In this Book
- Koreo-Japonica: A Re-evaluation of a Common Genetic Origin
- Book
- 2010
- Published by: University of Hawai'i Press
- Series: Hawaii Studies on Korea
In Koreo-Japonica, Vovin carefully reviews recent advances in the reconstruction of both language families. His detailed analysis of most of the morphological and lexical comparisons offered so far shows that whenever the proposed comparisons are not due to pure chance, they can almost always be explained as borrowings from Korean into a central group of Japanese dialects from roughly between the third and eighth centuries A.D. The remaining group of lexical (but not morphological) comparisons that cannot be explained in this way is, he argues, too small to serve as proof of even a distant genetic relationship.
In this volume, a leading historical linguist presents a significant challenge to a view widely held by Japonic and Korean historical linguistics on the relationship between the two language families and offers material support for the skepticism long espoused by general historical linguists on the matter. His findings will both challenge and illuminate issues of interest to all linguists working with language contact and typology as well as those concerned with the prehistory and early history of East Asia.
Table of Contents
- Acknowledgments
- pp. xi-xii
- Abbreviations
- pp. xiii-xvi
- Introduction
- pp. 3-7
- Chapter 2. Morphological Comparisons
- pp. 45-91
- Chapter 3 Lexical Comparisons
- pp. 92-240
- References
- pp. 241-250