Reconstruction:Proto-Japonic/nə
Proto-Japonic edit
Etymology edit
Probably an apophonic form of *-na (“genitive marker”).
Particle edit
*nə
- genitive case marker
Usage notes edit
According to Pellard (2023), Proto-Japonic *-nka originally applied only to genitive forms of pronouns. Elsewhere, *nə was used. In Proto-Ryukyuan, due to later animistic influence, it was semantically extended as a nominative case marker (Proto-Japonic simply used the bare noun for the nominative).
However, in Old Japanese, が (ga) was used after nominatives in general, not just pronouns. Morever, when following pronouns or other nominatives indicating persons, が (ga) marked other nominatives that were relatively close to the indicated person, while の (no) was used for nominatives that were more psychologically or emotionally distant.[1][2]
Descendants edit
See also edit
References edit
- ^ “の”, in 日本国語大辞典 (Nihon Kokugo Daijiten, “Nihon Kokugo Daijiten”)[1] (in Japanese), concise edition, Tōkyō: Shogakukan, 2000
- ^ “が”, in 日本国語大辞典 (Nihon Kokugo Daijiten, “Nihon Kokugo Daijiten”)[2] (in Japanese), concise edition, Tōkyō: Shogakukan, 2000