View source for Classification of the Japonic languages

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{{Short description|Problem of relating Japanese and the Ryukyuan languages to other languages}}
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{{More footnotes needed|date=January 2015}}
The '''classification of the Japonic languages''' and their external relations is unclear. Linguists traditionally consider the [[Japonic languages]] to belong to an independent family; indeed, until the classification of Ryukyuan and eventually Hachijō as separate languages within a Japonic family rather than as dialects of Japanese, Japanese was considered a [[language isolate]].

Among more distant connections, the possibility of a [[genetic relationship (linguistics)|genetic relationship]] to languages like [[Austronesian languages|Austronesian]] and or [[Kra–Dai languages|Kra–Dai]], are discussed. A relation between Japonic and Koreanic is also considered plausible by some linguists, while others reject this idea.<ref name=Francis-Ratte>{{Cite thesis |url=https://etd.ohiolink.edu/pg_10?0::NO:10:P10_ETD_SUBID:113782 |title=Proto-Korean-Japanese: A New Reconstruction of the Common Origin of the Japanese and Korean Languages |last=Francis-Ratte |first=Alexander Takenobu |date=2016 |publisher=The Ohio State University |access-date=2019-03-28 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180830004913/https://etd.ohiolink.edu/pg_10?0::NO:10:P10_ETD_SUBID:113782 |archive-date=2018-08-30 |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name=Vovin2013>{{cite journal|last1=Vovin |first1=Alexander|date=2013|title=From Koguryo to Tamna: Slowly riding to the South with speakers of Proto-Korean|journal=Korean Linguistics|volume=15|issue=2|pages=222–240 |doi=10.1075/kl.15.2.03vov}}</ref> Independent of the question of a Japonic–Koreanic connection, both the Japonic and Koreanic languages are sometimes included in the now largely discredited [[Altaic languages|Altaic]] family.<ref name="Campbell & Mixco 2007">"While 'Altaic' is repeated in encyclopedias and handbooks most specialists in these languages no longer believe that the three traditional supposed Altaic groups, Turkic, Mongolian and Tungusic, are related." Lyle Campbell & Mauricio J. Mixco, A Glossary of Historical Linguistics (2007, University of Utah Press), pg. 7.</ref><ref name="Nichols 1992">"When cognates proved not to be valid, Altaic was abandoned, and the received view now is that Turkic, Mongolian, and Tungusic are unrelated." Johanna Nichols, Linguistic Diversity in Space and Time (1992, Chicago), pg. 4.</ref><ref name="Dixon 1997">"Careful examination indicates that the established families, Turkic, Mongolian, and Tungusic, form a linguistic area (called Altaic)...Sufficient criteria have not been given that would justify talking of a genetic relationship here." R.M.W. Dixon, The Rise and Fall of Languages (1997, Cambridge), pg. 32.</ref><ref name="Pereltsvaig 2012">"...[T]his selection of features does not provide good evidence for common descent....we can observe convergence rather than divergence between Turkic and Mongolic languages--a pattern than is easily explainable by borrowing and diffusion rather than common descent," [[Asya Pereltsvaig]], Languages of the World, An Introduction (2012, Cambridge). This source has a good discussion of the Altaic hypothesis on pp. 211-216.</ref>

== Primary language family ==
The currently most supported view is that the Japonic languages (sometimes also "Japanic") are their own primary [[language family]], consisting of [[Japanese language|Japanese]] and the [[Ryukyuan languages]]. The [[Hachijō language]] is sometimes classified as a third branch of the Japonic language family, but it is otherwise seen to be a very divergent dialect of [[Eastern Japanese]].<ref>Thomas Pellard. The comparative study of the Japonic languages. Approaches to endangered languages in Japan and Northeast Asia: Description, documentation and revitalization, National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics, Aug 2018, Tachikawa, Japan. ffhal-01856152</ref><ref name="vovin_2017-09-26">{{Cite encyclopedia |last=Vovin |first=Alexander |date=26 September 2017 |entry=Origins of the Japanese Language |entry-url=https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199384655.013.277 |encyclopedia=Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Linguistics |language=en}}</ref>

It has been suggested that the [[Urheimat|linguistic homeland]] of Japonic may be located somewhere in [[Southern China|southern]], [[Southern China|south-eastern]], or [[eastern China]] prior to a hypothetical migration of proto-Japanese to the [[Korean Peninsula]] and the [[Japanese archipelago]].<ref name="Vovin 2014"/><ref name="ReferenceC">RECONSTRUCTING THE LANGUAGE MAP OF PREHISTORICAL NORTHEAST ASIA - Juha Janhunen Studia Orientalia 108 (2010)</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last1=Lee |first1=Sean |last2=Hasegawa |first2=Toshikazu|date=2011-12-22 |title=Bayesian phylogenetic analysis supports an agricultural origin of Japonic languages |journal=Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences |volume=278 |issue=1725 |pages=3662–3669|doi=10.1098/rspb.2011.0518 |pmc=3203502|pmid=21543358}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=The Global Prehistory of Human Migration|last1=Bellwood|first1=Peter|date=2013 |publisher=Blackwell Publishing|location=Malden |isbn=9781118970591}}</ref> Miyamoto suggests a homeland further north, around modern day [[Liaoning]].<ref>Archaeological Explanation for the Diffusion Theory of the Japonic and Koreanic Languages - MIYAMOTO Kazuo</ref> Koreanic speakers, then established in [[Manchuria]], expanded southward to the Korean peninsula, displacing Japonic speakers that had been living there and causing the [[Yayoi period|Yayoi migrations]] into Japan.<ref name=Vovin2013/><ref name="Whitman 149–158">{{Cite journal |last=Whitman|first=John|date=2011 |title=Northeast Asian Linguistic Ecology and the Advent of Rice Agriculture in Korea and Japan |journal=Rice|volume=4|issue=Suppl. 3-4 |pages=149–158 |doi=10.1007/s12284-011-9080-0 |doi-access=free|bibcode=2011Rice....4..149W |issn=1939-8433}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=A History of the Korean language|last1=Lee|first1=Ki-Moon|last2=Ramsey |first2=S. Robert|date=2011 |publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|isbn=978-0-521-66189-8}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=The role of contact in the origins of the Japanese and Korean languages|last1=Unger|first1=J. Marshall|date=2009 |publisher=University of Hawaii Press|location=Honolulu|isbn=978-0-8248-3279-7}}</ref>

