Japanese/Austro-Tai By Paul K. Benedict (review)

188 LANGUAGE, VOLUME 68, NUMBER 1 (1992) ------. 1710b. Dissertatio de origine Germanorum, seu brevis disquisitio, utros incolarum Germaniae citerioris aut Scandicae ex alteris initio profectos verisimilius sit judicandum . [Reprinted in 1768, Leibnitii opera omnia 4.2: 198-205, ed. by G. W. Leibniz . Geneva: Dutens.] Mukherjee, S. N. 1968. Sir William Jones: A study in eighteenth-century British attitudes to India. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Munster [Munsterus], Sebastian. 1544. Cosmographey: Das ist, Beschreibung aller Länder, Herrschaften und fürnemesten Stetten, des gantzen Erdbodnes. Basil. Rudbeck, Olaus, Jr. 1717. Specimen Usus linguae Gothicae, in Eruendis atque illustrandis obscurissimis quibusvis Sacrae Scripturae locis: Addita analogía Linguae Gothicae cum Sinica, Nee non Finnonicae cum Ungarica. Upsalis [Uppsala]. Sajnovics, Johannis [János]. 1770. De monstratio idioma Ungarorum et Lapponum idem esse. Copenhagen: Typis Collegi societatis Iesu. [Reprinted in 1968, Indiana University Publications, Uralic and Altaic Series, 91, ed. by Thomas Sebeok.] Stiernhielm, Georg. 1670. Glossarium Ulphila-Gothicum, Linguis affinibus, per. Fr. Junium, nunc etiam Sveo-Gothica auetum & illustratum. Holmiae. Wexonius (von Guldenstolpe), M. O. 1650. Epitome descriptionis Sueciae, Gothiae, Fenningiae et subieetarum provinciarum. Aboae [Turku]. Witsen, N. 1692. Noord en Oost Tartarye 1-2. Amsterdam. [German translation of the second part: 1975, Berichte über die uralischen Völker, Studia Uralo-Altaica, ed. by T. Mikola, Szedeg.] Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures Louisiana State University Baton Rouge, LA 70803-5306 [Received 12 March 1991; revision received 14 June 1991.] Japanese/Austro-Tai. By Paul K. Benedict. (Lingüistica Extranea, Studia 20.) Ann Arbor: Karoma, 1990. Pp. 276. $50.00. Reviewed by David B. Solnit, University of Michigan 1. Introduction.1 Benedict's thesis is that Japanese is a member of the Austro-Tai stock, fitting into the family tree in 1. Japanese is thus the latest addition to a stock that began as a three-way hookup of 'Thai, Kadai and Indonesian', to quote the title of B's original 1942 article. In the intervening time the proposed genetic group has received one major addition, Miao-Yao, and several minor adjustments of terminology and subgrouping (the original article's 'Indonesian' and 'Thai' are now called Austronesian and Tai, and Tai is just one branch of a larger stock now named Kadai).2 As for the status of Austro-Tai, both skepticism and acceptance can be found among specialists. 1 Abbreviations: AN = Austronesian, AT = Austro-Tai, Jp = Japanese, KD = Kadai, MY = Miao-Yao, OJ = Old Japanese, and AJ = Austronesian-Japanese. 2 'Kadai' began as B's coinage to cover a collection of little-known languages that he conceived of as a 'bridge' between Tai and Austronesian. There is now consensus (although perhaps not unanimity) that the languages formerly labeled 'Kadai' (a) are more closely related to Tai and its sisters than they are related (if at all) to Austronesian, and (b) do not form a well-defined subgroup as opposed to Tai et al.—leaving the name 'Kadai' free for application to the grouping containing Tai and all its recognized congeners. The terminological adjustment is originally due to Haudricourt 1967; see also Edmondson & Solnit (1988:3-5) for discussion. REVIEWS189 But the acceptance is largely limited to using Austro-Tai as a parking place for Kadai and Miao-Yao when a wide-ranging classification is called for, as in Maddieson 1984 (although Maddieson puts Miao-Yao in Sino-Tibetan). What is missing so far (except from Benedict himself) is diachronic work assuming the Austro-Tai framework and actively involving Kadai, Miao-Yao, and Austronesian , or some subset. (1)Austro-Tai Miao-YaoAustro-Kadai I-------------------------- I KadaiAustro-Japanese i--------------------------L----------------1 AustronesianJapanese-Ryukyuan ? I FormosanMalayo-Polynesian B's book consists of a glossary of reconstructed etyma (161-264)—about 200, at a very rough guess—preceded by discussions of the correspondences between Japanese and Austro-Tai (rather, of the Japanese reflexes of protoAustro -Tai phonemes). The main discussion sections deal with morpheme shapes (i.e. the parts of the complex Austro-Tai etyma that are retained in the simpler Japanese reflexes; 19-32), Japanese vocalic reflexes (33-49), Japanese consonant reflexes (50-108), suprasegmentals (109-20), morphological features (121-36), and lexical features (i.e. patterns in small closed semantic fields such as numerals...