日本語と南方語との關係

概要

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Of the southern languages which have to some extent been incorporated within Japanese, Mon-Khmer ranks first and Malayo-Polynesian ranks second in the number of words which have influenced the Japanese language. This influence involves many important nouns for all parts of the human body, human relations, heavenly bodies, climate, as well as verbs, adjectives, etc. Moreover, a close morphological relationship can be seen. The prefix plays an important part in the Mon-Khmer and Malayo-Polynesian language groups. Characteristically, causative verbs are formed by the addition of the pa type of prefix. The same usage of p can be found in old Japanese, where the addition of p forms words or causative and emphatic character. Other prefixes, such as ma, which has an honorific meaning in Mon-Khmer, ka, ta, sa, and ya, are common to both languages. This use of the prefixes, which is never found in the old Ural-Altaic languages, has been inherited by Japanese from the southern languages. This is important to bear in mind in studying the origins of the Japanese language.