Vovin suggests that Japonic languages were spoken in parts of Korea, especially southern Korea, and were then replaced and assimilated by proto-Korean speakers.<ref name=Vovin2013/> Similarly, Whitman (2012) suggests that Japonic is not related to Korean but that Japonic was present on the Korean peninsula during the [[Mumun pottery period]] ([[Yayoi people]]). According to him, Japonic arrived in the Korean peninsula around 1500 [[Before Christ|BC]] and was brought to the Japanese archipelago by the Yayoi at around 950 BC. In this scenario, the language family associated with both Mumun and Yayoi culture is Japonic. Koreanic arrived later from Manchuria to the Korean peninsula at around 300 BC and coexisted with the descendants of the Japonic Mumun cultivators (or assimilated them). Both had influence on each other and a later [[founder effect]] diminished the internal variety of both language families.<ref name="Whitman 149–158"/>

Most linguists today see the Japonic languages as their own distinct family, not related to Korean, but acknowledge an influence from other language families (and vice versa).<ref name="ReferenceC"/> Vovin (2015) shows evidence that the early Koreans borrowed words for rice cultivation from Peninsular Japonic. According to him, the middle Korean word ''psʌr'' (rice) is loaned from Peninsular Japonic ''*wasar.''<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Vovin |first=Alexander|title=On The Etymology of Middle Korean ''psʌr'' 'rice' |journal=Türk Dilleri Araştırmaları |volume=25 |date=2015 |issue=2 |pages=229–238 |url=https://www.academia.edu/24058277 |language=en |via=Acedmia.edu}}</ref>

[[Juha Janhunen]] (2003) proposed that the Japonic languages originated on the coast of the [[Shandong Peninsula]], and that they originally had similar typological characteristics to the [[Sinitic languages]] before they acquired Altaic typological features through contact with the Koreanic languages on the [[Korean Peninsula]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Janhunen |first=Juha|title=日本語系統論の現在|publisher=国際日本文化センター|year=2003|pages=477–490 |language=ja}}</ref>

The linguists Yurayong and Szeto in 2020 analyzed the stages of convergence between Japonic and other languages. They concluded that "our results indirectly speak in favour of a "Paleo-Asiatic" origin of the Japonic languages".<ref>{{Cite web|last=Yurayong |first=Szeto |date=August 2020|title=Altaicization and De-Altaicization of Japonic and Koreanic |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/343576887 |website=International Journal of Eurasian Linguistics}}</ref>

Chaubey and van Driem (2020) propose that the Japonic languages may have already been present in Japan during the early [[Jōmon period]]. They suggest that the [[Japonic languages]] were already present within the [[Japanese archipelago]] and coastal Korea, before the Yayoi period, and can be linked to one of the [[Jōmon people|Jōmon populations]] of southwestern Japan, rather than the later Yayoi or Kofun period rice-agriculturalists. Japonic-speakers then expanded during the Yayoi period, assimilating the newcomers, adopting rice-agriculture, and fusing mainland Asian technologies with local traditions.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Chaubey|first1=Gyaneshwer|last2=Driem|first2=George van|date=2020|title=Munda languages are father tongues, but Japanese and Korean are not|journal=Evolutionary Human Sciences|language=en|volume=2 |doi=10.1017/ehs.2020.14|issn=2513-843X|quote="The Japonic-speaking Early Jōmon people must have been drawn in to avail themselves of the pickings of Yayoi agricultural yields, and the Yayoi may have prospered and succeeded in multiplying their paternal lineages precisely because they managed to accommodate the Jōmon linguistically and in material ways."<br/>"The dual nature of Japanese population structure was advanced by Miller, who proposed that the resident Jōmon population spoke an Altaic language ancestral to modern Japanese, and this Altaic tongue underwent Austronesian influence when the islanders absorbed the bearers of the incursive Yayoi culture."|doi-access=free}}</ref>

== Possible external relations ==

===Japonic-Koreanic theory===
There is disagreement over the protohistorical or historical period during which this expansion occurs, ranging from the [[Liaoning bronze dagger culture|Korean Bronze Age]] period to the [[Three Kingdoms of Korea]] period. As there is disagreement among experts when the expansion of Koreanic languages started, there is room for interpretation on the proto-historical and historical extent of the Japonic language presence in the central and southern Korean peninsula.

