Language scratchpad/Altlangs/Alternate reconstructions/Proto-Japonic scratchpad

This subarticle lists some of my notes on Proto-Japonic. See also my Proto-Ryukyuan scratchpad.

Disclaimer: The entirety of this article's contents is to be considered science fiction. They are not, in any way, verified and accepted reconstructions of real-life proto-languages, even if they are largely based on accepted reconstructions.

Phonology

Consonants

I reconstruct the following consonant inventory for Proto-Japonic:

	Labial	Coronal	Dorsal
Nasal	*m	*n
Stop	*p	*t	*k
Fricative		*s
Liquid		*r
Glide	*w		*j

The pronunciations of these consonants generally follow the IPA. However:

• */r/ varied between *[l], *[ɾ] and *[r].
• The exact pronunciation of */s/ is a matter of debate among Japanese linguists, due to the order of the gojūon placing /s/ before /t/ (the original order in Sanskrit placed /s/ with the other fricatives at the end). While it is fairly simplistic to reconstruct *[t͡s], this conflicts with the fact that almost all Japonic languages feature [t͡s] as a reflex of */t/ before */u/.
• I don't confidently postulate any full palatalisation, even of */s/, before */i/. While the sequence /si/ does have a strong tendency to palatalise, the daughter languages do not agree on which environment causes palatalisation. While Japanese and Okinawan palatalise their reflexes of */s/ before */i/, Miyako only does so before its reflex of */e/. However, depalatalisation before non-front vowels is possible, and since Proto-Japonic */i/ became Miyako /ɨ/, it is possible that a former *[ɕi] depalatalised to [s] (also note the elision of /ɨ/).
• Tentatively, I have the following allophones for */s/ and */t/:
  • */t/ is [t] before all vowels except */u/, in which case it is [t͡s], and */i/, in which case it is *[t͡ɕ].
  • */s/ is [t͡s] before */a/, *[ɕ] before front vowels, and *[s] before rounded vowels.

Voiced consonants in the daughter languages are typically reflexes of a nasal + obstruent consonant cluster.

The outcome of each consonant sequence is listed below:

Proto-Japonic	Proto-Ryukyuan	Okinawan	Miyako	Japanese	Namari
*m	*m	m, n(i-V)	m	m	m
*n	*n	n	n	n	n
*p	*p-, *-w-	h(a,u-a)-, f-, -(u)w(a)-, -∅-	f(u)-, p-, -∅-	f(u,o)-, h-, -w(a)-, -∅-	p-, -(u)w(a)-, -∅-
*mp	*b	b	v(u), b	b	b
*t	*t	t͡ɕ(i,u), t	t͡s(i,u), t	t͡ɕ(i,e), t͡s(u,o), t	t͡ɕ(i), θ(u), t
*nt	*d, *du → *zu	ʑ(i,u), d	z(i,u), d	ʑ(i,e), z(u,o), d	ʑ(i), ð(u), d
*k	*k	t͡ɕ(i), k	f(u), t͡s(i), k	k	k
*nk	*g	ʑ(i), g	g	g	g
*s	*s	ɕ(i,u,e), s	ɕ(e), s	ɕ(i,e), s	ɕ(i), s
*ns	*z	ʑ(i,u,e), z	ʑ(e), z	ʑ(i,e), z	ʑ(i), ð(u), z
*r	*r	∅(i), r	∅(i), r	r	∅(i), j
*w	*w	w(a)-, -(u)w(a)-, ∅	b-, -∅-	w(a), ∅	w(a)-, -(u)w(a)-, ∅
*j	*j	j	j	j	j

Vowels

I reconstruct six vowels for Proto-Japonic:

	Front	Central	Back
Close	*/i/ *[i]		*/u/ *[u]
Mid	*/e/ *[e]	*/ə/ *[ɵ]	*/o/ *[o]
Open			*/a/ *[ɑ]

I confidently reconstruct the diphthongs */ui̯/, */oi̯/, */əi̯/ and */ai̯/, and tentatively reconstruct */ei̯/ and */au̯/. In addition, the vowels */a/ and */ə/ may be preceded by the glide */j/, and the former by */w/ (**/wə/ is prohibited by Arisaka's Law).

I reconstruct a rounded vowel for */ə/ due to its reflexes in Japanese and Ryukyuan. Bentley (2001) asserts that it must be an unrounded schwa based on correspondences between Sino-Japanese and Sino-Vietnamese, but I don't find such evidence convincing due to my perception on the acoustics of [ə] and [ɵ]. To me, both [ə] and [ɵ] sound quite similar (but not identical) to each other and to [ø] and [œ], so all I can say is that Proto-Japonic */ə/ is a schwa-like sound. (On the topic, can anyone tell the difference between the New Zealand pronunciation of bird, which features a rounded vowel, and the Received Pronunciation version of the same word, which features an unrounded vowel?)

Arisaka's Law dictates that */ə/ cannot co-occur with a back vowel in the same morpheme. I believe that this is a remnant of an older vowel harmony system that operated in the ancestor of Insular Japonic (whether it was in Peninsular Japonic, I do not know, due to lack of evidence). Traces of this system can be found in the numerals, with */i/ alternating with */u/ and */ə/ alternating with */a/. Given these alternations, I tentatively reconstruct the vowel harmony system that was in use:

Front	*[ə], *[ø], *[y]
Back	*[ɑ], *[o], *[u]
Neutral	*[e], *[i]

To arrive at the current six-vowel system, *[ə] and *[ø] merged to become */ə/, and *[i] and *[y] merged to become */i/. Hence, if my hypothesis is correct, there should be an alternation between */o/ and */ə/ (which would arise in Old Japanese as an alternation between u/o₁ and o₂). So far, I've yet to find any convincing evidence of such an alternation.

The general outcome of each vowel is as follows:

Proto-Japonic	Proto-Ryukyuan	Amami	Okinawan	Miyako	Old Japanese	Japanese	Old Namari	Namari
*i	*i */i/	i /i/	i /i/	ɨ /ɨ/	i1 */i/	i /i/	i /i/	i /i/
*e	*e */e/	ɨ /ɨ/ (i /i/)		i /i/	i1 */i/ (e1 */ʲe/)	i /i/ (e /e/)	e1 /e/ (i /i/)	e /e/ (i /i/)
*u	*u */u/	u /u/ (o /o/, ɨ /ɨ/)	u /u/ (i /i/)	u /u/ (ɨ /ɨ/)	u */u/	u /u/	u /u/	u /u/
*o	*o */o/	u /u/ (o /o/)	u /u/	u /u/	u */u/ (o1 */ʷo/)	u /u/ (o /o/)	o1 /o/ (u /u/)	o /o/ (u /u/)
*ə					o2 */ɵ/	o /o/	o2 /ɵ/	o /o/
*a	*a */a/	a /a/ (*awa → ō)	a /a/	a /a/	a */ɑ/	a /a/	a /a/	a /a/

In general, Proto-Japonic */e/ and */o/ are raised to /i/ and /u/ respectively in non-word-final position in Japanese. However, there are some exceptions where original */o/ is retained (the following list is non-exhaustive; I don't know if the same applies to */e/):

• sora ("sky"), from *sora
• yoru ("night"), from *yo-ru
• tora ("tiger"), from *tora
• moya ("mist"), from *moya
• yowai ("weak"), from *yowa-
• osanai ("very young"), from *wosana-

With one exception (that being yoru), every word I've found has an /a/ occurring after the syllable with /o/ (*/ə/ is ruled out by Arisaka's Law). Therefore, I suspect that the vowel raising in Japanese may in fact be an umlaut process, where /a/ blocks raising (for the only counterexample I know, *koma → kuma, my reconstruction is tentative). The word yoru is the exception because it is bimorphemic; the actual root is *yo, leading to the count form -yo, where the /o/ is expected.

All examples I've found so far are either bisyllabic or feature /a/ in both the second and third syllables. I am unsure if the same blocking applies if the second syllable is */a/ while the third is not */a/ (the only example of this I've found may be *wosanki → Old Japanese wosagi₍₁₎, whence Modern Japanese usagi), or if it is the second syllable that is */o/ and the third syllable */a/.

With regards to */e/, I've only found one possible example of unraised /e/ in Japanese: the word eda ("branch"), from Proto-Japonic *yenta. However, the typical reconstruction is *yonta, as shown in various Ryukyuan forms such as Okinawan yuda. Tentatively, I extend the above hypothesis to */e/, considering that Okinawan also has the variant yida, which indeed comes from *yenta.

The general outcome of each vowel sequence is as follows:

Proto-Japonic	Proto-Ryukyuan	Amami	Okinawan	Miyako	Old Japanese	Japanese	Eastern Old Japanese	Old Namari	Namari
*ei	*i */i/	i /i/	i /i/	ɨ /ɨ/	i1 */i/	i /i/	i */i/	i /i/	i /i/
*ui, *oi					i2 */ɨi̯/
*əi	*e */e/	ɨ /ɨ/ (i /i/)		i /i/				e2 /æi̯/ (i /i/)	e /e/ (i /i/)
*ai					e2 */əi̯/	e /e/	e */e/	e2 /æi̯/	e /e/
*iə					e1 */ʲe/			e1 /e/
*ia							a */a/
*au, *ua	*o */o/	u /u/ (o /o/)	u /u/	u /u/	o1 */ʷo/	o /o/	o1 */o/	o1 /o/	o /o/

There may be some evidence that Proto-Ryukyuan distinguished between the reflexes of *i and *ui/*oi. Old Namari also distinguished between the two, with the latter failing to fully palatalise /t/ and /d/.

As of writing (2019-06-18), I have noticed one Wiktionary user moving a number of Proto-Japonic reconstruction articles with the edit reason "*wə does not exist; it should be *wo". I disagree with this reasoning; for one, if true, this would lead to a violation of Arisaka's Law with regard to the numeral ten (the only way around that is if one interpreteted *təwə as bimorphemic **tə-wo).

Also, I've noticed that the same Wiktionary user assumes that unexplained /o/ in Japanese developed from a supposed **uwa. I completely disagree with this reasoning, as I can easily find a counterexample (Japanese suwaru "to sit", from the root *suwa-). This user used this to explain sora ("sky") and ko ("child"). The former I've given my umlaut explanation, and the latter may be a result of confusion with Northern Ryukyuan, which generally has some variation of kwā (an alternate etymology suggests that this is actually a repurposed plural form).

Pitch and tone

The following is based on Shimabukuro's (2002) reconstruction of the Proto-Japonic accent system. The tone in parentheses represents the tone of the first mora of any following suffix/clitic in the phonological word.

Monosyllables

Monosyllables may have been bimoraic in Proto-Japonic. Thus, all monosyllables featured long vowels (word shape oo instead of short O). The monosyllables develop into three tonal classes in Early Middle Japanese and Proto-Ryukyuan.

For the root shape column, which are my own reconstructions on the possible shape of the Proto-Japonic word, T represents a voiceless consonant, M a voiced consonant, V a vowel, C any consonant or /j/, and N any nasal.

The Namari column indicates the pitch accent shape and class of the reflex.

