# An introduction to Ryukyuan languages

Michinori Shimoji, Thomas Pellard

► To cite this version:

Michinori Shimoji, Thomas Pellard (Dir.). An introduction to Ryukyuan languages. Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa, 2010, 9784863370722. hal-01289299

HAL Id: hal-01289299

https://hal.science/hal-01289299v1

Submitted on 14 Jan 2026

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<figure><img src="image_1.png" /></figure>

Distributed under a Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 - Attribution - International License
An Introduction to
Ryukyuan Languages

edited by
Michinori Shimoji & Thomas Pellard
<figure><img src="image_2.png" /></figure>
# Contents

<table><tr><td>Contents</td><td>iii</td></tr><tr><td>List of Figures</td><td>xv</td></tr><tr><td>List of Tables</td><td>xvi</td></tr><tr><td>Acknowledgements</td><td>xix</td></tr><tr><td>Ryukyuan languages: an introduction by Michinori Shimoji</td><td>1</td></tr><tr><td>1 Introduction</td><td>1</td></tr><tr><td>2 Basic background of Ryukyuan</td><td>1</td></tr><tr><td>3 Ryukyuan languages: typological summary</td><td>4</td></tr><tr><td>3.1 Phonology</td><td>4</td></tr><tr><td>3.1.1 Phonemes and phonotactics</td><td>4</td></tr><tr><td>3.1.2 Suprasegmentals</td><td>6</td></tr><tr><td>3.2 Morphosyntax</td><td>8</td></tr><tr><td>3.2.1 Clause structure</td><td>8</td></tr><tr><td>3.2.2 Case alignment system</td><td>8</td></tr><tr><td>3.2.3 Word class assignment</td><td>9</td></tr><tr><td>3.2.4 Topic and focus marking</td><td>11</td></tr><tr><td>4 Organization of IRL</td><td>12</td></tr><tr><td>Abbreviations</td><td>13</td></tr><tr><td>Ura (Amami Ryukyuan) by Hiromi Shigeno</td><td>15</td></tr><tr><td>Introduction</td><td>15</td></tr><tr><td>1 The language and its speakers</td><td>16</td></tr><tr><td>2 Phonology</td><td>16</td></tr><tr><td>2.1 Vowels</td><td>16</td></tr><tr><td>2.2 Consonants</td><td>16</td></tr><tr><td>2.3 Laryngeal</td><td>17</td></tr><tr><td>2.4 Syllable and mora</td><td>18</td></tr><tr><td>2.5 Tone/accent</td><td>18</td></tr><tr><td>2.6 Sequential voicing</td><td>19</td></tr><tr><td>3 Basic clause structure and phrase structure</td><td>19</td></tr><tr><td>3.1 Basic clause structure</td><td>19</td></tr><tr><td>3.2 Basic phrase structure</td><td>20</td></tr><tr><td>4 Word classes</td><td>21</td></tr><tr><td>5 Basic morphology</td><td>22</td></tr><tr><td>5.1 Morphological typology</td><td>22</td></tr><tr><td>5.2 Basic nominal morphology</td><td>23</td></tr><tr><td>5.3 Basic verbal morphology</td><td>23</td></tr><tr><td>5.3.1 Finite inflection</td><td>23</td></tr><tr><td>5.3.2 Non-finite-inflection</td><td>24</td></tr></table>
<table>
  <tbody>
    <tr>
      <td>5.3.3</td>
      <td>Property concept verb (PC verb)</td>
      <td>24</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>5.3.4</td>
      <td>Derivational morphology of verbs</td>
      <td>25</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>6</td>
      <td>Argument marking</td>
      <td>25</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>6.1</td>
      <td>Case marking</td>
      <td>25</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>6.2</td>
      <td>Information structure marking</td>
      <td>25</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>7</td>
      <td>Predicate categories (finiteness; tense, aspect, and mood)</td>
      <td>26</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>7.1</td>
      <td>Negation</td>
      <td>26</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>7.2</td>
      <td>Tense, aspect and mood</td>
      <td>27</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>7.2.1</td>
      <td>Tense and aspect</td>
      <td>27</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>7.2.2</td>
      <td>Mood</td>
      <td>27</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>7.3</td>
      <td>Voice</td>
      <td>28</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td colspan="2">Sample text</td>
      <td>29</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td colspan="2">Abbreviations</td>
      <td>34</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td colspan="2">Yuwan (Amami Ryukyuan) by Yuto Niinaga</td>
      <td>35</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td colspan="2">Introduction</td>
      <td>35</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>1</td>
      <td>The language and its speakers</td>
      <td>36</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>1.1</td>
      <td>Geography</td>
      <td>36</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>1.2</td>
      <td>Affiliation</td>
      <td>36</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>1.3</td>
      <td>Sociolinguistic overview</td>
      <td>36</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>1.3.1</td>
      <td>The number of speakers</td>
      <td>36</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>1.3.2</td>
      <td>Dialects</td>
      <td>36</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>1.3.3</td>
      <td>Viability, education and documentation</td>
      <td>37</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>1.4</td>
      <td>Previous work</td>
      <td>37</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>2</td>
      <td>Phonology</td>
      <td>37</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>2.1</td>
      <td>Segmentation</td>
      <td>37</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>2.1.1</td>
      <td>Grammatical word</td>
      <td>37</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>2.1.2</td>
      <td>Phonological word</td>
      <td>38</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>2.2</td>
      <td>Phonemic inventory</td>
      <td>38</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>2.2.1</td>
      <td>Vowels</td>
      <td>38</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>2.2.2</td>
      <td>Consonants</td>
      <td>38</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>2.2.3</td>
      <td>Laryngeal</td>
      <td>39</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>2.3</td>
      <td>Syllable structure and phonotactics</td>
      <td>39</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>2.3.1</td>
      <td>The syllable structure</td>
      <td>39</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>2.3.2</td>
      <td>Mora</td>
      <td>40</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>2.4</td>
      <td>(Morpho)phonological rules</td>
      <td>42</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>2.4.1</td>
      <td>Phonological rules</td>
      <td>42</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>2.4.2</td>
      <td>Morphophonological rules</td>
      <td>43</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>2.5</td>
      <td>Prosody</td>
      <td>43</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>3</td>
      <td>Descriptive preliminaries</td>
      <td>44</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>3.1</td>
      <td>Basic clause structure and phrase structure</td>
      <td>44</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>3.1.1</td>
      <td>Basic clause structure</td>
      <td>44</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>3.1.2</td>
      <td>Nominal phrase</td>
      <td>44</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>3.1.3</td>
      <td>Predicate phrase</td>
      <td>45</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>3.1.3.1</td>
      <td>Verbal predicate</td>
      <td>45</td>
    </tr>
  </tbody>
</table>
<table>
  <tbody>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>3.1.3.2 Nominal predicate</td>
      <td>46</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>3.2</td>
      <td>Word, clitic and affix</td>
      <td>47</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>3.2.1 Word</td>
      <td>47</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>3.2.2 Affix versus clitic</td>
      <td>47</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>3.2.3 Compound versus phrase</td>
      <td>47</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>3.3</td>
      <td>Word classes</td>
      <td>48</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>3.3.1 Nominals</td>
      <td>48</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>3.3.2 Adnominals</td>
      <td>48</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>3.3.3 Verbs</td>
      <td>49</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>3.3.4 Minor word class</td>
      <td>49</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>3.4</td>
      <td>Functional categories of words</td>
      <td>49</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>3.4.1 Human pronouns</td>
      <td>49</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>3.4.2 Demonstratives</td>
      <td>50</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>3.4.3 Interrogatives</td>
      <td>51</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>3.5</td>
      <td>Property concept stems (PC stems)</td>
      <td>51</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>4</td>
      <td>Nominals and nominal phrases</td>
      <td>52</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>4.1 Modifier</td>
      <td>52</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>4.1.1 Modifier filled by an NP</td>
      <td>52</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>4.1.2 Modifier filled by adnominal word or relative clause</td>
      <td>53</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>4.2</td>
      <td>Head</td>
      <td>53</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>4.2.1 Subclass of nominals</td>
      <td>53</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>4.2.1.1 Nouns</td>
      <td>53</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>4.2.1.2 Reflexives</td>
      <td>54</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>4.2.1.3 Numerals</td>
      <td>54</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>4.2.1.4 Indefinites</td>
      <td>54</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>4.2.2 Derivational morphology of nominals</td>
      <td>56</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>4.2.2.1 Nominal derivation</td>
      <td>56</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>4.2.2.2 Nominal compounding</td>
      <td>57</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>4.3</td>
      <td>Case</td>
      <td>58</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>4.3.1 Case markers</td>
      <td>58</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>4.3.2 Animacy hierarchy with case markers</td>
      <td>58</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>4.4</td>
      <td>Formal nouns</td>
      <td>60</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>5</td>
      <td>Verb morphology</td>
      <td>60</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>5.1</td>
      <td>The structure of the verbal complex</td>
      <td>60</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>5.1.1 Stem</td>
      <td>61</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>5.1.1.1 Plain verbal stems (ordinary type)</td>
      <td>61</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>5.1.1.2 Plain verbal stems (special type)</td>
      <td>61</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>5.1.1.3 Property concept stem</td>
      <td>63</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>5.2</td>
      <td>Inflectional morphology</td>
      <td>63</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>5.2.1 Finite inflection</td>
      <td>63</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>5.2.2 Non-finite inflection</td>
      <td>65</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>5.2.2.1 Relativization</td>
      <td>65</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>5.2.2.2 Converb</td>
      <td>66</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>5.2.2.3 Medial verb</td>
      <td>66</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>5.3</td>
      <td>Derivational morphology</td>
      <td>67</td>
    </tr>
  </tbody>
</table>
<table>
  <tbody>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>5.3.1 Derivational affix</td>
      <td>68</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>5.3.2 Compounding</td>
      <td>69</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>6</td>
      <td>Class-changing derivations</td>
      <td>69</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>6.1 Nominalization</td>
      <td>70</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>6.2 Verbalization</td>
      <td>71</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>6.3 PC stem-making derivation</td>
      <td>71</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>7</td>
      <td>Clitics</td>
      <td>72</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>7.1 Conjunction clitics</td>
      <td>72</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>7.2 Modal clitics</td>
      <td>72</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>7.3 Limiter clitics</td>
      <td>74</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>7.4 Focus/topic clitics</td>
      <td>75</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>8</td>
      <td>The simple sentence</td>
      <td>76</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>8.1 Speech acts</td>
      <td>76</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>8.1.1 Declarative clause</td>
      <td>76</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>8.1.2 Interrogative clause</td>
      <td>76</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>8.1.2.1 Yes/no question</td>
      <td>76</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>8.1.2.2 Wh-question</td>
      <td>76</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>8.1.3 Imperative clause</td>
      <td>77</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>8.2 Equation, proper inclusion, location and possession</td>
      <td>77</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>8.2.1 Equation and proper inclusion</td>
      <td>77</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>8.2.2 Location and possession</td>
      <td>77</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>8.3 Negation</td>
      <td>78</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>8.4 Valency-changing operations</td>
      <td>78</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>8.4.1 Causative</td>
      <td>78</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>8.4.2 Passive</td>
      <td>78</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>8.4.3 Malefactive</td>
      <td>79</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>8.5 Tense, aspect and mood</td>
      <td>79</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>8.5.1 Tense</td>
      <td>79</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>8.5.2 Aspect</td>
      <td>80</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>8.5.3 Mood and modality</td>
      <td>80</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>8.6 Information structure</td>
      <td>81</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>8.6.1 Topicalization</td>
      <td>81</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>8.6.2 Focus construction</td>
      <td>81</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>9</td>
      <td>The complex sentence</td>
      <td>82</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>9.1 Overview of complex clause structure</td>
      <td>82</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>9.2 Coordination</td>
      <td>82</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>9.3 Clause-chaining</td>
      <td>82</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>9.4 Subordination</td>
      <td>83</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>9.4.1 Adverbial subordination</td>
      <td>83</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>9.4.2 Adnominal subordination</td>
      <td>83</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>9.4.3 Complementation</td>
      <td>83</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>Sample text</td>
      <td>84</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>Abbreviations</td>
      <td>88</td>
    </tr>
  </tbody>
</table>
<table><tr><td>Introduction</td><td>89</td></tr><tr><td>1 The language and its speakers</td><td>90</td></tr><tr><td>2 Phonology</td><td>90</td></tr><tr><td>2.1 Vowels</td><td>90</td></tr><tr><td>2.2 Consonants</td><td>90</td></tr><tr><td>2.3 Syllable and mora</td><td>91</td></tr><tr><td>2.4 Tone/accent</td><td>91</td></tr><tr><td>3 Basic clause structure and phrase structure</td><td>92</td></tr><tr><td>3.1 Basic clause Structure</td><td>92</td></tr><tr><td>4 Word classes</td><td>93</td></tr><tr><td>4.1 Nominal</td><td>94</td></tr><tr><td>4.2 Verb</td><td>94</td></tr><tr><td>4.3 Interjection</td><td>95</td></tr><tr><td>4.4 Adverb</td><td>95</td></tr><tr><td>5 Basic morphology</td><td>95</td></tr><tr><td>5.1 Morphological typology</td><td>95</td></tr><tr><td>5.1.1 Derivational morphology</td><td>95</td></tr><tr><td>5.1.2 Compounding</td><td>96</td></tr><tr><td>5.1.3 Reduplicated form</td><td>97</td></tr><tr><td>5.2 Basic nominal morphology</td><td>97</td></tr><tr><td>5.2.1 Diminutive</td><td>97</td></tr><tr><td>5.2.2 Plural</td><td>97</td></tr><tr><td>5.3 Basic verbal morphology</td><td>98</td></tr><tr><td>6 Argument marking</td><td>98</td></tr><tr><td>6.1 Case Marking</td><td>98</td></tr><tr><td>6.2 Information structure marking</td><td>102</td></tr><tr><td>7 Predicate categories</td><td>103</td></tr><tr><td>7.1 Negation</td><td>103</td></tr><tr><td>7.2 Tense, aspect, and mood</td><td>103</td></tr><tr><td>7.2.1 Tense</td><td>103</td></tr><tr><td>7.2.2 Mood and modality</td><td>104</td></tr><tr><td>7.2.3 Aspect</td><td>104</td></tr><tr><td>7.3 Voice</td><td>104</td></tr><tr><td>Sample text</td><td>106</td></tr><tr><td>Abbreviations</td><td>111</td></tr><tr><td>Ōgami (Miyako Ryukyuan) by Thomas Pellard</td><td>113</td></tr><tr><td>Introduction</td><td>113</td></tr><tr><td>1 The language and its speakers</td><td>114</td></tr><tr><td>1.1 Geography</td><td>114</td></tr><tr><td>1.2 Affiliation</td><td>114</td></tr><tr><td>1.3 Sociolinguistic overview</td><td>115</td></tr><tr><td>1.3.1 The number of speakers</td><td>115</td></tr><tr><td>1.3.2 Sub-dialects</td><td>115</td></tr><tr><td>1.3.3 Viability, education and documentation</td><td>115</td></tr></table>
<table><tbody><tr><td>1.4</td><td>Previous works</td><td>115</td></tr><tr><td>2</td><td>Phonology</td><td>115</td></tr><tr><td>2.1</td><td>Segmentation: grammatical word and phonological word</td><td>115</td></tr><tr><td>2.2</td><td>Phoneme inventory</td><td>116</td></tr><tr><td>2.2.1</td><td>Consonants</td><td>116</td></tr><tr><td>2.2.2</td><td>Vowels</td><td>117</td></tr><tr><td>2.3</td><td>Suprasegmentals</td><td>118</td></tr><tr><td>2.3.1</td><td>Length</td><td>118</td></tr><tr><td>2.3.2</td><td>Tone and accent</td><td>118</td></tr><tr><td>2.3.3</td><td>Mora</td><td>119</td></tr><tr><td>2.3.4</td><td>Syllable</td><td>119</td></tr><tr><td>2.4</td><td>Phonotactics</td><td>120</td></tr><tr><td>2.4.1</td><td>The structure and phonotactics of the root word</td><td>120</td></tr><tr><td>2.4.2</td><td>The structure and phonotactics of the morphologically complex word</td><td>120</td></tr><tr><td>2.4.3</td><td>Voiceless, vowelless words and utterances</td><td>121</td></tr><tr><td>2.5</td><td>Phonological alternation rules</td><td>121</td></tr><tr><td>2.6</td><td>Variation</td><td>123</td></tr><tr><td>3</td><td>Descriptive preliminaries</td><td>123</td></tr><tr><td>3.1</td><td>Basic clause and phrase structure</td><td>123</td></tr><tr><td>3.1.1</td><td>Basic clause structure</td><td>123</td></tr><tr><td>3.1.2</td><td>Nominal phrase</td><td>123</td></tr><tr><td>3.1.3</td><td>Predicate</td><td>123</td></tr><tr><td>3.1.3.1</td><td>Verbal predicate</td><td>124</td></tr><tr><td>3.1.3.2</td><td>Nominal predicate</td><td>124</td></tr><tr><td>3.1.3.3</td><td>Adjectival predicate</td><td>124</td></tr><tr><td>3.2</td><td>Word, clitic and affix</td><td>124</td></tr><tr><td>3.2.1</td><td>Word</td><td>124</td></tr><tr><td>3.2.2</td><td>Suffix</td><td>125</td></tr><tr><td>3.2.3</td><td>Clitic</td><td>125</td></tr><tr><td>3.2.3.1</td><td>Syntactic host and phonological host</td><td>126</td></tr><tr><td>3.3</td><td>Word classes</td><td>126</td></tr><tr><td>3.3.1</td><td>Nominals</td><td>126</td></tr><tr><td>3.3.2</td><td>Verbs</td><td>126</td></tr><tr><td>3.3.3</td><td>Adjectives</td><td>126</td></tr><tr><td>3.3.4</td><td>Particles</td><td>126</td></tr><tr><td>3.3.4.1</td><td>Final particles</td><td>127</td></tr><tr><td>3.3.4.2</td><td>Restrictive and inclusive particles</td><td>127</td></tr><tr><td>3.3.5</td><td>Other word classes</td><td>127</td></tr><tr><td>3.3.5.1</td><td>Determiners</td><td>127</td></tr><tr><td>3.3.5.2</td><td>Adverbs</td><td>128</td></tr><tr><td>3.3.5.3</td><td>Conjunctions</td><td>128</td></tr><tr><td>3.3.5.4</td><td>Ideophones</td><td>128</td></tr><tr><td>3.3.5.5</td><td>Interjections</td><td>128</td></tr><tr><td>4</td><td>Nominals and nominal phrases</td><td>128</td></tr></tbody></table>
<table>
  <tbody>
    <tr>
      <td>4.1</td>
      <td>Subclasses of nominals</td>
      <td>129</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>4.1.1</td>
      <td>Pronouns</td>
      <td>129</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>4.1.2</td>
      <td>Time nouns</td>
      <td>130</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>4.1.3</td>
      <td>Numerals</td>
      <td>130</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>4.1.4</td>
      <td>Formal nouns</td>
      <td>130</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>4.2</td>
      <td>Nominal morphology</td>
      <td>131</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>4.2.1</td>
      <td>Plural</td>
      <td>131</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>4.2.2</td>
      <td>Diminutive</td>
      <td>131</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>4.2.3</td>
      <td>Approximative</td>
      <td>132</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>4.3</td>
      <td>Nominal hierarchy</td>
      <td>132</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>4.4</td>
      <td>Nominal phrases</td>
      <td>133</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>4.4.1</td>
      <td>Modifier</td>
      <td>133</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>4.4.1.1</td>
      <td>Modifier filled by a determiner</td>
      <td>133</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>4.4.1.2</td>
      <td>Modifier filled by an NP</td>
      <td>133</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>4.4.1.3</td>
      <td>Modifier filled by a relative clause</td>
      <td>134</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>4.4.1.4</td>
      <td>Modifier filled by an adjective</td>
      <td>134</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>4.4.2</td>
      <td>Head</td>
      <td>134</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>4.4.3</td>
      <td>Extended nominal phrases</td>
      <td>135</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>5</td>
      <td>Verb morphology</td>
      <td>135</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>5.1</td>
      <td>The structure of the verb</td>
      <td>135</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>5.1.1</td>
      <td>Stem</td>
      <td>135</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>5.1.2</td>
      <td>Inflection</td>
      <td>136</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>5.2</td>
      <td>Inflectional morphology</td>
      <td>136</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>5.2.1</td>
      <td>Independent verb forms</td>
      <td>137</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>5.2.2</td>
      <td>Dependent verb forms: converbs</td>
      <td>137</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>5.3</td>
      <td>Derivational morphology</td>
      <td>139</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>5.3.1</td>
      <td>Voice: causative and passive</td>
      <td>139</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>5.4</td>
      <td>Honorific</td>
      <td>139</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>5.5</td>
      <td>Complex verb forms</td>
      <td>139</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>6</td>
      <td>Adjectives</td>
      <td>140</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>6.1</td>
      <td>The adjective class as opposed to nominals and verbs</td>
      <td>140</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>6.2</td>
      <td>The function of adjectives</td>
      <td>140</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>7</td>
      <td>Class-changing derivations</td>
      <td>141</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>7.1</td>
      <td>Nominalization</td>
      <td>141</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>7.2</td>
      <td>Verbalization</td>
      <td>142</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>7.3</td>
      <td>Adjectivalization</td>
      <td>142</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>8</td>
      <td>Role marking: case and information structure marking</td>
      <td>142</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>9</td>
      <td>Predicate phrase</td>
      <td>144</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>9.1</td>
      <td>The structure of the predicate phrase</td>
      <td>144</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>9.2</td>
      <td>Verbal predicate</td>
      <td>144</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>9.2.1</td>
      <td>Complex predicates</td>
      <td>144</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>9.3</td>
      <td>Nominal predicate</td>
      <td>145</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>9.4</td>
      <td>Adjectival predicate</td>
      <td>145</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>10</td>
      <td>The simple sentence</td>
      <td>145</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>10.1</td>
      <td>Speech acts</td>
      <td>145</td>
    </tr>
  </tbody>
</table>
<table>
  <tbody>
    <tr>
      <td>10.1.1</td>
      <td>Declarative sentence</td>
      <td>145</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>10.1.2</td>
      <td>Interrogative sentence</td>
      <td>146</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>10.1.3</td>
      <td>Imperative sentence</td>
      <td>146</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>10.2</td>
      <td>Existence</td>
      <td>146</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>10.2.1</td>
      <td>Equation and proper inclusion</td>
      <td>146</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>10.2.2</td>
      <td>Location</td>
      <td>146</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>10.2.3</td>
      <td>Possession</td>
      <td>147</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>10.3</td>
      <td>Negation</td>
      <td>147</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>10.4</td>
      <td>Valency-changing operations</td>
      <td>148</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>10.4.1</td>
      <td>Causative</td>
      <td>148</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>10.4.2</td>
      <td>Passive</td>
      <td>148</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>10.4.3</td>
      <td>Combination of the causative and the passive</td>
      <td>149</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>10.5</td>
      <td>Tense, aspect and mood</td>
      <td>150</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>10.5.1</td>
      <td>Tense</td>
      <td>150</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>10.5.2</td>
      <td>Major moods</td>
      <td>150</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>10.5.2.1</td>
      <td>Indicative</td>
      <td>150</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>10.5.2.2</td>
      <td>Irrealis</td>
      <td>151</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>10.5.2.3</td>
      <td>Directive</td>
      <td>151</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>10.5.2.4</td>
      <td>Interrogative</td>
      <td>151</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>10.5.2.5</td>
      <td>Emphatic</td>
      <td>151</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>10.5.3</td>
      <td>Possibility and obligation</td>
      <td>152</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>10.5.3.1</td>
      <td>Potential</td>
      <td>152</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>10.5.3.2</td>
      <td>Impotential</td>
      <td>152</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>10.5.3.3</td>
      <td>Permissive</td>
      <td>152</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>10.5.3.4</td>
      <td>Debitive</td>
      <td>152</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>10.5.4</td>
      <td>Volition</td>
      <td>153</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>10.5.4.1</td>
      <td>Intentional</td>
      <td>153</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>10.5.4.2</td>
      <td>Desiderative</td>
      <td>153</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>10.5.4.3</td>
      <td>Anti-commissive</td>
      <td>153</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>10.5.5</td>
      <td>Conjecture</td>
      <td>153</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>10.5.5.1</td>
      <td>Presumptive</td>
      <td>153</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>10.5.5.2</td>
      <td>Prospective</td>
      <td>154</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>10.5.5.3</td>
      <td>Previsional</td>
      <td>154</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>10.5.6</td>
      <td>Evidentiality</td>
      <td>154</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>10.5.6.1</td>
      <td>Hearsay</td>
      <td>154</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>10.5.6.2</td>
      <td>Inferential</td>
      <td>154</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>10.5.7</td>
      <td>Aspect</td>
      <td>155</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>10.5.7.1</td>
      <td>Imperfective</td>
      <td>155</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>10.5.7.2</td>
      <td>Completive</td>
      <td>155</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>10.5.7.3</td>
      <td>Inchoative</td>
      <td>155</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>10.5.7.4</td>
      <td>Terminative</td>
      <td>156</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>10.5.7.5</td>
      <td>Resultative</td>
      <td>156</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>10.5.7.6</td>
      <td>Perfect</td>
      <td>156</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>10.5.7.7</td>
      <td>Conative</td>
      <td>156</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>10.5.7.8</td>
      <td>Preparative</td>
      <td>157</td>
    </tr>
  </tbody>
</table>
<table>
  <tbody>
    <tr>
      <td>10.6</td>
      <td>Information structure</td>
      <td>157</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>10.6.1</td>
      <td>Topicalization</td>
      <td>157</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>10.6.2</td>
      <td>Focalization</td>
      <td>158</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>11</td>
      <td>The complex sentence</td>
      <td>158</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>11.1</td>
      <td>Overview of complex clause structures</td>
      <td>158</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>11.2</td>
      <td>Coordination</td>
      <td>158</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>11.3</td>
      <td>Clause-chaining</td>
      <td>159</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>11.4</td>
      <td>Subordination</td>
      <td>159</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>11.4.1</td>
      <td>Adverbial subordination</td>
      <td>159</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>11.4.2</td>
      <td>Relative subordination</td>
      <td>160</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>11.4.3</td>
      <td>Complementation</td>
      <td>161</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>11.5</td>
      <td>Desubordination</td>
      <td>162</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>11.5.1</td>
      <td>From concessive to permissive</td>
      <td>162</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>11.5.2</td>
      <td>From narrative to past</td>
      <td>162</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td colspan="2">Sample text</td>
      <td>164</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td colspan="2">Abbreviations</td>
      <td>166</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td colspan="2">Ikema (Miyako Ryukyuan) by Yuka Hayashi</td>
      <td>167</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td colspan="2">Introduction</td>
      <td>167</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>1</td>
      <td>The language and its speakers</td>
      <td>168</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>2</td>
      <td>Phonology</td>
      <td>169</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>2.1</td>
      <td>Vowels</td>
      <td>169</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>2.2</td>
      <td>Consonants</td>
      <td>169</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>2.3</td>
      <td>Syllable and mora</td>
      <td>170</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>2.4</td>
      <td>Tone/accent</td>
      <td>171</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>3</td>
      <td>Basic clause structure and phrase structure</td>
      <td>173</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>3.1</td>
      <td>Basic clause structure</td>
      <td>173</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>3.2</td>
      <td>Basic phrase structure</td>
      <td>174</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>4</td>
      <td>Word classes</td>
      <td>174</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>5</td>
      <td>Basic morphology</td>
      <td>175</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>5.1</td>
      <td>Morphological typology</td>
      <td>175</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>5.2</td>
      <td>Basic nominal morphology</td>
      <td>176</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>5.3</td>
      <td>Basic verbal morphology</td>
      <td>176</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>6</td>
      <td>Argument marking</td>
      <td>178</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>6.1</td>
      <td>Case marking</td>
      <td>178</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>6.2</td>
      <td>Information structure marking</td>
      <td>179</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>7</td>
      <td>Predicate categories (finiteness; tense, mood, and aspect)</td>
      <td>180</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>7.1</td>
      <td>Negation</td>
      <td>180</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>7.2</td>
      <td>Tense, aspect and mood</td>
      <td>180</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>7.3</td>
      <td>Voice</td>
      <td>182</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td colspan="2">Sample text</td>
      <td>183</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td colspan="2">Abbreviations</td>
      <td>188</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td colspan="2">Hateruma (Yaeyama Ryukyuan) by Reiko Aso</td>
      <td>189</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td colspan="2">Introduction</td>
      <td>189</td>
    </tr>
  </tbody>
</table>
<table>
  <tbody>
    <tr>
      <td>1</td>
      <td>The language and its speakers</td>
      <td>190</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>1.1</td>
      <td>Geography</td>
      <td>190</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>1.2</td>
      <td>Affiliation</td>
      <td>190</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>1.3</td>
      <td>Sociolinguistic overview</td>
      <td>190</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>1.3.1</td>
      <td>The number of speakers</td>
      <td>190</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>1.3.2</td>
      <td>Dialects</td>
      <td>190</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>1.4</td>
      <td>Previous works</td>
      <td>191</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>2</td>
      <td>Phonology</td>
      <td>191</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>2.1</td>
      <td>Phoneme inventory</td>
      <td>191</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>2.1.1</td>
      <td>Vowels</td>
      <td>191</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>2.1.2</td>
      <td>Consonants and glides</td>
      <td>192</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>2.2</td>
      <td>Syllable structure and phonotactics</td>
      <td>193</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>2.2.1</td>
      <td>The syllable structure of the root word</td>
      <td>193</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>2.2.2</td>
      <td>Mora</td>
      <td>193</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>2.3</td>
      <td>Prosody</td>
      <td>193</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>3</td>
      <td>Descriptive preliminaries</td>
      <td>194</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>3.1</td>
      <td>Basic clause structure and phrase structure</td>
      <td>194</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>3.1.1</td>
      <td>Basic clause structure</td>
      <td>194</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>3.1.2</td>
      <td>Nominal phrase</td>
      <td>195</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>3.1.3</td>
      <td>Predicate phrase</td>
      <td>195</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>3.1.3.1</td>
      <td>Verbal predicate</td>
      <td>195</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>3.1.3.2</td>
      <td>Nominal predicate</td>
      <td>195</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>3.2</td>
      <td>Word, clitic and affix</td>
      <td>196</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>3.2.1</td>
      <td>Word</td>
      <td>196</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>3.2.2</td>
      <td>Affix vs clitic</td>
      <td>196</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>3.3</td>
      <td>Word classes</td>
      <td>196</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>3.3.1</td>
      <td>Nominals</td>
      <td>196</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>3.3.2</td>
      <td>Verbs</td>
      <td>197</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>3.3.3</td>
      <td>Adnominals</td>
      <td>197</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>3.3.4</td>
      <td>Interjections</td>
      <td>197</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>3.3.5</td>
      <td>Adverbs</td>
      <td>197</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>4</td>
      <td>Nominals and nominal phrases</td>
      <td>198</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>4.1</td>
      <td>Modifier</td>
      <td>198</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>4.1.1</td>
      <td>Modifier filled by NP</td>
      <td>198</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>4.1.2</td>
      <td>Modifier filled by adnominal (clause)</td>
      <td>198</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>4.2</td>
      <td>Head</td>
      <td>198</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>4.2.1</td>
      <td>Subclasses of nominals</td>
      <td>198</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>4.2.2</td>
      <td>Derivational morphology of nominals</td>
      <td>199</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>4.3</td>
      <td>Case</td>
      <td>200</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>5</td>
      <td>Verb morphology</td>
      <td>201</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>5.1</td>
      <td>The structure of the verb word</td>
      <td>201</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>5.1.1</td>
      <td>Stem</td>
      <td>201</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>5.1.2</td>
      <td>Inflection</td>
      <td>202</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>5.2</td>
      <td>Inflectional morphology</td>
      <td>203</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>5.2.1</td>
      <td>Finite inflection</td>
      <td>203</td>
    </tr>
  </tbody>
</table>
<table>
  <tbody>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>5.2.2 Non-finite inflection</td>
      <td>203</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>5.2.3 Special inflection</td>
      <td>204</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>5.3</td>
      <td>Derivational morphology</td>
      <td>204</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>5.3.1 Derivational affixes</td>
      <td>204</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>5.3.2 Compounding and serialization</td>
      <td>205</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>6</td>
      <td>Predicate phrase</td>
      <td>205</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>6.1 The structure of the predicate phrase</td>
      <td>205</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>6.2 Lexical verbs and auxiliary verbs</td>
      <td>206</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>6.3 The nominal predicate</td>
      <td>206</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>7</td>
      <td>Class-changing derivations</td>
      <td>207</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>7.1 Nominalization</td>
      <td>207</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>7.2 Verbalization</td>
      <td>207</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>8</td>
      <td>Clitics</td>
      <td>207</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>8.1 Syntactic host and phonological host</td>
      <td>207</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>8.2 Conjunction clitics</td>
      <td>208</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>8.3 Modal clitics</td>
      <td>208</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>8.4 Post-nominal modifier clitics</td>
      <td>208</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>8.5 Focus/topic clitics</td>
      <td>209</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>8.6 Discourse marker clitics</td>
      <td>209</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>9</td>
      <td>Simple sentence</td>
      <td>209</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>9.1 Speech acts</td>
      <td>209</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>9.1.1 Declarative clause</td>
      <td>209</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>9.1.2 Interrogative clause</td>
      <td>210</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>9.1.3 Imperative clause</td>
      <td>210</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>9.2 Equation, proper inclusion, location and possession</td>
      <td>211</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>9.2.1 Equation and proper inclusion</td>
      <td>211</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>9.2.2 Location</td>
      <td>211</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>9.2.3 Possession</td>
      <td>211</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>9.3 Negation</td>
      <td>212</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>9.4 Valency-changing operations</td>
      <td>212</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>9.4.1 Causative</td>
      <td>212</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>9.4.2 Passive</td>
      <td>213</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>9.5 Tense, aspect and mood</td>
      <td>213</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>9.5.1 Tense</td>
      <td>213</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>9.5.2 Aspect</td>
      <td>213</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>9.5.2.1 Perfect</td>
      <td>213</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>9.5.2.2 Progressive</td>
      <td>214</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>9.5.2.3 Prospective</td>
      <td>214</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>9.5.2.4 Inceptive</td>
      <td>214</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>9.5.3 Mood</td>
      <td>215</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>9.5.3.1 Realis</td>
      <td>215</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>9.5.3.2 Irrealis</td>
      <td>215</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>9.5.3.3 Imperative</td>
      <td>215</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>9.5.3.4 Intentional</td>
      <td>215</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>9.5.3.5 Prohibitive</td>
      <td>216</td>
    </tr>
  </tbody>
</table>
<table><tr><td>9.6</td><td>Information structure</td><td>216</td></tr><tr><td>9.6.1</td><td>Topicalization</td><td>216</td></tr><tr><td>9.6.2</td><td>Focus construction</td><td>217</td></tr><tr><td>10</td><td>The complex sentence</td><td>217</td></tr><tr><td>10.1</td><td>Overview of complex clause structures</td><td>217</td></tr><tr><td>10.2</td><td>Coordination</td><td>218</td></tr><tr><td>10.3</td><td>Clause-chaining</td><td>218</td></tr><tr><td>10.4</td><td>Subordination</td><td>218</td></tr><tr><td>10.4.1</td><td>Adverbial subordination</td><td>218</td></tr><tr><td>10.4.2</td><td>Adnominal subordination</td><td>219</td></tr><tr><td>10.4.3</td><td>Complementation</td><td>219</td></tr><tr><td colspan="2">Sample text</td><td>221</td></tr><tr><td colspan="2">Abbreviations</td><td>227</td></tr><tr><td colspan="2">References</td><td>229</td></tr><tr><td colspan="2">Index</td><td>237</td></tr></table>
# List of Figures

