I am not a professional linguist but I am halfJapanese and I am fluent in several languages not only Japanese and English I have noticed that Yamato words bear a striking similarity to Polynesian words and Japanese grammar is very similar to Korean  Phonologically Korean is difficult for me but Maori and Hawaiian are practically identical Maori even has the exact same r sound as Japanese which I have only heard on Pacific islands never in Asia  A couple of words examples that show a relationship   classwikitable   Hawaiian  Maori  Japanese   Haile maicome to me  Haire maicome to me  HaireGet inside Mairucome   Wahine hine female  wahinewoman  Hinagirl himeprincess   Kaneman  Tane taman  kaman                            Another what I think is a significant thread is the preference for the vowel over the consonant  In IndoEuropean languages the consonant is conserved over the vowel  Thus ProtoIE is often written as strings of vowelless consonants eg ptr for father  In Pacific languages where the vowel is more important this would be absurd  In my family we often say shito instead of hito and shitenno instead of shiteiruno and are never misunderstood  So it doesnt surprise me that in Maori wh can represent an f or h sound  Furthermore speakers of European languages think its strange that in Japanese  and in Polynesian languages  you can change the meaning of a word by elongating a vowel More importantly is the fact that in Polynesian languages and Japanese a syllable always ends with a vowel  I dont know of any other language group where this is true including Altaic languages  There are a lot of other cultural similarities that put Japan squarely in the Pacific Rim too such as eating raw fish clothing music based on drumbeats the koto is a Chinese instrument but taiko are distinctly Japanese social structure and wearing tattoos which later was discouraged again because of Chinese influence but never died off completely  I believe that cultural prejudices have prevented people from seeing these obvious characteristics Its always the lower classes and ethnic groups that preserve heritage but are also repugned by the elites who do the studies The upper classes seek foreign influences and set themselves apart by means of their acquired exoticisms Regardless the evidence remains  It is my adamant belief that Japanese is a patois of Korean grammar and ProtoPolynesian vocabulary upon which Chinese has been superimposed  Steve