Class	Proto-Japonic	Proto-Japanese	EMJ class	Japanese (Tokyo)	Japanese (Kyoto)	Japanese (Kagoshima)	Proto-Ryukyuan	Namari (Yaezora)	PJ root shape
1a	HH(H)	HH(H)	1.1	L(H) (Heiban)	HH(H) (H.0)	Accented	HH(H)	HH(L) (2.H.2)	TVC
1b	HL(L)	HL(L)	1.2		HL(L) (H.1)		HH(L)	HL(L) (2.H.1)	TVV
1c	LL(L)	LL(L)	1.3	H(L) (Atamadaka)		Unaccented	LH(L)	LL(H) (2.L.2)	MVC
1d	LH(L)	LH(H)			LH ~ LL(H) (L.0)			LH(H) (2.L.1)	MVV

It is suggested that initial low tone is the result of voiced initials. If so, then example reconstructions of monosyllabic words are as follows:

English	Pre-Proto-Japonic	Proto-Japonic	Old Namari	Namari
hair	*kay (1a)	*kay	[kǽːi̯]	kē (HH-L) けー [kéː]
blood	*tuy (1a)	*tuy	[tʲíː]	chī (HH-L) ちー [t͡ɕíː]
leaf	*pa (1b)	*pa	[páː]	pā (HL-L) はー [pâː]
name	*na (1b)	*na	[náː]	nā (HL-L) なー [nâː]
tree	*gəy (1c)	*kəy	[kæ̀ːi̯]	kē (LL-H) けー [kèː]
eye	*may (1c)	*may	[mæ̀ːi̯]	mē (LL-H) めー [mèː]
tooth	*ba (1d)	*pa	[pàː]	pā (LH-H) はー [pǎː]

Although this sample size is small, 1a and 1c tend to correspond to words ending in -y. This may mean that these classes are remnants of a "checked" tonal class.

Disyllables

Shimabukuro reconstructs eight different tonal classes for disyllables, corresponding to five in Early Middle Japanese and three in Proto-Ryukyuan.

Class	Proto-Japonic	Proto-Japanese	EMJ class	Japanese (Tokyo)	Japanese (Kyoto)	Japanese (Kagoshima)	Proto-Ryukyuan	Namari (Yaezora)	PJ root shape
2a	OO HH(H)	HH(H)	2.1	LH(H) (Heiban)	HH(H) (H.0)	Accented	OO HH(L)	HH(L) (2.H.2)	TVTV
2b	OO HL(L)	HL(L)	2.2	LH(L) (Odaka)	HL(L) (H.1)			HL(L) (2.H.1)	TVMV
2c	OO LL(L)	LL(L)	2.3			Unaccented	OO LH(L)	LL(H) (2.L.2)	MVMV
2d	ooO LL(L)						ooO RH(L)		MVVMV
2e	OO LH(H)	LH(H)	2.4	HL(L) (Atamadaka)	LH ~ LL(H) (L.0)		OO LH(L)	LH(H) (2.L.1)	MVTV
2f	ooO LH(H)						ooO RH(L)		MVVTV
2g	OO LH(L)	LH(L)	2.5		LF ~ LH(L) (L.1)		OO LH(L)	LH(L) (2.1.2)	MVTVN
2h	ooO RH(L)						ooO RH(L)		MVVTVN

Example reconstructions:

English	Pre-Proto-Japonic	Proto-Japonic	Old Namari	Namari
nose	*pa(h)na (2a)	*pana	[pá.ná]	pana (HH-L) はな [pá.ná]
cow	*(')usi (2a)	*usi	[ú.ɕí]	oshi (HH-L) おし [ó.ɕí]
bird	*tə(h)ri (2a)	*təri	[tə́.lʲí]	toi (HH-L) とい [tǿː]
loins	*kəsi (2a)	*kəsi	[kɵ́.ɕí]	koshi (HH-L) こし [kó.ɕí]
wind	*kansay (2a)	*kansay	[kán.zæ̀i̯]	kaze (HH-L) かぜ [ká.zé]
beard	*pinkay (2a)	*pinkay	[pʲín.gæ̀i̯]	pige (HH-L) ひげ [pʲí.ɣé]
stone	*(')ezoy (2b)	*esoy	[é.ɕì]	eshi (HL-L) えし [é.ɕì]
paper	*kambi (2b)	*kampi	[kám.bʲì]	kabi (HL-L) かび [ká.βʲì]
bridge	*pazi (2b)	*pasi	[pá.ɕì]	pashi (HL-L) はし [pá.ɕì]
flower	*bana (2c)	*pana	[pà.nà]	pana (LL-H) はな [pà.nà]
mountain	*yama (2c)	*yama	[jà.mà]	yama (LL-H) やま [jà.mà]
cloud	*gumo (2c)	*kumo	[kù.mò]	kumo (LL-H) くも [kù.mò]
dog	*(h)enu (2c)	*enu	[è.nù]	eni (LL-H) えに [è.ɲì]
mud	*ndoro (2c)	*ntoro	[ⁿdò.ɾò]	doyo (LL-H) どよ [dò.jò]
bone	*bōne (2d)	*pōne	[pòː.nè]	pone (LL-H) ほね [pò.nè]
board	*(h)ita (2e)	*ita	[ì.tá]	ita (LH-H) いた [ì.tá]
shoulder	*gata (2e)	*kata	[kà.tá]	kata (LH-H) かた [kà.tá]
sea	*(h)ō(h)mi (2f)	*ōmi	[òː.mʲí]	omi (LH-H) おみ [ò.mʲí]
breath	*(h)īki (2f)	*īki	[ìː.kʲí]	eki (LH-H) えき [è.cí]
boat	*bū(h)nay (2f)	*pūnay	[pùː.nǽi̯]	pune (LH-H) ふね [pù.né]
mortar	*(h)ūsu (2f)	*ūsu	[ùː.sú]	osu (LH-H) おす [ò.sý]
chopsticks	*bāsuy (2f)	*pāsuy	[pàː.ɕí]	pashi (LH-H) はし [pà.ɕí]
needle	*bā(h)ruy (2f)	*pāruy	[paː.lʲí]	pai (LH-H) はい [pɛ̌ː]
sweat	*(h)asem (2g)	*ase	[à.sé]	ase (LH-L) あせ [à.sé]
rain	*(h)a(h)maym (2g)	*amay	[à.mǽi̯]	ame (LH-L) あめ [à.mé]
groom	*mōkom (2h)	*mōko	[mǒː.kó]	moko (LH-L) もこ [mò.kó]
voice	*gə̄(h)waym (2h)	*kə̄way	[kɵ̌ː.wǽi̯]	koe (LH-L) こえ [kǒi̯]
shadow	*gānkaym (2h)	*kānkay	[kǎːn.gǽi̯]	kage (LH-L) かげ [kà.ɣé]
bucket	*wōkaym (2h)	*wōkay	[wǒː.kǽi̯]	oke (LH-L) おけ [ò.ké]

(A side note: some of the Namari forms show a sound change unique to the Yaezora dialect, high vowel dissimilation. High vowel dissimilation only affects word-initial /i/ and /u/, and it causes these vowels to lower to /e/ or /o/ respectively whenever they are followed by a mora with /i/ or /u/. Note that original /wi/ is not affected, although the only example I have is ijishi "pig".)

Classes 2g and 2h are hypothesised by Vovin (2008) to have ended in a nasal.

Trisyllables

Shimabukuro reconstructs twelve tonal classes for trisyllables. These classes give seven Early Middle Japanese tonal classes and six Proto-Ryukyuan tonal classes.

Class	Proto-Japonic	Proto-Japanese	EMJ class	Japanese (Tokyo)	Japanese (Kyoto)	Japanese (Kagoshima)	Proto-Ryukyuan	Namari (Yaezora)	PJ root shape
3a	OooO HHH(H)	HHH(H)	3.1	LHH(H) (Heiban)	HHH(H) (H.0)	Accented	OooO HHH(H)	HHH(L) (3.H.3)	TVTVVTV
3b	OooO HHF(L)	HHF(L)	3.2		HHL(L) (H.2)			HHL(L) (3.H.2)	TVTVVMV(?)
3c	OooO HHH(L)	HHH(L)			HHH(H) (H.0)				TVTVVTVN
3d	OooO HLH(H)	HLH(H)	3.3	HLL(L) (Atamadaka)	HLL(L) (H.1)		OooO HHH(L)	HLL(L) (3.H.1)	TVMVVTV
3e	OooO LHH(H)	LHH(H)	3.4	LHH(H) (Heiban)	LLH ~ LLL(H) (L.0)	Unaccented	OooO LRH(L)	LHH(H) (3.L.1)	MVTVVTV
3f	OOO LLL(L)	LLL(L)			HLL(L) (H.1)		OOO LLH(H)	LLL(H) (3.L.3)	MVMVMV
3g	OooO LLH(H)	LLH(H)	3.5	HLL(L) (Atamadaka)			OooO LRH(L)	LLH(H) (3.L.2)	MVMVVTV
3h	OooO LLL(H)	LLR(H)		LHL(L) (Nakadaka)					MVMVVMVT
3i	OooO LHH(L)	LLH(L)		LHH(L) (Odaka)				LHH(H) (3.L.1)	MVTVVTVN
3j	OooO LHL(L)	LHH(L)	3.6				OooO LFL(L)	LHL(L) (3.1.2)	MVTVVMV
3k	OOO LHF(L)	LHF(L)	3.7	LHH(H) (Heiban)	HHL(L) (H.2)		OOO LHF(L)	LHH(L) (3.1.3)	MVTVTVN
3l	OOO LLF(L)	LLF(L)		HLL(L) (Atamadaka)				LLH(L) (3.2.3)	MVMVTVN

Because my word structure reconstructions for trisyllables are tentative, I will omit my Pre-Proto-Japonic reconstructions in the following table.

English	Proto-Japonic	Old Namari	Namari
mark	*sirəsi (3a)	[ɕí.ɾɵ́ː.ɕí]	shiyoshi (HHH-L) しよし [ɕí.jó.ɕí]
smoke	*kaympuri (3a)	[kǽi̯m.búː.lʲí]	kebui (HHH-L) けぶい [ké.βýː]
forehead	*pitapi (3a)	[pʲí.táː.pʲí]	pitai (HHH-L) ひたい [pí.tɛ́ː]
yawn	*akumpi (3a)	[á.kúːm.bʲí]	akubi (HHH-L) あくび [á.kú.βʲí]
centipede	*mukante (3b)	[mú.káːn.dê]	mukade (HHL-L) むかで [mú.ká.ðè]
two	*putatu (3b)	[pú.táː.tû]	putatu (HHL-L) ふたつ [pú.tá.θỳ]
wing	*tumpasa (3b)	[túm.báː.sâ]	tubasa (HHL-L) つばさ [θý.βá.sà]
lizard	*tokanke (3b)	[tó.káːn.gê]	tokage (HHL-L) とかげ [tó.ká.ɣè]
interval	*apinta (3c)	[á.pʲíːn.dá]	aida (HHL-L) あいだ [ɛ́ː.ðà]
cherry	*sakura (3c)	[sá.kúː.ɾá]	sakuya (HHL-L) さくや [sá.kú.jà]
strength	*tikara (3d)	[t͡ɕí.kàː.ɾá]	chikaya (HLL-L) ちかや [t͡ɕí.kà.jà]
gold	*konkanay (3d)	[kón.gàː.nǽi̯]	kogane (HLL-L) こがね [kó.ɣà.nè]
bag	*pukoro (3e)	[pù.kóː.ɾó]	pukoyo (LHH-H) ふこよ [pù.kú.jó]
treasure	*takara (3e)	[tà.káː.ɾá]	takaya (LHH-H) たかや [tà.ká.já]
mirror	*kankami (3e)	[kàn.gáː.mʲí]	kagami (LHH-H) かがみ [kà.ɣá.mʲí]
fan	*apuki (3e)	[à.púː.kʲí]	auki (LHH-H) あうき [ɔ̌ː.cí]
calendar	*kəyəmi (3f)	[kɵ̀.jɵ̀.mʲì]	koimi (LLL-H) こいみ [kø̀ː.mʲì]
forest	*payasi (3f)	[pà.jà.ɕì]	paishi (LLL-H) はいし [pɛ̀ː.ɕì]
pillow	*makura (3g)	[mà.kùː.ɾá]	makuya (LLH-H) まくや [mà.kù.já]
life	*inəti (3g)	[ì.nɵ̀ː.t͡ɕí]	inochi (LLH-H) いのち [ì.nò.t͡ɕí]
tear	*namita (3g)	[nà.mʲìː.tá]	nanda (LLH-H) なんだ [nàn.dá]
heart	*kəkərə (3h)	[kɵ̀.kɵ̀ː.ɾɵ̀]	kokoyo (LLH-H) ここよ [kò.kò.jó]
cousin	*itoko (3h)	[ì.tòː.kò]	itoko (LLH-H) いとこ [ì.tò.kó]
fat	*ampura (3i)	[àm.búː.ɾá]	abuya (LHH-H) あぶや [à.βú.já]
pillar	*pasira (3i)	[pà.ɕíː.ɾá]	pashiya (LHH-H) はしや [pà.ɕí.já]
crow	*karasu (3j)	[kà.ɾáː.sù]	kayasu (LHL-L) かやす [kà.já.sỳ]
eel	*unanki (3j)	[ù.náːn.gʲì]	unagi (LHL-L) うなぎ [ù.ná.ʝì]
earthworm	*memensu (3j)	[mè.méːn.zù]	memezu (LHL-L) めめず [mè.mé.ðỳ]
medicine	*kusori (3k)	[kù.só.lʲî]	kusoi (LHH-L) くそい [kù.sǿː]
whale	*kuntira (3k)	[kùn.d͡ʑí.ɾâ]	kujiya (LHH-L) くじや [kù.ʑí.já]
field	*patakay (3k)	[pà.tá.kæ̂i̯]	patake (LHH-L) はたけ [pà.tá.ké]
helmet	*kamputo (3l)	[kàm.bù.tô]	kabuto (LLH-L) かぶと [kà.βù.tó]
silkworm	*kapiko (3l)	[kà.pʲì.kô]	kaiko (LLH-L) かいこ [kɛ̀ː.kó]
sickness	*yamapi (3l)	[jà.mà.pʲí]	yamai (LLH-L) やまい [jà.mɛ̌ː]