====Similarities between Japanese and Koreanic languages====
{{Further|Comparison of Japanese and Korean|History of Korean|Korean language#Classification|Japanese language#History|}}

===== History =====
Japanese and Korean languages also share some [[linguistic typology|typological]] similarities, such as an [[agglutinative language|agglutinative]] morphology, a [[subject–object–verb]] (SOV) normal word order, important systems of honorifics (however, the two languages' systems of honorifics are different in form and usage; see [[Japanese honorifics]] and [[Korean honorifics]]), besides a few lexical resemblances. Factors like these led some historical linguists to suggest a genetic relationship between the two languages.{{CN|date=September 2023}}

[[William George Aston]] suggested in 1879 in the ''Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society'' that Japanese is related to Korean.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.eai.cam.ac.uk/Aston-and-Korea.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080529111209/http://www.eai.cam.ac.uk/Aston-and-Korea.pdf |archive-date=May 29, 2008 |title=Aston, Cambridge and Korea |first=Peter|last=Kornicki |date=December 2005}}</ref> A relationship between Japanese and Korean was endorsed by the Japanese scholar Shōsaburō Kanazawa in 1910. Other scholars took this position in the twentieth century (Poppe 1965:137). Substantial arguments in favor of a Japanese–Korean relationship were presented by [[Samuel Martin (linguist)|Samuel Martin]], a leading specialist in Japanese and Korean, in 1966 and in subsequent publications (e.g. Martin 1990). Linguists who advocate this position include John Whitman (1985) and Barbara E. Riley (2004), and [[Sergei Starostin]] with his lexicostatistical research, ''The Altaic Problem and the Origins of the Japanese Language'' (Moscow, 1991). A Japanese–Korean connection does not necessarily exclude a Japanese–Koguryo or an Altaic relationship.

The two languages are thought to not share any [[cognate]]s (other than [[loanword]]s),<ref>{{harvp|Martin|1966}}, {{harvp|Martin|1990}}.</ref> for their vocabularies do not phonetically resemble each other. However, a recent 2016 paper proposing a common lineage between Korean and Japanese claims to trace around 500 core words that show a common origin including several numerals such as 5 and 10.<ref name=Francis-Ratte/>

==== Evidence ====

[[Martine Robbeets]] and Remco Bouckaert from the [[Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History]] used in 2018 for the first time a ''Bayesian phylogenetic inference'' analysis about "Transeurasian". Their study resulted in a "high probability" for a "Koreano-Japonic" group, but has not gained acceptance among mainstream linguists.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Robbeets|last2=Bouckaert |first1=Martine |first2=Remco|date=2018|title=Bayesian phylolinguistics reveals the internal structure of the Transeurasian family|journal=Journal of Language Evolution|volume=3|issue=2|pages=145–162 |doi=10.1093/jole/lzy007|doi-access=free|hdl=21.11116/0000-0001-E3E6-B|hdl-access=free}}</ref>

==== Criticism ====
This theory has been criticized for serious methodological flaws, such as rejecting mainstream reconstructions of Chinese and Japanese, for less accepted alternatives.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Pellard |first1=Thomas |date=2005|title=Koguryo, the Language of Japan's Continental Relatives: An Introduction to the Historical-Comparative Study of the Japanese-Kgouryoic Languages with a Preliminary Description of Archaic Northeastern Middle Chinese (review)|url=http://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/docs/00/19/41/11/PDF/review-Beckwith-Koguryo.pdf|journal=Korean Studies|volume=29 |pages=167–170 |doi=10.1353/ks.2006.0008 |s2cid=145029765}}</ref> Other critics, like [[Alexander Vovin]] and [[Toh Soo Hee]], argued that the connections between Japanese and Goguryeo are due to earlier Japonic languages that were present in parts of Korea, and that the Goguryeo language was closer to Sillan, and by extension, Korean.<ref>Toh Soo-Hee (2005). "About Early Paekche Language Mistaken as Being Koguryo Language". ''Journal of Inner and East Asian Studies.'' '''2'''(2): 10–31.</ref> Further studies (2019)<sup>[''[[Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Words to watch#Unsupported attributions|by whom?]]'']</sup> deny and criticize a relation between Korean and Japanese. Vovin also argues that the claimed cognates are nothing more than early loanwords from when Japonic was still spoken in southern Korea.<ref name="vovin_2017-09-26" />

Similarly Whitman (2012) concluded that the proto-Koreans arrived in the southern part of the [[Korean Peninsula]] at around 300 BC and coexist with the native descendants of the [[Japonic languages|Japonic]] Mumun rice-cultivators (or assimilated them). Both had influence on each other and a later founder effect diminished the internal variety of both language families, making them more similar. Thus Whitman sees a possible relation between Japonic and Koreanic as unlikely.<ref name="Whitman 149–158"/>

The idea of a Japanese–Korean relationship overlaps the extended form of the Altaic hypothesis (see below), but not all scholars who argue for one also argue for the other. For example, Samuel Martin, who was a major advocate of a Japanese–Korean relationship, only provided cautious support to the inclusion of these languages in Altaic, and [[Talât Tekin|Talat Tekin]], an Altaicist, includes Korean, but not Japanese, in Altaic (Georg et al. 1999:72, 74).