## Ryukyuan languages: an introduction

1 Ryūkyū Islands and the Ryukyuan languages 3

2 Nominative hierarchy 9

3 Adnominal and genitive hierarchy 9

## Ura (Amami Ryukyuan)

1 Amami Islands 15

## Yuwan (Amami Ryukyuan)

1 Amami Islands 35

2 Selection of the plural and approximative markers 57

3 Nominative hierarchy 59

4 Adnominal and genitive hierarchy 60

## Tsuken (Okinawan)

1 Okinawa Islands 89

## Ōgami (Miyako Ryukyuan)

1 Miyako Islands 113

2 The nominal hierarchy in Ōgami Ryukyuan 133

## Ikema (Miyako Ryukyuan)

1 Miyako Islands 167

2 Normalized F0 contours for four-mora (two-foot) words 172

3 Components of verbal inflection 178

## Hateruma (Yaeyama Ryukyuan)

1 Yaeyama Islands 189
# List of Tables

## Ura (Amami Ryukyuan)

<table><tr><td>1</td><td>Vowels in Ura</td><td>16</td></tr><tr><td>2</td><td>Consonants in Ura</td><td>17</td></tr><tr><td>3</td><td>Monosyllabic words</td><td>19</td></tr><tr><td>4</td><td>Word classes: distinctive criteria</td><td>21</td></tr><tr><td>5</td><td>Finite inflection (regular)</td><td>24</td></tr><tr><td>6</td><td>Finite inflection (irregular)</td><td>24</td></tr><tr><td>7</td><td>Non-finite inflection</td><td>24</td></tr><tr><td>8</td><td>Negative forms of PC verbs</td><td>25</td></tr><tr><td>9</td><td>Case forms and their functions</td><td>26</td></tr><tr><td>10</td><td>Tense</td><td>27</td></tr></table>

## Yuwan (Amami Ryukyuan)

<table><tr><td>1</td><td>Dialectal variation in Amami</td><td>37</td></tr><tr><td>2</td><td>Vowels</td><td>38</td></tr><tr><td>3</td><td>Consonants</td><td>39</td></tr><tr><td>4</td><td>Glottalized consonants versus geminates</td><td>39</td></tr><tr><td>5</td><td>Examples of monosyllabic root words</td><td>41</td></tr><tr><td>6</td><td>Examples of polysyllabic phonological words</td><td>41</td></tr><tr><td>7</td><td>Examples of pitch patterns</td><td>44</td></tr><tr><td>8</td><td>Auxiliary verbs</td><td>46</td></tr><tr><td>9</td><td>Word classes: distinctive criteria</td><td>48</td></tr><tr><td>10</td><td>Human pronouns</td><td>50</td></tr><tr><td>11</td><td>Demonstrative roots and derived forms</td><td>50</td></tr><tr><td>12</td><td>Basic forms of interrogatives</td><td>51</td></tr><tr><td>13</td><td>Numerals for counting inanimates</td><td>55</td></tr><tr><td>14</td><td>Numerals for counting humans</td><td>55</td></tr><tr><td>15</td><td>Indefinites (non-specific) made of -nkuin</td><td>56</td></tr><tr><td>16</td><td>Indefinites (specific) made of -gajaaroo/-ka</td><td>56</td></tr><tr><td>17</td><td>Case forms and their functions</td><td>58</td></tr><tr><td>18</td><td>Examples of plain verbal stems (ordinary type)</td><td>61</td></tr><tr><td>19</td><td>Plain verbal stems (special type)</td><td>62</td></tr><tr><td>20</td><td>Finite inflection</td><td>64</td></tr><tr><td>21</td><td>Finite inflection of mur- 'pick up (some fruits)'</td><td>64</td></tr><tr><td>22</td><td>Relative inflection</td><td>65</td></tr><tr><td>23</td><td>Relative inflection of mur- 'pick up (some fruits)' with nikan 'orange'</td><td>65</td></tr><tr><td>24</td><td>Converb inflection</td><td>66</td></tr><tr><td>25</td><td>Converb inflection of mur- 'pick up (some fruits)'</td><td>66</td></tr><tr><td>26</td><td>Medial inflection</td><td>67</td></tr><tr><td>27</td><td>Obligatory suffixes</td><td>68</td></tr><tr><td>28</td><td>Uses of =jəə and =jaa with the intentional suffix -oo</td><td>73</td></tr></table>
## Tsuken (Okinawan)

<table><tr><td>1</td><td>Vowels</td><td>90</td></tr><tr><td>2</td><td>Consonants</td><td>91</td></tr><tr><td>3</td><td>Finite inflection</td><td>98</td></tr><tr><td>4</td><td>Case forms and their functions</td><td>99</td></tr><tr><td>5</td><td>Aspect</td><td>104</td></tr></table>

## Ōgami (Miyako Ryukyuan)

<table><tr><td>1</td><td>Ōgami consonants</td><td>116</td></tr><tr><td>2</td><td>Ōgami vowels</td><td>117</td></tr><tr><td>3</td><td>Voiceless, vowelless words in Ōgami Ryukyuan</td><td>121</td></tr><tr><td>4</td><td>Pronouns in Ōgami Ryukyuan</td><td>129</td></tr><tr><td>5</td><td>Verb stems in Ōgami Ryukyuan</td><td>136</td></tr><tr><td>6</td><td>Independent verb suffixes in Ōgami Ryukyuan</td><td>137</td></tr><tr><td>7</td><td>Converbs in Ōgami Ryukyuan</td><td>138</td></tr><tr><td>8</td><td>Auxiliary verbs in Ōgami Ryukyuan</td><td>140</td></tr><tr><td>9</td><td>Role markers in Ōgami Ryukyuan</td><td>143</td></tr></table>

## Ikema (Miyako Ryukyuan)

<table><tr><td>1</td><td>Vowels in Ikema Ryukyuan</td><td>169</td></tr><tr><td>2</td><td>Consonants in Ikema Ryukyuan</td><td>169</td></tr><tr><td>3</td><td>Nominal derivational suffixes</td><td>176</td></tr><tr><td>4</td><td>Suffixes of finite verbs</td><td>177</td></tr><tr><td>5</td><td>Converb suffixes</td><td>177</td></tr><tr><td>6</td><td>Derivational suffixes</td><td>178</td></tr><tr><td>7</td><td>Case markers</td><td>178</td></tr><tr><td>8</td><td>Co-occurrence restrictions of focus/topic markers and case markers</td><td>179</td></tr></table>

## Hateruma (Yaeyama Ryukyuan)

<table><tr><td>1</td><td>Vowels</td><td>191</td></tr><tr><td>2</td><td>Consonants and glides</td><td>192</td></tr><tr><td>3</td><td>Pitch patterns</td><td>194</td></tr><tr><td>4</td><td>Word classes</td><td>197</td></tr><tr><td>5</td><td>Pronouns</td><td>199</td></tr><tr><td>6</td><td>Case clitics</td><td>201</td></tr><tr><td>7</td><td>Verbal stem classes</td><td>202</td></tr><tr><td>8</td><td>Examples of verbal stems</td><td>202</td></tr><tr><td>9</td><td>Verb inflection (finite)</td><td>203</td></tr><tr><td>10</td><td>Verb inflection (non-finite)</td><td>204</td></tr><tr><td>11</td><td>Auxiliary verbs</td><td>206</td></tr><tr><td>12</td><td>Conjunction clitics</td><td>208</td></tr><tr><td>13</td><td>Modal clitics</td><td>208</td></tr><tr><td>14</td><td>Complex clause structures</td><td>218</td></tr></table>
<figure><img src="image_3.png" /></figure>
Acknowledgements

This book owes an immense debt to the Linguistic Dynamics Science Project (LingDy), the Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa (ILCAA) of Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, since this book grew out of the collaborative research project granted by LingDy (Toward an easy access to research outcomes of Ryukyuan studies, 2008-2009). Our deepest gratitude goes to the LingDy team: Toshihide Nakayama, Izumi Hoshi, Honoré Watanabe, Iku Nagasaki, Hideo Sawada, Asako Shiohara, Tokusu Kurebito, and Shintarō Arakawa. Being a book-producing project mainly managed by student scholars, our project seemed to be rather ambitious at the beginning, but now it has actually been completed owing to the warm and generous support by LingDy.

This book also owes obvious debt to the community of scholars working on Ryukyuan linguistics and/or related fields: Shigehisa Karimata, Satoshi Nishioka, Jō Nakahara, Kayoko Kojima (Shimoji), Shinji Ogawa, John Olstad, Yuki-nori Takubo, Shōichi Iwasaki, Tsuyoshi Ōno, Tomoyuki Kubo, Tasaku Tsunoda, and Shinjirō Kazama. Shōichi Iwasaki gave a wonderful opportunity for making our research project known to a wider community, by inviting the project team to an international workshop on Ryukyuan languages held at UCLA (Workshop on Ryukyuan Languages and Linguistic Research, 23rd to 25th of October 2009). Yukinori Takubo was always generous to spare his time for discussion with our project team. As an experienced Ryukyuan linguist, Shigehisa Karimata gave us continuous support both academically and personally. He was always willing to interact with young scholars, give invaluable advice, and provide several occasions for us to have feedback from Ryukyuan scholars based in Okinawa. Shinji Ogawa gave us various kinds of advice at the stage of editing of this book, and he was kind enough to spare his time for proof-reading the first draft chapters of this book. John Olstad helped us by proofreading the entire book and gave a number of valuable comments. Tasaku Tsunoda gave invaluable advice on how to organize chapters in grammar and grammatical sketch in general, most of which has been reflected in the chapter organization of this book. Shinjirō Kazama gave detailed advice on earlier drafts of some of the authors.

Clearly, this book could never have been written without the support of consultants who taught their languages to the authors of this book. On behalf of each of the authors, we as editors list their names and give a deep gratitude to these people and their patience, eagerness, and dedication: Misue Sakashita, Hiroteru Shigeno (Ura), Sachi (Tsuneko) Motoda, Nobuari Motoda, Fusa Watari, Hisako Ishihara, Mitsuko Toshioka (Yuwan), Toyo Onna, Kiyo Onna, Kama Kora, Suzu Midorima, Sachiko Matayoshi (Tsuken), Ume Kugai, Kinobu Shimoji, Yoshihiko Shimajiri, Yuriko Kugai (Ōgami), Tadashi Nakama, Hiroyuki Nakama, Kazuko Akamine (Ikema), Yoshi Tamori, Hide Yarabu (Hateruma).

Michinori Shimoji and Thomas Pellard
<figure><img src="image_4.png" /></figure>
# Ryukyuan languages: an introduction

Michinori Shimoji*

Gunma Prefectural Women's University

## 1 Introduction

This book, entitled *An Introduction to Ryukyuan Languages* (IRL), is a collection of grammatical sketches of six Ryukyuan languages: Ura and Yuwan (Amami Ryukyuan), Tsuken (Okinawan), Ikema and Ōgami (Miyako Ryukyuan), and Hateruma (Yaeyama Ryukyuan). The target readers of IRL are not limited to specialists of Ryukyuan; IRL is open to both specialists and non-specialists including theoretical linguists, typologists, and linguists working on non-Ryukyuan languages. In fact, IRL is deliberately organized in such a way that common typological topics likely to be asked by a non-specialist of a given language (e.g. word order, case alignment, morphological typology, property-concept encoding, etc.) are addressed by all authors (see § 3 of this introduction for more detail). IRL is, literally, an introduction to Ryukyuan languages.

In this introductory chapter I will aim to provide some basic background information of Ryukyuan languages (such as geographic, genealogical, and socio-historical information) and a typological summary of Ryukyuan languages.

## 2 Basic background of Ryukyuan

Ryukyuan is a group of languages belonging to the Japonic Family, spoken in the southern extreme of Japan archipelago called the Ryūkyū Islands. From north to south lie four major groups of islands that form the Ryūkyū Islands: the Amami Islands, Okinawa Islands, Miyako Islands, and Yaeyama Islands (Amami belongs to Kagoshima Prefecture, whereas the others belong to Okinawa Prefecture, thus there is an administrative border crosscutting the Ryūkyū Islands).<fnref n="1" /> IRL thus covers the languages of all these major island groups. It

<footnote>*I am grateful to Dr. Thomas Pellard for his valuable comments on an earlier draft of this chapter.</footnote>

<footnote n="1">¹There is an ongoing debate as to whether Ryukyuan is a dialect or a group of dialects of Japanese. However, this issue is socio-political and ideological rather than linguistic. Even linguistically, there is no strong argument for referring to Ryukyuan languages as Japanese dialects: there is no mutual intelligibility between Ryukyuan and Japanese, and even between Amami, Okinawan, Miyako, and Yaeyama. See Shimoji and Heinrich (forthcoming) for a fuller and intense discussion.</footnote>
is true that there is a considerable internal variation both in phonology and grammar within the languages of each island group and that the six varieties included in this book do not fully sketch out this variation, but IRL will nevertheless serve as a useful summary of the typological diversity found in Ryukyuan languages (see §3 for a typological summary on Ryukyuan languages).

The total number of speakers of Ryukyuan languages is unknown, as there is no statistical data available for this information. The total population of the areas where Ryukyuan languages are spoken is 1,452,288 (as valid in 2005: 85,434 for Amami Region, 1,366,854 for Okinawa Prefecture including Mainland Okinawa and Miyako-Yaeyama).<fnref n="2" /> As all the authors of this volume report, proficient speakers are limited to old generations, typically in their 50's and older, which means that the total number of speakers of Ryukyuan should be much smaller than the figure of 1,452,288.

It is useful at this stage to make brief notes on the socio-political and historical issues surrounding Ryukyuan languages, even though this book is intended to promote the understanding of synchronic and typological characteristics of Ryukyuan languages as compared with other languages.

As mentioned above, Ryukyuan languages are Japonic languages, with Ryukyuan being in sister relationship with Japanese (which, of course, falls into several divisions). A currently widely accepted hypothesis about the genealogical grouping is that Ryukyuan falls into two major subdivisions, Northern Ryukyuan (Amami-Okinawa) and Southern Ryukyuan (Miyako-Yaeyama). Further subgrouping is far beyond the focus of this chapter or of this entire book. Readers interested in more detailed discussions of Ryukyuan (or Japonic) historical linguistics are referred to vast literature on Ryukyuan (or Japonic) historical linguistics which include the following: Hattori (1959, 1978–1979) *inter alia*, Thorpe (1983), Uemura (1997), Serafim (2003), Lawrence (2000, 2006), Bentley (2008), and Pellard (2009a,b).

Early Japonic speakers from Mainland Japan are believed to have come southward to the north parts of the Ryūkyū archipelago sometime between the 2nd and 6th centuries (Uemura 1997), or the 8th to the 9th centuries (Serafim 2003). The crucial issue here is that the period during which the proto-Ryukyuan *separated* (in terms of historical linguistics) from other Japonic languages do not necessarily coincide with the period during which the proto-Ryukyuan speakers actually *settled* on the Ryūkyū Islands. That is, it is possible that the proto-Ryukyuan was spoken on south Kyūshū for some time and the proto-Ryukyuan speakers then moved southward to arrive eventually in the Ryūkyū Islands.