A side note: The pitch accent of Yaezora dialect has elements of both stress and tone. Each word has an inherent tone (high or low), and a mora in which the tone changes (corresponding to stress, as no word has no accent and only unstressed short /i/ and /u/ can be elided after /s/). Some words also have "secondary stress", where the tone changes back; secondary stress is limited to words with inherent low tone. Yaezora dialect tonal classes are given as X.Y.Z, where X is the number of morae in the word, Y is either L or H for words with inherent low or high tone respectively, or a number to indicate the location of the first tone change, and Z is a number indicating the location of the (second) tone change.

Example of Namari numerals:

2	3.H.2 (pútátù)

Issues with reconstructions

• In some cases, it is impossible to determine whether a proto-form has */u/ or */o/.
• So far, I've run into the same problem distinguishing word-initial */i/ from */e/. While I can say with some certainty that "to say" is *ip-, other words may prove more troublesome. What I've noticed that at the very least Proto-Japonic */i/ induces palatalisation of the following consonant in Proto-Ryukyuan; I don't know if this is true for */e/ as well.

Swadesh list

Where a word is given in parentheses, it represents the second principal part of the word preceding it. This appears for all verbs (where it represents the imperative) and all non-first declension and all monomoraic nouns (where it represents the genitive).

No	English	Proto-Japonic	Namari (Yaezora)	Notes
1	I	*wa-, *a-	wae わえ [wai̯]
2	you (singular)	*na-?	nae なえ [nai̯]
3	he	*ka-	shie しえ [ɕi.je]
4	we	*wa-ta?	waeya わえや [waj.ja]
5	you (plural)	*na-ta?	naeya なえや [naj.ja]
6	they	*ka-ta?	shieya しえや [ɕi.je.ja]
7	this	*kə-, *i-?	ie, ino いえ、いの [i.je], [i.no]
8	that	*ka-, *sə-	koe, kono; soe, sono こえ、この、そえ、その [koi̯], [ko.no]; [soi̯], [so.no]
9	here	*kə-kə	iki いき [i.ci]
10	there	*sə-kə	koko; soko ここ、そこ [ko.ko]; [so.ko]
11	who	*ta-	tae たえ [tai̯]
12	what	*na-	nani (nan) なに、なん [na.ɲi], [naŋ ~ nãː]
13	where	*en-tu	ezuku えずく [e.ðy.ku]
14	when	*e-tu	etu えつ [e.θy]
15	how	*e-ka	eka えか [e.ka]	I only reconstruct initial *e- based on analogy with the other interrogatives, and following from the hypothesis that the original proximal in Proto-Japonic was *i-, not *kə-. Both Japanese and Ryukyuan reflect a preform *ika (whence Japanese ikaga).
16	not	*-n-	-n- ん [n]
17	all	*muina, *so-?	sōte, mina そーて、みな [soː.te], [mʲi.na]	There are supposed to be two words for "all", but I've only been able to confidently reconstruct one, *muina ("everyone"). There is the possibility that Okinawan sū is, in fact, Sino-Okinawan (compare Sino-Japanese sō- "overall"), but a pre-form *so- could actually fit in with Japanese subete.
18	many	*əpə-	ō- おー [oː]
19	some		sosshi そっし [soɕ.ɕi]	I am unable to reconstruct the Proto-Japonic words for these two definitions. This is because Japanese uses a pre-form *sUk-, while Ryukyuan forms are varied (few = *Ikiara-?, some = *so-(to), *kUt-, *I- etc.).
20	few		sunne すんね [syn.ne]
21	other	*poka	poka ほか [po.ka]
22	one	*pitə	pito ひと [pʲi.to]
23	two	*puta	puta ふた [pu.ta]
24	three	*mi	mi み [mʲi]
25	four	*yə	yo よ [jo]
26	five	*itu	etu えつ [e.θy]
27	big	*əpə-	ō- おー [oː]	This shares the same root as "many", but the branches differ in their reflexes. Japanese uses a form suffixed with -ki- to form ōkii, while Ryukyuan has a bound form *owo-. Northern Ryukyuan has one form which may descend from *əpə- (giving Okinawan ufusan and ufisan, via *o-po-, which may also be attested as Miyako *op(ï)-) and another form from an unrelated Ryukyuan root *mage- (Okinawan magisan).
28	long	*nanka-	naga- なが [na.ɣa]
29	wide	*pirə-	piyo- ひよ [pʲi.jo]
30	thick	*atu- (*atū-, *ātu?)	atu- あつ [a.θy]	While this is near-homophonous with "hot" in Japanese and Namari, Kunigami does distinguish these words by means other than pitch (hachii- for "thick" and hachi- for "hot"). In Tokyo Japanese "hot" is accented, while in Yaezora Namari, "hot" is low tone (àtùkáí) and "thick" is high tone (átúkàì).
31	heavy	*əm(p)ə-	omo- おも [o.mo]
32	small		imi-, chii- いみ、ちー [i.mʲi], [t͡ɕiː]	I've found this word to be unreconstructible. Japanese almost exclusively uses some variant of chiisa-, while Ryukyuan forms are varied (among them imi-).
33	short		mijika- みじか [mʲi.ʑi.ka]	Another unreconstructible word. Japanese uses mijika-, while Northern Ryukyuan uses *inkya-.
34	narrow	*sem(p)a-?	sema- せま [se.ma]
35	thin	*koma-ka-	komaka- こまか [ko.ma.ka]	The Japanese word is hosoi; however, I've reconstructed *koma-ka- as this form is found in the Ryukyuan languages.
36	woman	*wətə-me, *wə-me-na	otome, onna おとめ、おんな [o.to.me], [on.na]
37	man	*wətə-ko	otoko おとこ [o.to.ko]	Ryukyuan generally uses words derived from the preform *we; this may be related to *wə- ("male").
38	human	*pitə	pito ひと [pʲi.to]
39	child	*ko, *kwa?, *wara(m)p[e,ay?]	-ko, -pa (plural), wayabe こ、は、わやべ [ko], [pa], [wa.ja.βe]
40	wife	*tuma	tuma つま [θy.ma]
41	husband	*wə-pitə	otto (archaic), tuma おっと、つま [ot.to], [θy.ma]
42	mother	*amo?, *pa-pa?	amo あも [a.mo]	Both reconstructions are tentative, although reflexes of both are found in Japanese (amo/omo and haha) and Ryukyuan (Kunigami 'amu and Okinawan fafa).
43	father	*si-si?	kazo かぞ [ka.zo]	This reconstruction is far more tentative than the ones for "mother". Each branch reflects a different form (e.g. Japanese chichi, Okinawan sū ← shū, Miyako asa), making reconstruction difficult. The *si-si form is only attested in Eastern Old Japanese (and perhaps some modern Tohoku dialects and the Hachijō branch).
44	animal	*kay(-nta)-mənə, *iki-mosi	kemono けもの [ke.mo.no]
45	fish	*[u,o,i]wo	uo うお [u.wo]	Both uo and io are attested in Japanese, while reflexes of *iwo are used in Northern Ryukyuan. Alternatively, the uo form in Japanese may actually have come from *o-(i)wo (compare *o-mi "sea"). The Namari form uo could have come from either *uwo or *owo. If this is true, then this may be related to *wo ("tail").
46	bird	*təri	toi とい [tøː]
47	dog	*(w)enu	eni (enuga) えに、えぬが [e.ɲi], [e.nu.ɣa]
48	louse	*sira-mi	shiyami しやみ [ɕi.ja.mʲi]
49	snake	*pa(y?)m-(p)-[u,i]	pebi へび [pe.βʲi]	Reflexes of both *pamu and *pebi (Proto-Ryukyuan) are found in the Ryukyuan languages.
50	worm	*mosi	moshi もし [mo.ɕi]
51	tree	*kəy	kē (kono) けー、この [keː], [ko.no]
52	forest	*məri, *yama	moi もい [møː]
53	stick (of wood)	*yonta	eda えだ [e.ða]	Alternatively, *yenta (whence Japanese eda and Okinawan yida). The *yonta form is held to be original, but is unattested in Japanese.
54	fruit	*muy, *nari(-mənə)	mī (mino), naimono みー、みの、ないもの [mʲiː], [mʲi.no], [nɛː.mo.no]	Ryukyuan consistently uses reflexes of *nari, although *mi is also attested. Japanese, on the other hand, uses kudamono, although it still retains mi. In general, *muy means "body". The "body" and "fruit" meanings split in Namari, with the "body" variant remaining in the second declension.
55	seed	*tanay	tane たね [ta.ne]
56	leaf	*pa	pā (pano) はー、はの [paː], [pa.no]
57	root	*nay	nē (neno) ねー、ねの [neː], [ne.no]	In Namari, this and pane shifted to the first declension.
58	bark (of tree)		kogā こがー [ko.gaː]	This is not reconstructible. Japanese uses a Sino-Japanese compound, while Kunigami uses the same word for "skin".
59	flower	*pana	pana はな [pa.na]
60	grass	*kusa	kusa くさ [ku.sa]
61	rope	*napa	nā なー [naː]
62	skin	*kapa	kā かー [kaː]
63	meat (flesh)	*sisi	shishi しし [ɕi.ɕi]
64	blood	*tuy	chī (tuno) ちー、つの [t͡ɕiː], [θy.no]
65	bone	*pəne	pone ほね [po.ne]	The distinction between po1 and po2 was already lost in Old Japanese; my reconstruction is merely an educated guess (*/o/ would've become /u/). A word-medial */o/ can still be reconstructed if the *-e was actually a diphthong *-ay; unfortunately, Old Japanese preserves neither distinction in the relevant phonological environments.
66	fat (noun)	*ampura	abuya あぶや [a.βu.ja]
67	egg	*taman-ko	tamago たまご [ta.ma.go]	I also reconstruct *koga, but only for Proto-Ryukyuan.
68	horn	*tuno	tuno つの [θy.no]
69	tail	*wo	shû しゅーー [ɕɯːː]	The reconstruction of this word is a bit complicated, but I believe there is a common element *wo in each reflex I've found. The Namari form shares the same etymology as Japanese shippo, and is one of the few native words with an overlong (trimoraic) vowel.
70	feather	*pa-nay	pane はね [pa.ne]	In Namari, this shifted to the first declension to avoid confusion with pana ("flower; nose")
71	hair	*kay	kē (kano) けー、かの [keː], [ka.no]
72	head	*tumpu(-ri)	atama, tubui あたま、つぶい [a.ta.ma], [θy.βyː]
73	ear	*mimi	mimi みみ [mʲi.mʲi]
74	eye	*may	mē (mano) めー、まの [meː], [ma.no]
75	nose	*pana	pana はな [pa.na]
76	mouth	*kutuy	kuchi (kutuno) くち、くつの [ku.t͡ɕi], [ku.θy.no]
77	tooth	*pa	pā (pano) はー、はの [paː], [pa.no]
78	tongue	*sita	shita した [ɕi.ta]	Proto-Ryukyuan *suba ("lip, tongue") is also attested.
79	fingernail	*tumay	tume (tumano) つめ、つまの [θy.me], [θy.ma.no]
80	foot	*asi	ashi あし [a.ɕi]
81	leg	*asi	ashi あし [a.ɕi]
82	knee	*pinsa	piza ひざ [pʲi.za]
83	hand	*tay	tē (tano) てー、たの [teː], [ta.no]
84	wing	*tumpasa	tubasa つばさ [θy.βa.sa]
85	belly	*para	paya はや [pa.ja]
86	guts	*wata	(paya)wata わた [wa.ta]
87	neck	*kumpi	kubi くび [ku.βʲi]	While Miyako uses a different word for "neck", it still has the word fgï, which is a descendant of *kumpi, albeit with an irregular change of /b/ to /g/.
88	back	*səy	sē (sono) せー、その [seː], [so.no]
89	breast	*munay	mune (munano) むね、むなの [mu.ne], [mu.na.no]
90	heart	*kəkərə	kokoyo ここよ [ko.ko.jo]
91	liver	*kimo	kimo きも [ci.mo]
92	to drink	*nəm-u	nomu (nome) のむ、のめ [no.mu], [no.me]
93	to eat	*kam-u, *kup-u, *tampay-ru	tabu (tabeyo) たぶ、たべよ [ta.βu], [ta.βe.jo]	The form *kam- means "to bite", and is used in Okinawan. Miyako uses the reflex or *kup-, which is inherited as fō/fa-. Namari tabu has the suppletive form kuwayu in the passive.
94	to bite	*kam-u, *pam-u	kamu (kame) かむ、かめ [ka.mu], [ka.me]
95	to suck	*sop-u	sou (soe) そう、そえ [soː], [soi̯]	I reconstruct medial /o/ on the basis of Okinawan sūyun (if it were /u/, then the form would be *shīyun).
96	to spit	*pak-u	paku (pake) はく、はけ [pa.ku], [pa.ke]
97	to vomit	*pak-u	paku (pake) はく、はけ [pa.ku], [pa.ke]
98	to blow	*puk-u	puku (puke) ふく、ふけ [pu.ku], [pu.ke]