==== Possible connection between Japonic and Koguryoic ====
The Japanese–Koguryoic proposal dates back to [[Shinmura Izuru]]'s (1916) observation that the attested [[Goguryeo numerals]]—3, 5, 7, and 10—are very similar to Japanese.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Shinmura |first1=Izuru|date=1916|title=國語及び朝 鮮語の數詞について [Regarding numerals in Japanese and Korean] |journal=Geibun|volume=7 |issue=2–4}}</ref> The hypothesis proposes that Japanese is a relative of the [[extinct language]]s spoken by the Buyeo-Goguryeo cultures of [[Korea]], southern [[Manchuria]], and [[Liaodong]]. The best attested of these is the language of [[Goguryeo language|Goguryeo]], with the more poorly attested [[Koguryoic languages]] of [[Baekje]] and [[Buyeo (state)|Buyeo]] believed to also be related.

A monograph by [[Christopher Beckwith]] (2004) has established about 140 lexical items in the Goguryeo [[text corpus|corpus]]. They mostly occur in place-name collocations, many of which may include grammatical morphemes (including [[cognate]]s of the Japanese genitive [[marker (linguistics)|marker]] ''no'' and the Japanese adjective-attributive [[morpheme]] -''sa'') and a few of which may show [[syntax|syntactical]] relationships. He postulates that the majority of the identified Goguryeo corpus, which includes all of the grammatical morphemes, is related to Japanese.

===Altaic theory===
{{main|Altaic languages}}
The [[Altaic languages|Altaic]] language family is a theoretical group composed of, at its core, languages categorized as [[Turkic languages|Turkic]], [[Mongolic languages|Mongolic]], and [[Tungusic languages|Tungusic]]. [[Gustaf John Ramstedt|G.J. Ramstedt's]] ''Einführung in die altaische Sprachwissenschaft'' ('Introduction to Altaic Linguistics') in 1952–1957 included Korean in Altaic. [[Roy Andrew Miller]]'s ''Japanese and the Other Altaic Languages'' (1971) included Japanese in Altaic as well. The most important recent work that favored the expanded Altaic family (i.e. that Korean and Japanese could both be included under the Altaic language family) is ''An Etymological Dictionary of the Altaic Languages'' (3 volumes) by Sergei Starostin, Anna V. Dybo, and Oleg A. Mudrak (2003). Robbeets (2017) considers Japonic to be a "[[Transeurasian]]" ([[Altaic languages|Altaic]]) language that is genetically unrelated to Austronesian, and argues that lexical similarities between Japonic and [[Austronesian languages|Austronesian]] are due to contact.

The Altaic proposal has largely been rejected (in both its core form of [[Turkic languages|Turkic]], [[Mongolic languages|Mongolic]], and [[Tungusic languages|Tungusic]] as well as its expanded form that includes [[Korean language|Korean]] and/or Japanese).<ref name="Campbell & Mixco 2007" /><ref name="Nichols 1992" /><ref name="Dixon 1997"/><ref name="Pereltsvaig 2012" /> The best-known critiques are those by [[Gerard Clauson]] (1956) and [[Gerhard Doerfer]] (1963, 1988). Current critics include [[Stefan Georg]] and Alexander Vovin. Critics {{who|date=March 2017}} attribute the similarities in the putative Altaic languages to pre-historic areal contact having occurred between the languages of the expanded group (e.g. between Turkic and Japonic), contact which critics and proponents agree took place to some degree.{{citation needed|date=March 2017}}

Linguists agree today that typological resemblances between [[Japanese language|Japanese]], [[Korean language|Korean]] and [[Altaic languages]] cannot be used to prove genetic relatedness of languages,<ref>{{harvp|Vovin|2008|p=1}}.{{Failed verification|reason=Vovin (2008) is about phonological reconstruction and not about the genetic relations of Japanese|date=October 2019}}</ref> as these features are typologically connected and [[areal feature|easily borrowed]] from one language to the other{{CN|date=September 2023}} (e.g. due to geographical proximity with [[Manchuria]]). Such factors of typological divergence as Middle Mongolian's exhibition of gender agreement{{CN|date=September 2023}} can be used to argue that a genetic relationship with Altaic is unlikely.<ref>{{harvp|Vovin|2008|p=5}}.{{Failed verification|reason=Vovin (2008) is about phonological reconstruction and not about the genetic relations of Japanese |date=October 2019}}</ref>

==== Robbeets (2017) ====
According to Robbeets (2017) Japanese and Korean originated as a hybrid language around the region of [[Liaoning]] in China,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Robbeets |first=Martine |year=2017 |title=Austronesian influence and Transeurasian ancestry in Japanese: A case of farming/language dispersal |journal=Language Dynamics and Change |volume=7 |issue=2 |pages=210–251 |language=en |doi=10.1163/22105832-00702005|doi-access=free |hdl=11858/00-001M-0000-002E-8635-7 |hdl-access=free }}</ref> incorporating an [[Austronesian languages|Austronesian]]-like language and [[Altaic languages|Altaic]] (trans-Eurasian) elements. She suggests that proto-Japanese had an additional influence from Austronesian on the Japanese archipelago.

