Reconstruction:Proto-Ryukyuan/ga
Proto-Ryukyuan
editEtymology
editFrom Proto-Japonic *-nka (“genitive marker (in pronouns)”).
Particle
edit*ga
- nominative and genitive case marker
Usage notes
editRyukyuan languages use a hierarchy to determine which of its nominative and genitive markers, *ga and *no, to use. This hierarchy has two layers, consisting of higher and lower layers.[1]
- The higher nominative and genitive marker is *ga, used primarily by pronouns referring to humans.
- The lower nominative and genitive marker is *no, used by any nominals that do not use *ga.
This hierarchy is subject to much variation in the daughter languages. In the Yamatohama dialect of Northern Amami-Ōshima, genitive *ga is only used with demonstrative pronouns, while personal pronouns, names of humans, and kinship terms do not take any genitive marker. Meanwhile, in the Ishigaki-Shika and Hatoma dialect of Yaeyama, this term only attaches between the first person pronoun and an uninflectable noun, and this reflex is missing from the Taketomi dialect altogether.
Descendants
edit- Northern Ryukyuan:
- Southern Ryukyuan
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ Pellard, Thomas (2018) “Ryukyuan and the reconstruction of proto-Japanese-Ryukyuan”, in Handbook of Japanese historical linguistics, De Gruyter Mouton.