99	to breathe	*pak-u	ekisu (ekise), paku (pake) えきす、えきせ、はく、はけ [e.ci.sy], [e.ci.se], [pa.ku], [pa.ke]
100	to laugh	*warap-u	wayau (wayae) わやう、わやえ [wa.jɔː], [wa.jai̯]
101	to see	*mi-ru	mī (miyo) みー、みよ [mʲiː], [mʲi.jo]
102	to hear	*kik-u	kiku (kike) きく、きけ [ci.ku], [ci.ke]
103	to know	*sir-u	shiyu (shie) しゆ、しえ [ɕi.jɯ], [ɕi.je]
104	to think	*əməp-u	omou (omoe) おもう、おもえ [o.moː], [o.moi̯]
105	to smell	*kaN[k,p]-u	kagu (kage) かぐ、かげ [ka.ɣu], [ka.ɣe]	Japanese forms are reflexes of *kank-, while Ryukyuan forms are reflexes of *kam(p)-.
106	to fear	*əsəray-ru	osoyu (osoeyo) おそゆ、おそえよ [o.so.jɯ], [o.soj.jo]
107	to sleep	*na-im-(ru?)	nemuyu (nemue) ねむゆ、ねむえ [ne.mu.jɯ], [ne.mui̯]
108	to live	*ik-[u,o]y-ru	eku (ekiyo) えく、えきよ [e.ku], [e.ci.jo]	Note that Namari iku actually corresponds to Japanese ikeru (PJ *ikay-), not ikiru.
109	to die	*sin-u, *maromp-u	mayobu (mayobe), shinu (shine) まよぶ、まよべ、しぬ、しね [ma.jo.βu], [ma.jo.βe], [ɕi.nu], [ɕi.ne]
110	to kill	*kərəs-u	koyosu (koyose) こよす、こよせ [ko.jo.sy], [ko.jo.se]
111	to fight	*tatak-ap-u	tatakau (tatakae) たたかう、たたかえ [ta.ta.kɔː], [ta.ta.kai̯]
112	to hunt		kayu (kae) かゆ、かえ [ka.jɯ], [kai̯]	I haven't been able to find Ryukyuan words meaning "to hunt". Hence I have omitted the reconstruction.
113	to hit	*tatak-u	tataku (tatake) たたく、たたけ [ta.ta.ku], [ta.ta.ke]
114	to cut	*kir-u	kiyu (kie) きゆ、きえ [ci.jɯ], [ci.je]
115	to split	*war-u	wayu (wae) わゆ、わえ [wa.jɯ], [wai̯]
116	to stab	*sas-u	sasu (sase) さす、させ [sa.sy], [sa.se]
117	to scratch	*kak-u	kaku (kake) かく、かけ [ka.ku], [ka.ke]
118	to dig	*pər-u	poyu (poe) ほゆ、ほえ [po.jɯ], [poi̯]
119	to swim	*əyənk-u	oigu (oige) おいぐ、おいげ [øː.ɣu], [øː.ɣe]
120	to fly	*təmp-u	tobu (tobe) とぶ、とべ [to.βu], [to.βe]
121	to walk	*ar[u,i]k-u	aiku (aike), akku (akke) あいく、あいけ、あっく、あっけ [ɛː.ku], [ɛː.ke], [ak.ku], [ak.ke]	The participle form of both Namari forms is あいえて aiete [ɛːː.te], featuring an overlong vowel.
122	to come	*kə- (*k-u)	kū (koyo) くー、こよ [kuː], [ko.jo]
123	to lie	*na-y-ru	nei (neyo) ねい、ねよ [neː], [ne.jo]
124	to sit	*wo-y-ru	suwayu (suwae), ī (iyo) すわゆ、すわえ、いー、いよ [sy.wa.jɯ], [sy.wai̯], [iː], [i.jo]	Namari suwayu and Japanese suwaru originate from *suwa-r-. The same root also gives *suwa-y- ("to place, to set") and *suwa-y ("end").
125	to stand	*tat-u	tatu (tate) たつ、たて [ta.θy], [ta.te]
126	to turn	*mapar-u	māyu (māe) まーゆ、まーえ [maː.jɯ], [maː.je]
127	to fall	*ətəy-ru	otu (oteyo) おつ、おてよ [o.θy], [o.te.jo]
128	to give		atau (ataeyo) あたう、あたえよ [a.tɔː], [a.taj.jo]	This word is not reconstructible.
129	to hold	*mət-u	motu (mote) もつ、もて [mo.θy], [mo.te]
130	to squeeze	*simpər-u	shiboyu (shiboe) しぼゆ、しぼえ [ɕi.βo.jɯ], [ɕi.βoi̯]
131	to rub	*sur-u	(ko-,na-)suyu (-sue) (こ、な)すゆ、すえ [(ko,na).sy.jɯ], [(ko,na).syː]
132	to wash	*arap-u	ayau (ayaeyo) あやう、あやえよ [a.jɔː], [a.jaj.jo]
133	to wipe	*səsər-u?	sosoyu (sosoe), sorru (sorre) そそゆ、そそえ、そるる、そるれ [so.so.jɯ], [so.soi̯], [sor.ru], [sor.re]	Japanese has fuku, but Kunigami and Okinawan point to Proto-Ryukyuan *sosor-, which exists in Japanese as "to excite, to stimulate (curiosity)" The participle form of sorre is そるて sorte [soɾ.te].
134	to pull	*pik-u	piku (pike) ひく、ひけ [pʲi.ku], [pʲi.ke]
135	to push	*əs-u	osu (ose) おす、おせ [o.sy], [o.se]
136	to throw	*nankay-ru	nagu (nageyo) なぐ、なげよ [na.ɣu], [na.ɣe.jo]
137	to tie	*musomp-u	musobu (musobe) むそぶ、むそべ [mu.so.βu], [mu.so.βe]	I reconstruct a medial /o/ based on Okinawan evidence (musubun instead of *mushibun).
138	to sew	*nup-u?	nū (nue) ぬー、ぬえ [nu], [nui̯]	I'm still trying to work out the relationship between Japanese nuu and Ryukyuan nō-
139	to count	*kansu-apay-ru, *yəm-u	kazou (kazoeyo) かぞう、かぞえよ [ka.zoː], [ka.zoi̯]	This is a compound of *kansu ("number") and *ap- ("to unify").
140	to say	*ip-u	iu (ie) いう、いえ [jɯː], [i.je]
141	to sing	*[u,o]ta-p-u	utau (utae) うたう、うたえ [u.tɔː], [u.tai̯]	The exact value of the initial vowel is unreconstructible, due to mergers. Vovin (source?) suggests */o/, based on a single word (otapapu) in Eastern Old Japanese. However, if the theory I have in the vowels section regarding vowel raising in Japanese is correct, then */u/ must be reconstructed (and otapapu has a different etymology; Kupchik (2011) suggests that it is derived from the Ainu word for "sandy beach"). The /o/ in Amami oθa is most likely secondary.
142	to play	*as[u,o]mp-u	asobu (asobe) あそぶ、あそべ [a.so.βu], [a.so.βe]	The Proto-Ryukyuan form is *asub-.
143	to float	*[u,o]k-u	uku (uke) うく、うけ [u.ku], [u.ke]	See "to sing". Given the umlaut theory I posit regarding mid-vowel raising, as well as the alternate form ukabu (Proto-Japonic *uk-amp-), I have reason to believe that the initial vowel is */u/.
144	to flow	*nanka-ray-ru	nagayu (nagaeyo) ながゆ、ながえよ [na.ɣa.jɯ], [na.ɣaj.jo]
145	to freeze	*kəpər-u	kōyu (kōe) こーゆ、こーえ [koː.jɯ], [koː.je]	While this verb seems to be missing from the Ryukyuan languages, the word for "ice", which is derived from this verb, is attested (e.g. Okinawan kūri).
146	to swell	*puk-o?-ra-(m,y)-(r)u	pukyamu (pukyame), pukyu (pukyeyo) ふきゃむ、ふきゃめ、ふきゅ、ふきぇよ [pu,ca.mu], [pu.ca.me], [pu.cɯ], [pu.ce.jo]	This word is difficult to reconstruct; the only Ryukyuan word I could find was Kunigami bukkā.
147	sun	*pi	pī (pino) ひー、ひの [pʲiː], [pʲi.no]	Proto-Ryukyuan also has *teda, which is cognate with Japanese tendō (another word for "sun", alongside hi and taiyō).
148	moon	*tuk[u,o]y	tuki (tukono) つき、つこの [θy.ci], [θy.ko.no]	I am not sure if */u/ or */o/ should be reconstructed. In fact, I've made Namari ambiguous, with the stem form tuko- but with tukuyo ("moonlit night") and Tukuyomi (name of a deity).
149	star	*pəsi	poshi ほし [po.ɕi]
150	water	*men-tu	mezu (mena) めず、めな [me.ðy], [me.na]
151	rain	*amay	ame (amano) あめ、あまの [a.me], [a.ma.no]
152	river	*kapa	kā かー [kaː]
153	lake		medōmi めどーみ [me.doː.mʲi]	This word is not reconstructible, and I don't even know if it even existed in Proto-Japonic. The Japanese and Namari forms are compounds of "water" and "sea".
154	sea	*omi	omi おみ [o.mʲi]
155	salt	*sipo	shio しお [ɕiu̯]	Proto-Ryukyuan also has *masyo, which is derived from *siwo (the Japanese cognate is mashio "refined salt"). Both words are attested in Okinawan. A derivative is *o-shipo ("salt water, seawater; tide"), reflected in Japanese ushio and Namari oshio.
156	stone	*esoy	eshi えし [e.ɕi]	This word shifted to the first declension; its doublet eso えそ means "coast, seashore".
157	sand	*suna	suna すな [sy.na]
158	dust	*tiri	chī ちー [t͡ɕiː]
159	earth	*[m,n]i?, *tuti	tuchi つち [θy.t͡ɕi]	This word is difficult to reconstruct. Japanese has tsuchi, but Proto-Ryukyuan uses *mitya. My reconstruction relies on Ryukyuan evidence as well as the Japanese word shirani ("white soil, as pigment"), which contains the element -ni. Note that a reflex of *tuti can be found in Kunigami (as -chichi), hence I have a second word reconstructed. Unrelated to *memensu ("earthworm").
160	cloud	*kumo	kumo くも [ku.mo]
161	fog	*kuiri	kī きー [ciː]
162	sky	*sora	soya そや [so.ja]
163	wind	*kansay	kaze (kazano) かぜ、かざの [ka.ze], [ka.za.no]
164	snow	*yoki	yoki よき [jo.ci]
165	ice	*kəpər-i	kōi こーい [koːi̯]
166	smoke	*kaimpu-[r,s]i	kebui けぶい [ke.βyː]	Ryukyuan uses the /s/ alternant. The /m/ in Japanese kemuri is secondary.
167	fire	*poy	pī (pono) ひー、ほの [pʲiː], [po.no]
168	ash	*papi	pai はい [pɛː]
169	to burn	*moya-y-ru	moyu (moeyo) もゆ、もえよ [mo.jɯ], [moj.jo]	Not related to the verb "to bud, to sprout", which comes from a different root (*məy-a-y-ru), even though the two verbs are homophones in Japanese and Namari.
170	road	*mi-ti	michi みち [mʲi.t͡ɕi]
171	mountain	*yama, *məri	yama やま [ja.ma]
172	red	*aka	aka あか [a.ka]
173	green	*awo	medoi, ao めどい、あお [me.ðøː], [au̯]	*awo generally means "blue". Japanese midori originally meant "bud, sprout", and possibly derived from Proto-Japonic *məy ("bud, sprout") via *məin-təri. Ryukyuan cognates I've found include Miyako miduz, Kunigami midurī and Okinawan miduri; Amami uses a different word mēja, derived from *məy-ay-inta(y).
174	yellow	*ko-y	ki-, kī (kono) きー、この [ciː], [ko.no]
175	white	*sira, *siro	shiya, shiyo しや、しよ [ɕi.ja], [ɕi.jo]
176	black	*kura, kuro	kuyo くよ [ku.jo]
177	night	*yo-ru	yoyu よゆ [jo.jɯ]
178	day	*pi	pī ひー [pʲiː]
179	year	*təsey	toshi (toseno) とし、とせの [to.ɕi], [to.se.no]
180	warm	*noku-	noku- のく [no.ku]	While Japanese generally uses atatakai, the reflex of *noku- still exists in the word nukumori ("warmth") and in the Kansai dialect (nukui).
181	cold	*pi-	samu-, pita- さむ、ひた [sa.mu], [pʲi.ta]	I believe that Japanese samui is of secondary development, and the original Proto-Japonic root *sampu- actually means "lonely" (c.f. sabishii "lonely, desolate"), although it is possible that the similar root *sam- actually means "cold" based on Ryukyuan evidence. I am unsure of the etymology of tsumetai. The *pi- root is used in Ryukyuan, while in Japanese it is limited to hieru ("to cool down") and its derivatives. My evidence is flimsy, but I believe that the vowel is /i/ rather than /e/ (Kunigami may have a reflex of a *pe- root, but again my evidence is flimsy).
182	full	*mit-o-y-ru	mitu (michiyo) みつ、みちよ [mʲi.θy], [mʲi.t͡ɕi.jo]	The */t/ and */o/ are confirmed by Amami evidence (through the form miθuri).
183	new	*[m,n]ipi	nī-, ayata- にー、あやた [ɲiː], [a.ja.ta]
184	old	*puru	puyu- ふゆ [pu.jɯ]
185	good	*yə-	ei えい [eː]
186	bad	*waru	wayu- わゆ [wa.jɯ]
187	rotten	*kusar-	kusayu (kusae) くさゆ、くさえ [ku.sa.jɯ], [ku.sai̯]
188	dirty	*kitana-	kitana- きたな [ci.ta.na]
189	straight	*sunko	sugo- すご [sy.ɣo]
190	round	*maru-	mayu- まゆ [ma.jɯ]
191	sharp (blade)		suido- すいど [syː.ðo]	I cannot find Ryukyuan words with this meaning, hence there is no reconstruction.
192	dull (blade)	*nempu-	nebu- ねぶ [ne.βu]
193	smooth	*nam(p)e-	namekka なめっか [na.mek.ka]
194	wet	*nuray-ru	nuyu (nueyo) ぬゆ、ぬえよ [nu.jɯ], [nuj.jo]	The Okinawan cognate is ndiyun, from an earlier pre-form *nurer-
195	dry	*kawak-u	kauku (kauke) かうく、かうけ [kɔː.ku], [kɔː.ke]
196	correct	*tantasi-	tadashi- ただし [ta.ða.ɕi]
197	near	*tika-	chika- ちか [t͡ɕi.ka]
198	far	*təpə-	tō- とー [toː]
199	right	*[m,n]inki-ri	migī みぎー [mʲi.ʝiː]
200	left	*pin-tari	pidai ひだい [pʲi.ðɛː]
201	at	*ni	(locative)
202	in	*ni	(locative)
203	with	*tə, *si	(comitative, instrumental)
204	and	*tə	-to と [to]
205	if	*-mpa	-ba ば [βa]
206	because		-kka っか [kːa]
207	name	*na	nā なー [naː]