She lists the following agricultural vocabulary in proto-Japonic with parallels in Austronesian languages:

;mortar

*proto-Japonic *usu '(rice and grain) [[mortar and pestle|mortar]]'
*[[proto-Austronesian]] *lusuŋ '(rice) mortar'

;rice

*proto-Japonic *kəmai 'dehusked rice'
*proto-Austronesian *Semay 'cooked rice'
*[[Old Chinese]] {{linktext|糜}} *C.maj 'rice gruel; destroy, crush'

;early ripening crop

*proto-Japonic *wasara ~ *wǝsǝrǝ 'early ripening crop, early ripening rice'
*proto-Austronesian *baCaR 'broomcorn millet (''[[Panicum miliaceum]]'')'
*proto-[[Koreanic languages|Koreanic]] *pʌsal 'hulled variety of grain, rice'

===Proposals relating Japonic languages to Southeast Asian language families===
Several linguists have proposed that the Japonic languages are genetically related to the [[Austronesian languages]].<ref>{{harvp|Benedict|1990}}, {{harvp|Matsumoto|1975}}, {{harvp|Miller|1967}}.</ref> Some linguists think it is more plausible that Japanese was instead influenced by Austronesian languages, perhaps by an Austronesian [[Substrata (linguistics)|substratum]]. Those who propose the latter scenario suggest that the Austronesian family once covered most of southern Japan. The phonological [[Austronesian languages#Japanese|similarities of Japanese to the Austronesian languages]], and the geographical proximity of Japan to Formosa and the [[Malay Archipelago]] have led to the theory that Japanese may be a kind of [[mixed language]], with a Korean (or Altaic) [[superstratum]] and an Austronesian [[Substrata (linguistics)|substratum]].<ref>{{harvp|Lewin|1976}}, {{harvp|Matsumoto|1975}}, {{harvp|Miller|1967}}, {{harvp|Murayama|1976}}.</ref>

Similarly [[Juha Janhunen]] claims that Austronesians lived in southern Japan, specifically on [[Shikoku]], and that modern Japanese has an "''Austronesian layer"''.<ref>ユハ・ヤンフネン 「A Framework for the Study of Japanese Language Origins」『日本語系統論の現在』(pdf) 国際日本文化センター、京都、2003年、477-490頁。</ref> The linguist Ann Kumar (2009) believes that some Austronesians migrated to early Japan, possibly an elite group from [[Java]], and created the ''"Japanese-hierarchical society"'', and identifies 82 plausible [[cognate]]s between Austronesian and Japanese.<ref>{{cite book |last=Kumar |first=Ann |year=2009 |title=Globalizing the Prehistory of Japan: Language, Genes and Civilization. |location=Oxford |publisher=Routledge}}</ref> The morphology of Proto-Japanese shows similarities with several languages in South East Asia and southern China.<ref name="Vovin 2008">{{cite book|title=Proto-Japanese: Issues and Prospects |volume=294 |last=Vovin |first=Alexander |publisher=John Benjamins |year=2008 |isbn=978-90-272-4809-1 |editor1-last=Frellesvig |editor1-first=Bjarke |pages=141–156 |chapter=Proto-Japanese beyond the accent system |doi=10.1075/cilt.294.11vov |editor2-last=Whitman |editor2-first=John |chapter-url=https://www.academia.edu/19253123 |series=Current Issues in Linguistic Theory}}</ref> However, Kumar's theory was criticized for archaeological, genetic, and linguistic contradictions.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2011-05-09 |title=Javanese influence on Japanese |website=Languages Of The World |language=en-US |url=https://www.languagesoftheworld.info/historical-linguistics/javanese-influence-on-japanese.html |access-date=2023-06-13}}</ref>

Itabashi (2011) claims that similarities in morphology, phonology and basic vocabulary point towards "a strong genealogical connection between Japanese and Austronesian".<ref>{{cite journal|title=An examination of a possible correlation between the tone distinction of the word-initial mora of Old-Japanese words and the voicing distinction of the word-initial consonant of the putative matching Austronesian words |first=Yoshizo|last=Itabashi|date=April 2011 |journal=Language and Linguistics in Oceania|volume=3 |url=http://www.izumi-syuppan.co.jp/web_LLO/pdf/11Itabashi.pdf|access-date=2019-04-23|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190423204740/http://www.izumi-syuppan.co.jp/web_LLO/pdf/11Itabashi.pdf |archive-date=2019-04-23}}</ref>

[[Paul K. Benedict]] (1992) suggests a genetic relation between Japanese and the [[Austro-Tai languages]], which include [[Kra-Dai]] and Austronesian. He proposes that Kra-Dai and Japanese form a genetic mainland group while Austronesian is the insular group.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Solnit|first=David B.|date=1992 |title=Japanese/Austro-Tai By Paul K. Benedict (review)|journal=Language|language=en|volume=68 |issue=1 |pages=188–196|s2cid=141811621 |doi=10.1353/lan.1992.0061|issn=1535-0665}}</ref>

Vovin (2014) says that there is typological evidence that Proto-Japonic may have been a monosyllabic, SVO syntax and isolating language; which are features that the Kra-Dai languages also exhibit. He notes that Benedict's idea of a relation between Japanese and Kra-Dai should not be rejected out of hand, but he considers the relationship between them not to be genetic, but rather a contact one. According to him, this contact must be quite old and quite intense, as the borrowed words belong partially to a very basic vocabulary. He further says that this evidence refutes any genetic relations between Japanese and Altaic.<ref name="Vovin 2014">{{cite conference |last=Vovin |first=Alexander |url=https://www.academia.edu/7869241 |date=2014 |title=Out of Southern China? – Philological and linguistic musings on the possible Urheimat of Proto-Japonic |conference=''Journées de CRLAO'' June 27–28, 2014. INALCO, Paris}}</ref>

