Reconstruction:Proto-Japonic/-u

This Proto-Japonic entry contains reconstructed terms and roots. As such, the term(s) in this entry are not directly attested, but are hypothesized to have existed based on comparative evidence.

Vovin (2014) reconstructs the shūshikei suffix with a nasal coda as a means of reconciling the Japanese shūshikei suffix with the Ryukyuan shūshikei suffix ゅん (-un). He also reconstructs the nasal coda to resolve a violation of Arisaka's Law in the Old Japanese exclamative suffix -umo₂, by dividing it into -um and -o₂.^[1] This conclusion is rejected by Pellard, countering that Classical Okinawan did formerly have a similar shūshikei formation to Japanese. Pellard instead subscribes to the mainstream hypothesis that the Ryukyuan shūshikei forms would rather derive from an auxiliary cognate to 居る (oru, “to exist”), which Thorpe (1983) reconstructs as *womu.^[2],^[3] but Vovin has noted that defenders of that theory have not come up with a conclusive explanation for the final nasal of that suffix anyway.

*-u

1. Forms the terminal (shūshikei) forms of verbs.

• Old Japanese: (-u, terminal verbal suffix)
  • Japanese: (u, forms the terminal form of all Japanese verbs)
• Proto-Ryukyuan:
  • Okinawan: (-u, archaic terminal form suffix)