Note: Where I have [m,n] it reflects an alternation between Japanese and the Ryukyuan languages between the two consonants:

• Proto-Japonic *[m,n]ipi becomes Japanese nii but Okinawan miisan.
• Proto-Japonic *[m,n]inki-ri becomes Japanese migi(ri) but Okinawan nijiri.

Numerals

I have reconstructed the following numerals:

Value	Proto-Japonic	Namari (Yaezora)
1	*pitə/*te-	pito ひと [pʲi.to]
2	*puta/*ta-	puta ふた [pu.ta]
3	*mi	mi み [mʲi]
4	*yə	yo よ [jo]
5	*itu	etu えつ [e.θy]
6	*mu	mu む [mu]
7	*nana/*nanə(N)	nana なな [na.na]
8	*ya	ya や [ja]
9	*kəkənə	kokono ここの [ko.ko.no]
10	*təwə	tō とー [toː]
20	*pata	pata はた [pa.ta]
×10	*-so	-so そ [so]
100	*momo	momo もも [mo.mo]
×100	*-po?	-o お [wo], [u̯], [ː]
1,000	*ti	chi ち [t͡ɕi]
10,000	*yərən-tu	yoyozu よよず [jo.jo.ðy]

Animals

English	Proto-Japonic	Namari (Yaezora)	Notes
dog	*(w)enu	eni (enuga) えに、えぬが [e.ɲi], [e.nu.ɣa]
cat		mai まい [mɛː]	This is unreconstructible. Japanese neko(ma) is, I believe, secondary, and I can reconstruct *maya for Proto-Ryukyuan. The Namari form also comes from *maya.
cow	*usi	oshi おし [o.ɕi]
pig	*sisi	ijishi いじし [i.ʑi.ɕi]	While the Japonic languages generally use some variant of *sisi, Japanese has a preform *wi-nə-sisi (whence inoshishi), which is also the origin of Namari ijishi.
sheep	*pitunsi	pituji ひつじ [pʲi.θy.ʑi]
goat	*pinsa?	piza ひざ [pʲi.za]	This reconstruction is tentative. I believe it is related to *pitunsi ("sheep"), and is reflected in Proto-Ryukyuan as *pi(n)zya. The etymology of Japanese yagi is unknown.
whale	*kuntira	kujiya くじや [ku.ʑi.ja]
bear	*koma	koma こま [ko.ma]	Japanese has kuma, which actually violates my hypothesis on the lack of mid vowel raising before */a/. I am fairly certain that this word has */o/ based on evidence from Peninsular Japonic (and arguably Korean), but I have not been able to find suitable Ryukyuan cognates to confirm this. It is in fact possible that Japanese kuma actually has a doublet koma ("four-legged animal"), but I do not know the etymology of the latter (or even its attestation; all I know about it is that it was used in nekoma "cat"). On the other hand, it is entirely possible that the /o/ in Peninsular Japonic is an innovation (compare shema, attested in Korea, to Proto-Ryukyuan *sima), and that the actual protoform is indeed *kuma. So far, I have yet to determine if the vowel is */o/ or */u/ (I do not know any Sakishima words that could be cognate with Japanese kuma, and Northern Ryukyuan is ambiguous).
mouse	*nain-sum-i?	nezumi ねずみ [ne.ðy.mʲi]	This reconstruction is tentative. Outside of Amami (which has nïzïn, directly cognate with Japanese nezumi), the Ryukyuan languages use different derivations for "mouse, rat" (e.g. Miyako yumunu, from *yo-mənə; Okinawan 'wenchu is a compound of possible form *əy-a-nə-pitə, literally "parents' person").
fox	*kitu-ne	kitune きつね [ci.θy.ne]
horse	*(m)uma	uma, mma うま、んま [u.ma], [m̩.ma]	A possible loanword from Chinese, but it can be reconstructed for Proto-Japonic as reflexes can be found in most Japonic languages.
rabbit	*wosanki	osagi おさぎ [o.sa.ʝi]	In Namari, both o- and u- are found as combining forms; the latter is used if the following mora begins with a consonant and has a high vowel. A longer combining form osa- is also found. As of now, I have yet to determine whether mid vowel raising is, like in bisyllablic words, conditional in trisyllablic words for the first vowel. I do recall wosagi(1) existing in Old Japanese, but I am unsure of its dialectal distribution; it is only attested once in the Old Japanese corpus, in an Eastern poem (and *usagi1 is unattested).

Reconstruction issues

There are a number of unresolved issues when reconstructing Proto-Japonic vocabulary.