====Possible Austroasiatic substrate====
In a discussion of ten reconstructed Proto-Japanese agricultural terms, Vovin (1998) proposes an [[Austroasiatic language|Austroasiatic]] origin for three of these terms:<ref>{{Cite book |last=Vovin|first=Alexander|year=1998|chapter=Japanese rice agriculture terminology and linguistic affiliation of Yayoi culture|title=Archaeology and Language II: Archaeological Data and Linguistic Hypotheses|editor-last=Blench|editor-first=Roger|editor-last2=Spriggs|editor-first2=Matthew|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9781134828692|language=en|pages=366–378|quote=However, the above evidence suggests that mounted invaders from the mainland subjugated the native Yayoi population once and for all, assimilating them linguistically... (Page 375 and 376)}}</ref>

* *(z/h)ina-Ci 'rice (plant)'
* koma-Ci '(hulled) rice'
* pwo 'ear of grain'

According to him early Japanese assimilated Austroasiatic tribes and adopted some vocabulary about [[rice cultivation]]. On the other hand, John Whitman (2011) does not support that these words were loanwords into proto-Japonic, but that these words are of Japonic origin and must be rather old.<ref name="Whitman 149–158"/>

==Other hypotheses==
===Sino-Tibetan hypothesis===
Another theory was raised by the Japanese linguist Īno Mutsumi (1994). According to him, Japanese is closely related to the [[Sino-Tibetan languages]], especially to the [[Lolo-Burmese languages]] of southern China and Southeast-Asia. Because of similar grammar rules ([[SOV word order]], [[syntax]]), similar non-loan basic vocabulary and the fact that some Sino-Tibetan languages (including proto-Sino-Tibetan) were non-tonal, he proposed the "Sinitic" origin theory.<ref>飯野睦毅 (1994)『奈良時代の日本語を解読する』東陽出版</ref>

=== Proto-Asian hypothesis ===
{{main|East Asian languages}}
The "Proto-Asian hypothesis" (Larish 2006) argues for a relation between languages of Southeast and East Asia. Japanese is grouped together with Korean as one group of the descendants of Proto-Asian. The proposal further includes the [[Austric languages]], Kra-Dai, Hmong-Mien and Sino-Tibetan.<ref>{{Cite conference|url=https://sil-philippines-languages.org/ical/papers/larish-proto_asian.pdf|title=Possible Proto-Asian Archaic Residue and the Statigraphy of Diffusional Cumulation in Austro-Asian Languages|first=Michael D.|last=Larish|conference=Tenth International Conference on Austronesian Linguistics|date=January 2006|access-date=2019-01-07}}</ref>

=== Dravidian hypothesis ===
{{Further|Dravidian languages|Dravido-Korean languages}}A more rarely encountered hypothesis is that Japanese (and Korean) are related to the [[Dravidian languages]]. The possibility that Japanese might be related to Dravidian was raised by [[Robert Caldwell]] (cf. Caldwell 1875:413) and more recently by [[Susumu Shiba]], [[Akira Fujiwara]], and [[Susumu Ōno]] (n.d., 2000). The Japanese professor Tsutomu Kambe claimed to have found more than 500 similar words about agriculture between [[Tamil language|Tamil]] and Japanese in 2011.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/researchers-find-tamil-connection-in-japanese/articleshow/7308952.cms|title=Researchers find Tamil connection in Japanese - Times of India|work=The Times of India|access-date=2017-05-21}}</ref>

=== Uralic hypothesis ===
The Japanese linguist [[Kanehira Joji]] believes that the Japanese language is related to the Uralic languages. He based his hypothesis on some similar basic words, similar morphology and phonology. According to him early Japanese was influenced by Chinese, Austronesian and Ainu. He refers his theory to the "dual-structure model" of Japanese origin between Jōmon and Yayoi.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.jojikanehira.com/|title=日本語の意外な歴史|language=ja-JP|access-date=2018-08-21}}</ref><ref>日本語の意外な歴史　第1話　金平譲司　Joji Kanehira</ref>

=== Ainu hypothesis ===

The Japanese linguist [[Tatsumine Katayama]] (2004) found many similar basic words between Ainu and Japanese. Because of a great amount of similar vocabulary, phonology, similar grammar, and geographical and cultural connections, he and [[Takeshi Umehara]] suggested that Japanese was closely related to the Ainu languages, and was influenced by other languages, especially Chinese and Korean.<ref>Tatsumine Katayama (2004) "Japanese and Ainu (new version)" Tokyo: Suzusawa library</ref>

A linguistic analysis in 2015 proposed that the Japonic languages were related to the [[Ainu languages]] and to the [[Austroasiatic languages|Austroasiatic]] languages.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Gerhard |last=Jäger |date=24 September 2015 |title=Support for linguistic macrofamilies from weighted sequence alignment |journal=PNAS |volume=112 |issue=41 |pages=12752–12757 |doi=10.1073/pnas.1500331112|doi-access=free |pmid=26403857 |pmc=4611657 }}</ref> However, similarities between Ainu and Japonic are also due to extensive past [[Language contact|contact]]. Analytic grammatical constructions acquired or transformed in Ainu were likely due to contact with Japanese and the Japonic languages, which had heavy influence on the Ainu languages with a large number of loanwords borrowed into the Ainu languages, and to a smaller extent, vice versa.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QB3DD8qSVnAC&pg=PA499|title=The Languages of Japan and Korea|last=Tranter|first=Nicolas |date=25 June 2012|publisher=Routledge |isbn=9781136446580|via=Google Books}}</ref>

