Altaic evidence for the Japanese and Korean case suffix systems

Abstract

The dissertation discusses the evidence that the case suffixes preserve for the study of the genetic relationships of Japanese and Korean, in particular the light that they throw upon the question of the precise scenario of the Japanese and Korean connections with the Altaic linguistic unity.The Old Japanese and the Old Korean nominative i are compared with the Manchu nominative i and genitive ini of the third person singular pronoun and also with another Manchu suffix inu; with the Mongolian nominative i and genitive inu of the third person singular pronoun; and with the Old Turkic nominative *i and genitive *in of the third person singular pronoun.The Old Japanese genitives *n/na/no/oga and the Old Korean genitive *i are compared with the Manchu genitive *n, the Mongolian *n, and the Old Turkic genitive *in.The Old Japanese accusative wo is compared with the Manchu accusative be and the Tungus accusative wa/we, the Mongolian emphatic suffix ba and the Mongolian accusative of the reflexive-progressive ba$\gamma$an/begen, and the Old Turkic emphatic suffix ma/ma.Another Old Japanese accusative suffix i and the Old Korean accusative *her are compared with the older Manchu-Tungus accusative *i, the Mongolian accusative i and the Mongolian accusative of the reflexive-progressive i$\gamma$an and the Old Turkic (i)g.The Old Japanese lative gari/ga/ri/kara/ra and the Old Korean lative *ryu are compared with the Manchu-Tungus directive ri, with the Mongolian directive ru, and with the Old Turkic Directive garu/ru/ra/ri.The Japanese prosecutive yu(ri)/yo(ri) and directive ni and the Old Korean directive *ri are compared with the Manchu-Tungus prosecutive li/duli and the Mongolian prosecutive li.The Old Japanese locative tu/du/da and the Old Korean dative-locative *a/*ai/*ahi are compared with the Manchu-Tungus dative-locative-partitive du/da/a, with the Mongolian dative-locative du/da/a, and with the Old Turkic dative-locative-ablative-directive du/da/a. The Old Japanese comitative to and the Old Korean emphatic *to are also compared with the Tungus emphatic da, the Mongolian emphatic da, and the Old Turkic emphatic da.