Abstract
Abstract This paper examines the evidence for historical contacts between Ryukyuans and Austronesians and uses this as a starting point to explore the borrowing of celestial vocabulary from Austronesian languages into Proto or Old Ryukyuan. The previous hypotheses for the etymology of Proto-Ryukyuan *tenda ‘sun’ are discussed in detail, and this is followed by discussions on Old Ryukyuan words meaning ‘sun’, ‘sun, light’, ‘heaven’ and ‘moon’. In all of these cases it is argued the most plausible source languages are Austronesian, based on strong phonetic and semantic correspondences, geographic proximity to the Ryukyus or the Old Ryukyuan trade route, shared celestial worship, as well as the lack of cognates in Japanese.
Highlights
One of the more unusual aspects of the Old Ryukyuan (OR) verse of the Omoro Sōshi (OS)1 anthology, which was compiled from 1531–1623 CE, is that there are several words meaning ‘sun’, or something related to the sun, scattered throughout its 1,554 songs
We found in Okinawa women who wore their hair in a style called katakashira, which is “a curious off-center topknot into which the hair is drawn in a fashion to be found among the Yami of Botel Tobago, among the Malays on Mindanao in the Philippines, and elsewhere among the islands which served as steppingstones along the sea frontier” (Kerr 2000: 28–9)
In this paper I have argued the words for ‘sun’ and some related celestial vocabulary attested in the OS were borrowed from Austronesian languages
Summary
One of the more unusual aspects of the Old Ryukyuan (OR) verse of the Omoro Sōshi (OS) anthology, which was compiled from 1531–1623 CE, is that there are several words meaning ‘sun’, or something related to the sun, scattered throughout its 1,554 songs. If we are to propose a word is a loanword, strong linguistic evidence is necessary, but extralinguistic evidence of historical contact between the peoples in question is important to increase the plausibility of such a proposition. Ryukyuan contacts with Chinese, Japanese, Koreans and Ainu have already been firmly established and previous research has shown these contacts resulted in loanwords in Ryukyuan.. In this paper I will argue contacts between Ryukyuans and Austronesians resulted in loanwords, at least in celestial vocabulary. I will begin by presenting the extralinguistic evidence of contact between these groups to lay the groundwork, and I will move on to the linguistic comparisons
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