Today, a relation between Ainu and Japanese (or Austroasiatic) is not supported and Ainu remains a [[language isolate]].<ref>Vovin, Alexander. 2016. "On the Linguistic Prehistory of Hokkaidō." In ''Crosslinguistics and linguistic crossings in Northeast Asia: papers on the languages of Sakhalin and adjacent regions'' (Studia Orientalia 117).</ref>

==See also==
*[[Linguistic reconstruction]]
*[[Comparison of Japanese and Korean]]
*[[Eurasiatic languages]]
*[[Nostratic languages]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Bibliography==
=== Works cited ===
* {{cite journal |last1=Aston |first1=William George |year=1879 |title=A comparative study of the Japanese and Korean languages |journal=Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Britain and Ireland |series=New Series |volume=11 |pages=317–364 |doi=10.1017/s0035869x00017305| s2cid=161676140}}
* Beckwith, Christopher I. 2004. ''Koguryo: The Language of Japan's Continental Relatives: An Introduction to the Historical-Comparative Study of the Japanese-Koguryoic Languages.'' Leiden: Brill.
* {{cite journal |last1=Beckwith |first1=Christopher I |year=2005 |title=The ethnolinguistic history of the early Korean peninsula region: Japanese-Koguryŏic and other languages in the Koguryŏ, Paekche, and Silla kingdoms |journal=Journal of Inner and East Asian Studies |volume=2 |issue=2 |pages=34–64 |url=http://www.historyfoundation.or.kr/Data/DataGarden/Journal%2802-2%29%282%29.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090226195328/http://www.historyfoundation.or.kr/Data/DataGarden/Journal%2802-2%29%282%29.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-date=2009-02-26}}
* {{cite journal |last1=Beckwith |first1=Christopher I |year=2006 |title=Methodological observations on some recent studies of the early ethnolinguistic history of Korea and vicinity |journal=Altai Hakpo |volume=16 |pages=199–234}}
* {{cite book |last=Benedict |first=Paul K. |year=1990 |title=Japanese/Austro-Tai |place=Ann Arbor |publisher=Karoma}}
* Caldwell, Robert. 1875. ''A Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian or South-Indian Family of Languages'', second edition. London: Trübner.
* Georg, Stefan, Peter A. Michalove, Alexis Manaster Ramer, and Paul J. Sidwell. 1999. [http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract;jsessionid=A7D36A55C4A29AEB34AA39715F46F706.tomcat1?fromPage=online&aid=17033 "Telling general linguists about Altaic."] ''Journal of Linguistics'' 35, 65-98. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
* Greenberg, Joseph H. 2000–2002. ''Indo-European and Its Closest Relatives: The Eurasiatic Language Family'', 2 volumes. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
* Greenberg, Joseph H. 2005. ''Genetic Linguistics: Essays on Theory and Method'', edited by William Croft. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
* Kanazawa, Shōsaburō. 1910. ''The Common Origin of the Japanese and Korean Languages.'' Tokyo: Sanseidō.
* {{cite journal |last1=Lewin |first1=Bruno |year=1976 |title=Japanese and Korean: The Problems and History of a Linguistic Comparison |journal=Journal of Japanese Studies |volume=2 |issue=2| pages=389–412 |doi=10.2307/132059| jstor=132059}}
* {{cite journal |last1=Martin |first1=Samuel E. |year=1966 |title=Lexical evidence relating Korean to Japanese |journal=Language |volume=12 |issue=2| pages=185–251 |jstor=411687| doi=10.2307/411687}}
* {{cite book |last=Martin |first=Samuel E. |year=1990 |chapter=Morphological clues to the relationships of Japanese and Korean |title=Linguistic Change and Reconstruction Methodology |editor=[[Philip Baldi]] |place=Berlin |publisher=de Gruyter}}
* {{cite journal |last=Matsumoto |first=Katsumi |date=1975 |title=Kodai nihongoboin soshikikõ: naiteki saiken no kokoromi |journal=Bulletin of the Faculty of Law and Letters |volume=22 |pages=83–152 |publisher=Kanazawa University}}
* {{cite book |last=Miller |first=Roy Andrew |year=1967 |title=The Japanese language |place=Chicago |publisher=University of Chicago Press}}
* {{cite book |last=Miller |first=Roy Andrew |year=1971 |title=Japanese and the Other Altaic Languages |place=Chicago |publisher=University of Chicago Press}}
* {{cite journal | last1 = Murayama | first1 = Shichiro | year = 1976 | title = The Malayo-Polynesian Component in the Japanese Language | journal = Journal of Japanese Studies | volume = 2 | issue = 2| pages = 413–436 | doi = 10.2307/132060 | jstor = 132060 }}
* Ōno, Susumu. n.d. [http://arutkural.tripod.com/tolcampus/jap-tamil.htm "The genealogy of the Japanese language: Tamil and Japanese."]
* Ōno, Susumu. 2000. 日本語の形成. 岩波書店. {{ISBN|4-00-001758-6}}.
* Poppe, Nicholas. 1965. ''Introduction to Altaic Linguistics.'' Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz.
* Riley, Barbara E. 2003. ''Aspects of the Genetic Relationship of the Korean and Japanese Languages.'' PhD thesis, University of Hawaii.
* Shibatani, Masayoshi. 1990. ''The languages of Japan''. Cambridge: Cambridge UP.
* Starostin, Sergei A. 1991. ''Altajskaja problema i proisxoždenie japonskogo jazyka'', 'The Altaic Problem and the Origin of the Japanese Language'. Moscow: Nauka.
* Starostin, Sergei A., Anna V. Dybo, and Oleg A. Mudrak. 2003. ''Etymological Dictionary of the Altaic Languages'', 3 volumes. Leiden: Brill. (Also: [http://starling.rinet.ru/maps/maps23.php?lan=en database version.])
* Trombetti, Alfredo. 1922–1923. ''Elementi di glottologia'', 2 volumes. Bologna: Nicola Zanichelli.
* Vovin, Alexander. 2003. 日本語系統論の現在：これからどこへ 'The genetic relationship of the Japanese language: Where do we go from here?'. In 日本語系統論の現在 'Perspectives on the Origins of the Japanese Language', edited by Alexander Vovin and Toshiki Osada. Kyoto: International Center for Japanese Studies. {{ISSN|1346-6585}}.
* Whitman, John Bradford. 1985. ''The Phonological Basis for the Comparison of Japanese and Korean.'' PhD thesis, Harvard University.