Cardinal directions

So far, I have only reconstructed these terms for Proto-Ryukyuan (north: *nisi, east: *aga-r-i, south: *pa(y)e, west: *ir-i), and only if one takes into account the modern languages. The language of the Omoro Sōshi features nishi meaning both "west" (as in Japanese) and "north", as well as the terms kami and shimo for "north" and "south" respectively.

The Japanese terms are in general different from those of the Ryukyuan languages. Japanese still has nishi, but it means "west" instead of "north" (and based on evidence from the Omoro Sōshi, I believe the "west" meaning is the original meaning of Proto-Japonic *nisi). The other three terms do not match with their Ryukyuan counterparts. The terms kita and minami ("north" and "south" respectively) do not have any transparent etymologies (note that Japanese also has hae, meaning "south wind" and cognate with the Ryukyuan terms for "south"), while higashi is of secondary development (a compound of hi "sun" with a form of muku "to face a direction"). Japanese also has azuma ("east"), derived from Old Japanese aduma, but also with an unclear etymology.

Because of these differences, I have had to make my own words for the cardinal directions in Namari (and their corresponding winds, if separate):

• North: kami (かみ)
• East: pingai (ひんがい), kochi (こち)
• South: shimo (しも), pae (はえ)
• West: nishi (にし)

The derivations are as follows:

• North: From Proto-Japonic *kami, meaning "upper; northern".
• East: A compound of Old Namari pi ("sun", from Proto-Japonic *pi) and mukapi, the infinitive of mukapu ("to face a direction", from Proto-Japonic *muk-ap-; compare Okinawan nkayun). Compare Japanese higashi, derived from Old Japanese *pi₁-muka-si. The term kochi is of unclear derivation, but does originate from Proto-Japonic *kəti.
• South: From Proto-Japonic *simo, meaning "lower; southern". The term pae may be an old loanword from Sanskrit (via Chinese), but is reconstructible for Proto-Japonic, the protoform being *paye.
• West: From Proto-Japonic *nisi, meaning "origin; west"

Family

Reconstructing terms for family and relations have proved very difficult, due to the variation between languages, and even between dialects. So far, I can only reconstruct four words confidently (and several more tentatively) in this semantic category:

• *əy-a, meaning "parent" (the root *əy-, means "to grow old"; I am unsure whether Japanese oiru "to grow old" corresponds to *əy-əy- or *əy-[u,o]y, due to ambiguities found in what little I've found in Ryukyuan; for Namari I assume *əy-əy-)
• *amo, meaning "mother" (tentatively, also *papa)
• *ətə, meaning "younger sibling"
• *itoko, meaning "cousin" (confirmed by Okinawan ichuku)
• Tentatively, *sosa, meaning "older sibling"

I can only trace e ("older sibling") to Proto-Japanese (whose form is *ye), but oto ("younger sibling") does go back to Proto-Japonic.

Namari has the following terms:

• oya (おや), meaning "parent"
• amo (あも), meaning "mother" (alternatively はは papa, although due to language contact this variant is archaic and easily confused)
• kazo (かぞ), meaning "father"
• wayabe (わやべ), meaning "child"
• oyobe (およべ), meaning "son" (ultimately derived from Old Namari wo- + warabe)
• maibe (まいべ), meaning "daughter" (ultimately derived from Old Namari me- + warabe)
• moko (もこ), meaning "son-in-law" (also means "groom", from Proto-Japonic *moko "groom; son-in-law")
• yome (よめ), meaning "daughter-in-law" (also means "bride", from Proto-Japonic *yəme "bride; daughter-in-law")
• sosa (そさ), meaning "older sibling" (bound form え e)
• onnae (おんなえ), meaning "older sister" (derived from onna + -e; colloquially, あね ane or ねー nē)
• okkonoe (おっこのえ), meaning "older brother" (derived from otoko + -no + -e; colloquially, あに ani or にー nī)
• oto (おと), meaning "younger sibling"
• otouto (おとうと), meaning "younger brother"
• imouto (いもうと), meaning "younger sister"
• itoko (いとこ), meaning "cousin"
• pamae (はまえ), meaning "grandmother" (derived from pa- + mae)
• shimae (しまえ), meaning "grandfather" (derived from shi- + mae)
• oyamae (おやまえ), meaning "grandparent"
• mmago (んまご), meaning "grandchild" (tentatively I reconstruct *(m)uman-ko, but most Ryukyuan words are descendants of Proto-Ryukyuan *(m)umaga, with only Yonaguni using *(m)umago)
• umango (うまんご), meaning "grandson"
• umamme (うまんめ), meaning "granddaughter"
• The above six terms may be prefixed with pi- (ひ) to refer to great-grandparents or great-grandchildren. This prefix can be repeated to increase the generational gap by one per repeat.
• oji (おじ), meaning "uncle" (tentatively I reconstruct *wən-si, and the only Ryukyuan word I can find is Yoron fuja)
• oba (おば), meaning "aunt" (tentatively I reconstruct *wəm-pa)
• oiko (おいこ), meaning "nephew" (derived from earlier oi + -ko; tentatively I reconstruct *wə-pi)
• meiko (めいこ), meaning "niece" (derived from earlier mei + -ko; tentatively I reconstruct *me-pi)
• The above four terms also accept the pi- prefix to increase the generational gap (i.e. one prefix referring to great-uncles/great-aunts/etc.)
• yauchi (やうち), meaning "family" (unreconstructible in Proto-Japonic, the Namari term is derived from ya- "house" + ochi "one's own group")

Verb conjugation

You may have noticed that I only gave stems for verbs in the above lists. This is because reconstruction of the Proto-Japonic verbal system is fraught with uncertainty. So far, I have made the following observations:

• In general, there are vowel-stem (thematic) and consonant-stem (athematic) verbs. Most (but not all) thematic verb stems end in a diphthong.
• Consonant-stem verbs add an epenthetic *-a- (which may alternate with *-ə-, but my evidence is flimsy) whenever a suffix beginning with a consonant is added (e.g. *kak- "to scratch; to write" becomes *kak-a-n- "not to scratch; not to write", with *-n- being the negation suffix; compare *ankay- "to rise" becoming *ankai-n- "not to rise").
• The general infinitive suffix is *-i. This suffix may be elided after vowel stems ending in */i/ or a diphthong.
• The general attributive suffix I reconstruct as *-ro. The */r/ is lost in consonant-stem verbs as a result of Whitman's Law. Some reconstruct an earlier *-rua, but in my opinion any differences can be explained by other factors (key word: can; I actually think the diphthongal realisation is highly likely, and may have originated from an earlier **-ruCa). My explanation for Western Old Japanese -u (as opposed to the expected -o in word-final position) is that attributives were syntactically adjectives in ancient Japanese, and thus phonologically bound to the following word.
• The general imperative suffix I reconstruct as *-ryə, which becomes **-iə/**-ia → *-e for consonant stems. The glide explains the different forms between Western Japanese (-yo), Eastern Japanese (-ro) and Ryukyuan (-ru for dialects that retain the thematic-athematic distinction), as well as Proto-Japonic *-e for consonant stems (in conjunction with Whitman's Law).
• Most Japonic languages have a participle/gerundive marked with -te (for Japanese) or -ti (for Ryukyuan), subject to euphonic changes (Irabu Miyako has lost the participle, and has replaced it with the infinitive, although traces of the participle can be found). This ultimately originates from Proto-Japonic *-tay, which attaches to the infinitive (e.g. *kak-i-tay "writing", *ankai-(i)-tay "rising").
• Consistently, the most irregular verb in the Japonic languages is *kə- ("to come"). It is, as far as I know, the only verb whose stem does not end either in a consonant or a front vowel.
• The general prohibitive suffix I reconstruct as *-ru-na. The */r/ is lost in consonant-stem verbs as a result of Whitman's Law. I am still investigating the link between the prohibitive and the attributive (note that I had the Namari prohibitive level with the attributive).
• For Proto-Ryukyuan, I reconstruct the past tense marker *-tar-. A similar marker existed in Classical Japanese, but it represented the perfect. As such, I do not reconstruct tense for Proto-Japonic, but do reconstruct a perfect *-tar-.

Auxillaries I can reconstruct include:

• *-ar- for the stative (from the inanimate existential)
• *-wor- for the progressive (from the animate existential)
• *-ək- for the preparative/prospective (from "to put")
• *-mi- for the experiential (from "to see")

All of the above auxillaries attach to the participle.

Derivative verb forms include:

• *-sas- for the causative
• *-raryay- for the passive

Both attach directly to the stem. In the case of consonant-stem verbs, the initial consonant of the suffix is lost.

As of writing (2019-05-02), I have noticed a disagreement between two Wiktionary users regarding the proper form to use as the lemma for Proto-Japonic verbs. This is because the typical lemma for verbs in Japonic languages is the conclusive (only very early missionary dictionaries use the infinitive as the lemma), and the conclusive varies significantly between the Japonic languages (Japanese -u, Hachijō -u/-owa, Okinawan -(y)un, Yaeyama -un). In addition, I reconstruct a realis marker *-m(u) for Proto-Ryukyuan, which attaches to many (but not all) finite verb forms.

The general pattern I've found for conclusive forms is:

• Japanese: -u, from Proto-Japanese *-u, which replaces the thematic vowel in most vowel-stems.
• Northern Ryukyuan: *-i-wor-, derived from the combination of the infinitive with the animate existential. All languages also add the realis marker *-m(u).
• Southern Ryukyuan (Sakishima): Unclear; may be a reflex of Proto-Japonic *-u, as evidenced in Irabu Miyako kafum ("to write", from a protoform *kakum(u)). Like with the Northern Ryukyuan languages, the realis marker *-m(u) is added (note that Ōgami Miyako has all but lost the indicative).

From the above, I can reconstruct Proto-Japonic *-u for the conclusive, based on evidence from Japanese and Miyako. However, I am unclear on how it interacts with vowel stems, as Japanese replaces the thematic vowel, Okinawan has since lost the thematic-athematic distinction (what were vowel stems have since fallen into the "clear" conjugational class along with r- and p-stems), and Irabu Miyako uses an infix -r-. It is indeed possible that the conclusive is actually *-ru, which would actually fit in with the forms of the attributive (**ruCa → *-rua → *-ro) and the prohibitive (*-ru-na) I have reconstructed. The */r/ would be lost in consonant-stem verbs in accordance with Whitman's Law. Additionally, the existential verbs *ar- and *wor- would not have any suffix in the conclusive, since preforms *ar-m(u) and *wor-m(u) would explain Okinawan 'an and wun respectively (their attributives are 'aru and wuru respectively, reflecting preforms *ar-ro and *wor-ro respectively).

Speaking of the existentials, they actually have derived forms. The inanimate existential *ar- may actually have a derived form *as- resembling a causative; this is the accepted etymology of the Miyako verb asïm/as ("to do"), and bears resemblance to other forms of "to do" in the other languages (which have generally been considered to have descended from *se-). Additionally, it has a derived form *ay- ("to get, to receive"), attested in Japanese (as -uru/eru) and Okinawan (as yīn). The animate existential *wor- has an inchoative form *woy- ("to sit"), which is attested in Japanese (as iru the animate existential) and Ryukyuan (e.g. Hateruma Yaeyama birun).

The issue of reconstructing *se- for "to do" is it does not follow the general pattern for verbs (which end either in a consonant or /i/). While *kə- ("to come") also does not follow the general pattern, it may have derived from an earlier **k-, especially if my hypothesis regarding *a/*ə alternation within verbs is correct (i.e. **k=ən- → *kə-n- "not to come" corresponds to *kak-an- "not to write" and **k=ryə → **k-yə → *kə "come!" corresponds to **kak=ryə → **kak-ya → *kak-e "write!"). The verb *se- has no such explanation with regards to its */e/. At least one person has suggested that it may have come from **si-a, with *-a- being the "imperfective" infix (e.g. **si-an- "not to do"), but I don't find his/her evidence convincing (there is no proof that historic Old Japanese ever distinguished between se₁ and se₂, and thus attempts to use the Middle Chinese pronunciations of man'yogana to determine the exact phonological shape are doomed to failure). Additionally, I've always seen *-a- as an epenthetic vowel, meaning it should not occur after a vowel or diphthong (since a consonant can directly follow them).

