of multiple stems as a criterion for identifying irregular verbs varies across studies. Additionally, applying the conventional definitions of the stem, the (a)thematic stem, and the (a)thematic form, as well as the traditional analysis of the structure of inflected verb forms, to the identification of irregular verbs in the Hisamatsu dialect leads to several problematic issues.</p><p>This paper proposes a redefinition of the stem, the (a)thematic stem, and the (a)thematic form, based on primary data from the Hisamatsu dialect, and analyzes the structure of inflected verb forms as follows:</p><p>[[athemetic stem(-thematic vowel)](+morphophonological rule)]-inflectional affix</p><p>The combination of an athematic stem and a thematic vowel is referred to as an “underlying (a)thematic form.” Then the application of morphophonological rules to the “underlying (a)thematic form” produces a “surface (a)thematic form.” Finally, adding an inflectional affix to the “surface (a)thematic form” yields an “inflected verb form.”</p><p>Based on the above structure, regular verbs are defined as those that fulfill all four established conditions, while verbs that have exceptions for at least one of the conditions are classified as irregular verbs.</p>