<footnote n="2">²These figures are based on the following websites: http://www.pref.kagoshima.jp/tokei/bunya/kokutyo/h17kokutyo/nennrei.17.html, http://www.pref.okinawa.jp/toukeika/estimates/2005/year/year.html</footnote>
<figure><img src="image_5.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_6.png" /><figcaption>**Figure 1:** Ryūkyū Islands and the Ryukyuan languages</figcaption></figure>
After the proto-Ryukyuan speakers settled on the Ryūkyū Islands, there was no massive and continuous socio-cultural contact between the Ryūkyū Islands and Mainland Japan until the 17th century, when the Ryūkyū Islands were conquered by the Satsuma Domain from Kyūshū, the southernmost large island of Mainland Japan.

The Miyako and Yaeyama Islands (collectively called the Sakishima Islands) and their history are full of uncertainties both in terms of archaeology and historical linguistics. Recent archaeological and anthropological studies have revealed that there had been no major population movement from Okinawa to the Sakishima Islands until the 13th century (Asato and Dohi 1999). Until the 13th century, there may have been some indigenous people on the Sakishima Islands, who were decimated by the Ryukyuan newcomers, or gradually assimilated by them to become Southern Ryukyuan speakers. The question of exactly who the indigenous people were is controversial. Some researchers assert that they came from Indonesia or the Philippines (Kanaseki 1976, Asato and Dohi 1999). Linguistically speaking, a different prediction is made: all evidence available so far seems to be that Amami-Okinawan and Southern Ryukyuan are in sister relationship, both branching off from Proto-Ryukyuan.

# 3 Ryukyuan languages: typological summary

One striking feature of Ryukyuan languages is their typological diversity. Also, some languages have turned out to exhibit features that call attention of general linguists and typologists. In what follows I give an outline of these typological features, focusing both on phonology and morphosyntax.

## 3.1 Phonology

Basically, Ryukyuan languages share a number of phonological characteristics with Japanese, such as voicing opposition for obstruents, basic CV(C) structure, moraic rhythm, and pitch accent. However, there is considerable variation within Ryukyuan languages, and some languages show considerable divergence in terms of the above-mentioned general phonological characteristics usually found in Japonic languages. For example, Ōgami (Pellard, this volume) has no voice opposition for obstruents, and has a possible syllable shape of CCVC as well as a surprisingly rich inventory of syllabic consonants, some of which may even carry an onset, as in /kff/ [kf:] ‘make’.

### 3.1.1 Phonemes and phonotactics

Let us start with typological characteristics of phoneme inventories and phonotactics of Ryukyuan languages, focusing mainly on the six languages covered
in IRL. Amami Ryukyuan (Niinaga and Shigeno, this volume) is characterized by the existence of central vowels (high and mid) and a number of glottalized consonants (which are phonemically analyzed as a laryngeal phoneme + C). The laryngeal phoneme, according to Niinaga and Shigeno, bears a mora and comes only root-initially. Thus in Yuwan, for example, /?ma/ [?ma] ‘horse’ has the structure LCV where L(aryngeal) and CV each have one mora. Tsuken (Central Okinawan) also has glottalization phenomena, but it is much more restricted, restricted to glides and two vowels /a/ and /i/ (see Matayoshi, this volume).

Southern Ryukyuan languages generally lack, or have only a limited number of, glottalized consonants, even though there are certain exceptions to this generalization (e.g. Yonaguni). Some Miyako Ryukyuan varieties have a very limited number of glottalized consonants. In Irabu, for example, glottalization occurs only with /t/ and /c/, as in /ttjaa/ [?t?aa:] ‘then’ and /ccir/ [?t?ci:] ‘pipe’. What characterizes Southern Ryukyuan languages instead is a rich inventory of syllabic consonants. Syllabic consonants are so prominent in Miyako Ryukyuan that Shimoji (2006b) posited the syllable template O+N+C (Onset, Nucleus, and Coda) rather than C+V+C (Consonant and Vowel) for Irabu, to reflect the fact that the categories consonant and vowel in this language do not necessarily correspond to syllable margin and syllable nucleus. As illustrated in the Irabu examples in (1), whereas vowels are inherently nucleic (i.e. they only occur as syllable nuclei), resonant and fricative consonants may be *contextually* nucleic: on the one hand, they occur in syllable margins when adjacent to a vowel or vowels (see /m/ in (1a) below); on the other, they are nucleic if no vowel is adjacent (see /m/ in (1b) and (1c)). A syllabic consonant may even carry an onset, as illustrated in (1d-e).

### (1) Irabu

<table><thead><tr><th></th><th></th><th></th><th>Syllabification</th><th>Syllable structure</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>a. /nam/</td><td>[nam]</td><td>‘wave’</td><td>nam</td><td>ONC</td></tr><tr><td>b. /mna/</td><td>[mna]</td><td>‘shell’</td><td>m.na</td><td>N.ON</td></tr><tr><td>c. /mm/</td><td>[m:]</td><td>‘potato’</td><td>mm</td><td>NN</td></tr><tr><td>d. /pžtu/</td><td>[pštu]</td><td>‘man’</td><td>pž.tu</td><td>ON.ON</td></tr><tr><td>e. /prrma/</td><td>[p][:ma]</td><td>‘daytime’</td><td>prr.ma</td><td>ONN.ON</td></tr></tbody></table>

The following examples come from Ōgami (Pellard, this volume). In this language, too, syllable slots (nucleus and margins) and vowel/consonant features do not show one-to-one correspondence. The following examples show that the fricative /s/ is contextually nucleic.

### (2) Ōgami

<table><tr><td>a. /us/</td><td>[us]</td><td>‘cow’</td><td>us</td><td>NC</td></tr><tr><td>b. /ss/</td><td>[s:]</td><td>‘dust’</td><td>ss</td><td>NN</td></tr><tr><td>c. /kss/</td><td>[ks:]</td><td>‘breast’</td><td>kss</td><td>ONN</td></tr></table>
See Pellard’s description in this volume for a more detail on syllabic consonants in Ōgami, a language having a typologically striking feature of syllabic fricatives.

### 3.1.2 Suprasegmentals

Let us now turn to suprasegmental characteristics that Ryukyuan languages manifest. Mora is crucial in most (all?) Ryukyuan languages, and this is clearly seen in each sketch of this book. Most Ryukyuan varieties have the cross-linguistically common minimality constraint, which requires a phonological word to have at least two morae. There is some internal variation in this regard, however. In Irabu (Miyako Ryukyuan, Shimoji 2008a), this minimality constraint (MC in (3) below) applies to a non-cliticized word form (i.e. MC applies before cliticization occurs). As shown in (3), the noun root *ti* ‘hand’ is always subject to lengthening of the vowel to meet the minimality constraint without respect to whether it is followed by a clitic.

(3) Irabu

a. *ti* → [MC] → *tii*

b. *ti* → [MC] → *tii* + =nu (GEN) → *tii*=nu

By contrast, in Hateruma (Aso, this volume) the constraint applies to a cliticized form (i.e. MC applies after cliticization occurs). Thus in (4) below the root *si* ‘hand’ is not lengthened when attached by a clitic, since the root + clitic satisfies the minimality constraint.

(4) Hateruma (examples by courtesy of Aso Reiko; see also her chapter in this volume)

a. *si* → [MC] → *sii*

b. *si* + =nu (GEN) → [MC] → *si*=nu

One common view on clitics is that they are grammatical words that are phonologically bound (see Zwicky 1977, Haspelmath 2002, Dixon and Aikhenvald 2002). This simple generalization may entail that phonological bound-edbess is of either-or kind rather than of more-or-less kind. However, linguists all know that this is untrue. The clitic is a cross-linguistically swing category, exhibiting an intermediate status between an affix and a full word. Thus it is a meaningful, and in fact an important, question to what extent (as opposed to whether) a clitic is phonologically bound to the host. In Hateruma, clitics are bound both in terms of word minimality and accent (see Aso this volume). In Irabu, whereas clitics come outside of the phonological word domain in terms of minimality constraint, other prosodic evidence shows that clitics are integrated into the host, e.g. with respect to tone assignment (Shimoji 2009c). Thus Hateruma clitics are phonologically more integrated into the host than Irabu clitics.
As compared with mora, syllable seems to play a marginal role in Ryukyuan languages, even though it still remains unclear to what extent and in what way syllable is crucial in Ryukyuan languages. Pellard (this volume) clearly argues for postulating the phonological unit syllable in addition to mora, in explaining a certain morphophonemic alternation. Shimoji (2006b, 2009c) notes that rising pitch within a syllable is dispreferred in Irabu, a fact that also supports the view that syllable plays a role in Ryukyuan phonology.

Word-level prosody of Ryukyuan languages have been relatively well studied (see Uwano 1999, Matsumori 2001, Lawrence 2001 for useful summaries written in English). This area also presents phenomena that will attract the attention of theoretical phonologists. Typically, Ryukyuan languages have a lexically contrastive pitch accent system built on moraic rhythm, where a specific mora within a word is accented (i.e. serves as locus for a distinctive pitch event such as abrupt falling/rising pitch) and the locus of accent is lexically determined.<fnref n="3" /> Many Ryukyuan languages have an accentual system with two or three contrastive pitch patterns (two-pattern or three-pattern accent). Exploring Ryukyuan accentual systems brings a number of interesting and difficult issues to linguistic theory (see Lawrence 2001), but I would like here to focus on one such issue only. Most of the accentual systems of Ryukyuan languages have been described by referring to mora/syllable rather than higher prosodic constituents such as foot. In some Ryukyuan languages, however, foot plays a crucial role in the organization of word-level prosody. For example, Nakijin (Northern Ryukyuan, Lawrence 1990) has an iambic rhythm of short and long vowels based on feet. The prosodic organization of some Miyako Ryukyuan languages is also highly noteworthy. In these languages, the basic prosodic unit is clearly mora, but there is a higher prosodic constituent, or bimoraic foot, to which tone is assigned (Shimoji 2009c). Thus, these languages have a tonal foot (Leben 1997), a prosodic unit not common cross-linguistically. In Irabu, for example, H(igh) tone appears at regular intervals by grouping four feet into two ‘foot groups’ in which each foot group has one H-toned foot. Thus Irabu prosody is characterized by a foot-based alternating rhythm of tone features (*H-L alternation*, Shimoji 2009c). Ikema (Hayashi, this volume) is interesting in that this H-L alternation conspires with lexical tones (type α and type β, see Hayashi et al. 2008 for detail). The Ikema fact suggests that H-L alternation and lexical word tone are independent processes (i.e. they occur in different layers of prosodic organization). In Irabu lexical word tone is absent (i.e. Irabu words are accentless) and H-L alternation directly manifests itself in its word-level prosody.

<footnote n="3">³Alternatively, this kind of system may be interpreted as a word tone system, where specific pitch contour patterns are attributed not to the locus of accent but to specific tonal melodies (see Hayashi and Aso, this volume). Tonal melodies are either lexically distinctive or non-distinctive. Yuwan (Niinaga, this volume) has three tonal melodies, and it is lexically determined which tonal melody appears in which lexeme.</footnote>
## 3.2 Morphosyntax

### 3.2.1 Clause structure

As in other Japonic languages, Ryukyuan languages are verb-final languages with a modifier-head order and a dependent-marking system. They prefer SV as an unmarked word order for intransitive clauses, and AOV as an unmarked word order for transitive clauses. As “pro-drop” languages, however, ellipsis of core arguments is quite common.

### 3.2.2 Case alignment system

Most Ryukyuan languages display a nominative-accusative case alignment system, but Hateruma (Aso, this volume) is noteworthy in that case marking for S/A and O is neutralized (both types of core arguments are zero-marked).

(5) *pitu = Ø*   *budur-ja-ta-n*
person = CORE dance-PRF-PAST-RLS
'People danced.' [Intransitive: S marked by =Ø]

(6) *aboa = Ø*   *ija = Ø*   *mir-i*   *bir-ja-ta-n*
mother = CORE father = CORE look-MED PROG-PRF-PAST-RLS
'(My) mother was looking at (my) father.' [Transitive: A/O marked by
=Ø]

In this language, the relative order of A and O marks the grammatical relations, according to Aso. Thus if the first and second words in (6) is switched, the result is that the A is interpreted as father, and the O as mother.

In those Ryukyuan languages which have a nominative-accusative system, even though S/A marking and O marking are distinct by definition, several interesting characteristics are observed for S/A marking on the one hand, and O marking on the other.

S/A marking (by nominative case) and possessor marking (by genitive case) are formally syncretized in many Ryukyuan languages (more precisely, the same case marker is used for both S/A and NP modifier).<fnref n="4" /> This kind of identical marking for subject and possessor is well attested cross-linguistically, for example in Austronesian languages, and this marking pattern is crucially related to nominalization processes. What is more interesting cross-linguistically in Ryukyuan languages is their elaborate system of S/A/Poss marking sensitive

<footnote n="4">⁴In Japonic languages, genitive case (or attributive case) is used to mark possessor, attributive modifier, and other various relations established between the modifier and the head of an NP. Thus the term *genitive* should not be interpreted in the restrictive sense of *possessive*. Thus *dus = nu sjasin* (friend = GEN picture) in Irabu, for example, may be interpreted as (a) a friend's picture (possessive reading) or (b) a picture of a friend (non-possessive reading), the exact interpretation being dependent on pragmatic inference (e.g. contextual information).</footnote>
to animacy hierarchy. In many Ryukyuan languages the syncretized S/A/Poss marker is =ga/=nu (or similar forms), and the choice between these two is based on animacy-definiteness of the NP to which the marker is attached (see Niinaga and Pellard, this volume). Niinaga reports an interesting case marking strategy found in Yuwan. Here, S/A is marked by =ga/=nu, whereas a possessor is marked by an adnominal word (which never carries any case marker), =ga, =nu, or =Ø. These elaborate distinctions in S/A/Poss marking are explained by referring to animacy hierarchy, according to Niinaga. His account of the nominative =ga/=nu and the genitive =ga/=Ø/=nu in terms of animacy hierarchy is summarized as follows (see Niinaga, this volume, for detail).

<figure><img src="image_7.png" /><figcaption>Figure 2: Nominative hierarchy</figcaption></figure>

<figure><img src="image_8.png" /><figcaption>Figure 3: Adnominal and genitive hierarchy</figcaption></figure>

Miyako Ryukyuan languages have an interesting object marking system, where O in a dependent clause of clause-chaining constructions may receive a special marking (Koloskova 2007, Shimoji 2008a; see also Pellard and Hayashi this volume). Koloskova and Shimoji argue that this special object marker primarily marks low transitivity of O. Shimoji further states that the restriction of this marking to chained clauses is explained by the fact that this marking helps disambiguate the foreground-background discourse functions of the chained clause in which it occurs. Thus, this object marking seems to demonstrate Hopper and Thompson (1980)'s well-known Transitivity Hypothesis, which says that low transitivity marking in natural language functions to secure the distinction of discourse grounding. Interestingly, this marker is identical in form to a topic marker. Shimoji interprets the object marker as second accusative case marker homophonous to a topic marker, whereas Hayashi (this volume) argues that this object marking may be interpreted as yet another function of a topic marker.

### 3.2.3 Word class assignment

Nominals and verbs are unambiguously distinguished in all Ryukyuan languages. A nominal is defined syntactically as it lacks inflectional morphology,
whereas a verb is defined by its inflection. Many authors of this volume define a noun as a word that only heads an NP, and a verb as a word that inflects.

As is common cross-linguistically, the word class assignment of property concept words (PC words) varies in Ryukyuan languages. However, certain patterns do emerge by examining the six languages of Ryukyuan dealt with in this volume.

In these languages most PC roots are bound, and certain morphological strategies are necessary to make them stand as a word. One such strategy is nominal compounding where a PC root and a noun root are compounded to for a nominal word. In Yuwan (Niinaga, this volume), for example, the PC root *kjura*-'beautiful' may be compounded with the noun root ?kin 'kimono', and the resulting word form is *kjura-gin* 'beautiful kimono'. Likewise, in Ikema (Hayashi, this volume) the PC root *imi-* 'small' may be compounded with the noun root *ffa* 'child', and we get *imi-ffa* 'small child'. This type of compounding seems to be widespread both in Northern and Southern Ryukyuan, but in Hateruma (Aso, this volume), this kind of compounding is generally absent, and Aso (p.c. 2010) gave just a few examples that she encountered: *bu-zara* (big-plate) 'big plate', *bu-bi* (big-finger) 'thumb', and *aga-pana* (red-flower). Here, the PC roots participating in compounding have different shapes from those that occur elsewhere (cf. *busa-* 'big', *aka-* 'red'), indicating that this kind of compounding is lexicalized. In Miyako Ryukyuan at least, the noun root may be a formal noun *munu*, which is often de-substantivized and only serves as a structural head. In Irabu (Shimoji 2008a, 2009a), for example, there are expressions like *imi-munu* (small-D.SUB) 'small (thing)' and *sabic-munu* (lonely-D.SUB) '(I feel) lonely'.

Another very common morphological strategy found in Ryukyuan languages for word formation of PC roots is verbalization. That is, a PC root is transformed into a verb stem by a verbalizer affix, to which a verbal inflectional affix (es) is attached. All the languages dealt with in this book have this strategy. In traditional Ryukyuan linguistics, PC words created by this process have been analyzed as adjectives based mainly on their semantic properties, but a stricter word class assignment reveals that the word form in question is nothing but a verb, since the set of inflectional affixes is identical to that for other verbs (see each sketch of this book). In many Ryukyuan languages this verbalization strategy and the compound nominal formation noted above are the only two major word formation processes for PC words.<fnref n="5" /> That is, in these languages PC words are either nouns or verbs, and there is no need to postulate the word class adjective (see Niinaga, Shigeno, Matayoshi, Hayashi, and Aso, this volume).

Miyako Ryukyuan is quite interesting in the word class assignment of PC words. They typically have a distinct word class adjective, which is morphosyn-

<footnote n="5">⁵In addition, a PC root may be transformed into an adverb and a state noun. For example, Yuwan (Niinaga, this volume) has a PC adverb such as *həə-ku* (fast-AVLZ) ‘quickly’ and a PC state noun such as *taa-sa* (high-NLZ) ‘height’.</footnote>
tactically distinct from nominal and verb, and the adjective class in these lan-
guages mainly functions as NP modifier (see Shimoji 2009a for a detailed dis-
cussion). The adjective in Miyako Ryukyuan is formed by reduplicating a PC
root (or a derived PC stem) with lengthening of the final segment of the redu-
plicant. Thus in Irabu, from the PC root *imi* - ‘small’ it is possible to form the
adjective *imii-imi*. In Ōgami, there are two types of adjectives. One is a redupli-
cated form as noted above. The other is what Pellard (this volume) calls sim-
ilative adjective, where a PC root is affixed by the similative -ki, as in *kssiti-ki*
/beautiful-SIMIL) ‘seems to be beautiful’. Ikema lacks the reduplication strategy
for PC roots, so this language lacks the adjective class in effect (Hayashi, this
volume).

3.2.4 Topic and focus marking

Ryukyuan languages have an interesting system of information structure mark-
ing with their rich inventory of topic and focus markers. Topic marking is typ-
ically done by = (j)a or a similar form. In Southern Ryukyuan, object topic
is distinctively marked by =ba (Hayashi, Pellard, and Aso, this volume). Or
conversely, this distinct marking justifies the postulation of the grammatical
relation direct object in these languages (see, for example, Shimoji 2008a). A
focus marker is typically = du (or a similar form, like = tu in Ōgami) but some
Ryukyuan languages have a more elaborate inventory of focus markers. Irabu
(Shimoji 2008a) is one such language, where focus marking morphology is
sensitive to sentential type (declarative and interrogative): = du for declarative
clauses, = ru for Yes-No interrogative clauses, and = ga for Wh interrogative
clauses. Yuwan (Niinaga, this volume) lacks = ru, but the distinction between
= du and = ga is observed. In Ikema, the single focus marker = du is used for
all sentential types (Hayashi, this volume). In Hateruma, focus marking is done
by = du or = ru, and according to Aso, the choice between these two is based
not on sentential type but on argument status (see her chapter).

Ryukyuan languages have a typologically remarkable focus construction,
which is traditionally called *kakari-musubi* (literally “governing-and-concord-
ance”) in Japanese linguistics. The standard definition of *kakari-musubi* in the
literature of Japanese and Ryukyuan linguistics is that *kakari-musubi* is a syntac-
tic construction in which the use of a focus particle triggers the use of specific
inflection (i.e. adnominal form or *izen* form), instead of the expected conclu-
sive form (based on Shinzato and Serafim 2003: 189). This construction has
been lost in Standard Modern Japanese, but is still active in many Ryukyuan
languages. In Yuwan (Niinaga, this volume) the specific inflection in the pres-
ence of a focus marker is a special form, rather than an adnominal form. The
Yuwan *Kakari musubi* thus presents an interesting divergence from a standard
*kakari-musubi* in that the special verb form is not an adnominal form, as Ni-
inaga points out. In Irabu (Shimoji in press) there is negative concordance (as
opposed to positive concordance where the presence of a focus marker triggers
the use of a specific verbal form as is usual in a standard *kakari-musubi* and
in the Yuwan *kakari-musubi*), where the presence of a focus marker *blocks* the
use of a specific verb form, i.e. a realis form. Thus Ryukyuan languages show
synchronic and typological variation with regard to the syntactic organization
of *kakari-musubi*.

4 Organization of IRL

IRL is a product of the collaborative research project *Toward an easy access to research outcomes of Ryukyuan studies*. The Project was a two-year project with eight collaborators, and ended with completion of two research outcomes: IRL and the Project website (see below for more detail). Our Project was one of the three projects accepted and granted by Collaborative Research Development Program, Linguistic Dynamics Science Project (LingDy) in Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa (ILCAA), Tokyo University of Foreign Studies.<fnref n="6" />

Each grammatical sketch of IRL adopts the same descriptive format, which is designed to address common typological features such as phoneme inventory, syllable structure, the definition of word, affix, and clitic, word classes, coordination-subordination distinction, etc. When this book project started I asked each contributor to choose one of two descriptive formats, Standard set and Concise set. The Standard set consists of nine to eleven sections, whereas the Concise set consists of seven sections. Three contributors chose SS (Ninaga, Pellard, and Aso), and the other three chose CS (Shigeno, Matayoshi, and Hayashi). These sets overlap in important typological topics such as basic clause structure and word class assignment. Of course, some sections have been added or deleted by the author of a language, where such addition/deletion turns out to be necessary. But it was emphasized that all contributors try to follow the descriptive format they chose. This uniformity in section organization in each sketch was intended to allow readers to do a quick and clear comparison of typological features among the six languages.

Each grammatical sketch is followed by a sample text. This text is based on
the same visual stimulus, or the Pear story, a silent movie devised by Wallace
Chafe to serve as stimulus for eliciting a narrative (Chafe 1980). Each author
collected a narrative text in the field by using the Pear story movie, and tran-
scribed the text with interlinear glossing. Thus each text goes with the same
story line, but different discourse organization strategies may be found in dif-
ferent languages (this is an interesting future research topic that we did not
pursue for the purpose of our Project). The wav sound file of the Pear story of

<footnote n="6">⁶The following webpage describes the aim of the program and lists links to three accepted projects including ours. http://lingdy.aacore.jp/en/activity/wakate.html</footnote>
each language together with the pdf version of the grammatical sketch can be downloaded for free at the following website which was created by our Project: http://lingdy.aacore.jp/PearStory/.

Abbreviations

<table><tr><td>AVLZ</td><td>adverbializer</td><td>POSS</td><td>possessive</td></tr><tr><td>CORE</td><td>core argument</td><td>PRF</td><td>perfect</td></tr><tr><td>D.SUB</td><td>de-substantive</td><td>PROG</td><td>progressive</td></tr><tr><td>GEN</td><td>genitive</td><td>PAST</td><td>past</td></tr><tr><td>MED</td><td>medial verb</td><td>RLS</td><td>realis</td></tr><tr><td>NLZ</td><td>nominalizer</td><td></td><td></td></tr></table>
<figure><img src="image_9.png" /></figure>
# Ura (Amami Ryukyuan)

## Hiromi Shigeno

Hiroshima University

<figure><img src="image_10.png" /><figcaption>Figure 1: Amami Islands</figcaption></figure>

## Introduction

Ura has seven vowels of which three are central vowels, and fourteen consonants. In addition, there is a laryngeal phoneme (§ 2.3). The plural affix -nta shows concord with the predicate verb according to the degree of honorification (§ 5.2).
The topic marker =ja shows a peculiar morphophonological characteristic, where the sequence /n.ja/ [N.ja] (which is ill-formed in most Ryukyuan varieties) is a well-formed sequence (§6.2).

There are two past tense forms, the “default” -ta and the marked -ti, the latter of which basically appears in a subordinate clause but may be used in a main clause (§7.2).

# 1 The language and its speakers

Amami Ryukyuan is spoken in the Amami Islands (Map 1), one of the island groups of the Ryukyu archipelago situated to the South-West of the Japanese islands. The number of inhabitants of the Amami Ōshima is 67,533, whereas that of the Ura village is 645 (November, 2009).

Amami Ryukyuan is a sub-branch of Northern Ryukyuan, and Amami Ryukyuan itself falls into North Ōshima dialects and South Ōshima dialects. These two major dialect groups have mutual intellegibility, and the differences are largely lexical and phonological. Ura is one of the North Ōshima dialects.

Fluent speakers of Ura are mostly over sixty years old, many are in their seventies. The younger generations normally choose to speak Japanese, and the generations under thirty only speak Japanese fluently.

# 2 Phonology

This section summarizes the phonological system of Ura. Long vowels are phonemically analyzed as vowel sequences.

## 2.1 Vowels

The inventory of vowel phonemes is shown in table 1.