A more convincing argument comes from Miyako, which has the form as- instead of s-. This can be traced to a possible protoform *as-, which may have inflected as a regular consonant-stem verb. It is entirely possible that this was the original form of "to do", and that Japanese has innovated (I am unsure about Northern Ryukyuan, although I believe that *s- was inherited as-is; Hateruma Yaeyama sun "to do" is a regular class 1 verb reflecting a preform *s-). This is what I believe happened in Japanese:

• Proto-Japonic *as- became *s-.
• Forms such as *s-an- ("not to do") and *s-aryay- ("to be done") were initially retained, while **as=ryə ("do!") probably became *se. The infinitive remained *s-i and the conclusive developed via the path **as=ru → *as-u → *s-u.
• The formation of the attributive and evidential was likely to have occurred after the loss of */a/, forming **s=rua → *suro and *s=ruay → *suray.
• At some point, *-ryə was added to the imperative *se, forming *se-ryə (whence Classical Japanese seyo). While the causative *s-as- and the passive *s-aryay- remained unchanged, the negative was remodelled based on the imperative, becoming *se-n-. In the mean time, both *se and *se-ryə occurred in free variation.

For Namari, I have generally taken the verb forms of Japanese, although I have also taken the imperfective-perfective distinction found in Okinawan. In addition, I have innovated a future tense. With regards to the conclusive, I generally follow Japanese, although for monograde verbs I use -i instead of -ru (which would become *-yu).

With regard to consonant-stem verbs, the reconstruction of the conclusive as *-ru may be able to explain why there are only nine subclasses of consonant-stem verbs when thirteen are expected. So far, I have not seen any trace of d-stem, z-stem, y-stem or w-stem verbs in any Japonic language. I offer the following explanations:

• The lack of y-stem verbs is simply a consequence of Proto-Japonic phonotactics; */j/ readily forms diphthongs when it follows a vowel, and in fact, the lack of y-stems is in my opinion the reason there is even a separate vowel-stem class in the first place. Therefore, especially considering that the vast majority of vowel-stem verbs end in */j/, I hypothesise that y-stem verbs and vowel-stem verbs are one and the same.
• Similarly, a lack of w-stem verbs is a consequence of phonotactics, although in this case, the conjugations are realigned to form an r-stem verb. Although I only tentatively reconstruct one diphthong ending in */u/ (*/au̯/), it is possible that a number of modern r-stems, particularly those ending in -or- or -ur-, actually originated from Pre-Proto-Japonic w-stems. It will not be possible to determine if any -ur- verbs were originally w-stems, but some -or- stem verbs may originate from Pre-Proto-Japonic **-aw- verbs.
• The lack of d-stem and z-stem verbs may be a consequence of assimilation. Hypothetical Pre-Proto-Japonic stems ending in **-nt- and **-ns- would have had conclusive forms in **-nt=ru and **-ns=ru respectively. While their non-nasalised counterparts **-t=ru and **-s=ru lost the */r/ due to Whitman's Law, it is possible that the fact that the coronals are nasalised (and thus voiced) resulted in rhotacisation of the coronal, via **-nt=ru → **-nd=ru → **-r=ru → *-r-u. This process would have also affected most n-stems as well, resulting in **-n=ru becoming **-r=ru. The n-stems that escaped this development are extremely rare, and I can only reconstruct one for Proto-Japonic (*sin- "to die"); it is notable that the two n-stem verbs in Classical Japanese are irregular (albeit conjugating identically to each other), showing forms that do not display the effects of Whitman's Law (e.g. shinuru instead of *shinu for the attributive).

Development of Japanese bigrade verbs

Unique to the Japanese branch(es) is the bigrade verb category; I have yet to find any such verb class in any Ryukyuan language. The bigrade class in Japanese alternates the thematic vowel between -e-/-i- and -u-, and in Western Old Japanese, the only regular class that distinguishes between the conclusive and attributive. In my opinion, this represents an innovation within Japanese, whereas the Ryukyuan languages kept the thematic vowel of vowel-stems invariant.

The bigrade class changes the thematic vowel to -u- in the conclusive (-u), attributive (-uru) and evidential (emphatic, -ure) base forms, while keeping the original thematic vowel in the imperfective (-e), infinitive (-e) and imperative (-e(yo)) base forms. Most likely, this was the situation in Proto-Japonic (using *-ay- verbs):

• Infinitive: *-ay-i → *-ay
• Conclusive: *-ai-ru
• Attributive: **-ai-ruCa → *-ai-rua → *-ai-ruo
• Emphatic: **-ai-ruCay → *-ai-ruay
• Imperative: *-ai-ryə
• Negative: *-ai-n-

In Pre-Proto-Japanese, I hypothesise the following forms:

• Conclusive: *-ai-ru
• Attributive: *-ai-ruo → *-a-uro
• Emphatic: *-ai-ruay → *-a-uray

As you can see above, the attributive and emphatic forms underwent metathesis of the */u/ and */r/ (in the Ryukyuan languages, the */u/ was lost). By analogy with *se- (which by this point likely developed a conclusive *s-u), the conclusive evolved to *-u. Thus for Proto-Japanese:

• Conclusive: *-ai-ru → **-a-u → *-u
• Attributive: *-a-uro → *-uro
• Emphatic: *-a-uray → *-uray

The loss of *-a- in the *-u- forms was likely conditioned by *se- and *kə- (both irregular and highly used verbs), whose conclusive, attributive and emphatic forms began with *su- and *ku- respectively. It is unlikely that the development of *-a-u- to *-u- (as opposed to monophthongisation into *-o- or retention of the diphthong into the separate dialects) was conditioned by thematics in *-uy- and *-oy-, as the vast majority of vowel stems were *-ay- stems. However, the existence of forms such as -o₍₁₎ro₍₁₎ suggest that some dialects may have monophthongised the *-a-u- instead of dropping the */a/ (although this may instead be a scribal error).

The end result is that Western Old Japanese developed the following paradigm:

• Infinitive: -e₂
• Conclusive: -u
• Attributive: -uru
• Emphatic: -ure₍₂₎
• Imperative: -e₂yo₂
• Negative: -e₂n-

For Eastern Old Japanese:

• Infinitive: -e
• Conclusive: -u
• Attributive: *-uro₁/*-o₁ro₁
• Emphatic: -ure/*-o₁re
• Imperative: -ero₂
• Negative: -en-

And for completeness, here is Old Namari:

• Infinitive: -e₂
• Conclusive: -u ← -o₁
• Attributive: -o₁ro₁
• Emphatic: -o₁re₂
• Imperative: -e₂ro₂
• Negative: -e₂n-

It should be noted that Japanese retained a monograde class; these likely originated from stems ending in the monophthong *-i- (such as *mi- "to see"). As far as I know, all monograde verbs in Old Japanese had monosyllabic stems, and it is likely that the strength of the vowel within this stem prevented it from being lost, instead causing */u/ to drop out, although an alternate hypothesis I will also put up is that plain i-stems (which would be represented in Western Old Japanese as stems ending in -i₁-) represented an entirely different conjugational class from the upper bigrade stems, which developed from *-uy-, *-oy- and *-əy- stems (forming -i₂-).

By the Early Middle Japanese period, the distinction between monograde and bigrade stems had blurred, with the consolidation of monosyllabic stems into the former and polysyllabic stems into the latter. This process, having already begun in the Old Japanese period, was likely conditioned by the merger of i₁ and i₂ into a single vowel /i/, and the more numerous lower vowel stems followed.

Comparison of conjugation systems

Japanese

Traditionally, Japanese verbs were described using six different base stems. In the modern language, two, the conclusive and the attributive, have all but merged, leaving five base stems, which are listed below for each conjugational class (alongside the participle):

Class	Imperfective	Infinitive	Attributive	Hypothetical	Imperative	Participle
Quinquegrade	kak-a	kak-i	kak-u	kak-e	kak-e	ka-ite
Monograde	oki-	oki-	oki-ru	oki-re	oki-ro	oki-te
"to come"	ko	ki	kuru	kure	koi	kite
"to do"	se/shi	shi	suru	sure	shiro	shite
"to be" (copula)	daro	de	na (da)	nara/de are	(de are)	datte

The participle in Modern Japanese has effectively become another base stem due to euphonic changes in quinquegrade (athematic) verbs. However, with a few exceptions (the most notable being iku becoming itte), they can be determined based on the final consonant of the stem alone. Thus, for most verbs, two principal parts (the conclusive/attributive and the imperative) are sufficient to describe their conjugation.

Attributive	Participle
wara-u	wara-tte
kak-u	ka-ite
oyog-u	oyo-ide
sas-u	sash-ite
mats-u	ma-tte
shin-u	shi-nde
tob-u	to-nde
yom-u	yo-nde
hashir-u	hashi-tte

One thing to note, though, is that the Hachijō language distinguishes between the conclusive and attributive in consonant stems (they had merged in Classical Japanese), with the attributive being -o and the conclusive being -u or -owa (I am unsure of the etymology of the latter).

The tense-aspect system of Japanese is illustrated in the following table, using kaku ("to write") as an example:

Tense	Present		Past
Aspect	Affirmative	Negative	Affirmative	Negative
Aorist	kaku	kakanai	kaita	kakanakatta
Progressive	kaite(i)ru	kaite(i)nai	kaite(i)ta	kaite(i)nakatta
Stative	kaitearu	kaitenai	kaiteatta	kaitenakatta
Preparative	kait(e)oku	kait(e)okanai	kait(e)oita	kait(e)okanakatta
Experiential	kaitemiru	kaiteminai	kaitemita	kaiteminakatta

Some dialects, such as those in Chūgoku and Shikoku, feature an additional aspect marked by adding oru to the infinitive (the auxillary morphs into yoru), giving forms such as kakiyoru (the reflex of the progressive in these dialects is kait(e)oru). This additional aspect form is cognate with the Northern Ryukyuan imperfective, and indeed in these dialects the -yoru form has an imperfective meaning (whereas the original progressive has morphed into a perfect/resultative). Unlike in the Northern Ryukyuan languages, however, the aorist present is still in use in these dialects.

It is important to note that the Japanese past tense does not exclusively refer to past events; it also takes the role of a perfect, making its meaning closer to that of the French passé composé rather than either the English past or perfect.

Japanese has the following derivative verb forms:

• Causative voice: -(s)aseru
• Passive voice: -(r)areru
• Potential voice: -eru for quinquegrade verbs, -rareru for other verbs
• Polite form: -(i)masu

Unlike in Okinawan, the polite form is only commonly used predicatively. None of these forms attach to verbal adjectives; the polite forms of adjectives simply attach desu to the end as if it were a particle.

The verb suru is exceptional with respect to the formation of their voice forms:

• Causative: saseru, not the expected *sesaseru
• Passive: sareru, not the expected *serareru
• Potential: dekiru, which is suppletive

Verbal adjectives conjugate differently in Japanese. Instead of ending in -u, they end in -i, and do not conjugate for aspect or voice. As such, there are only four finite forms (using takai "to be tall, to be high"):

• Present affirmative taka-i
• Past affirmative taka-katta
• Present negative taka-ku-na-i
• Past negative taka-ku-na-katta

The general adverbial suffix is -ku.

