2020/06/30 by Elisabeth de Boer · 1 citation
Social Sciences · #Linguistic Variation and Morphology #Computer science #Natural language processing #Linguistics #Artificial intelligence #Geography #History #Philosophy
paper · doi:10.1093/oso/9780198804628.003.0005
openalex publication_date 2020/06/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21
The chapter starts with an overview of the history of dialect classification in Japan. A puzzling aspect of the distribution pattern of the Japanese dialects is the fact that many features, which cannot all be explained as retentions or simplifications, recur in geographically distant areas. These similarities have been commonly but unsatisfyingly regarded as the result of parallel independent developments. Phonological (including tonal), morphological, and lexical features are selected to illustrate the splits that result in the different branches of Japonic. Based on shared innovations, the new classification at the end of the chapter proposes a Izumo-Tōhoku branch, as well as a Kyūshū-Ryūkyū branch.