<table><caption>Table 1: Vowels in Ura</caption><thead><tr><th></th><th>Front</th><th>Central</th><th>Back</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><th>High</th><td>i</td><td>i</td><td>u</td></tr><tr><th>Mid</th><td>e</td><td>ə</td><td>o</td></tr><tr><th>Low</th><td></td><td>a</td><td></td></tr></tbody></table>

## 2.2 Consonants

The inventory of consonant phonemes is as follows.
<table><caption>Table 2: Consonants in Ura</caption><thead><tr><th></th><th></th><th>Labial</th><th>Alveolar</th><th>Velar</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td rowspan="2">Stops</td><td>voiceless</td><td>p</td><td>t</td><td>k</td></tr><tr><td>voiced</td><td>b</td><td>d</td><td>g</td></tr><tr><td rowspan="2">Affricates</td><td>voiceless</td><td></td><td>c</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>voiced</td><td></td><td>z</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Fricatives</td><td></td><td></td><td>s</td><td></td></tr><tr><td rowspan="3">Sonorants</td><td>nasal</td><td>m</td><td>n</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>approximant</td><td>w</td><td>j</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>flap</td><td></td><td>r</td><td></td></tr></tbody></table>

Several comments are necessary for consonant phonemes. First, obstruents have voice opposition. Second, the affricate /c/ is usually realized as [ts], and as [tç] when palatalized. The voiced phoneme /z/ is pronounced as [dz]. Third, the glottalized stops are not analyzed as unitary phonemes (e.g. /ʔk/) but as a sequence of a laryngeal and a consonant (e.g. /ʔk/, see §2.3).

Glottalized consonants are distinguished from geminates, e.g. /ʔkwa/ [ʔkwa] ‘child’ vs. /-kkwa/ [-kkwa] ‘diminutive marker’.

(1) maja = nuʔkwa [ʔkwa]
cat = GEN child
‘kitten’

(2) maja = nuʔkwa-kkwa [kkwa]
cat = GEN child-DIM
‘kitten’

Root-initial /ʔk/ [ʔk] and /kk/ [kk] are thus differentiated.

## 2.3 Laryngeal

Laryngeal refers here to /ʔ/. It could be analyzed as just another consonant, but compared to other consonants it is unique in the following ways:

* it is the only stop with no voice opposition

* it can be moraic

* it can only appear in the root-initial position

Therefore, I consider /ʔ/ not as a consonant but as a different “laryngeal” class of phoneme. By contrast, the phonemes /j/ and /w/ are not considered
as a special class of “glides” distinct from consonants but as approximants, a sub-class of consonants.<fnref n="1" /> The laryngeal can appear before voiceless consonants, nasals and approximants. There are some minimal pairs that are distinguished by the presence vs. absence of /?/. However, the glottal stop appearing before vowels is interpreted not as a phoneme but as an empty onset, which contrasts with vowels preceded by an approximant onset.

<table><tr><td>(3) Consonants:</td><td>/?kwa/ [?kwa] ‘child’</td><td>vs</td><td>/-kkwa/ [kkwa] (DIM)</td></tr><tr><td>Nasals:</td><td>/?nama/ [?nama] ‘now’</td><td>vs</td><td>/nama/ [nama] ‘raw’</td></tr><tr><td rowspan="2">Approximants:</td><td>/?juu/ [?ju:] ‘fish’</td><td>vs</td><td>/juu/ [ju:] ‘hot water’</td></tr><tr><td>/utu/ [?utu] ‘sound’</td><td>vs</td><td>/wutu/ [utu] ‘husband’</td></tr></table>

## 2.4 Syllable and mora

The syllable template is given as follows.

$$ (4) \quad ((\#L)C(G))V_1(V_2)(C_{coda}) $$

The mora is counted as follows, where the symbol $\mu$ indicates that the syllable slot so marked has one mora. Words in Ura are minimally bimoraic.

$$ (5) \quad ((\#L) C (G)) V_1 (V_1) (C_{coda}) \\ (\mu) \quad - \quad - \quad \mu \quad \mu \quad \mu $$

“#” indicates root-initial position. The L and G slots can only be filled if the C slot is filled. The relationship between the different slots and the phoneme classes that can fill them is given below.

<table><thead><tr><th>(6) Syllable slot</th><th>Phoneme class</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>L</td><td>Laryngeal</td></tr><tr><td>C, G, C<sub>coda</sub></td><td>Consonant</td></tr><tr><td>V<sub>1</sub>, V<sub>2</sub></td><td>Vowel</td></tr></tbody></table>

Both the C(coda) and G slots can be filled by consonants, but only /j,w/ can fill G and the same consonant cannot appear at the same time in both C and G (e.g. */ww/, */jj/). The table 3 lists examples of monosyllabic words.

## 2.5 Tone/accent

Ura does not have lexically distinctive pitch. The default pitch pattern is LH for bimoraic words, LHH for trimoraic words, and so on.

<footnote n="1">¹/?/ can appear in front of both the G and C slots in a syllable (ex: [?ja:] ‘you’, [kju:] ‘today’, [?kwa] ‘child’, see §2.4), it seems thus better to analyze /j/ and /w/ as a sub-class of consonants.</footnote>
<table><caption>Table 3: Monosyllabic words</caption><thead><tr><th></th><th></th><th></th><th>(#L)</th><th>C</th><th>(G)</th><th>V1</th><th>(V2)</th><th>(Coda)</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>/ii/</td><td>[i:]</td><td>'stomach'</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td>i</td><td>i</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>/in/</td><td>[iŋ]</td><td>'dog'</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td>i</td><td></td><td>n</td></tr><tr><td>/juu/</td><td>[ju:]</td><td>'hot water'</td><td></td><td>j</td><td></td><td>u</td><td>u</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>/wan/</td><td>[wʌn]</td><td>'I'</td><td></td><td>w</td><td></td><td>a</td><td></td><td>n</td></tr><tr><td>/miš/</td><td>[mi:]</td><td>'eyes'</td><td></td><td>m</td><td></td><td>i</td><td>i</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>/sjaa/</td><td>[ça:]</td><td>'under'</td><td></td><td>s</td><td>j</td><td>a</td><td>a</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>/gan/</td><td>[gʌn]</td><td>'crab'</td><td></td><td>g</td><td></td><td>a</td><td></td><td>n</td></tr><tr><td>/gwan/</td><td>[gwʌn]</td><td>'wish'</td><td></td><td>g</td><td>w</td><td>a</td><td></td><td>n</td></tr><tr><td>/?ci/</td><td>[?tçi]</td><td>'blood'</td><td>?</td><td>c</td><td></td><td>i</td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>/?waa/</td><td>[?wa:]</td><td>'pig'</td><td>?</td><td>w</td><td></td><td>a</td><td>a</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>/?kjuu/</td><td>[?k'u:]</td><td>'today'</td><td>?</td><td>k</td><td>j</td><td>u</td><td>u</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>/?kin/</td><td>[?kiŋ]</td><td>'kimono'</td><td>?</td><td>k</td><td></td><td>i</td><td></td><td>n</td></tr></tbody></table>

## 2.6 Sequential voicing

In compounds, the root-initial consonant of the second member undergoes *sequential voicing*.

(7) a. *kjora-* ‘beautiful’ + ?kin ‘kimono’ → *kjora* + gin ‘beautiful kimono’<fnref n="2" />

b. *mukoo* ‘opposite’ + *sini* ‘shank’ → *mukoo* + *zini* ‘face of the shank’

# 3 Basic clause structure and phrase structure

## 3.1 Basic clause structure

The basic word order of transitive clauses is SOV. In declarative clauses, there is no special marking required as in (8) below. In interrogative clauses, a question marker is attached clause-finally, as in (9) below. In imperative clauses, the predicate verb must be inflected for the imperative mood, as in (10) below.

(8) *wan* = *ga* *kak-jur-i*
1SG = NOM *write-IPFV-NPST*
'I write.'

<footnote n="2">²I consider this to be due to a rule stating /?/ drops before *distinctively* voiced consonants. This rule applies only to obstruents, for which there exists a voiced/voiceless opposition. This accounts for the fact that when /?kin/ [?kin] appears as the second member of a compound the root-initial /k/ shifts to /g/ and not /?g/ (ex: /kjora + gin/ ‘beautiful kimono). On the other hand, in the case of roots with an initial sonorant, like /?ma/ [?ma] ‘horse’, the laryngeal does not drop in compounds: /waasan + ?ma / ‘young horse’.</footnote>
(9) wan=ga kak-ju-Ø-n=ja ?
1SG=NOM write-IPFV-NPST-ADN=Q
‘Should I write?’

(10) ?jaa=ga kak-i !
2SG=NOM write-IMP
‘Write!’

Subordinate clauses fall into three major types: adverbial clauses, as in (11), relative clauses, as in (12), and nominal (or complement) clauses, as in (13).

(11) ?cjaa num-igacina hon jum-i
tea drink-CVB.SIM book read-NPST
‘(I) am reading a book while drinking tea.’

(12) boosi kahu-ti ?mo-n ?cju=ga ?cjan=doo
hat put.on-MED PROG.HON-ADN person=NOM father=EMP
‘The person who is wearing a hat is my father.’

(13) ?waa kam-icja-ka-n=cci=ja umuw-an=doo
pig eat-OPT-VLZ-ADN=QT=TOP think-NEG=EMP
‘(I) do not think that (I) want to eat the pig.’

## 3.2 Basic phrase structure

The noun phrase consists of a head and an optional modifier, with a modifier-head constituent order.

* Nominal-modifier + Nominal-head:

(14) ?kwaa=nu hon
child=GEN book
‘child’s book’

* Adnominal + Nominal:

(15) a. kun hon
    this book
    ‘This book’

b. wa=ga ka-sja-n hon
1SG=NOM write-PST-ADN book
‘The book that I wrote.’
As shown schematically below, the verb phrase consists of a lexical verb and optionally an auxiliary or a second lexical verb. In addition, the complement of VP is also required in certain cases.

(16) (VP complement + )[lexical verb1(+ auxiliary verb/lexical verb2)]<sub>VP</sub>

Example (17) shows the minimal VP, where there is only a lexical verb.

(17) hon=ba jum-jur-i
book=ACC read-IPFV-NPST
‘(I) am reading a book.’

Here is an example of a complex VP with an auxiliary verb:

(18) anma=ja wan=zi hon=ba ju-di kurer-ju-n
mother=TOP 1SG=ALL2 book=ACC read-MED give-IPFV-ADN
‘Mother reads a book for me.’

The following example illustrates a complex VP with two lexical verbs.

(19) njaa=daka ippai tu-ti k-ju-n
shellfish=AMBG many take-MED come-IPFV-ADN
‘(I) caught many shellfishes, etc.’ VP complement

(20) oi mə=du mir-i !
hey front=FOC look-IMP
‘Hey, look at the front!’

## 4 Word classes

Three major word classes can be identified by the following morphosyntactic criteria.

(A) They have the ability to head an NP

(B) They carry an NP-modifying function

(C) They can be inflected

<table><caption>**Table 4:** Word classes: distinctive criteria</caption><thead><tr><th></th><th>(A)</th><th>(B)</th><th>(C)</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Nominal</td><td>+</td><td>-</td><td>-</td></tr><tr><td>Adnominal</td><td>-</td><td>+</td><td>-</td></tr><tr><td>Verb</td><td>-</td><td>-</td><td>+</td></tr><tr><td>Other word classes</td><td>-</td><td>-</td><td>-</td></tr></tbody></table>
The noun is a word that only fills the head slot of an **NP**. In the **NP** *warabi* = *nu mun* (child = GEN thing) ‘a child’s thing’, for example, the word *warabi* constitutes an **NP** itself, as it carries the genitive case clitic. Thus, this word fills the head slot of an **NP**, which in turn fills the modifier of the larger **NP** *warabi* = *nu mun*.

By contrast, the adnominal is a word that only fills the modifier slot of an **NP**. In the **NP** *kun hon* (this book) ‘this book’, for example, the adnominal *kun* directly fills the modifier of the **NP**, as it does not carry a case clitic, which is attached per **NP**.

The verb is a word class that inflects. In the verb *jum-jur-i* (read-IPFV-NPST) ‘read’, for example, the final affix -i is the non-past tense affix.

As shown in **table 4**, Ura does not have the word class “adjective”, as the word designating property concept infects just like a verb. That is, property concept words are a subclass of verb (see §5.3.3).

The category “other word classes” include various minor word classes such as interjections (e.g. *agee* ‘oh dear’, *oi* ‘hey’, *oo* ‘Yes’, *aai* ‘No’, *ugamisjooran* ‘hello’, *obokori* ‘thank you’, *dii* ‘now’, *ure* ‘see; here it is’).

# 5 Basic morphology

This section summarizes the basic word formation processes.

## 5.1 Morphological typology

Affixation morphology in Ura is mostly suffixal.

(21) *gina-sa-n*
small-VLZ-ADN
‘small’

In addition to affixation, compounding and reduplication are also productive in Ura.

(22) a. *kjora*
beautiful (nominal root)
‘beautiful woman’ [compounding (root + root)]
+ *mun* → *kjora* + *mun*
thing

b. *amu* = *nu fur-oo* + *fur-oo* = *cci s-jur-i*
rain = NOM fall-INT + fall-INT = QT do-IPFV-NPST
‘It starts raining.’
## 5.2 Basic nominal morphology

The internal structure of nouns is schematized as Root(-DIM)(=APPR), where DIM is diminutive and APPR is approximative plural.

* DIM: -kkwa, e.g. maga-kkwa'grandchild', maja-kkwa'cat'

* APPR: =nkja or -nta<fnref n="3" />

The /n/ is deleted when attaching to a stem ending in a consonant, e.g. wan=kja 'we', an ?cju-nta'those people', at-ta'they'.

An interesting fact about Ura plurals is that the selection of the plural affix depends both on the animacy hierarchy and honorification. With regard to the animacy hierarchy, the =nkja form is used for first and second person pronouns and common nouns. The -nta form is restricted to third person pronouns (i.e. pronominal demonstratives), proper names, and kinship terms that can be used as terms of address (e.g. nee 'elder sister'). With regard to honorification, the -nta form is restricted to occurring with the honorific verb form.<fnref n="4" />

(23) a. an ?cju=nkja=ja icu=raga kuma=nan ur-i=joo ?
that person=APPR=TOP when=ABL here=LOC1 exist-NPST=Q
'What time did those people get here?'

b. an ?cju-nta=ja icu=raga kuma=nan imor-i=joo ?
that person-APPR=TOP when=ABL here=LOC1 exist.HON-NPST=Q
'What time will those people come here?'

c. ?kwan=kja/*-nta=ga ason-di ur-i
child=APPR/*-APPR=NOM play-MED PROG-NPST
'The children are playing.'

d. sense* = nkja/-nta = ga aso-n-di ?mor-i
teacher* = APPR/-APPR = NOM play-ADN-MED PROG.HON-NPST
'The teachers are playing.'

## 5.3 Basic verbal morphology

The internal structure of verbs is schematically shown as: Stem-Inflection (see §5.3.4 for the internal structure of the stem). Finite inflection and non-finite inflection are distinguished depending on the inflectional categories.

### 5.3.1 Finite inflection

Finite inflection consists of tense, aspect, and mood. Table 5 lists the regular conjugational pattern, and table 6 lists the irregular conjugational pattern.

<footnote n="3">³Both forms may designate 'et al' approximative; see also below</footnote>

<footnote n="4">⁴ = kja is a clitic and can also attach to verbs: num-i = nkja s-jur-i drink-NPST = APPR do-IPFV-NPST 'drink or do something else'.</footnote>
<table><caption>**Table 5:** Finite inflection (regular)</caption><thead><tr><th colspan="5">Affirmative Negative Root: jum- 'read'</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td rowspan="2">Indicative NPST</td><td>-jur-i/-ju-n</td><td>-an-Ø</td><td>jum-jur-i 'read', jum-an-Ø 'not read'</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>-ta</td><td>-an-ta</td><td>ju-da 'read', jum-an-ta 'did not read'</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>INT</td><td>-oo</td><td></td><td>jum-oo 'will read'</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>IMP</td><td>-i</td><td>=na</td><td>jum-i 'read!', jum-i=na 'don't read!'</td><td></td></tr></tbody></table>

<table><caption>**Table 6:** Finite inflection (irregular)</caption><thead><tr><th colspan="5">Affirmative Negative Root: k-'come'</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td rowspan="2">Indicative NPST</td><td>-jur-i/-ju-n</td><td>-u-n-Ø</td><td>k-jur-i 'come', k-u-n 'not come'</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>-ja</td><td>-n-ta</td><td>cja- 'came', k-un-ta 'did not came'</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>INT</td><td>-o</td><td></td><td>k-o 'let's come'</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>IMP</td><td>-oo</td><td>-u=na</td><td>k-oo 'come!', k-u=na 'don't come!'</td><td></td></tr></tbody></table>

### 5.3.2 Non-finite-inflection

Non-finite inflection consists of conjunctive relation marking only. Non-finite verb forms are labeled *converbs*, verb forms that serve as the predicate of an adverbial subordinate clause.

<table><caption>**Table 7:** Non-finite inflection</caption><thead><tr><th></th><th>Affirmative</th><th>Root: jum- 'read'</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>sequential</td><td>-ti</td><td>ju-di 'reading/read!'</td></tr><tr><td>anterior</td><td>-untomaazin</td><td>jum-untomaazin 'at once when reading'</td></tr><tr><td>simultaneous</td><td>-igacina</td><td>jum-igacina 'while reading'</td></tr><tr><td>conditional/causal</td><td>-ba</td><td>jum-u-ba 'if you read'</td></tr><tr><td>conditional</td><td>-i-batitin-kara</td><td>jum-i-batitin-kara 'if you read'</td></tr></tbody></table>

### 5.3.3 Property concept verb (PC verb)

A root designating a property concept (PC root) is verbalized by the suffix -sa, and the derived verbal stem carries the same set of inflectional affixes as ordinary verbs. Thus compare:

* plain verb: jum-jur-i ju-da
  read-IPFV-NPST read-PST
<table><caption>Table 8: Negative forms of PC verbs</caption><tr><td>• PC verb:</td><td>ʔma-sar-i</td><td>ʔma-sa-ta</td></tr><tr><td></td><td>sweet-VLZ-NPST</td><td>sweet-VLZ-PST</td></tr></table>

<table><thead><tr><th></th><th colspan="2">Negative</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>NPST</td><td>-sa nen</td><td>ʔma-sa nen 'not sweet'</td></tr><tr><td></td><td>-sja nen</td><td>fu-sja nen 'not want'</td></tr><tr><td>PST</td><td>-sa nen-ta</td><td>ʔma-sa nen-ta 'was not sweet'</td></tr><tr><td></td><td>-sja nen-ta</td><td>fu-sja nen-ta 'did not want'</td></tr></tbody></table>

### 5.3.4 Derivational morphology of verbs

The stem has the structure Root(-CAUS)(-PASS/POT)(-POL)(-NEG), where the parenthesized components are optional.

• CAUS (causative): -as- *jum-as-jur-i* ‘make (sb) read’ read-CAUS-IPFV-NPST

• PASS (passive)/POT (potential): -ar- *jum-ar-i* ‘be read’ read-PASS-NPST

• POL (polite): -jo- *jum-jor-i* ‘read’ (polite form) read-POL-NPST

• NEG (negative): -an- *jum-an-Ø* ‘doesn’t read’ read-NEG-NPST

## 6 Argument marking

### 6.1 Case marking

The case alignment system of Ura is nominative-accusative, where S/A and O are differentiated by different case marking. As is common in other Ryukyuan varieties, however, S/A marking and NP modifier marking are formally syncretized.

### 6.2 Information structure marking

In Ura, as in other Ryukyuan varieties, focus and topic are formally marked by focus clitics and topic clitics.

(24) ʔjaa = ga = du num-icja-sa-n = na ?
2SG = NOM = FOC drink-OPT-VLZ-ADN = Q
‘You want to drink?’
<table><caption>Table 9: Case forms and their functions</caption><thead><tr><th>Name</th><th>Form</th><th>Function (case)</th><th>Function (limiter)</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Nominative</td><td><i>nu/ga</i></td><td>S/A</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Genitive</td><td><i>nu/ga</i></td><td>NP modifier</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Accusative</td><td><i>ba</i></td><td>O</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Dative</td><td><i>nzi</i></td><td>benefactive,etc</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Allative 1</td><td><i>ci</i></td><td>goal of locomotion</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Allative 2</td><td><i>zi</i></td><td>goal of action</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Locative 1</td><td><i>nan</i></td><td>place of static action</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Locative 2</td><td><i>nti</i></td><td>place of active action</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Instrumental</td><td><i>si</i></td><td>instrument</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Associative</td><td><i>tu</i></td><td>associated motion</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Comparative</td><td><i>kuma</i></td><td>standard of comparative ('than')</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Ablative</td><td><i>raga</i></td><td>source</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Limitative</td><td><i>gadi</i></td><td>limit('as far as')</td><td>Emphasis</td></tr></tbody></table>

(25) wan=ja ta=cci ik-ju-n
1SG=TOP field=ALL1 go-IPFV-ADN
'I go to the field.'

# 7 Predicate categories (finiteness; tense, aspect, and mood)

## 7.1 Negation

The negative form of the existential verb is formed by stem alternation, i.e. the negative stem form, as in (26), whereas other verbs are regularly negated by the negative affix -an, as in (27).

(26) wan=nu hon=ga ne-n
1SG=GEN book=NOM not.exist-NEG.NPST
'My book is lost.'

(27) wan=ja assja jaa=zi ur-an=doo
1SG=TOP tomorrow house=ALL2 exist-NEG=EMP
'I will not be at home tomorrow.'
## 7.2 Tense, aspect and mood

### 7.2.1 Tense and aspect

The tense system of Ura is a binary system of past vs. non-past, and this system interacts with the aspect system where perfect, progressive, and resultative are distinguished.

<table><caption>Table 10: Tense</caption><thead><tr><th></th><th></th><th>Non-past</th><th>Past</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td rowspan="3">Declarative</td><td>Perfect</td><td>num-i</td><td>num-ju-ta / nud-a</td></tr><tr><td>Progressive</td><td>nu-dur-i</td><td>nu-du-ta</td></tr><tr><td>Resultative</td><td>nu-di</td><td>nu-di</td></tr></tbody></table>

The expression *nudi* may encode past meaning. The suffix *-ti* is a subordinator, but may be used as a past marker in a main clause predicate.

### 7.2.2 Mood

The clitics = *na* and = *nja* mark interrogation. These may be absent in conversations where the interrogation may be marked by rising intonation. The two markers = *nja* and = *na* are in complementary distribution, they are thus analyzed as allomorphs of the same morpheme. This difference is interpreted as the result of assimilation: -i = *na* (NPST = Q) is palatalized to -i = *nja*, and the non-past suffix then undergoes nasalization to -n = *nja* [N.nja].

(28) *kuri=ja hon=na ?*
this = TOP book = Q
'Is this a book?'

(29) *jaa=zi u-n=nja ?*
house = ALL2 exist-ADN = Q
'Are you at home (now)?'

Prohibition is encoded by = *na*.

(30) *uma=nan=zi u-n=na !*
this = LOC1 = ALL2 exist-ADN = PRH
'Don't be here!'

Self-question is encoded by = *kai*.

(31) *an ?cju=ja taru=kai ?*
that person = TOP who = Q
'Who is that person?'
Persuasion is encoded by =ja.

(32) wan = tu maazin ik-oo = ja !
1SG = ASC together go-INT = SOL
‘Let’s go with me!’

Speaker's desired future is encoded by =ba.

(33) hikku ik-i = ba
early go-IMP = MOD
‘It’s better if (you) go early.’

Hearsay evidentials are encoded by =ci=ba.

(34) ?jaa = nu hon = ja gakkoo = nzi a-n = ci = ba
2SG = GEN book = TOP school = DAT exist-ADN = QT = MOD
‘There is your book in the school.’

7.3 Voice

The active, passive and causative voices are exemplified below.

(35) a. habu = ba kuccj-u-n
habu = ACC kill-IPFV-ADN
‘(I) killed a snake.’ [active]

b. wan = ja habu = nzi kam-ar-ti = doo
1SG = TOP habu = DAT bite-PASS-MED = EMP
‘I was bitten by the snake.’ [passive]

(36) a. ?kwa = nkja = nu habu = ba kuccj-a-ttoo
child = APPR = GEN habu = ACC kill-PST-MOD
‘The children killed the snake.’ [active]

b. wan = ga ?kwa = nkja = nzi habu = ba kuccj-as-i = doo
1SG = GEN child = APPR = DAT habu = ACC kill-CAUS-NPST = EMP
‘I asked the children to kill the snake.’ [causative]
Sample text: the Pear story

(T.1) **jinga** = nu ?cjuu = nu **uri** = ba **hamucuki-ti** tu-ti
man = GEN person = NOM that = ACC seriously-MED take-MED
?mo-n
PROG.HON-ADN

‘A man is busy picking that (pear),’

(T.2) **hamucuki-ti tur-i s-jor-ikata** = jaa. **tur-i s-jor-ikata** seriously-MED take-NPST do-POL-DVLZ(?) = SOL take-NPST do-POL-DVLZ(?)
‘(He is) busy picking (that pear).’

(T.3) **niban** = jaa **tur-i s-jor-ikata s-ii** ?mo-n
second = TOP take-NPST do-POL-DVLZ(?) do-NPST PROG.HON-ADN
**doroo** = cci
moment = QT

‘And now the second one (he’s) picking.’

(T.4) **nde jagi** = ba **curi-ta-n ozisan** = ga too-ti ?mo-jo-n
and goat = ACC take-PST-ADN man = NOM pass-MED PROG.HON-POL-ADN
**wake** = jaa
DSC = SOL

‘And there came a person and a goat.’