The inanimate existential aru has a suppletive negative nai, which conjugates like any other verbal adjective (note, however, that Kansai dialects use the regular arahen). Neither the inanimate nor the animate existential iru (oru in Kansai dialects) conjugate for voice or aspect in Japanese, and not only does the copula lack aspect and voice conjugations, it is also defective, requiring analytical constructions for the imperative.

Okinawan

For this section I will refer to Loveless and his dissertation on the Okinawan language (1963). While over 55 years old, the fact that the Ryukyuan languages are moribund and primarily spoken by the elderly makes it still relevant. However, I have made some changes to conform to more modern practices regarding the language.

Okinawan has more conjugational classes than Japanese, despite the fact that it has lost the thematic-athematic distinction. It has twelve regular conjugational classes, all of which can be described using three principal parts (the conclusive, the participle and the imperative). Their respective forms are as follows:

Class	Example	Stem 1	Preform	Stem 2	Preform	Stem 3	Preform
1 (clear)	tuin ("to take")	tuy-	*tory-	tut-	*tot-	tur-	*tor-
2 (nasal clear)	ninjun ("to sleep")	ninj-	*nemury-	nint-	*nemut-	nind-	*nemur-
3 (semi-clear)	chiyun ("to wear")	chiy-	*kiry-	chich-	*kit-	chir-	*kir-
4 (nasal semi-clear)	nnjun ("to see")	nnj-	*miry-	nnch-	*mit-	nnd-	*mir-
5 (geminate clear)	chiyun ("to cut")	chiy-	*kiry-	chitch-	*kitt-	chir-	*kir-
6 (t-stem)	kachun ("to win")	kach-	*katy-	katch-	*katit-	kat-	*kat-
7 (s-stem)	fusun ("to dry")	fus- ← fush-	*posy-	fuch-	*posit-	fus-	*pos-
8 (n-stem)	shinun ("to die")	shin-	*siny-	shij-	*sinit-	shin-	*sin-
9 (b-stem)	tubun ("to fly")	tub-	*toby-	tud-	*tond-	tub-	*tob-
10 (m-stem)	kamun ("to eat")	kam- (→ kan-)	*kamy-	kad-	*kand-	kam-	*kam-
11 (k-stem)	kachun ("to write")	kach-	*kaky-	kach-	*kait-	kak-	*kak-
12 (g-stem)	tujun ("to sharpen")	tuj-	*togy-	tuj-	*toid-	tug-	*tog-
1i (irregular)	-arīn ("passive")	-ariy-	*-arery-	-att-	*-att-	-ar-	*-ar-
3i (irregular)	'yun ("to say")	'y-	*iy-	'ich-	*it-	'y-	*iw-
	misēn (polite)	misē(y)-		misōch-		misōr-
7i (irregular)	sun ("to do")	s-	*si-	s-	*sit-	s-	*s-
11i (irregular)	'ichun ("to go")	'ich-	*eky-	'nj-	*(e)id-	'ik-	*ek-
	chūn ("to come")	ch-*	*ki-	ch-	*kit-	kū-*	*ko-

The "clear" conjugational classes are classes 1, 3 and 5, and have the special property in that they have a special "truncated" stem, which entirely removes the verbal suffix (e.g. tu- from tuin). They and the "nasal clear" classes (2 and 4; I use the term "nasal clear" for etymological reasons) all originate from a combination of vowel-stems, r-stems and Proto-Japonic p-stems. Not listed above is the animate existential wun, which is irregular in one form only.

The verb 'yun ("to say") has a regular variant 'iyun, which conjugates like any other class 3 verb. The irregular variant is the only remnant of the Proto-Japonic p-stem verb category in conjugation (additional remnants can be found in derivation).

The verb chūn ("to come") bears some explaining. Like in Japanese, this verb is highly irregular. Selected forms, compared with those of kachun ("to write"), are listed below:

	"to come"	"to write"
Present (1)	chūn	kachun
Perfect (2)	chēn	kachēn
Progressive (2)	chōn	kachōn
Negative (3)	kūn	kakan
Aorist past (2)	chan	kachan
Participle (2)	tchi	kachi
Infinitive (1)	chī	kachi
Volitional (3)	kū	kaka
Imperative (3)	kū	kaki
Imperfect (1)	chūtan	kachutan
Negative past (3)	kūntan	kakantan
Prohibitive (3)	kūnna	kakuna
Archaic attributive (3)	*kūru	kaku

Stem 1 of chūn has an irregular imperfective form, with a long /u/ instead of the short /u/ found in all other verbs (clear verbs may elide the /u/; I typically do this after /u/ and /i/, and remove the /ju/ entirely after long /e/). Stem 3, unlike all other verbs, is invariant, with the theme vowel of any attached suffixes being lost entirely (note that derivative verb forms add -r- to the stem; e.g. kūrasun "to be made to come"). Note that my reconstruction of the archaic attributive relies on Japanese evidence, as I am unsure of the status of the thematic-athematic distinction with respect to this form; the normal attributive is chūru. However, the prohibitive form kūnna may have arisen from an earlier *kūruna

Etymologically:

• Class 1 verbs are derived either from vowel-stems or r-stems that did not end in *-ir- in Proto-Ryukyuan. The example given, tuin, is cognate with Japanese toru.
• Class 2 verbs are derived from vowel-stems or r-stems which had a preceding *-nu- or *-mu- in Proto-Ryukyuan. The example given, ninjun, is cognate with Japanese nemuru.
• Class 3 verbs are derived from vowel stems that ended in *-i- in Proto-Ryukyuan. This */i/ induced progressive palatalisation, resulting in the participle form in /t͡ɕ/ instead of the expected /t/. The example given, chiyun, is cognate with Japanese kiru (monograde).
• Class 4 verbs are derived from vowel-stems or r-stems which had a preceding *-ni- or *-mi- in Proto-Ryukyuan. Like above, the */i/ induced progressive palatalisation. The example given, nnjun, is cognate with Japanese miru.
• Class 5 verbs are derived from r-stems that ended in *-ir- in Proto-Ryukyuan. Like the above two classes, the */i/ induced progressive palatalisation. The example given, chiyun, is cognate with Japanese kiru (quinquegrade).
• Class 6 verbs are derived from t-stems. Progressive palatalisation occurred regardless, due to the presence of the infinitive marker *-i-. The example given, kachun, is cognate with Japanese katsu.
• Class 7 verbs are derived from s-stems. Note the palatalisation in stem 1 (which has since been lost), and in stem 2 (similar to above). The example given, fusun, is cognate with Japanese hosu.
• Class 8 verbs are derived from n-stems. I only know of one verb in this class, shinun, and it is cognate with Japanese shinu.
• Class 9 verbs are derived from b-stems, and do not display any palatalisation. The example given, tubun, is cognate with Japanese tobu.
• Class 10 verbs are derived from m-stems, and like b-stems do not display any palatalisation, with the occasional exception of stem 1 (which may change to -n-). The example given, kamun, is cognate with Japanese kamu ("to bite, to chew").
• Class 11 verbs are derived from k-stems, and display palatalisation in both stems 1 and 2. The example given, kachun, is cognate with Japanese kaku.
• Class 12 verbs are derived from g-stems, and like k-stems display palatalisation in both stems 1 and 2. The example given, tujun, is cognate with Japanese togu.

With regards to Proto-Japonic p-stems, they have largely merged with the vowel-stems and r-stems. However, remnants of the p-stem category conjugations can be found in certain clear verb forms where -ā- is found when *-ara- is expected (e.g. warān "one does not laugh", from warayun "to laugh"), as well as their nominalisations, which have the form -ē as opposed to the infinitive -ai (the former comes from PJ *-api → PR *-awi, while the latter comes from *-ari). Loveless treated this as a morphophonemic phenomenon, but I interpret this as a retention of a separate conjugational class (which I will label 1a, for example).

Anyway, the tense-aspect system in Okinawan is slightly different to that of Japanese. The negative is morphologically considered an "aspect", and as such, there are fewer negative forms than affirmative forms. Despite this, negatives of the perfect and progressive are possible, and are formed analytically (using -nēn and -wuran respectively combined with a topicalised form of the participle). The tense-aspect forms of kachun ("to write") are listed below:

	Present	Past
Aorist	kachun (1)	kachan (2)
Imperfective		kachutan (1)
Perfect	kachēn (2)	kachētan (2)
Progressive	kachōn (2)	kachōtan (2)
Preparative	kachōchun (2)	kachōchan (2)
Experiential	kachinnjun (2)	kachinnchan (2)
Negative	kakan (3)	kakantan (3)
Negative Perfect	kachēnēn (2)	kachēnēntan (2)
Negative Progressive	kachēwuran (2)	kachēwurantan (2)
Negative Preparative	kachē'ukan (2)	kachē'ukantan (2)
Negative Experiential	kachēnndan (2)	kachēnndantan (2)

The tense-aspect forms of wun (the animate existential) are listed below:

	Present	Past
Aorist	wun (irr)	wutan (2)
Imperfective		wuitan (1)
Perfect	wutēn (2)	wutētan (2)
Progressive	wutōn (2)	wutōtan (2)
Preparative	wutōchun (2)	wutōchan (2)
Experiential	wutinnjun (2)	wutinnchan (2)
Negative	wuran (3)	wurantan (3)
Negative Perfect	wutēnēn (2)	wutēnēntan (2)
Negative Progressive	wutēwuran (2)	wutēwurantan (2)
Negative Preparative	wutē'ukan (2)	wutē'ukantan (2)
Negative Experiential	wutēnndan (2)	wutēnndantan (2)

It is important to note that the word-final -n in all forms except the negative present is a marker of the conclusive (specifically, a realis or indicative marker; -sa marks what I call the subjunctive and -ssā marks indirect evidentiality, and there are other markers which I won't list here). It is omitted in some environments, and in the attributive and in kakari-musubi constructions replaced with the attributive ending -ru. Note that the negative present has identical conclusive and attributive forms.

Some verbs (namely, verbal adjectives, the inanimate existential and the copula) do not conjugate for aspect. Verbal adjectives form their negatives analytically, while 'an (the inanimate existential) has a suppletive negative nē(ra)n and the copula yan has the negative 'aran. However, apart from the lack of aspect, Okinawan stative and essive verbs conjugate identically to their non-defective counterparts (except with the lack of voice).

The derivative verb forms are listed below:

• Causative: -asun (stem 3, class 7)
• Passive/Potential: -arīn (stem 3, class 1i)
• Polite: -abīn (stem 1, class 1)

Note that the polite form listed above does not co-occur with the perfect and progressive aspects. Instead, the infix -ibī- is added between the aspect marker and any following suffixes (e.g. kachōibītan "one was writing"). All stative and affirmative essive verbs take this infix as well (although note that yaibīn may become yēbīn in colloquial speech).

While unlike in Japanese sun has a regular passive (sarīn), its causative is irregular (shimīn instead of *sasun). Some other verbs may also have irregular causatives and/or passives (e.g. the passive of nnjun "to see" is mīyun "to be seen" and the causative is mishīn "to show"). The verb sun is exceptional in that its passive is not used as a potential; instead nayun is used.

The negative essives, on the other hand, take the normal polite suffix, giving nēbiran and 'ayabiran.

There are two classes of verbal adjectives in Okinawan, although they are only distinguished in two forms (the nominalised form and the adverbial form) as a result of the depalatalisation of /ɕ/ before non-front vowels. The differences are listed below, using fī ("cold", class 1), taka ("high", class 1) and mijirashi ("unusual", class 2):

Verb form	Noun form	Degree form	Adverb form
fīsan	fī	fīsa	fīku
takasan	takā	takasa	takaku
mijirasan	mijirashī	mijirasa	mijirashiku