MASAYOSHI SHIBATANI The languages of Japan This book is a detailed survey of the two main indigenous languages of Japan: Japanese and Ainu No genetic relationship has been establis dent parts. The frst is the most comprehensive study of the polysynthetic Ainu language yet to appear in English, and includes data and texts from both classical and colloquial materials “The second part deals extensively with Japanese. It di from the evolution of the writing sy tween men’s and women’s speech, to issues of ‘greater theoretical complexity, such as phonol- y; including tone-analysis, the lexicon and mation, and the syntax of agglutinative morphology. ‘Asan American-trained scholar in Japan, the authors ina unique position that affords hima dual perspective on language deriving from ‘Western linguistic scholarship and the Japanese grammatical tradition, which has a his over 200 years. Professor Shibatani critically the first time some modern anal of such prominent features of Japanese as, topic construction and verb inflection in the light of traditional scholarship. The languages of Fapan will appeal not only to fa basic survey, butalso to.ad- ‘vanced students and Japanese specialists in- terested in the theoretically problematic areas, of the two languages, and to those working on Japan generally. Like other language surveys in this series, it makes a considerable contribution to descriptive linguistics and language typology.CAMBRIDGE LANGUAGE SURVEYS General Editors: B. Comrie, CJ. Fillmore, R. Lass, D. Lightfoot, J. Lyons, P.H. Matthews, R. Posner, 8. Romaine, N.V. Smith, NN. Vineent, A. Zwieky “This series offers general accounts ofall the major language fails of the worl. Some volumes ate organized on a purely genetic bass, others on 3 se0graphical basis, whichever yields the most convenient and incigible brouping in each cate. Sometimes, as withthe Australian volume, the two in any cas coincide, Ech volume compares and contrats the typological features ofthe languages it deals with, 1¢ also teats the rlevant genetic relationships, historical development, and sociolinguistic sues arising from their role and tse inthe world today, The intended readership ithe student ofingisties or general linguist, but no special knowledge ofthe languages under consideration is assumed. Some volumes albo havea wider appeal, like those fn Australia and North America, where the future ofthe languages and their speakers rises important social und politcal issues Already published: ‘The languagss of Australia R.MLIV..Dixon ‘The languages ofthe Soviet Union Bernard Comvie ‘The Mesoamerican Indian languages Jorge 4. Sure ‘The Papuan languages of New Guinea William: A. Fley Chinese Jerry Norman Pidgins and crcolrs, volume I Theory and structure Job 4. Holos Pidgins and ercoles, volume Il: Reference survey John 4. Holm Forthcoming tls inelude: ‘The Indo-Aryan languages Colin P. Masca Korean Ho-min So ‘The languages of South-East Asia J. Martoff Austconesian languages R. Blast Slavonic languages R. Sussex: Germanic languages R. Last Cte languages D. Maclay ea Romance languases R, Posner ‘The languages of Native North America Marianne Miter ‘The languagss ofthe Andes Willem FH Adelar and Pieter C. Msken THE LANGUAGES OF JAPAN MASAYOSHI SHIBATANI Faculty of Letters, Kobe University CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS Cambridge ‘New York Port Chester Melbourne SydneyPublished by the Press Syndicate ofthe Universiy of Cambridge ‘The Pitt Building, Trumpington Steet, Cambridge CB2 1RP 40 West 2th Sree, New York, NY 10011, USA 10 Stamford Road, Ouklegh, Melbourne 166, Australia. Cambridge University Press 1990 First published 1990 Printed in Great Britain at the University Press, Cambridee British Library cataloguing in publication data ‘Shibata, Masayoshi “The languages of Japan. (Cambridge language surveys) [Japan Languages Lite 409.52 Library of Congress cataloging n publication data applied for ISBN 0 521 36070 6 hard covers ISBN 0 521 36918 5 paperback Ao For Naomi