(T.5) **un.un. mo too-ti ?mo-jo-n** wake
umm FIL pass-MED PROG.HON-POL-ADN DSC

‘Yeah, (they) are walking along.’

(T.6) **ugasi** = si too-te ?mos-ja-n **atu** = ga = du kun
then = INST pass-MED PROG.HON-PST-ADN after = NOM = FOC this
jingwa = nu ?kwa-kkwa = nu
man = GEN child-DIM = NOM

‘Then, after (they) passed through, a boy’

(T.7) **si-cci tu mu-cci sa-ttu ik-ju-tto** = jaa. uuun
come-MED FIL have-MED leave-MED go-IPFV-MOD = SOL umm
‘came and got it (the pear), and left.’

(T.8) **issjookenmee tu-ti ?mo-n ozisan** = no ijana
seriously take-MED PROG.HOM-ADN man = GEN FIL(?)
nan = cjuu = no nankwai = mo
what = QT.say = GEN often = FOC

‘The man (is) busy picking that (pear);’

(T.9) **wəə mir-u** = no nan = cjuu = kai
up look-NPST = GEN what = QT.say = Q

‘(I) wonder how to express the action of looking up again and again.’
(T.10) *nis-jaar-i* ni=si sjuucjuntuntunu joori-kkwa to-ti jaa
look-PST-() look=INST FIL(?) slowly-DIM take-MED FIL
‘Yes,(he) looked carefully and picked (it) quietly.’

(T.11) *hasir-ju-n* = *zja* = *ga* = *na* = *cjo* = *jaa*. *issjookenmee*
run-IPFV-ADN = COP = FOC(?) = MOD = QT.EMP = SOL seriously
*ozisan* = *wa* tor-ikata
*man* = TOP take-DVLZ(?)

‘(Then he) ran away.’ ‘The man is busy picking (it).’

(T.12) *uu=ba nis-jaar-i s-jaa=ba nis-jaar-i s-ju-ti ozisan=ga*
this=ACC look-PST-() do-PST=ACC look-PST-() do-IPFV-MED man=NOM
*tut-u-n=ba*
take-PROG-ADN=ACC

‘This man is picking (the pear) while looking (down the ground) slowly;’

(T.13) *ni-igaci=na nis-ju-n=ba joori-kkwa moo*
look-CVB=MOD look-IPFV-ADN=ACC slowly-DIM FIL
*nan=cjuu=no=kana?*
*what=QT.say=GEN=Q*

‘hey, how should (I) express this?’

(T.14) *dandori-kkwa=nu ic-cja-n kutu=cci=baa*
procedure-DIM=GEN good-OPT-ADN thing=QT=MOD
‘(He) knows the correct procedure.’

(T.15) *na un ?cju=ga sjuucjuu s-ju-n-kana un*
FIL this person=NOM concentration do-IPFV-ADN-ABL this
*mado=zja=gaa=cci*
between=COP=FOC(?)=QT

‘(The boy stole pears) as the man was concentrating (on picking pears),’

(T.16) *omo-ta-n kamo=jaa*
think-PST-ADN may=SOL
‘(I) guess.’

(T.17) *uri=ba kondo uri un kago=no mu-cci mu-cci mo-cci*
that=ACC next that um basket=GEN have-MED have-MED have-MED
*sar-u*
leave-NPST

‘This time he’s trying to carry the whole basket, right?’

(T.18) *mu-cci ik-ju-n wake=jo=jaa?*
have-MED go-IPFV-ADN DSC=EMP=SOL.Q

(T.19) *kagora=sii kago mu-cci iz-i*
basket.ABL=INST basket have-MED went-NPST
‘(The boy) took the basket.’
(T.20) gasi nakahodo = dee wunagu = nu ?kwa-kkwa = nzi e een
next in.the.middle = CONJ woman = GEN child-DIM = ALL2 FIL
mii + buri-ti
look + fascinate-MED

‘But then while (he’s) doing it he fascinated by a girl,’

(T.21) mii + buri-tii un nasi = ba uffu nusu = de = zjaa nasi = ba
look + fascinate-MED um pear = ACC uffu steal = CONJ = COP pear = ACC
kobos-ju-n wake = jo = jaa
spill-IPFV-ADN DSC = EMP = SOL

‘(But while carrying the basket away he) was distracted by a fascinating girl, and scattered the pears.’

(T.22) ugasi s-ja-ttuu sakki izja-n jingwa = nu ?kwa-kkwa = nu
next do-PST-MOD just.now went-ADN man = GEN child-DIM = GEN
mis-jar-i = si uun
look-PST-(?) = INST umm

‘Then the boys who had passed the boy just now picked up the pears for him,’

(T.23) nasi = ba hira-ti kuri-tii soko muuru hohoemasii sugata = to
pear = ACC pick.up-MED give-MED there very heartwarming figure = QT
cci omo-ju-tto
QT think-IPFV-MOD

‘(I) thought it was heartwarming.’

(T.24) onna onna = no ko = ni mitore-te kobos-ja-n nasi fu
woman woman = GEN child = DAT fascinate-MED spill-PST-ADN pear fu
sa = tto jingwa = nu
OMTP = QT man = GEN

‘Fascinated by a girl, (the boy) scattered the pears,’

(T.25) ?kwa-kkwa = nkja = nu mis-jar-i = si cci uri = ba hira-ti
child-DIM = APPR = GEN look-PST-(?) = INST QT that = ACC pick.up-MED
kur-u-n tokoro = wa
come-NPST-ADN part = TOP

‘and the boys helped him gather the pears.’

(T.26) hontoo = ni hohoemasii = cci omo-u = jo
really = DAT heartwarming = QT think-NPST = EMP

‘(I) thought it was really heart warming.’

(T.27) mata sono ko = no kokoro = mo ii = to omo-tta = jo
another that child = GEN heart = FOC(?) good = QT think-PST = EMP
‘And then (I) thought that the boy was really tender of heart.’
(T.28) sosite tara hon uun hatesate uun sonotoki = ni ozisan unin = ga
next then FIL umm now umm then = DAT man man = NOM
kizuk-i = zja
notice-NPST = COP

‘Now the man realized (that the basket is gone).’

(T.29) uri-ti ?mo = si hatesate ozisan = wa kii-kara ori-te
descend-MED come.HON = INST now man = TOP tree-ABL descend-MED
ki-te nama = nu
come-MED now = GEN

‘(He) came down, came down from the tree,’

(T.30) muu mu-cci izja-n uun kago = ba ni-ja = si
muu take-MED went-ADN umm basket = ACC look-PST = INST
s-jo-n = ba s-jo-n = ba
do-POL-ADN = ACC do-POL-ADN = ACC

‘and found that the basket was gone,’

(T.31) tar-an = cjun koto = wa waka-ti ?mo-n = ba
sufficient-NEG = QT.say thing = TOP understand-MED PROG.HON-ADN = ACC
sabakur-oo = cci sis-jor-an wake = jo = jaa
do(?)-INT = QT do-POL-NEG DSC = EMP = SOL

‘and realized that (the basket was stolen), but he did nothing with that.’

(T.32) ugasi = si mata waa = cci noo-ti ?mos-ja-gana = ccjo
then = INST again up = QT climb-MED go.HON-PST-CVB(?) = QT.EMP
‘And then he climbed (the tree) again.’

(T.33) uun nasi = ga sukuna-ku na nar-ju-n = cci kizuk-i
umm pear = NOM little-VLZ FIL become-IPFV-ADN = QT notice-NPST
s-jo-n = ban
do-POL-ADN = ACC

‘(He) doesn’t seem to care about the fact that there are less pears now.’

(T.34) sagas-oo-tomo sis-jor-an ?cju
search-INT-at.least do-POL-NEG person
‘But (he) didn’t try to look for (it).’

(T.35) ozisan = no kokoro = wa totte = mo ii hito = da = to omo-u
man = GEN heart = TOP very = FOC good person = COP = QT think-NPST
‘(I) think that the man is a very good person.’

(T.36) waru-ku ie = ba = wa sonna = ni hannin = wo sono sonomama
wrong-VLZ say = ACC = FOC that = DAT criminal = ACC2 that at.that
oitok-u = ccju
put-NPST = QT.say

‘When you come right down to it,’
(T.37) koto=wa ika-n koto=de=wa ar-u=jo=nee
thing=TOP wrong-NPST thing=COP(?)=FOC exist-NPST=EMP=SOL
‘it’s bad of him to leave a criminal unaccused, though.’

(T.38) mata sore mi+baer-u=ga=ne. auun. ngee
because that sprout + grow-NPST = FOC(?) = SOL aumm ngee
‘That (kind of bad idea of stealing things) could grow (in the boy’s
mind).’

(T.39) hannin=wa wakar-a-zu zima-i
criminal=TOP understand-THM(?) -NEG end-NPST
‘It will be left unclear (who stole the pears).’

(T.40) sore=wo nan=to=mo iw-ana-i. hangee
that=ALL2 what=QT=FOC say-NEG-NPST hangee
‘(The man) doesn’t care about this... (that’s) weird.’

(T.41) sore=wa ika-n=ccjo omo-u
that=TOP wrong-NPST=QT.EMP think-NPST
‘(I) think that is not a right thing.’

(T.42) jappasi i-tta hoo=ga ii=to omo-u
also say-PST than=NOM good=QT think-NPST
‘(I) believe that he’s better say something about this (to the boy).’

(T.43) okkake-te
chase-MED
‘by chasing (him) up.’

(T.44) sabaku-tta hoo=ga ii=to omo-u
do(?) -PST than=NOM good=QT think-NPST
‘(He) had better do this.’

(T.45) cugi=no hannin=wo cukur-an tame=ni
next=GEN criminal=ALL2 make-NEG sake=DAT
‘so that (this kind of) crime will never happen (again).’

(T.46) ci watasi=ga omo-u=ni=wa
QT 1SG=NOM think-NPST=DAT=FOC
‘That’s what I thought.’
Abbreviations

<table><tr><td>-</td><td>affix boundary</td><td>DVLZ</td><td>deverbalizer</td><td>OPT</td><td>optative</td></tr><tr><td>+</td><td>clitic boundary</td><td>EMP</td><td>emphatic</td><td>PASS</td><td>passive</td></tr><tr><td>=</td><td>stem boundary</td><td>FIL</td><td>filler</td><td>PL</td><td>plural</td></tr><tr><td>ABL</td><td>ablative</td><td>FOC</td><td>focus</td><td>POL</td><td>polite</td></tr><tr><td>ACC</td><td>accusative</td><td>GEN</td><td>genitive</td><td>POT</td><td>potential</td></tr><tr><td>ADN</td><td>adnominal form</td><td>HON</td><td>honorific</td><td>PRH</td><td>prohibitive</td></tr><tr><td>ALL1</td><td>allative</td><td>IMP</td><td>imperative</td><td>PST</td><td>past</td></tr><tr><td>ALL2</td><td>second allative</td><td>INT</td><td>intentional</td><td>PROG</td><td>progressive</td></tr><tr><td>AMBG</td><td>ambiguity</td><td>INST</td><td>instrumental</td><td>Q</td><td>question</td></tr><tr><td>APPR</td><td>approximative</td><td>IPFV</td><td>imperfective</td><td>QT</td><td>quotative</td></tr><tr><td>ASC</td><td>associative</td><td>LOC1</td><td>locative</td><td>RLZ</td><td>relativizer</td></tr><tr><td>CAUS</td><td>causative</td><td>LOC2</td><td>second locative</td><td>SG</td><td>singular</td></tr><tr><td>CONJ</td><td>conjunction</td><td>NEG</td><td>negative</td><td>SIM</td><td>simultaneous</td></tr><tr><td>COP</td><td>copula</td><td>MED</td><td>medial verb</td><td>SOL</td><td>solidarity</td></tr><tr><td>CVB</td><td>converb</td><td>MOD</td><td>modal</td><td>THM</td><td>thematic vowel</td></tr><tr><td>DAT</td><td>dative</td><td>NOM</td><td>nominative</td><td>TOP</td><td>topic</td></tr><tr><td>DIM</td><td>diminutive</td><td>NPST</td><td>non-past</td><td>VLZ</td><td>verbalizer</td></tr><tr><td>DSC</td><td>discourse marker</td><td>OMPT</td><td>onomatopeia</td><td></td><td></td></tr></table>
# Yuwan (Amami Ryukyuan)

## Yuto Niinaga

*University of Tokyo*

<figure><img src="image_11.png" /><figcaption>Figure 1: Amami Islands</figcaption></figure>

## Introduction

Yuwan is a verb-final language with modifier-head constituent order and a nominative-accusative case system. There are many features unique to Yuwan (and some other Amami dialects). First, Yuwan has a laryngeal phoneme /?/, which bears a mora in the syllable onset position (§2.3.2). Second, Yuwan has dual number in human pronouns (§3.4.1). Third, Yuwan has two phenomena
sensitive to the animacy hierarchy: the distribution of plural and approximative forms (§4.2.2.1), and the distribution of nominative case markers and possessive forms (§4.3.2). Fourth, Yuwan has special verbal suffixes that correlate with focused constituents in sentences, making a clear distinction between two types of questions; -ui (NPST) / -tarui (PST) for yes-no questions, and -u (NPST) / -taru (PST) for wh-questions (§5.2.1).

# 1 The language and its speakers

## 1.1 Geography

Yuwan is spoken in the Yuwan village, in the western district of Amami Ōshima, an island situated just south of mainland Japan. The size of Amami Ōshima is about 710 km², and it is the biggest island in the Amami Islands, which includes seven other major islands.

Amami Ōshima is situated in the northern part of the Ryūkyū archipelago but belongs to the Kagoshima prefecture, while most of the other Ryūkyū islands belong to the Okinawa prefecture. Amami Ryukyuan is a Northern Ryukyuan language.

## 1.2 Affiliation

According to Shimoji (2008a: 21), ‘Ryukyuan is a group of languages that forms a branch of the Japonic family, coordinate with Japanese. Ryukyuan falls into two primary subgroups, Northern Ryukyuan and Southern Ryukyuan. These two groups in turn have a number of subdivisions’. Yuwan is a dialect of Amami, which belongs to Northern Ryukyuan (see also Uemura 1997: 431).

## 1.3 Sociolinguistic overview

### 1.3.1 The number of speakers

The population of Yuwan is 521 (valid as of January 1st, 2010), but the people who can speak the traditional dialect are much less than this number. All inhabitants are monolingual Japanese speakers or speak Japanese as a second language.

### 1.3.2 Dialects

According to Uemura (1997), dialects of Amami fall into two major subgroups, Northern Amami and Southern Amami, and Yuwan (as well as some neighboring dialects) have some characteristics in common with both subgroups. A major difference between Yuwan and the other dialects is that the phonetic sequence [ri] in other dialects corresponds to [i] in Yuwan. Table 1 illustrates this
point with data from Yuwan, Suko, spoken in a village located about 800 meters apart from Yuwan, and Ura, a Northern Amami dialect spoken in a village located about 32 km apart from Yuwan.

<table><caption>**Table 1:** Dialectal variation in Amami</caption><thead><tr><th></th><th>Yuwan</th><th>Suko</th><th>Ura<fnref n="1" /></th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><th>'bird'</th><td>[tui]</td><td>[turi]</td><td>[turi]</td></tr><tr><th>'lily'</th><td>[jui]</td><td>[juri]</td><td>[juri]</td></tr></tbody></table>

### 1.3.3 Viability, education and documentation

The number of speakers who can speak traditional Yuwan is decreasing. Typically, people over seventy years old can speak traditional Yuwan, and people who are fifty to sixty years old can speak a more or less traditional Yuwan, but people under fifty years old are only passively bilingual. The younger generations cannot speak or understand the traditional dialect, but they use some traditional expressions, e.g. *wan* 'I', *ama* 'that place', *hagi* 'foot', etc.

## 1.4 Previous work

There are two previous works on Yuwan: Hirayama et al. (1966) and Uchima et al. (1976). The former compares the accent patterns and the lexicon between a number of Ryukyuan dialects, and the information about Yuwan is very restricted; actually, it contains only thirty or so nominal lexical entries with their prosodic information. The latter, Uchima et al. (1976), includes a list of several hundred lexical items and several verb paradigms. The phonology of Yuwan has thus hardly been investigated, and its morphology was only partly researched. The syntax of Yuwan has not been investigated at all, save for Niinaga (2008), which describes the case system of Yuwan.

# 2 Phonology

## 2.1 Segmentation

### 2.1.1 Grammatical word

The grammatical word is a morphosyntactic unit minimally consisting of a root (e.g. simple nominals, adverbs, and interrogatives), or it can consist of a root (or roots) plus an affix (or affixes) (e.g. nominals and verbs). Clitics can attach to grammatical words.

<footnote n="1">¹This data is provided by courtesy of H. Shigeno (2009 p.c.)</footnote>
<table><thead><tr><th>(1)</th><th>a. Word (root)</th><th>b. Word (with affix)</th><th>c. Word (with affix) and clitic</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td></td><td><i>warabi</i></td><td><i>warabi-kkwa</i></td><td><i>warabi-kkwa = nkja</i></td></tr><tr><td></td><td>child</td><td>child-DIM</td><td>child-DIM = APPR</td></tr><tr><td></td><td>'child'</td><td>'little child'</td><td>'little children'</td></tr></tbody></table>

The term ‘word’ will usually refer to the grammatical word in this chapter, unless otherwise specified.

### 2.1.2 Phonological word

The phonological word is a phonological unit consisting of a grammatical word and a number of clitics. This phonological integration of clitics into the host is shown by the fact that the unit consisting of a grammatical word plus clitics is a prosodic domain to which accent is assigned (see §2.5).

## 2.2 Phonemic inventory

The phonemes in Yuwan can be divided into three phonological classes depending on their behaviour in larger phonological structure: vowels, consonants, and the laryngeal.

### 2.2.1 Vowels

Yuwan has seven vowel phonemes. Round brackets around the vowel /e/ indicate this phoneme rarely occurs.

<table><caption>Table 2: Vowels</caption><thead><tr><th></th><th>Front</th><th>Central</th><th>Back</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><th>High</th><td>i</td><td>i̥</td><td>u</td></tr><tr><th>Mid</th><td>(e)</td><td>ə</td><td>o</td></tr><tr><th>Low</th><td></td><td>a</td><td></td></tr></tbody></table>

Phonetic long vowels are analyzed as sequences of vowel phonemes: [a:] is /aa/, [o:] is /oo/, and so forth (see (10) in §2.4.1 about this analysis).

### 2.2.2 Consonants

Yuwan has fifteen consonant phonemes.

The following four points must be noted: (A) Stops and affricates have phonological voice opposition; (B) /c/ is usually realized as [ts], and /z/ as [dz]; (C) /c/ and /z/ are palatalized before /i/ or /j/ and realized as [tč] and [dč] respectively; (D) /n/ is realized as [n] before a word boundary, a root boundary or a clitic boundary.
<table><caption>Table 3: Consonants</caption><thead><tr><th></th><th></th><th>Labial</th><th>Alveolar</th><th>Velar</th><th>Glottal</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td rowspan="2">Stops</td><td>voiceless</td><td>p</td><td>t</td><td>k</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>voiced</td><td>b</td><td>d</td><td>g</td><td></td></tr><tr><td rowspan="2">Affricates</td><td>voiceless</td><td></td><td>c</td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>voiced</td><td></td><td>z</td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Fricatives</td><td></td><td></td><td>s</td><td></td><td>h</td></tr><tr><td rowspan="3">Resonants</td><td>nasal</td><td>m</td><td>n</td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>approximant</td><td>w</td><td>j</td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>flap</td><td></td><td>r</td><td></td><td></td></tr></tbody></table>

### 2.2.3 Laryngeal

The laryngeal /?/ is a phoneme that cannot appear independently but has to precede a voiceless, nasal or approximant consonant. The laryngeal /?/ can appear only in the root-initial position, and it makes the consonant that follows glottalized. Glottalized consonants phonetically undergo a *laryngealization* process, ‘a process where the primary supralaryngeal articulation is accompanied by a secondary stricture at the glottal level’ (Laver 1994: 330). Glottalized consonants are phonetically and phonologically distinct from geminates. See the examples in table 4.

<table><caption>Table 4: Glottalized consonants versus geminates</caption><thead><tr><th>Glottalized consonants</th><th>Geminates</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>/aa/ ‘red’ + /?kwa/ ‘child’</td><td>/warabi/ ‘child’ + /-kkwa/ (DIM)</td></tr><tr><td>→ /aa?kwa/ ‘baby’ [a:ʔkʷa]</td><td>→ /warabikkwa/ ‘child’ [warabikkʷa]</td></tr></tbody></table>

The most salient difference between [ʔk] and [kk] is their phonetic duration; a glottalized consonant has roughly the same duration as a non-glottalized consonant, while a geminate is almost twice as long.

## 2.3 Syllable structure and phonotactics

### 2.3.1 The syllable structure

Yuwan has the following syllable structure:

$$ (2) ((\#L)C(G))V_1(V_2)(C_{coda}) $$

The L and G slots are not independent and always depend on the existence of a consonant within the C slot. The L slot can only be filled by the laryngeal
phoneme /?/, which appears root-initially (indicated by the sharp symbol '#'). The C and G slots can be filled by consonant phonemes, but the G slot can only host the approximants /w, j/;<fnref n="2" /> and the coda slot of consonant ($C_{coda}$) can be only filled by /n/ in word-final position. The first vowel slot ($V_1$) can be filled by any vowel phoneme, but the second one ($V_2$) must be filled by the same vowel as $V_1$ or by /i/.

Examples of monosyllabic root words are given in table 5, and examples of polysyllabic phonological words in table 6. The only difference from the pattern described in the previous table is that the coda slot can be filled by any consonant except /h, z, r/. It is worth noting that the coda slot can be filled by a voiced stop only if the word is followed by a clitic.<fnref n="3" /> I will show some examples focusing on the difference from the above case.

There is a phonotactic constraint whereby $C_{coda}C_{coda}/$ sequences are avoided. The following constraint has to do with the phonological rule in (9) of §2.4.1.

(3) BAN ON /$C_{coda}C_{coda}/$ SEQUENCES:

a coda consonant cannot follow another coda consonant.

### 2.3.2 Mora

Morae are counted as follows:

(4) Morae in a syllable

L C G V1 V2 $C_{coda}$
μ μ μ μ

As can be seen from table 5, a monosyllabic root word cannot stand alone if it consists of a single mora; in other words, a phonological word is minimally bimoraic. In the following examples, parentheses indicate the phoneme does not contribute to weight.

(5) BIMORAIC CONSTRAINT

a. (C)(G)VV /mjaa/ [m̩̄aa] ‘cat’
   cf. *(C)(G)V *mja ‘cat’

b. (C)(G)VC /mjan/ [m̩̄an] ‘will not look’

c. L(C)(G)V /ʔmja/ [ʔm̩̄a] ‘k.o. shell fish’

d. (C)(G)VVC > (C)(G)VC /mjaa/ ‘cat’ + /=n/ ‘also’ > /mjan/

The above examples show that every well-formed phonological word must have two morae and that the laryngeal phoneme contributes to weight. In (5d),

<footnote n="2">²The first C slot and the G slot cannot take the same consonant, and there is no sequence like /ww/ or /jj/; furthermore, /w/ in G slot can only follow /k/.</footnote>

<footnote n="3">³However, there is a strong tendency for voiced labial and voiced dental geminates to become voiceless, i.e. /bb/ → /pp/, /dd/ → /tt/.</footnote>
<table><caption>Table 5: Examples of monosyllabic root words</caption><thead><tr><th></th><th>((#L)</th><th>C</th><th>(G))</th><th>V1</th><th>(V2)</th><th>(C<sub>coda</sub>)</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>/i̯i/ [i̯:] 'yes'</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td>i̯</td><td>i̯</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>/an/ [aṇ]</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td>a</td><td></td><td>n</td></tr><tr><td>/jaa/ [ja:] 'house'</td><td></td><td>j</td><td></td><td>a</td><td>a</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>/mai/ [mai] 'hip'</td><td></td><td>m</td><td></td><td>a</td><td>i</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>/mjaa/ [mi̯a:] 'cat'</td><td></td><td>m</td><td>j</td><td>a</td><td>a</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>/nan/ [naṇ]</td><td></td><td>n</td><td></td><td>a</td><td></td><td>n</td></tr><tr><td>/ʔma/ [ʔma] 'horse'</td><td>?</td><td>m</td><td></td><td>a</td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>/ʔcjan/ [ʔt̥caṇ] 'father'</td><td>?</td><td>c</td><td>j</td><td>a</td><td></td><td>n</td></tr></tbody></table>

<table><caption>Table 6: Examples of polysyllabic phonological words</caption><thead><tr><th>word</th><th>((#L)</th><th>C</th><th>(G))</th><th>V1</th><th>(V2)</th><th>(C<sub>coda</sub>)</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>/ap.pan/ [appaṇ]</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td>a</td><td></td><td>p .pan</td></tr><tr><td>app-an (play-NEG)</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>/at.ta.kəə/ [attakə:]</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td>a</td><td></td><td>t .ta.kəə</td></tr><tr><td>'as many as possible'</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>/juk.ka.d̥i/ [jukkadi]</td><td>j</td><td></td><td></td><td>u</td><td></td><td>k .kadi</td></tr><tr><td>'throughout'</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr></tbody><thead><tr><th>word plus a clitic</th><th>((#L)</th><th>C</th><th>(G))</th><th>V1</th><th>(V2)</th><th>(C<sub>coda</sub>)</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>/ab.ba/ [ab.ba]</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td>a</td><td></td><td>b .ba</td></tr><tr><td>abba (that.ACC)</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>/ad.doo/ [addo:]</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td>a</td><td></td><td>d .doo</td></tr><tr><td>a-d = doo (exist-NPST = EMP)</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>/ag.ga/ [agga]</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td>a</td><td></td><td>g .ga</td></tr><tr><td>agga (that.NOM)</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr></tbody></table>
the output bimoraic form is a contracted version of the input sequence which has three morae (see (10) in §2.4.1). The output form (word plus a clitic) is a phonological word, which satisfies the bimoraic constraint.

