• Search Research Projects
  • Search Researchers
  • How to Use
  1. Back to project page

2021 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Reconstruction of the proto language of Japanese and Ryukyuan and phylogenetic trees based on comparative linguistic methods

Research Project

  • PDF
Project/Area Number 17H02332
Research Category

Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)

Allocation TypeSingle-year Grants
Section一般
Research Field Linguistics
Research InstitutionNational Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics (2019-2021)
Hitotsubashi University (2017-2018)

Principal Investigator

Igarashi Yosuke  大学共同利用機関法人人間文化研究機構国立国語研究所, 研究系, 教授 (00549008)

Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) 田窪 行則  大学共同利用機関法人人間文化研究機構国立国語研究所, 大学共同利用機関等の部局等, 所長 (10154957)
木部 暢子  大学共同利用機関法人人間文化研究機構国立国語研究所, 言語変異研究領域, 教授 (30192016)
佐々木 冠  立命館大学, 言語教育情報研究科, 教授 (80312784)
松浦 年男  北星学園大学, 文学部, 教授 (80526690)
平子 達也  南山大学, 人文学部, 准教授 (30758149)
Project Period (FY) 2017-04-01 – 2021-03-31
Keywords歴史言語学 / 比較言語学 / 少数言語 / 琉球語 / 系統論 / 系統樹 / 方言 / 日本語
Outline of Final Research Achievements

Extensive data collection through fieldwork was conducted and made publicly available. Published materials include "JR-COGNATE," a list of cognates thought to date back to proto-Japonic, materials on accents of various dialects, and dialect dictionaries. Two symposiums on the reconstruction of proto-Japonic were held. These were groundbreaking symposiums in which the history of the various Japonic languages was discussed from multiple perspectives, including comparative linguistics, statistics, and anthropology. The results of the first symposium were published as a book. By analyzing the dialectal data collected by the project using a cladistic analysis method, we proposed a phylogenetic tree of the Japonic languages. This phylogenetic tree defines two monophyletic groups, the "Extended East Japanese branch" and the "South Japanese branch".

Free Research Field

言語学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究は、既存データと方言調査から得られたデータを、方言学、文献学、日本語史の正確な知識に基づいて構造化したデータベースを用い、日琉語族の系統研究を行う最初のものであり、日本語・琉球語比較言語学に対し画期的な発展を促すものである。研究の結果に基づいて提案された系統樹は「本土対琉球」という言語学の通説を覆し得るものであり、言語学のみならず日本列島の歴史を扱う種々の研究分野に対して大きな波及効果をもたらす可能性がある。

URL: 

Published: 2023-01-30  

Information User Guide FAQ News Terms of Use Attribution of KAKENHI

Powered by NII kakenhi