Koreo-Japonica: A Re-evaluation of a Common Genetic Origin

Chapter 3 Lexical Comparisons

3 LEXICAL COMPARISONS The Koreo-Japonic comparison has always been conducted mostly in the area of vocabulary, with grammatical comparison playing only a secondary role. This can be demonstrated by the fact that two seminal works that attempted to prove the genetic relationship between these two languages, Martin (1966) and Whitman (1985), dealt predominantly with lexical comparisons. I believe that the lexicon represents the most unstable part of a language, and that the ultimate proof of a genetic relationship can come only from the demonstration of common paradigmatic morphology (provided that the languages being compared do have morphology). But because lexical comparison has played such a prominent role in KoreoJaponic comparative studies, below I discuss the Koreo-Japonic lexical comparisons as presented in Whitman (1985). My choice of Whitman (1985) rather than Martin (1966) is due to the fact that Whitman provided many important updates to both the comparisons and the reconstruction of Proto-Japonic and Proto-Korean. Although now we have a more recent publication (Starostin, Dybo, and Mudrak 2003) that also tries to prove the existence of a genetic relationship between Japanese1 and Korean, albeit in the framework of a greater ‘Altaic’, Whitman’s 1985 dissertation is clearly superior to the pseudo-scholarly work by Starostin, Dybo, and Mudrak (2003).2 3.1 DOUBLETS IN WESTERN OLD JAPANESE Before I proceed to the reevaluation of the Koreo-Japonic comparative corpus in Whitman (1985), one general observation presented below is in order. The structure of the Old Japanese lexicon is highly suspicious in the respect that many of the basic vocabulary items have doublets. The issue was discussed at length in Vovin (2007). Below is a comparative chart of some of the doublets that have reliable etymological counterparts in Korean with others that do not. The word without a Korean etymology is listed first, with a subscript (1), and the word with a Korean etymology second, with the subscript (2). The chart provides the distribution of the words in question across various branches of Japonic. 1 However, not with Japonic, because Ryukyuan data is ignored. 2 I have dealt with Starostin, Dybo, and Mudrak (2003) elsewhere (Vovin 2005b). Lexical Comparisons———93 Chart 28: Lexical doublets in Western Old Japanese Gloss WOJ EOJ Ryuk. OK MK father1 titi titi cici — — father2 kasö — — kaso3 — mother1 papa papa fafa — — mother2 omo amo/omo — — emi head1 tub /muri — çiburu — — head2 -mata4 — — mati5 mali eye1 më me *me — — eye2 na-mîNta6 — nada — nwun snow1 yukî yoki *yoki — — snow2 na-dare7 — — — nwun sea1 umî umi *omi — — sea2 wata — — — patah8 many1 opö opo *opo — — many2 mane- — —9 — manhmorning1 tutômëte — *sutomete — — morning2 asa asa — — achom earth1 ni, nita10 mizya11 *mita — — earth2 tuti tuti12 — — twute-13 house1 ya ya *ya — — house2 ipê ipe14 — — cip root1 ne ne *ne — — root2 mötö moto muutu(?)15 — mith16 arrow1 ya -ya17 *ya — — arrow2 sa sa — — sal treasure1 takara — *takara — — treasure2 kusirö18 — — — kwusul 3 A Paekche word. 4 Attested in ya-mata woröti ‘eight-headed serpent’; for a detailed discussion see Vovin (2000: 144-145). 5 This is the Early Middle Korean form, attested in Kyeylim #161. 6 OJ na-mîNta ‘tear’, lit. ‘eye-water’. 7 Attested only in MJ: nadare ‘snow slide’. 8 Also MK palol ‘sea’. 9 Shuri maNdoo- ‘to be many’ is isolated in the Ryukyus. Segmentation problems arise if one wants to relate it to WOJ mane-. 10 WOJ nita ‘dirty ground’. 11 Attested in the Hachij dialect, but not in Eastern Old Japanese. 12 Single attestation in MYS XX: 4418. 13 Also attested as MK twuti-. 14 Also attested as EOJ ipa-ro ~ ipi ‘house’. 15 Limited attestations in the Ryukyus. Although the word does seem to occur in Miyako and Yaeyama, it is predominantly used there as a classifier, not as an independent word. 16 The meaning is ‘base’. 17 Attested only as the second element of the compound satu-ya ‘hunting arrow’ (MYS XX: 4374). 18 ‘Bracelet made of precious stones’. 94———Koreo-Japonica As one can easily see, the second Western Old Japanese word among the two doublets has parallels in Middle and/or Old Korean, but rarely has a cognate in Ryukyuan and is only slightly better attested in Eastern Old Japanese. This is exactly the same situation that we have already seen with nominal and verbal morphology, confirming my general thesis that Western Old Japanese morphemes and words with Korean parallels, but no cognates...