## 2.4 (Morpho)phonological rules

### 2.4.1 Phonological rules

Yuwan has the following five phonological rules. The first rule is a flap deletion rule, whereby the flap /r/ is deleted before /i/ or /j/.<fnref n="4" /> In other words, Yuwan does not have sequences such as /ri/ or /rj/ in any linguistic form, which is a major difference with other Amami Ōshima dialects.

(6) **FLAP DELETION RULE:** /r/ is deleted before /i/ or /j/
/jum-jur/ ‘read-IPFV’ + /-i/ (NPST) → /jum-ju-i/ (*/jum-jur-i/)
/tur-/ ‘take’ + /-jaa/ (NLZ) → /tu-jaa/ (*/tur-jaa/)

The second rule is the deletion of the laryngeal before a phonological voiced consonant (i.e. voiced stops and affricates, see table 3 in §2.2.2).

(7) **LARYNGEAL DELETION RULE:** /?/ is deleted before a phonological voiced consonant (see (11))

The third rule changes the alveolar stop /t/ into the affricate /c/.

(8) **AFFRICATION RULE:** /t/ becomes /c/ before /i/ or /j/.
/ut-/ ‘hit’ + /-i/ (NLZ) → /uc-i/ ‘hitting’ (*/ut-i/)
/ut-/ ‘hit’ + /-jaa/ (NLZ) → /uc-jaa/ ‘hiter’ (*/ut-jaa/)

The fourth rule is an epenthesis (cluster breaking) rule that avoids consonant sequences of the /C<sub>coda</sub>C<sub>coda</sub>/ type (see (3) of §2.3.1 above); the first coda consonant is then changed into the onset of a new syllable.

(9) **EPENTHESIS (CLUSTER BREAKING):** if the consonant /n/ is followed by another consonant that is not accompanied by a vowel, an epenthetic vowel /u/ is inserted between them.
/in/ ‘dog’ + /=n/ (DAT) → /i.nun/

The fifth rule involves the nasal consonant /n/ after a vowel sequence.

(10) **VOWEL DELETION RULE:** if the consonant /n/ is not accompanied by a vowel and follows a vowel-vowel sequence, one of the vowels is deleted.
/səə/ ‘alcohol’ + /=n/ ‘also’ → /sən/

Because of this phonological phenomenon, the phonetic long vowel is not analyzed as a single long vowel like /ə:/, but analyzed as a vowel-vowel sequence like /əə/.

<footnote n="4">⁴A morphophonological rule must precede this flap deletion rule; if an affix -ar (PASS) is followed by /j/, the /j/ has to be deleted: ut- ‘hit’ + -ar (PASS) + -jaa (NLZ) → ut-ar-aa.</footnote>
## 2.4.2 Morphophonological rules

Yuwan has many morphophonological rules. Only three of them will be presented here. The first one is well-known within Japanese linguistics under the name of *rendaku*, “sequential voicing” (Shibatani 1990: 173).

(11) RENDAKU (SEQUENTIAL VOICING): the non-initial root of a compound may be voiced if its initial consonant is originally voiceless.

<figure><img src="image_12.png" /></figure>

The following two rules concern the topic marker clitic =ja, which can undergo nasalization or contraction.

(12) TOPIC MARKER NASALIZATION RULE: if a topic marker =ja follows a word-final consonant /n/, it is realized as =na; on the other hand, if it follows a clitic whose final consonant is /n/, it is realized as =nja.

<figure><img src="image_13.png" /></figure>

(13) TOPIC MARKER CONTRACTION: if a topic marker follows a single vowel, contraction occurs.<fnref n="6" />

<figure><img src="image_14.png" /></figure>

## 2.5 Prosody

There are three distinctive lexical pitch patterns in Yuwan: final mora high, final mora low, and a fall at the word boundary.<fnref n="7" /> The tone-bearing unit is the mora and the domain of the pitch-accent is the phonological word (§ 2.1.2), which can contain a grammatical word followed by several clitic markers.

As shown in table 7, the tone-bearing unit is not the syllable but the mora; for example, səə = gadi = n (drink = LMT = also) can be divided into syllables as /səə.ga.din/, and high pitch does not occur on the final syllable /din/ but on the final mora /n/ (səə = gadi = n LLLLH).

<footnote n="5">⁵About the vowel /u/ insertion between *in* ‘dog’ and =n (DAT), see the phonological rule of epenthesis in (9).</footnote>

<footnote n="6">⁶There are no words that end with a single vowel /ə/.</footnote>

<footnote n="7">⁷However, if a clitic does not follow the word, the pitch falls between the ultimate mora and the penultimate mora of the word.</footnote>
<table><caption>Table 7: Examples of pitch patterns</caption><thead><tr><th rowspan="2"></th><th rowspan="2">Form</th><th rowspan="2">Gloss</th><th rowspan="2">isolation</th><th colspan="3">Pitch pattern</th></tr><tr><th>x=nu<br>(NOM)</th><th>x=gadi<br>(LMT)</th><th>x=gadi=n<br>(LMT=also)</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td rowspan="3">1</td><td>səə</td><td>'drink'</td><td>LH</td><td>LLH</td><td>LLLH</td><td>LLLLH</td></tr><tr><td>isi</td><td>'stone'</td><td>LH</td><td>LLH</td><td>LLLH</td><td>LLLLH</td></tr><tr><td>kuuru</td><td>'heart'</td><td>LLH</td><td>LLLH</td><td>LLLLH</td><td>LLLLLH</td></tr><tr><td rowspan="3">2</td><td>haa</td><td>'leaf'</td><td>HL</td><td>HHL</td><td>HHHL</td><td>HHHHL</td></tr><tr><td>kazi</td><td>'wind'</td><td>HL</td><td>HHL</td><td>HHHL</td><td>HHHHL</td></tr><tr><td>judai</td><td>'saliva'</td><td>HHL</td><td>HHHL</td><td>HHHHL</td><td>HHHHHL</td></tr><tr><td rowspan="3">3</td><td>haa</td><td>'teeth'</td><td>HL</td><td>HHL</td><td>HHLL</td><td>HHLLL</td></tr><tr><td>in</td><td>'dog'</td><td>HL</td><td>HHL</td><td>HHLL</td><td>HHLLL</td></tr><tr><td>hikjai</td><td>'light'</td><td>HHL</td><td>HHHL</td><td>HHHLL</td><td>HHHLLL</td></tr></tbody></table>

# 3 Descriptive preliminaries

## 3.1 Basic clause structure and phrase structure

### 3.1.1 Basic clause structure

The constituent order in Yuwan is SOV for all types of clauses, whether finite or non-finite (see §5.2). S and O are always nominal phrases (see §3.1.2), and V is a predicate phrase (see §3.1.3). S and O are not obligatory, and they frequently undergo ellipsis if they are inferable from the context.<fnref n="8" />

### 3.1.2 Nominal phrase

Yuwan has the following nominal phrase (NP) structure.

(14) **Modifier Head = Case**

Syntactically, an NP can function either as a clausal modifier (argument; (15a)), as a clausal head (nominal predicate; (15b)), or as a phrasal modifier (NP in genitive function; (15c)).

(15) a. **wan=ga habu=ba kuc-cja**
1SG=NOM habu=ACC kill-PST
'I killed a habu (k.o. snake).' (argument NP)

b. **wan=ga soncjoo=doo**
1SG=NOM village.mayor=EMP
'I am a village mayor.' (nominal predicate)

<footnote n="8">⁸See Shimoji (2008a) for a similar characterization of the basic clause structure of Irabu Ryukyuan.</footnote>
c. warabi = nu tïi = ba mi-cja
child = GEN hand = ACC look-PST

‘(I) looked at a child’s hand.’ (phrasal modifier NP)

The head is obligatory, while the modifier is optional. A case clitic attaches to the right edge of an NP; in other words, the core of an NP is not the case clitic, but the head (and modifier). There are reasons for this analysis, like the fact that some case clitics undergo ellipsis when the NP is a core argument (see §7.3).

### 3.1.3 Predicate phrase

Yuwan has the following two types of predicate phrases.

(16) Verbal predicate
lexical verb 1 (+ auxiliary verb/lexical verb 2)

(17) Nominal predicate
NP (+ copula verb)

#### 3.1.3.1 Verbal predicate

Only the first lexical verb is obligatory in the verbal phrase (VP). The minimal VP is exemplified below, where a single lexical verb *wu-i* (exist-NPST) fills the first lexical verb slot.

(18) in = nu wu-i
dog = NOM exist-NPST

‘There is a dog.’

As for the second verb slot, it can be filled by two types of verbs, an auxiliary verb or another lexical verb.

(19) a. tigan = ba jud-i moor-an
letter = ACC read-MED HON-NEG.NPST

‘(He) will not read the letter.’ (honorific auxiliary)

b. tigan = ba jud-i kurir-an
letter = ACC read-MED BEN-NEG.NPST

‘(He) will not read the letter for me.’ (benefactive auxiliary)

c. tigan = ba jud-i k-on
letter = ACC read-MED come-NEG.NPST

‘(He) will not go to read the letter and come back.’ (lexical verb 2)

The dependency of the second verb decreases from (19a) to (19c). The second verb in (19a) *moor-* (HON) cannot be used in the first (lexical) verb slot.
On the other hand, *kurir-* (BEN) in (19b) can be used in the first (lexical) verb slot with the meaning ‘have the kindness to give’. We can see some *semantic bleaching* (Hopper and Traugott 2003: 94) has happened in the case of the auxiliaries.<fnref n="9" /> The second verb in (19c) can also be used in the first (lexical) verb slot, e.g. *tari-nkuin k-on* (who-INDFZ come-NEG.NPST) ‘No one comes’, and there seems to be no semantic bleaching in (19c).

<table><caption>**Table 8: Auxiliary verbs**</caption><thead><tr><th>Form</th><th>Gloss</th><th>Related form (if any)</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td><strong>nnj-</strong></td><td>'try to'</td><td></td></tr><tr><td><strong>uk-</strong></td><td>PRF</td><td></td></tr><tr><td><strong>kurir-</strong></td><td>BEN</td><td></td></tr><tr><td><strong>moor-</strong></td><td>HON</td><td><em>imoor-</em> (go/come/exist.HON)</td></tr><tr><td><strong>taboor-</strong></td><td>BEN.HON</td><td></td></tr></tbody></table>

### 3.1.3.2 Nominal predicate

A nominal predicate consists of an obligatory nominal phrase (NP) and an optional copula verb. The non-obligatory status of the copula is one of the reasons to consider the head of the nominal predicate is not the copula verb but the nominal phrase itself. A copula verb is obligatory in the following cases: (a) in past tense, (b) when negated, (c) when taking non-finite inflections.

(20) a. *arəə in ja-ta*
that.TOP dog COP-PST
‘That was a dog.’ (past tense)

b. *arəə in=na ar-an*
that.TOP dog=TOP COP-NEG.NPST
‘That is not a dog.’ (negation)

c. *in jap-poo, baa=doo*
dog COP-CVB.CND uncomfortable=EMP
‘If (it) is a dog, I feel uncomfortable (with it).’ (non-finite)

In other cases the copula verb is not necessary.

(21) *arəə in*
that.TOP dog
‘That is a dog.’ (non-past affirmative in a main clause)

<footnote n="9">⁹Another piece of evidence that *kurir-* should be considered an auxiliary verb is that it can be used in the first verb slot and in the second verb slot simultaneously: *kusui naikwa kuri-ti kurir-i* (medicine a.little give-MED BEN-IMP) ‘Please give me some medicine!’.</footnote>
## 3.2 Word, clitic and affix

### 3.2.1 Word

A word is a free form made of at least one root. Yuwan does not have any prefixes or proclitics, and every word thus begins with a root. A word is made of a root (or several compounded roots) plus a suffix (or suffixes), and enclitics can attach to it. The following section lists three criteria to determine whether a bound morpheme is a suffix or an enclitic.

### 3.2.2 Affix versus clitic

There are three criteria that determine the status of a bound morpheme: (A) whether it attaches to a bound stem, (B) whether it attaches to more than two word classes, (C) whether it can be preceded by another clitic (which satisfies criterion (B)). If a bound morpheme satisfies criterion (A), it is an affix; if a bound morpheme satisfies the criteria (B) or (C), it is a clitic.

### 3.2.3 Compound versus phrase

A compound is made of roots; on the other hand, a phrase is made of a word (or words).

(22) a. [kjura + dïi] = ba mi-cja
beautiful + hand = NOM look-PST
‘(I) looked at a beautiful hand.’ (compound)

b. [naa tïi] = ba mi-cja
your.HON hand = ACC look-PST

‘(I) looked at your hand.’ (phrase)

One important difference between a compound and phrase is whether another word can intervene within it. A compound cannot be interrupted by another word, as in (23a), but a phrase can, as in (23b).

(23) a. *[kjura siju-sa-n tïi] = ba mi-cja
Beautiful white-VLZ-NPST.ADN hand = ACC look-PST
‘(I) looked at a beautiful white hand.’ (compound intervened)

b. [naa siju-sa-n tïi] = ba mi-cja
your.HON white-VLZ-NPST.ADN hand = ACC look-PST

‘(I) looked at your white hand.’ (phrase intervened)
## 3.3 Word classes

Yuwan has three major word classes, nominals, adnominals, and verbs. Nominals and verbs are more numerous than adnominals. The criteria for word class assignment are listed in (24).<fnref n="10" />

(24) Criteria for word class assignment

(A) Heads an NP

(B) Directly fills the dependent slot of an NP

(C) Inflects

<table><caption>Table 9: Word classes: distinctive criteria</caption><thead><tr><th></th><th>(A)</th><th>(B)</th><th>(C)</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Nominal</td><td>+</td><td>-</td><td>-</td></tr><tr><td>Adnominal</td><td>-</td><td>+</td><td>-</td></tr><tr><td>Verb</td><td>-</td><td>-</td><td>+</td></tr><tr><td>Minor word class</td><td>-</td><td>-</td><td>-</td></tr></tbody></table>

### 3.3.1 Nominals

A nominal is a word that can only head a nominal phrase (§3.1.2). There are four subclasses of nominals: nouns, reflexives, numerals, and indefinites (see §4.2.1). Human pronouns, demonstratives, and interrogatives are partly included in nominals (see §3.4).

### 3.3.2 Adnominals

An adnominal is a word that only serves as the modifier of an NP and thus cannot function as an argument or as the head of a nominal predicate. Since it does not head an NP, it never carries case when functioning as a modifier of an NP.<fnref n="11" />

(25) kun hon = ba tu-ta
this book = ACC take-PST
‘(I) took this book.’

<footnote n="10">¹⁰See Shimoji (2008a: 134) for similar criteria in Irabu Ryukyuan.</footnote>

<footnote n="11">¹¹See Shimoji (2008a: 135–136) for a similar characterization of adnominals in Irabu Ryukyuan.</footnote>
### 3.3.3 Verbs

A verb is a word that inflects. Thus the verb stem *tur-* ‘take’ inflects as *tu-ta* (take-PST), *tur-oo* (take-INT), etc. Inflectional categories differ according to the clause type (main clause, relative clause, adverbial clause). See §5.2 for more details about Yuwan verb morphology.

### 3.3.4 Minor word class

The minor word class is a set of words which do not satisfy any of the criteria (A) to (C) in (24) above. The minor word class can be divided into two subcategories depending on its syntactic function; if it can directly modify a verbal predicate, it is an adverb (e.g. *mazin ikj-oo!* (together go-INT) ‘(Let’s) go together!’); if not, it is an interjection (e.g. *agi!* ‘Oh!’).

## 3.4 Functional categories of words

The three categories *human pronouns*, *demonstratives* and *interrogatives* have their own specific roots, i.e. human pronominal roots, demonstrative roots, and interrogative roots. These can turn into several different word classes (with some derivational affixes). For example, demonstrative roots can be used as nominals, adnominals, or adverbs (§3.4.2). This means this category is not a word class, but a functional category that can cover several word classes.

### 3.4.1 Human pronouns

Human pronouns formally extend over nominals and adnominals. Semantically, they indicate the speaker (first person) or the hearer (second person).<fnref n="12" /> Third person in anaphoric or deictic function is expressed by demonstratives (see §3.4.2).

Pronouns exhibit number distinctions, but adnominal forms have no dual forms.<fnref n="13" /> Yuwan has three human pronominal roots: *waa* (1SG), *naa* (2SG.HON), and *ura* (2SG.NHON).

The pronouns *waa* (1SG) and *naa* (2SG.HON) are adnominals, and they need to attach a nominalizer suffix to become nominals: -n (NLZ.SG), -ttəə (NLZ.DU), or -kja (NLZ.PL). On the other hand, *ura* (2SG.NHON) is a nominal, and it thus needs the adnominalizer suffix -a to become an adnominal. The nominalized plural forms *waa-kja*, *naa-kja* and *ura-kja*, also need the same adnominalizer suffix to become adnominals.

<footnote n="12">¹²Yuwan has two second person pronouns. The pronoun *naa* is used for honorific referents, i.e. referents older than the speaker, and *ura* is used for non-honorific referents, i.e. referents as old as (or younger than) the speaker.</footnote>

<footnote n="13">¹³When a dual human pronoun fills the modifier slot of an NP, it attaches a genitive case clitic, e.g. *wa-ttəə=ga hon* (1SG-DU=GEN book) ‘a book belonging to the two of us’.</footnote>
(26) a. wan=ga ik-ju-i
1SG=NOM go-IPFV-NPST
'I will go.' (nominal)

b. waa zjuu<fnref n="14" /> = ga ik-ju-i
my father = NOM go-IPFV-NPST

'My father will go.' (adnominal)

<table><caption>Table 10: Human pronouns</caption><thead><tr><th></th><th></th><th>Singular</th><th>Dual</th><th>Plural</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td rowspan="3">Nominals</td><td>1<sup>st</sup> person</td><td>wa-n</td><td>wa-ttəə</td><td>waa-kja</td></tr><tr><td>2<sup>nd</sup> person</td><td>na-n</td><td>na-ttəə</td><td>naa-kja</td></tr><tr><td>HON<br>non-HON</td><td>ura</td><td>ura-ttəə</td><td>ura-kja</td></tr><tr><td rowspan="3">Adnominals</td><td>1<sup>st</sup> person</td><td>waa</td><td>-</td><td>waa-kja-a</td></tr><tr><td>2<sup>nd</sup> person</td><td>naa</td><td>-</td><td>naa-kja-a</td></tr><tr><td>HON<br>non-HON</td><td>ura-a</td><td>-</td><td>ura-kja-a</td></tr></tbody></table>

### 3.4.2 Demonstratives

Demonstratives extend over nominals, adnominals, and adverbs. They are con- stituted of a demonstrative root, which is a bound form, and a derivational suffix. Three degrees of distance are distinguished, i.e. proximal, mesial, and distal.

<table><caption>Table 11: Demonstrative roots and derived forms</caption><thead><tr><th>Class</th><th>Meaning</th><th>Root</th><th>Suffix</th><th>Proximal</th><th>Mesial</th><th>Distal</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td rowspan="2">N</td><td rowspan="2">Pronominal</td><td rowspan="2">ku/u/a</td><td>-ri (SG)</td><td>ku-ri</td><td>u-ri</td><td>a-ri</td></tr><tr><td>-ttaa (APPR)</td><td>ku-ttaa</td><td>u-ttaa</td><td>a-ttaa</td></tr><tr><td></td><td>Locative</td><td></td><td>-ma</td><td>ku-ma</td><td>u-ma</td><td>a-ma</td></tr><tr><td>Adn</td><td>Plain</td><td></td><td>-n</td><td>ku-n</td><td>u-n</td><td>a-n</td></tr><tr><td>N</td><td>Approximation</td><td>ka/ga/aga</td><td>-ssa</td><td>ka-ssa</td><td>ga-ssa</td><td>aga-ssa</td></tr><tr><td>Adn</td><td>Derogatory</td><td></td><td>-raa</td><td>ka-raa</td><td>ga-raa</td><td>aga-raa</td></tr><tr><td>Adv</td><td>Direction</td><td></td><td>-n</td><td>ka-n</td><td>ga-n</td><td>aga-n</td></tr></tbody></table>

<footnote n="14">¹⁴waa zjuu ‘my father’ is not a compound but a (nominal) phrase; in other words, waa ‘my’ is not the component of a word, but an adnominal word (see §3.2.3 for details).</footnote>
### 3.4.3 Interrogatives

Interrogatives formally extend over nominals, adnominals, and adverbs, and semantically express wh-questions.

(27) a. nuu = nu uti-ti ?
what = NOM fall-MED
'What fell?' (nominal)
b. urəə taa ?kin ?
that.TOP whose kimono
'Whose kimono is that?' (adnominal)
c. nuusjattu ikj-an ?
why go-NEG.NPST
'Why don't (you) go?' (adverb)

<table><caption>Table 12: Basic forms of interrogatives</caption><thead><tr><th></th><th>Form</th><th>Gloss</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td rowspan="6">Nominals</td><td>nuu</td><td>what</td></tr><tr><td>tari / taru (SG), tat-taa (PL)</td><td>who</td></tr><tr><td>daa</td><td>where</td></tr><tr><td>diru</td><td>which</td></tr><tr><td>ici</td><td>when</td></tr><tr><td>ikjassa</td><td>how much</td></tr><tr><td rowspan="2">Adnominals</td><td>taa</td><td>whose</td></tr><tr><td>din</td><td>which</td></tr><tr><td>Adverbs</td><td>nuusjattu</td><td>why</td></tr></tbody></table>

### 3.5 Property concept stems (PC stems)

Yuwan has a special stem category, which is called here *property concept stem* (PC stem), following the term used in Shimoji (2008a).<fnref n="15" /> Semantically, PC stems can express the following semantic types, which are expressed by adjectives in many languages:<fnref n="16" /> DIMENSION (e.g. taa 'tall', tuu 'distant', inja/sjugi 'small'), AGE (e.g. mii 'new'), VALUE (e.g. ic 'good', waru 'bad'), COLOUR (e.g. aa 'red', siju 'white', kuru 'black'), PHYSICAL PROPERTY (e.g. ubu 'heavy'), HUMAN PROPEN- SITY (e.g. hooora 'happy'), and SPEED (e.g. həə 'fast').

Morphologically, a PC stem is made of a single root (PC root) or a derived stem (see § 6.3). A PC stem is a bound form, thus it needs to undergo some

<footnote n="15">¹⁵The term “property concept” itself also appears in Thompson (1988).</footnote>

<footnote n="16">¹⁶See Dixon (2004: 3–4)</footnote>
derivational and/or inflectional operation in order to be a free form. There are three means to turn a PC stem into a free form: nominalization, verbalization, and adverbialization.

A PC stem can become a nominal word if it is followed by a nominalizer -sa/-sja.<fnref n="17" />

(28) a. taa-sa = nu tar-an
tall-NLZ = NOM be.sufficient-NEG.NPST
‘(It) is not tall enough.’ (argument PC nominal)

b. an kïï=nu taa-sa
that tree = NOM tall-NLZ
‘That tree is tall.’ (PC nominal predicate)

A PC stem can become a verb if it is followed by a verbalizer -sar/-sjar.

(29) an kïï=ja taa-sar-oo
that tree = TOP tall-VLZ-SUPP
‘That tree is supposed to be tall.’ (PC verb)

In the following example, a PC stem becomes an adverb by taking the adverbializer -ku.

(30) həə-ku ikj-oo !
fast-AVLZ go-INT
‘Let’s go fast!’

# 4 Nominals and nominal phrases

A brief explanation about nominals and nominal phrases (NPs) has already been given in § 3.3.1 and § 3.1.2 respectively. The following sections give a more detailed presentation of the *Modifier Head* (= *Case*) construction of NPs.

## 4.1 Modifier

### 4.1.1 Modifier filled by an NP

If a nominal is to modify another nominal in an NP, first it fills the head slot of an NP taking a genitive case clitic, and then it fills the modifier slot of a larger NP recursively. In the following example, the larger NP is analyzed as following: warabi = nu (Modifier), hon (Head), and = ba (Case).

<footnote n="17">¹⁷The choice of the two morphemes -sa or -sja is lexically determined: taa-sa (high-NLZ), hoora-sja (happy-NLZ), etc.</footnote>
(31) warabi = nu hon = ba mi-cja
         child = GEN book = ACC look-PST
        ‘(I) looked at the child’s book.’

### 4.1.2 Modifier filled by adnominal word or relative clause

The modifier slot of an **NP** can be filled by an adnominal word, which does not take any case clitics (see §3.3.2). In the following example, the **NP** is analyzed as following: *an* (Modifier), *hon* (Head), and =*ba* (Case).

(32) an hon = ba mi-cja
        that book = ACC look-PST
       ‘(I) looked at that book.’

Furthermore, the modifier slot of an **NP** can be filled by a relative clause, whose final constituent is a verb taking an inflectional suffix that marks relativization (see §5.2.2.1). In the following example, the **NP** is analyzed as following: *akira* = *ga ju-da-n* (Modifier), *hon* (Head), and =*ba* (Case).

