Talk: Microvariation in Ryukyuan Verbal Morphology

GSAS Workshop on Indo-European and Historical Linguistics

Speaker: Tyler Lau (Harvard University)

Title: "Microvariation in Ryukyuan Verbal Morphology"

The Ryukyuan languages show remarkable diversity in verbal morphology. One area in which differences are of note are in what are traditionally called by Classical Japanese grammarians the "irrealis" forms (comprising of the negative, passive, and causative verb forms). Lau explores differences, especially in the vowel-final verb classes in the Ryukyuan languages vis-à-vis Japanese and discuss implications for past discussions of Proto-Japono-Ryukyuan morphology.