===Further reading===
*Francis-Ratte, Alexander Takenobu. 2016. ''[https://etd.ohiolink.edu/!etd.send_file?accession=osu1460644060 Proto-Korean-Japanese: A New Reconstruction of the Common Origin of the Japanese and Korean Languages] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201101021653/https://etd.ohiolink.edu/!etd.send_file?accession=osu1460644060 |date=2020-11-01 }}''. PhD dissertation: Ohio State University.
* {{cite book |last=Janhunen |first=Juha |author-link=Juha Janhunen |chapter=A Framework for the Study of Japanese Language Origins |chapter-url=http://publications.nichibun.ac.jp/region/d/NSH/series/niso/2003-12-26-1/s001/s025/pdf/article.pdf |pages=477–490 |title=Nihongo keitōron no ima |script-title=ja:日本語系統論の現在 |trans-title=Perspectives on the Origins of the Japanese Language |editor1-last=Vovin |editor1-first=Alexander |editor1-link=Alexander Vovin |editor2-last=Osada |editor2-first=Toshiki |publisher=International Research Center for Japanese Studies |year=2003 |url=http://publications.nichibun.ac.jp/en/item/kyke/2003-12-26/pub |isbn=978-4-9015-5817-4 |access-date=2018-08-06|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180806145551/http://publications.nichibun.ac.jp/en/item/kyke/2003-12-26/pub |archive-date=2018-08-06}}
* Katsumi, Matsumoto. 2007. 世界言語のなかの日本語 ''Sekaigengo no nakano Nihongo'', 'Japanese in the World's Languages'. Tokyo: 三省堂 Sanseido.
* Martin, Samuel E. 1968. "Grammatical elements relating Korean to Japanese." In ''Proceedings of the Eighth Congress of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences'' B.9, 405-407.
* Martin, Samuel E. 1975. "Problems in establishing the prehistoric relationships of Korean and Japanese." In ''Proceedings, International Symposium Commemorating the 30th Anniversary of Korean Liberation.'' Seoul: National Academy of Sciences.
* Martin, Samuel E. 1991. "Recent research on the relationships of Japanese and Korean." In ''Sprung from Some Common Source: Investigations into the Prehistory of Languages'', edited by Sydney M. Lamb and E. Douglas Mitchell. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
* Martin, Samuel E. 1996. ''Consonant Lenition in Korean and the Macro-Altaic Question.'' Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.
* Miller, Roy Andrew. 1980. ''Origins of the Japanese Language: Lectures in Japan during the Academic Year 1977-78''. Seattle: University of Washington Press.
* Miller, Roy Andrew. 1996. ''Languages and History: Japanese, Korean and Altaic.'' Oslo: Institute for Comparative Research in Human Culture.
* Robbeets, Martine. 2004a. [http://www.hmn.bun.kyoto-u.ac.jp/eurasia/newsletter/08.pdf "Belief or argument? The classification of the Japanese language."] ''Eurasia Newsletter'' 8. Graduate School of Letters, Kyoto University.
*Robbeets, Martine. 2004b. [https://web.archive.org/web/20110719105517/http://www.orientalistik.uni-mainz.de/robbeets/2004_Swadesh_100.pdf "Swadesh 100 on Japanese, Korean and Altaic."] Tokyo University Linguistic Papers, TULIP 23, 99–118.
* Robbeets, Martine. 2005. ''Is Japanese related to Korean, Tungusic, Mongolic and Turkic?'' Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz.
* {{cite journal |last1=Robbeets |first1=Martine |year=2007 |title=How the actional suffix chain connects Japanese to Altaic |journal=Turkic Languages |volume=11 |issue=1| pages=3–58}}
* {{cite journal |first=J. Marshall |last=Unger |author-link=James Marshall Unger |title=No rush to judgment: the case against Japanese as an isolate |journal=NINJAL Project Review |volume=4 |number=3 |pages=211–230 |year=2014 |doi=10.15084/00000755 |doi-access=free}}

{{Altaic languages}}
{{Japonic languages}}
{{Japanese language}}
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[[Category:Japanese language|Classification]]
[[Category:Japonic languages|*]]
[[Category:Language classification|Japanese]]