(33) an ?cjoo akira = ga ju-dan hon = ba mi-cja
        that person.TOP Akira = NOM read-PST.ADN book = ACC look-PST
       ‘That person looked at the book that Akira read.’

## 4.2 Head

The head slot is obligatory in an **NP**, and it is filled by a minimal **NP**, i.e. a nominal word.

### 4.2.1 Subclass of nominals

There are four subclasses of nominals: nouns, reflexives, numerals, and indefinitives. As stated in §3.4, human pronouns, demonstratives and interrogatives are categorized not only as nominals, but also as other word classes. Therefore they are treated as functional categories of words, not as a subclass of nominals.

#### 4.2.1.1 Nouns

A noun can function as an **NP** of any kind (argument, predicate or modifier of a larger **NP**). Some nouns that have a temporal meaning, e.g. *?kinjuu* ‘yesterday’, *acja* ‘tomorrow’, or *kjuu* ‘today’, can undergo conversion into adverbs.

(34) acja k-juu-d = doo
        tomorrow come-IPFV-NPST = EMP
       ‘I’ll come tomorrow!’
### 4.2.1.2 Reflexives

Yuwan has two reflexives, *nusi* and *duu*, and I have so far found no difference between them. They can function as an *NP* of any kind. A reflexive can be coreferential with not only a previous subject argument, as in (35), but also with an (indirect) object, as in (36).

(35) akira=ga jumiko=n nusi/duu=nu ?kin=ba
Akira = NOM Yumiko = DAT RFL = GEN kimono = ACC
?cimm-a-cji=doo
wrap-CAUS-MED = EMP

'Akira_i made Yumiko wrap his_i kimono.'

(36) akira=ja jumiko=n nusi/duu=nu ?kin=boo nusi/duu=sji
Akira = TOP Yumiko = DAT RFL = GEN kimono = ACC>TOP RFL = INST
?cimm-a-cji=doo
wrap-CAUS-MED = EMP

'Akira made Yumiko_i wrap her_i kimono by herself_i.'

### 4.2.1.3 Numerals

A numeral is constituted of a numeral root plus a classifier suffix, e.g. -ci (CLF. GENERAL), -tai (CLF.HUMAN), and -kəi (CLF.TIMES). A numeral can function as an *NP* of any kind; however, a numeral often fills the head slot of an *NP*.

(37) nasi=nu mii-ci mura-ti (*mii-ci=nu nasi)
pear=GEN three-CLF receive-MED three-CLF=GEN pear

'(I) received three pears.'

'Three pears' is expressed as *nasi=nu mii-ci* (pear=GEN three-CLF), where the referent noun fills the modifier slot and the numeral fills the head slot, not vice versa. The classifier for inanimate nouns is generally -ci, and the numbers above ten are all non-native words. The classifier -tai is used to count humans, but loanwords are used for numbers above four.

### 4.2.1.4 Indefinites

There are two types of indefinites: non-specific and specific. Both types are formed by an interrogative root plus an indefinitizer (INDFZ) suffix.

Indefinites of the first type have a non-specific meaning and are formed by an interrogative root plus the indefinite suffix -nkuin.

(38) tari-nkuin k-juu-d=doo
who-INDFZ come-IPFV-NPST = EMP

'Someone will come.'
<table><caption>**Table 13:** Numerals for counting inanimates</caption><thead><tr><th>Number</th><th>Word form</th><th>Morphological structure</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>1</td><td>?ti'i</td><td>NUM.CLF</td></tr><tr><td>2</td><td>?taa-ci</td><td>NUM.CLF</td></tr><tr><td>3</td><td>mii-ci</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>4</td><td>juu-ci</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>5</td><td>ici-ci</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>6</td><td>muu-ci</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>7</td><td>nana-ci</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>8</td><td>jaa-ci</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>9</td><td>?kuunu-ci</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>10</td><td>tuu</td><td>NUM</td></tr><tr><td>11 (or more)</td><td>zjuu ici</td><td>loanword from Japanese</td></tr><tr><td>how many</td><td>iku-ci</td><td>NUM.ITR-CLF</td></tr></tbody></table>

<table><caption>**Table 14:** Numerals for counting humans</caption><thead><tr><th>Number</th><th>Word form</th><th>Morphological structure</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>1</td><td>?cjui</td><td>NUM.CLF</td></tr><tr><td>2</td><td>?tai</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>3</td><td>mi-cjai</td><td>NUM.CLF</td></tr><tr><td>4</td><td>ju-tai</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>5 (or more)</td><td>go-nin</td><td>loanword from Japanese</td></tr><tr><td>how many</td><td>iku-tai</td><td>NUM.ITR-CLF</td></tr></tbody></table>

Indefinites of the second type have a specific meaning and are formed by an interrogative root followed by one of the two indefinite suffixes -gajaaroo and -ka. Here the term *specific* is used in the meaning of Payne (1997: 264): "an entity is objectively referential if it exists as a bounded, individuated entity in the message world. Sometimes referentiality in this sense is referred to as specificity".

<footnote>(39) tari-gajaaroo = ga ?cja
who-INDFZ = NOM come.PST
'Someone came.'</footnote>
<table><caption>**Table 15:** Indefinites (non-specific) made of -nkuin</caption><thead><tr><td>Form</td><td>Meaning</td></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>nu-nkuin</td><td>'anything'</td></tr><tr><td>tari-nkuin</td><td>'anyone'</td></tr><tr><td>da-nkuin</td><td>'anytime'</td></tr><tr><td>diru-nkuin</td><td>'any one'</td></tr><tr><td>ici-nkuin</td><td>'anywhere'</td></tr></tbody></table>

<table><caption>**Table 16:** Indefinites (specific) made of -gajaaroo/-ka</caption><thead><tr><td>Form</td><td>Meaning</td></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>nuu-gajaaroo/nuu-ka</td><td>'something'</td></tr><tr><td>tari-gajaaroo/tarii-ka</td><td>'someone'</td></tr><tr><td>daa-gajaaroo/daa-ka</td><td>'somewhere'</td></tr><tr><td>diru-gajaaroo/diruu-ka</td><td>'something in these things'</td></tr><tr><td>ici-gajaaroo/icii-ka</td><td>'sometime'</td></tr></tbody></table>

### 4.2.2 Derivational morphology of nominals

#### 4.2.2.1 Nominal derivation

The structure of the nominal word is schematically shown in (40).

(40) Structure of the nominal word:
Root (-DIM)(=APPR)
or Root (-PL)(-APPR)(=APPR)

There are three nominal derivational suffixes: -kkwa (DIM), -kja (PL), and -taa (APPR). For convenience, we will also present together the approximative clitic =nkja, although it is not a nominal derivational suffix.

The diminutive suffix -kkwa adds some overtones of endearment to the root it attaches to.

(41) warabi-kkwa = nu wu-i
child-DIM = NOM exist-NPST
'There is a little child.'

The plural suffix -kja can attach to human pronouns only (I ignore the nom-inalizing function of -kja here, see §3.4.1).

(42) waa-kja = ga ik-ju-i
1-PL = NOM go-IPFV-NPST
'We will go.'
On the other hand, the approximative suffix -taa ('and so on' or 'a kind of') can attach to demonstratives, human names, elder kinship terms, and profession names.

(43) zjuu-taa = ga ik-ju-i
father-APPR = NOM go-IPFV-NPST

('My) father and some people will go.'

When expressing plurality of other nominals, the approximative clitic =nkja<fnref n="18" /> is used.

(44) maga = nkja = nu ik-ju-i
grandchild = APPR = NOM go-IPFV-NPST

('My) grandchild and some people will go.'

As can be seen above, kinship terms which refer to younger people do not take the approximative suffix -taa, but take the approximative clitic =nkja.

The selection of the plural and approximative markers is summarized in figure 2.

<figure><img src="image_15.png" /><figcaption>Figure 2: Selection of the plural and approximative markers</figcaption></figure>

This nominal division seems to correspond to the *nominal hierarchy* or the *animacy hierarchy* of linguistic typology (Silverstein 1976, Dixon 1994, Whaley 1997).

### 4.2.2.2 Nominal compounding

A nominal compound is a nominal word made of two roots (Root1 + Root2). The first root may be any nominal root, verbal root, or PC root (see §3.5), and the second one is always a nominal root.

(45) a. nominal root + nominal root
mumin 'cotton' + ?kin 'kimono' → mumin + gin<fnref n="19" /> 'kimono made of
cotton'

<footnote n="18">¹⁸This morpheme can be regarded as a clitic since it can attach not only to nominals but also to verbs (see §3.2.2 about the criterion of clitic), e.g. abi-ti = nkja ik-ju-mi? (call-MED = APPR go-IPFV-YNQ) 'Do (we) go (there) and call (him or her)?'. In Yuwan and Ura (Amami Ryukyuan), the approximative marker is a clitic (H. Shigeno 2010 p.c.), while in Tsuken (Okinawan), Ōgami and Irabu (Miyako Ryukyuan) it is a suffix (S. Matayoshi, M. Shimoji and T. Pellard 2010 p.c.).</footnote>

<footnote n="19">¹⁹See §2.4.2 for more details about sequential voicing.</footnote>
b. verbal root + nominal root

jusir- ‘teach’ + kaci ‘worth’ → jusi + gaci ‘worth teaching’

c. PC root + nominal root

kjura ‘beautiful’ + ?kin ‘kimono’ → kjura + gin ‘beautiful kimono’

## 4.3 Case

### 4.3.1 Case markers

Yuwan has thirteen case markers, which are clitics following a nominal phrase. Most of them mark arguments (nominative, accusative, dative, allative, locative, instrumental, associative, comparative, ablative, limitative), while the genitive case marks the modifier of an NP (§ 3.1.2). Yuwan has a nominative-accusative case marking system; the single argument of an intransitive verb (S) and the agent-like argument of a transitive verb (A) both take nominative case, while the patient-like argument of a transitive verb (O) takes accusative case.

<table><caption>Table 17: Case forms and their functions</caption><thead><tr><th>Name</th><th>Form</th><th>Function (case)</th><th>Function (limiter)</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Nominative</td><td>= ga/ = nu</td><td>S/A</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Genitive</td><td>= ga/ = Ø/ = nu</td><td>NP modifier</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Accusative</td><td>= ba</td><td>O</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Dative</td><td>= n</td><td>beneficiary</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Allative 1</td><td>= kaci</td><td>goal of locomotion</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Allative 2</td><td>= zji</td><td>goal of action</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Locative 1</td><td>= nən/nan</td><td>place of static action</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Locative 2</td><td>= (nə)nti/(na)nti</td><td>place of dynamic action</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Instrumental</td><td>= sji</td><td>instrument</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Associative</td><td>= tu</td><td>associated motion</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Comparative</td><td>= jumma/ = jukkuma</td><td>standard of comparison</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Ablative</td><td>= kara</td><td>source</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Limitative</td><td>= gadi</td><td>limit (‘as far as’)</td><td>emphasis</td></tr></tbody></table>

### 4.3.2 Animacy hierarchy with case markers

Two case markers, the nominative and the genitive, depend on the nominal hierarchy.<fnref n="20" /> First, the nominative case marker has two forms, =ga and =nu.

<footnote n="20">²⁰A similar phenomenon is found in many other Ryukyuan languages (Nohara 1986, Shimoji 2008a, and others).</footnote>
There is a tendency that a nominal located higher in the animacy hierarchy takes =ga, while a nominal located lower takes =nu.

(46) wan=ga aik-ju-i
1SG=NOM walk-IPFV-NPST
'I will walk.' (1st person singular human pronoun)

(47) in=nu aik-ju-i
dog=NOM walk-IPFV-NPST
'The dog will walk.' (animal noun)

As can be seen above, the form of the nominative case varies according to
position on the animacy hierarchy of the nominal heading the NP. The assign-
ment of the nominative is summarized in figure 3.

<figure><img src="image_16.png" /><figcaption>Figure 3: Nominative hierarchy</figcaption></figure>

Second, the genitive case marker has three allomorphs =ga, =Ø (zero) and =nu. The genitive case marker can express possessive relation between the modifier and the head in an NP, but there is another means to express posses- sive relation,<fnref n="21" /> i.e. with an adnominal. Possessive relation is marked as follows according to the animacy hierarchy, from higher to lower: adnominal, genitive case =ga, =Ø (zero), and =nu.

(48) a. waa hon=ba jum-i !
my book=ACC read-IMP
'Read my book!' (1st person singular human pronoun)

b. agga hon=ba jum-i !
that.person.GEN book=ACC read-IMP

'Read that person's book!' (demonstrative)

c. akira=Ø hon=ba jum-i !
Akira=GEN book=ACC read-IMP

'Read Akira's book!' (noun (human name))<fnref n="22" />

d. warabi=nu hon=ba jum-i !
child=GEN book=ACC read-IMP

'Read the child's book!' (noun)

The assignment of the forms is summarized in figure 4.

<footnote n="21">²¹Here the terms *possession* or *possessive* are used in a rather arbitrary meaning.</footnote>

<footnote n="22">²²This form cannot be analyzed as an adnominal since it can fill the head slot of an NP (see §3.3): *akira=ga ik-ju-i* (Akira=NOM go-IPFV-NPST) ‘Akira goes’.</footnote>
<figure><img src="image_17.png" /><figcaption>Figure 4: Adnominal and genitive hierarchy</figcaption></figure>

## 4.4 Formal nouns

A formal noun can fill the head slot of an **NP** only if it is preceded by a modifier word or clause. It can thus be called a “bound word”. In the following examples, *si* ‘thing’ is a formal noun, but *mun* ‘thing’ is not.

(49) waa si = nu a-i (cf. *si* = nu a-i)
my thing = NOM exist-NPST thing = NOM exist-NPST
‘There is a thing of mine.’ ‘There is a thing.’

(50) waa mun = nu a-i (cf. mun = nu a-i)
my thing = NOM exist-NPST thing = NOM exist-NPST
‘There is a thing of mine.’ ‘There is a thing.’

As can be seen above, the formal noun *si* ‘thing’ can fill the head slot with an adnominal (*waa* ‘my’) filling the modifier slot of the *NP*; however, if there is no modifier, the formal noun cannot head an *NP*. Interestingly, a formal noun behaves like a nominalizer suffix, when it co-occurs with a verbal stem.

(51) koo-ju-si = nu a-i
buy-IPFV-NLZ = NOM exist-NPST
‘There is a thing (that I) will buy.’

This kind of phenomenon about formal nouns is also found in Irabu Ryu-kyuan (Shimoji 2009d: 16).

# 5 Verb morphology

The verb class is the only word class that shows inflection. The copula is a verb, but its syntactic function is to serve as an extension to nominal predicates rather than the head of a verbal predicate.

## 5.1 The structure of the verbal complex

The verbal complex is made of a stem plus one or several inflectional suffixes. A stem can be made of a single root (a minimal stem), several roots (a compound), or root(s) plus derivational suffix(es).

(52) Structure of the verbal complex (D: derivation, I: inflection)
[[ Root (+ Root)-D suffix(-D suffix...n) ]]stem -I suffix(-I suffix)]word
### 5.1.1 Stem

Yuwan has two different types of verb-making stems: plain verbal stems and property concept stems (PC stems); plain verbal stems can be sub-divided into two subtypes, the ordinary type and the special type.

Formally, both plain verbal stems and PC stems are bound forms, but they can be clearly divided by the following criteria: the former cannot be followed by a verbalizer -sar/-sjar or a nominalizer -sa/-sja, but the latter can. Semantically, plain verbal stems can express relatively higher transitivity (Hopper and Thompson 1980) than PC stems, e.g. *kuss* - ‘kill’, *ut* - ‘hit’, *mur* - ‘pick (some fruits)’, and so on. On the other hand, PC stems basically express relatively lower transitivity, and they often correspond to adjectives in other languages, e.g. *taa* - ‘tall’, *aa* - ‘red’, *hoora* - ‘happy’, etc.

#### 5.1.1.1 Plain verbal stems (ordinary type)

Plain verbal stems can be divided into two subtypes, ordinary types, and special types, which are distinguished by the following criteria. If a plain verbal stem can be followed by an imperfective suffix -jur, it is an ordinary type stem; if not, it is a special type stem.

(53) warabi = nu un = nanti app-ju-i
        child = NOM sea = LOC2 play-IPFV-NPST
        ‘A child plays in the sea.’ (plain verbal stem (ordinary type))

<table><caption>**Table 18:** Examples of plain verbal stems (ordinary type)</caption><thead><tr><th>Form</th><th>Gloss</th><th>Form</th><th>Gloss</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>app-</td><td>‘play’</td><td>izjas-</td><td>‘take out’</td></tr><tr><td>tub-</td><td>‘fly’</td><td>ut-</td><td>‘hit’</td></tr><tr><td>asib-</td><td>‘play’</td><td>tat-</td><td>‘stand’</td></tr><tr><td>kak-</td><td>‘write’</td><td>mur-</td><td>‘pick (fruits)’</td></tr><tr><td>uk-</td><td>‘put’</td><td>izibar-</td><td>‘come out’</td></tr><tr><td>kam-</td><td>‘eat’</td><td>?kij-</td><td>‘cut’</td></tr><tr><td>tanm-</td><td>‘ask’</td><td>hənkj-</td><td>‘come in’</td></tr><tr><td>waas-</td><td>‘boil’</td><td>koow-</td><td>‘buy’</td></tr></tbody></table>

#### 5.1.1.2 Plain verbal stems (special type)

Yuwan has four plain verbal stems that are of a different, special type. These stems cannot take the imperfective suffix -jur.
<table><caption>**Table 19:** Plain verbal stems (special type)</caption><thead><tr><th>Form</th><th>Gloss</th><th>Note</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>wur-</td><td>'exist'</td><td>used with animate subjects</td></tr><tr><td>ar-</td><td>'exist'</td><td>used with inanimate subjects</td></tr><tr><td>nə-</td><td>'not exist'</td><td>used with inanimate subjects; necessarily takes negative suffix</td></tr><tr><td>jar-/ar-</td><td>COP</td><td>the former used for affirmative, the latter for negative</td></tr></tbody></table>

The existential verbs *wur-* and *ar-* correlate with the animacy<fnref n="23" /> of a subject. If the subject has an animate referent, *wur-* is used, as in (54), and if the subject has an inanimate referent, *ar-* is used, as in (55). In both cases, the aspect marker -jur cannot be used.

(54) ama = nan warabi = nu wu-i (*wu-ju-i)
that place = LOC1 child = NOM exist-NPST
‘There is a child.’ (existential verb (animate subject))

(55) ama = nan kiï = nu a-i (*a-ju-i)
that place = LOC1 tree = NOM exist-NPST
‘There is a tree.’ (existential verb (inanimate subject))

It is worth noting that the animate existential verb *wur-* can take a negative suffix -an, e.g. warabi = nu wur-an (child = NOM exist-NEG.NPST) ‘There is no child’; however, the inanimate existential verb *ar-* cannot, e.g. *kiï = nu ar-an (tree = NOM exist-NEG.NPST)* ‘There is no tree’. Instead, the negative existential verb *nə-* ‘not exist’ is used.

(56) ama = nan = nja kiï = nu nə-n
that place = LOC1 = TOP tree = NOM not.exist-NEG.NPST
‘There is no tree.’ (negative existential verb)

A negative existential verb does not have affirmative inflection. As can be seen in (56) above, the negative existential verb *nə-* takes a negative suffix, but the verb *nə-n* (not.exist-NEG.NPST) means ‘not exist’, and not ‘(not not) exist’. This kind of phenomena is also found in other languages (see, for example, Jespersen 1924: 334).

The copula verb has two variants: *jar-* for affirmative inflection and *ar-* for negative inflection.

<footnote n="23">²³In Yuwan, an animate referent is a living creature, and animates do not include plants like *kiï* ‘tree’.</footnote>
(57) an ʔcjoo sjensjee ja-ta
that person.TOP teacher COP-PST
‘That person was a teacher.’ (copula verb (affirmative inflection))

(58) an ʔcjoo sjensjee = ja ar-an-ta
that person.TOP teacher = TOP COP-NEG-PST
‘That person was not a teacher.’ (copula verb (negative inflection))<fnref n="24" />

5.1.1.3 Property concept stem

As mentioned in §3.5, a property concept stem (PC stem) is not a verbal stem, since it needs a verbalizer suffix -sar/-sjar to be a verbal stem and carry inflec- tion (on the other hand, a plain verbal stem is a verbal stem by itself since it can stand as a verb just by carrying verbal inflection). A verbal stem derived from a PC stem has some restrictions concerning its inflection and derivation (see §6.2 for details).

5.2 Inflectional morphology

Verbal inflectional categories in Yuwan can be divided into two categories: finite inflection and non-finite inflection. Finite inflection occurs on verb forms that head a main clause, while non-finite inflection mostly<fnref n="25" /> occurs on verb forms that head dependent clauses. Non-finite inflection can be further divided into three subtypes, each of which corresponds to the forms in relative clauses, adverbial clauses, and clause chains.

5.2.1 Finite inflection

Generally, finite inflected verbs function as verbal predicates. However, the verbs inflected by -mai (OBL) has to fill the head slot of a nominal predicate, as in (59).

(59) arəə mu-i-mai ja-ta
that.TOP pick.up-SE-OBL COP-PST
‘(I) should have picked that up.’

Table 20 presents the finite inflectional paradigm, which is further exem-
plified in table 21.

<footnote n="24">²⁴The negative form of the copula verb has the same stem as the inanimate existential verb -ar, but they differ in that the former can have animate subject, as in (58), while the latter cannot.</footnote>

<footnote n="25">²⁵See §5.2.2.3 about insubordination.</footnote>
<table><caption>**Table 20:** Finite inflection</caption><thead><tr><th></th><th></th><th>affirmative</th><th>negative</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td rowspan="5">past</td><td>declarative</td><td>-tar<sup>26</sup></td><td>-an-tar</td></tr><tr><td>suppositional</td><td>-taroo</td><td>-an-taroo</td></tr><tr><td>yes-no question</td><td>-tami</td><td>-an-tami</td></tr><tr><td>focused yes-no question</td><td>-tarui</td><td>-an-tarui</td></tr><tr><td>focused wh-question</td><td>-taru</td><td>-an-taru</td></tr><tr><td rowspan="7">non-past</td><td>declarative</td><td>-i</td><td>-an</td></tr><tr><td>suppositional/intentional<sup>27</sup></td><td>-oo</td><td>N/A</td></tr><tr><td>intentional question</td><td>-oi</td><td>N/A</td></tr><tr><td>yes-no question</td><td>-mi</td><td>-ami</td></tr><tr><td>focused yes-no question</td><td>-ui</td><td>N/A</td></tr><tr><td>focused wh-question</td><td>-u</td><td>N/A</td></tr><tr><td>obligative</td><td>-mai</td><td>N/A</td></tr><tr><td>imperative</td><td>-i</td><td>-na</td></tr></tbody></table>

<table><caption>**Table 21:** Finite inflection of *mur-* ‘pick up (some fruits)’</caption><thead><tr><th></th><th></th><th>affirmative</th><th>negative</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td rowspan="5">past</td><td>declarative</td><td>mu-tar</td><td>mur-an-tar</td></tr><tr><td>suppositional</td><td>mu-taroo</td><td>mur-an-taroo</td></tr><tr><td>yes-no question</td><td>mu-tami</td><td>mur-an-tami</td></tr><tr><td>focused yes-no question</td><td>mu-tarui</td><td>mur-an-tarui</td></tr><tr><td>focused wh-question</td><td>mu-taru</td><td>mur-an-taru</td></tr><tr><td rowspan="7">non-past<sup>28</sup></td><td>declarative</td><td>mu-ju-i</td><td>mur-an</td></tr><tr><td>suppositional/intentional</td><td>mur-oo</td><td>N/A</td></tr><tr><td>intentional question</td><td>mur-oi</td><td>N/A</td></tr><tr><td>yes-no question</td><td>mu-ju-mi</td><td>mur-ami</td></tr><tr><td>focused yes-no question</td><td>mu-jur-ui</td><td>N/A</td></tr><tr><td>focused wh-question</td><td>mu-jur-u</td><td>N/A</td></tr><tr><td>obligative</td><td>mu-i-mai<sup>29</sup></td><td>N/A</td></tr><tr><td>imperative</td><td>mur-i</td><td>mun-na</td></tr></tbody></table>

<footnote n="26"><sup>26</sup>The /r/ of -tar is always deleted in the syllable-final position, but it undergoes assimilation if it is followed by the clitic = *doo* (EMP): *mu-tat* = *too* (pick.up-PST = EMP) ‘(I) picked (it) up’.</footnote>

<footnote n="27"><sup>27</sup>If this inflection follows one of the four derivational suffixes -ar/-arir (PASS), -jur (IPFV), -tur (PROG), or -təər (RES), it has a suppositional meaning as well as the past inflection -taroo (PST.SUPP); however, -tur (PROG) + -oo with a 1st person subject has an intentional meaning, e.g. *wan* = *ga ju-dur-oo* (1SG = NOM read-PROG-INT) ‘I intend to be reading’.</footnote>

<footnote n="28"><sup>28</sup>About the aspectual affix -jur (IPFV) between a verbal root and some inflections, see §5.3.1.</footnote>

<footnote n="29"><sup>29</sup>-mai needs the stem extender -i in order to follow a verbal root that does not end with a nasal, cf. *jum-mai* = *doo* (read-OBL = EMP) ‘(I) have to read (it)’.</footnote>
### 5.2.2 Non-finite inflection

Non-finite inflections express relativization, adverbial subordination (with con-verbs), or clause-chaining (with medial verbs). Some of converbs do not have negative forms, and only adnominal forms exhibit a tense opposition.

