18. Dunan grammar (Yonaguni Ryukyuan)

要旨

<p>The indicative is a morphological suffix of the form *-mu common to many Ryukyuan languages. Its origins, mysterious as it may be, centres on some of the biggest questions regarding the origin of the Japonic verb system. To this end, numerous linguists have tried their hands explaining where its origins and how it links to the Japanese conclusive. In this paper, I will try to assess some of these past claims and offer my own theory for where the indicative comes from. Namely, I proposed it is cognate to the Old Japanese usage of it as an exclamative after a conclusive which itself might be related to the focus particle *mə.</p>

主題