#### 5.2.2.1 Relativization

Yuwan has a special inflected form for predicates of relative clauses. This verbal form basically does not appear in other types of clauses,<fnref n="30" /> and it is called the adnominal form here.

(60) [wan=ga ?kinjuu mu-tan]$_{Rel-clause}$ nikan=ba tur-i !
1SG=NOM yesterday pick.up-PST.ADN orange=ACC take-IMP
'Take the orange I picked up yesterday!'

<table><caption>**Table 22:** Relative inflection</caption><thead><tr><th></th><th>affirmative</th><th>negative</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><th>non-past</th><td>-n</td><td>(-an)</td></tr><tr><th>past</th><td>-tan</td><td>-an-tan</td></tr></tbody></table>

<table><caption>**Table 23:** Relative inflection of *mur-* 'pick up (some fruits)' with *nikan* 'orange'</caption><thead><tr><th></th><th>affirmative</th><th>negative</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><th>non-past<sup>31</sup></th><td><i>mu-ju-n nikan</i><br>'an orange (I) will pick up'</td><td><i>(mur-an nikan)</i><br>'an orange (I) won't pick up'</td></tr><tr><th>past</th><td><i>mu-tan nikan</i><br>'an orange (I) picked up'</td><td><i>mur-an-tan nikan</i><br>'an orange (I) didn't pick up'</td></tr></tbody></table>

The parentheses in tables 22 and 23 indicate there is no morphologically overt inflectional suffix expressing relativization in negative non-past tense. In other words, Yuwan uses a *gap strategy* (Payne 1997: 330) for the negative non-past, and the verbal form is identical with the finite form used for negative non-past declarative.

<footnote n="30">³⁰However, there are cases where this form appears in an adverbial clause with a clitic (see §7.1 and §7.2).</footnote>

<footnote n="31">³¹About the aspectual affix -jur (IPFV) between a verbal root and the inflection -n (NPST.ADN), see §5.3.1.</footnote>
### 5.2.2.2 Converb

Yuwan has a converb, constituted of a verbal stem and an inflectional suffix. The converb is used to head an adverbial clause.

(61) kjuu=ja nikan=ba mur-an-ba, app-igja
today=TOP orange=ACC pick.up-NEG-because play-CVB.PUR
koo=joo
come.IMP=CNF1

'(We) will not pick up oranges today, so come and play.'

<table><caption>**Table 24:** Converb inflection</caption><thead><tr><th></th><th></th><th>affirmative</th><th>negative</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td rowspan="5">non-past</td><td>conditional ('if')</td><td>-boo</td><td>-an-boo</td></tr><tr><td>causal 1 ('because')</td><td>-ba</td><td>-an-ba</td></tr><tr><td>causal 2 ('because')</td><td>-sa</td><td>N/A</td></tr><tr><td>simultaneous ('while')</td><td>-jagacinaa</td><td>N/A</td></tr><tr><td>purposive ('in order that')</td><td>-igja</td><td>N/A</td></tr><tr><td>past</td><td>causal 3 ('because (x) did...')</td><td>-tattu</td><td>-an-tattu</td></tr></tbody></table>

<table><caption>**Table 25:** Converb inflection of *mur-* 'pick up (some fruits)'</caption><thead><tr><th></th><th></th><th>affirmative</th><th>negative</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td rowspan="5">non-past</td><td>conditional ('if')</td><td>mup-poo<sup>32</sup></td><td>mur-an-boo</td></tr><tr><td>causal 1 ('because')</td><td>mup-pa</td><td>mur-an-ba</td></tr><tr><td>causal 2 ('because')</td><td>mu-jus-sa<sup>33</sup></td><td>N/A</td></tr><tr><td>simultaneous ('while')</td><td>mu-jagacinaa</td><td>N/A</td></tr><tr><td>purposive ('in order that')</td><td>mu-igja</td><td>N/A</td></tr><tr><td>past</td><td>causal 3 ('because (x) did...')</td><td>mu-tattu</td><td>mur-an-tattu</td></tr></tbody></table>

### 5.2.2.3 Medial verb

Yuwan has a medial verb, which encodes clause-chaining (see §9.3).

<footnote n="32">³²As mentioned in footnote 3 of §2.3.1, the sequence of voiced stop /bb/ often becomes voiceless /pp/.</footnote>

<footnote n="33">³³Regarding the aspectual affix -jur (IPFV) between a verbal root and the inflection -sa 'because (causal 2)', see §5.3.1.</footnote>
<table><caption>Table 26: Medial inflection</caption><thead><tr><th></th><th>affirmative</th><th>negative</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>medial 'do (something), and...'</td><td>-ti</td><td>-an-nən (/ -an-ti)</td></tr></tbody></table>

(62) ju-di, ka-cji, wara-ta
read-MED write-MED laugh-PST

‘(I) read (something), and wrote (something), and laughed.’ (affirmative)

(63) hon-u = nkja = gadi jum-an-nən, asi-di koo !
book-SE = APPR = LMT read-NEG-MED play-MED come.INT

‘Without reading books, let’s (go) play and come back!’ (negative)

The negative medial form -an-ti is used only when the predicate of the main clause includes a PC stem ic- ‘good’ (or in insubordinated clauses); on the other hand, the other negative medial form -an-nən can be used for any case.

(64) hon = ba jum-an-nən(/jum-an-ti), ic-cja a-mi ?
book = ACC read-NEG-MED good-NLZ exist-YNQ

‘(You) do not read the book, and that is okay?’

Interestingly, a medial verb can be used independently, without a main clause.

(65) uroo kun hon = ba ju-di = na ?
2SG.NHON.TOP this book = ACC read-MED = YNQ

‘Did you read this book?’

The medial verb ju-di in (65) expresses past tense, like the finite inflectional form ju-da (read-PST).<fnref n="34" /> Typologically, this kind of phenomenon is known as insubordination, which is defined as “the conventionalized main-clause use of formally subordinate clauses” (Evans 2007).

## 5.3 Derivational morphology

In this section, the internal structure of the verbal stem is described. As shown in (52) in § 5.1, a verbal stem can consist of a single root or of compounded roots plus derivational affixes.

<footnote n="34">³⁴However, the past finite form cannot be used with the question marker =na, i.e. *ju-da=na.</footnote>
### 5.3.1 Derivational affix

Yuwan has seven derivational suffixes: the voice suffixes -as (CAUS) and -ar(ir)<fnref n="35" /> (PASS), the aspect suffixes -tuk (PRF), -jur (IPFV), -tur (PROG), -təər (RES), and the politeness suffix -joor (POL). All derivational suffixes can attach to a verbal root (or compounded roots), and they are basically optional. The derivational suffixes can appear in the following order:

(66) -CAUS -PASS -PRF -IPFV -PROG -RES -POL
-as -ar(ir) -tuk -jur -tur -təər<fnref n="36" /> -joor

However, there are some restrictions concerning their combinations; the impossible combinations are summarized below.

(67) *-ar(ir) (PASS) + -jur (IPFV)
*-tuk (PRF) + -tur (PROG), -təər (RES)
*-jur (IPFV) + -tur (PROG), -təər (RES), -joor (POL)

Yuwan has an interesting phenomenon where some optionally-expressed affixes become obligatorily-expressed when they precede certain inflections.<fnref n="37" />

<table><caption>Table 27: Obligatory suffixes</caption><thead><tr><th>Set of obligatory suffixes</th><th>Context</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>-ar(<i>ir</i>) (PASS)</td><td>finite inflections -i (NPST)</td></tr><tr><td>-jur (IPFV)</td><td>-mi (YNQ)</td></tr><tr><td>-tur (PROG)</td><td>-ui (FOC.YNQ)</td></tr><tr><td>-təər (RES)</td><td>-u (FOC.WHQ)</td></tr><tr><td>-joor (POL)</td><td>non-finite inflections -n (ADN)<br>-sa 'because'</td></tr></tbody></table>

For example, the finite inflectional suffix -i (NPST) and the non-finite inflectional suffix -n (NPST) cannot directly follow a verbal root, and one of the suffixes in table 27 has to appear on the verb.

(68) a. wan=ga mu-ju-i (*mu-i)
1SG=NOM pick.up-IPFV-NPST
'I will pick up (the fruits).'

<footnote n="35">³⁵In addition, -ar(ir) can be used as a malefactive (§ 8.4.3) or a potential. The potential use is as follows: uroo an cizin=nu kikj-ari-n=nja? (2SG.NOHN.TOP that hand.drum=NOM hear-POT-NPST=YNQ) 'Can you hear that (sound of) hand drum?'</footnote>

<footnote n="36">³⁶Although an affix generally cannot occur twice, the resultative suffix -təər can be repeated: ama=nan zii=nu ka-cjəə-tə-i (there=LOC1 character=NOM write-RES-RES-NPST) 'There is a written character.' (The resultative -təər loses one of its vowel when it precedes the non-past inflection -i.).</footnote>

<footnote n="37">³⁷However, -ui (FOC.YNQ) and -u (FOC.WHQ) cannot follow -ar(ir) (PASS).</footnote>
b. wan=ga mu-ju-n (*mu-n) mun=na diru?
1SG=NOM pick.up-IPFV-NPST.ADN thing=TOP which
'Which is the thing that I pick up?'

However, these affixes, i.e. -ar(ir) (PASS), -jur (IPFV), -tur (PROG), -təər (RES), and -joor (POL), are not obligatory when they precede the other inflections; for example, the past tense inflection may not take -jur (IPFV) as in (69a), or may take it as in (69b).

(69) a. wan=ga mu-ta
1SG=NOM pick.up-PST
'I picked up (the fruits).'

b. wan=ga mu-ju-tan mun=doo
1SG=NOM pick.up.ADN-IPFV-PST thing=EMP
'I used to pick up (the fruits).'<fnref n="38" />

Furthermore, basically every derivation can directly attach to the inflections listed in §5.2, but some derivations cannot, like *jum-as-i (read-CAUS-NPST) 'to make (someone) read'.<fnref n="39" /> The possible combinations between derivations and inflections are too complex to be detailed here.

### 5.3.2 Compounding

A verbal compound combines two plain verbal roots into a stem.

(70) a. jum- 'read' + agir- 'raise' → jum-j<fnref n="40" /> + agir- 'read (something) all'
b. jum- 'read' + hatir- 'end' → jum + hatir- 'finish reading'

(71) uroo an hon=ba jum-j+agir-i=joo
2SG.NHON.TOP that book=ACC read-SE+raise-IMP=CNF1
'You read that whole book, right?'

## 6 Class-changing derivations

Yuwan has several kinds of class-changing derivations: nominalization (§6.1), verbalization (§6.2), and PC stem-making derivation (§6.3).

<footnote n="38">³⁸The form -ju-tan mun=doo (-IPFV-PST.ADN thing=EMP) expresses a habitual/continuous aspect in past tense.</footnote>

<footnote n="39">³⁹The causative affix -as can be used when it precedes the other derivational suffixes, e.g. jum-as-ju-i (read-CAUS-IPFV-NPST) 'to make (someone) read'.</footnote>

<footnote n="40">⁴⁰If a root-final /m/ is followed by a verbal root whose initial is a vowel, a stem extender /j/ is inserted after the initial root.</footnote>
## 6.1 Nominalization

Yuwan has four nominalizers, -sa/-sja, -jaa, -i, and -madəə. First, as mentioned in §3.5, -sa/-sja can derive a nominal from a PC stem.

(72) taa-sa = nu tar-an
tall-NLZ = NOM be.sufficient-NEG.NPST
‘(It) is not tall enough.’

Second, the nominalizer -jaa can attach to a plain verbal stem to form a nominal refering to “a person who (deliberately) does the activity expressed by the stem”.

(73) a. tur- + -jaa → tu-jaa
take NLZ
‘a person who takes’

b. tur- + -as + -jaa → tur-as-jaa
take CAUS NLZ

‘a person who makes someone take’

c. ut- + -ar + -jaa → ut-ar-aa
hit PASS NLZ

‘a person who lets himself be hit (by someone) deliberately’

Interestingly, not only a verbal root, but also a derivational suffix can be followed by the nominalizer -jaa (although derivational suffixes other than -as (CAUS), -ar (PASS) cannot precede -jaa).

Third, a nominalizer -i can attach to a verbal stem expressing continuous aspect when it is used as a nominal predicate as in (74a). It can also be used as an argument of the verb sir- ‘do’ as in (74b).<fnref n="41" />

(74) a. wan = na zii kak-i jap-pa, ikj-an = doo
1SG = TOP characters write-NLZ COP-because go-NEG.NPST = EMP
‘Because I am writing characters, (I) won’t go.’ (nominal predicate)

b. wan = na zii kak-i = du sja
1SG = TOP characters write-NLZ = FOC do.PST
‘I wrote characters.’ (argument of a verb)

The last nominalizer is -madəə (‘fail to’), which can precede a copula verb as a nominal predicate, and also can be an argument of the verb -sir ‘do’ (although it cannot take any case clitics).

<footnote n="41">⁴¹However, this nominalized form cannot take any case clitics but necessarily takes limiter clitics or focus/topic clitics (see §7.3 and §7.4).</footnote>
(75) a. *an hon=ba jum-madəə ja-ta*
that book = ACC read-fail.to COP-PST

‘(I) failed to read that book.’ (nominal predicate)

b. *an hon=ba jum-madəə sja*
that book = ACC read-fail.to do.PST

‘(I) failed to read that book.’ (argument of a verb)

## 6.2 Verbalization

As mentioned in § 3.5 and § 5.1.1.3, the verbalizer -sar/-sjar can attach to a PC stem, but it has some restrictions about its inflection and derivation; only three inflectional suffixes -i (NPST), -oo (SUPP), and -n (NPST.ADN) can follow a verbalizer directly, and only a derivational suffix -joor (POL) can follow it.

(76) a. *an kïi=nu taa-sa-i*
that tree = NOM tall-VLZ-NPST

‘That tree is tall.’

b. *an kïi=ja taa-sar-oo*
that tree = TOP tall-VLZ-SUPP

‘That tree is supposed to be tall.’

c. *taa-sa-n kïi=nu a-i*
tall-VLZ-NPST.ADN tree = NOM exist-NPST

‘There is a tree that is tall.’

d. *an kïi=ja taa-sa-joo-i*
that tree = TOP tall-VLZ-POL-NPST

‘That tree is tall.’

## 6.3 PC stem-making derivation

Yuwan has a special type of affix, the PC affix, which can derive a PC stem from a plain verbal stem. Yuwan has two PC affixes, -cja ‘want’ and -cjagi ‘seem’.<fnref n="42" /> A derived PC stem can take the same affixes as a non-derived PC stem, i.e. PC root (e.g. taa- ‘tall’).

(77) a. *wan=na an hon=ba jum-cja-sa-i*
1SG = TOP that book = ACC read-want-VLZ-NPST

‘I want to read that book.’

b. *an kïi=ja toori-cjagi-sa-i*
that tree = TOP fall-seem-VLZ-NPST

‘That tree seems to fall.’

<footnote n="42">⁴²The semantic types the PC affixes express seem to be peripheral (e.g. -cja 'want' (HUMAN PROPENSITY)), or 'not existing' (e.g. -cjagi 'seem') in the semantic types adopted in Dixon (2004) (see also § 3.5).</footnote>
# 7 Clitics

Syntactically, a clitic attaches to a phrase or a clause, its grammatical host, but phonologically, it attaches to a word, its phonological host.

## 7.1 Conjunction clitics

Yuwan has two conjunction clitics = sjuti 'and' and = ban 'although'. First, = sjuti expresses coordination and can attach to a negative finite inflection, a negative medial inflection, or a PC nominal.

(78) hon = ba jum-an(-nən) = sjuti, asi-di = bəi
book = ACC read-NEG-MED = and play-MED = only
'('He) does not read any books, and is always playing.'

Next, = ban expresses concessive meaning and can attach only to adnominal forms.

(79) ?moo həə-sa-n = ban, kaməə judəə-sa = nu
horse.TOP fast-VLZ-NPST.ADN = although turtle.TOP slow-NLZ = NOM
'While a horse is fast, a turtle is slow.'

## 7.2 Modal clitics

In this section, nine modal clitics are examined: =joo (CNF1), =jəə (CNF2), =jaa (SLD), =doo (EMP), =daroo (SUPP), =ga(i) (CNF.Q), =na (YNQ), =ci (QT), and =ba/=boo (PSU).<fnref n="43" />

First, the clitic =joo (CNF1) is used only with imperative inflection to confirm that the hearer will obey the directive given by the speaker.

(80) uroo kuri=ba kam-na=joo
2SG.NHON.TOP this=ACC eat-PROH=CNF1
'You do not eat this, right?'

The clitic =jəə (CNF2) is used only with intentional inflection to confirm the hearer acknowledges the intention of the speaker, as in (81). The clitic =jaa (SLD) can follow verbs of intentional inflection and a nominalizer -sa/-sja, and it expresses the speaker's feeling of solidarity with the hearer, as in (82).

<footnote n="43">⁴³Among these clitics, =joo (CFM1) and =jəə (CFM2) are used only with intentional or imperative verb forms, and other clitics do not intervene between them. These forms may thus be regarded as affixes according to the criteria in § 3.2.2; however, they are rather to be classified as affixes since if we consider them to be inflectional suffixes, they should be obligatory, and if they do not appear we have to posit a zero-inflectional suffix -Ø indicating unmarked modality, but this seems rather unnatural.</footnote>
(81) amaaci wan ?cjui ikj-oo = jəə (*ikj-oo = jaa) that place ALL 1SG one.CLF go-INT = CNF2 go-INT = SLD 'I will go there alone, right?'

(82) amaaci mazin ikj-oo = jaa. (*ikj-oo = jəə) that place ALL 1 together go-INT = SLD go-INT = CNF2 '(Let's) go there together.'

As can be seen above, -oo (INT) can express not only the intention to do something, as in (81), but also an invitation, as in (82). Furthermore, there is a restriction on co-occurrence of = jaa (SLD) and -oo: the two cannot co-occur if the sentence expresses an intention. On the other hand, = jəə (CNF2) cannot be used with -oo if the sentence expresses an invitation.

This phenomenon is akin to an inclusive/exclusive distinction. According to Payne (1997: 45), “first person inclusive includes speaker and hearer” and “first person exclusive includes the speaker and a non-speech act participant, but excludes the hearer”. Concerning the intentional suffix in Yuwan, -oo = jəə (INT = CNF2) can be used only as “exclusive”, but -oo = jaa (INT = SOL) can be used only as “inclusive” (table 28).

<table><caption>Table 28: Uses of =jəə and =jaa with the intentional suffix -oo</caption><thead><tr><th>Meaning of -oo (INT)</th><th>=jəə</th><th>=jaa</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>"exclusive" meaning</td><td>+</td><td>-</td></tr><tr><td>inclusive" meaning</td><td>-</td><td>+</td></tr></tbody></table>

The clitic = doo (EMP) can follow nominals and verbs and marks emphasis.

(83) an ?cju = ga waa zjuu = doo that person = NOM my father = EMP 'That person is my father.'

The clitic = daroo (SUPP) can follow nominals and verbs expressing a suppositional meaning, as in (84a). The clitic = ga(i) (Q) is only used with the clitic = daroo (SUPP) and marks a question about the sentence, as in (84b).

(84) a. an ?cjoo akira = daroo that person.TOP Akira = SUPP '(I) suppose that person is Akira.'

b. an ?cjoo sjensjee = ja ar-an = daroo = ga(i) ? that person.TOP teacher = TOP COP-NEG.NPST = SUPP = Q

'(I) suppose that that person is not a teacher, is that right?'
The clitic =na (YNQ) can follow nominals and verbs and expresses a ques-
tion about the proposition of the sentence.

(85) urakjoo sima + jumita = nu waka-ju-n⁴⁴ = nja ?
2PL.NHON.TOP village + language = NOM understand-IPFV-NPST = YNQ
'Do you understand the language of (our) village?'

The clitic =ci (QT) can follow any kind of word and functions as a quo-
tation marker. It also sometimes function as a complementizer that makes a
complement out of a linguistic expression. Noonan (1985: 42) defines comple-
mentation as “the syntactic situation that arises when a notional sentence or
predication is an argument of a predicate”. As can be seen in the following
example, the clitic =ci attaches to adnominal forms of verbs.

(86) akira = ga un = kaci ik-ju-n = ci = doo
Akira = NOM sea = ALL1 go-IPFV-NPST.ADN = QT = EMP
‘Akira (said) that (he) goes to the sea.’<fnref n="45" />

Last, the clitic =ba/=boo (PSU) can follow the clitic =ci (QT) to express
the speaker's intention to persuade the hearer.

(87) wan = ga ik-ju-n = ci = ba(/ = boo) !
1SG = NOM go-IPFV-NPST.ADN = QT = PSU
‘(I said) that I would go (so please don’t mind)!’

7.3 Limiter clitics

Yuwan has three limiter clitics,<fnref n="46" /> = n ‘also’, = gadi (EMP) and = bəi ‘only’. They
can attach to both nominals and verbs and can follow any case maker clitic, ex-
cept the nominative and accusative. The nominative and accusative case mark-
ers are omitted when they would co-occur with a limiter clitic, e.g. in ‘dog’ +
= nu (NOM) + = bəi ‘only’ → in = bəi (*in = nu = bəi).

(88) a. in = bəi wu-i
    dog = only exist-NPST
    ‘There is only a dog.’ (with nominal)

b. hon = ba ka-cji = bəi wu-i
book = ACC write-MED = only PROG-NPST
‘(He) is only writing a book.’ (with medial verb)

<footnote n="46">⁴⁶If = na follows a non-past inflection -i, a mutual assimilation happens: -i (NPST) + = na (YNQ) → -i = nja → n = nja.</footnote>

<footnote n="45">⁴⁵In (86) a supposed predicate ju-ta ‘said’ was omitted, which is a kind of insubordination (Evans 2007; see also §5.2.2.3 about insubordination).</footnote>

<footnote n="46">⁴⁶Shimoji (2008a).</footnote>
## 7.4 Focus/topic clitics

Yuwan has two focus markers, =du and =ga, and a topic marker, =ja. They can attach to nominals and verbs as well as limiter clitics. These clitics can follow any case marker, except the nominative one. In the case they would follow a nominative case marker, the latter is omitted, e.g. wan (1SG) + =ga (NOM) + =du (FOC) → wan=du (*wan=ga=du).

The focus marker =du is used in declarative clauses, as in (89), or in yes-no interrogative clauses, as in (90). On the other hand, =ga is used in wh-question interrogative clauses, as in (91).

(89) kuri=ba=du(*=ga) jum-ju-i
this=ACC=FOC read-IPFV-NPST
‘(I) read this.’

(90) uroo kun hon=ba=du(*=ga) jum-jur-ui ?
2SG.NHON this book=ACC=FOC read-IPFV-FOC.YNQ
‘Will you read this book?’ (yes-no question)

(91) uroo nuu=ba=ga(*=du) jum-jur-u ?
2SG.NHON.TOP what=ACC=FOC read-IPFV-FOC.WHQ
‘What will you read?’ (wh-question)

As can be seen above, =du and =ga are used in interrogative clauses, and the verbal predicate takes a different inflection, -ui or -u, in each case (see also §5.2.1). The clitic =du cannot appear with -u, while =ga cannot appear with -ui. This kind of phenomenon, where the presence of a focus clitic correlates with the type of verbal inflection, is known as *kakari-musubi* in Japanese linguistics (Shibatani 1990). According to Shibatani (1990), regarding classical Japanese, and Shimoji (in press), about Irabu Ryukyuan, the verbal inflection correlated with a focus marker is (or can be) identical with the form appearing in relative (adnominal) clauses. In Yuwan, however, the form appearing in such focus constructions differs from that of relative clauses; the relative inflection -n/-tan (see §5.2.2.1) is completely different from the forms above, a situation uncommon among the Japonic languages.

The clitic =ja marks the topic of a sentence.

(92) səə=ja sik-an
alcohol=TOP like-NEG.NPST

‘[lit.] About alcohol, (I) do not like (it).’
# 8 The simple sentence

## 8.1 Speech acts

There are three types of clauses that correspond to the three major speech acts (Lyons 1977) (statement, question, and command): declarative clause, interrogative clause, and imperative clause.

### 8.1.1 Declarative clause

A declarative clause takes the following inflections: -i (NPST) or -tar (PST).

(93) wan=ga an hon=ba tu-ju-i/tu-ta
1SG=NOM that book=ACC take-IPFV-NPST/take-PST
'I take/took that book.'

### 8.1.2 Interrogative clause

Yuwan has three inflections, -mi, -ui, -u, and one clitic, =na, that appear in interrogative clauses. The markers -mi, -ui, and =na are used for yes/no questions, while -u is used for wh-questions.

#### 8.1.2.1 Yes/no question

A yes/no question is marked by an inflectional suffix or by a clitic. The suffix -ui requires the presence of a focused argument, as in (94b), contrary to -mi in (94a). The clitic =na may take a focused argument, as in (94a) (see also §7.4 for focus clitics and §7.2 for question clitics).

(94) a. kuri=ba(*=du) tu-ju-mi ?
this=ACC(=FOC) take-IPFV-YNQ
'Will (you) take this?'

b. kuri=ba=du tu-jur-ui ?
this=ACC=FOC take-IPFV-FOC.YNQ
'Will (you) take this?'

c. kuri=ba(=du) tu-ju-n=nja ?
this=ACC(=FOC) take-IPFV-NPST-YNQ
'Will (you) take this?'

#### 8.1.2.2 Wh-question

Basically, a wh-question includes the focus marker =ga attached to an interrogative word and a verbal predicate carrying the suffix -u (see §7.4 for details).