On the etymology of the Eastern Japanese word tego.

• Author: Kupchik, John
• Position: Essay

In this paper I detail the weaknesses of the previously proposed etymologies of the Eastern Japanese word tego 'third daughter; maiden', which is exclusive to Eastern Old Japanese (EOJ) and the modern Hachijo language. I then offer a new hypothesis in which the original form of this word was a morphological hybrid consisting of Proto-Ainu *dE 'three' (borrowed into EOJ as te), the EOJ adnominal copula no, and the EOJ word ko 'gir?, which contracted to tego and had the meaning 'girl who is third'. Furthermore, I claim that the primary meaning of tego is 'third daughter' and that it developed the secondary meaning of 'maiden' in EOJ. I argue this hypothesis is stronger than the previously proposed etymologies in phonetics, morphology, and semantics, and more importantly it allows us to account for this word in both EOJ and Hachijo.

1. INTRODUCTION (1)

   The purpose of this paper is to re-examine the etymology of the word tego, which is exclusive to Eastern Old Japanese (EOJ) and the modern Hachijo language--both of which are Eastern Japanese languages in the Japonic language family. (2) In EOJ this word is attested eight times, and the predominant view is that it means 'maiden' (Omodaka et al. 1967: 483, Mizushima 1986: 109-10), although there is also the viewpoint that it carries the meaning 'baby' in Man'yoshu poem 3485 (Omodaka et al. 1967: 483, Ono et al. 1990: 907). In contrast, its meaning in present-day Hachijo is 'third daughter' (NINJAL 1950: 372, (3) Asanuma 1999: 150, Yamada 2010: 34). Asanuma (1999: 10) pointed out the similarity between the Hachijo word and the EOJ word, but he did not go beyond that and offer an etymology. Three hypotheses have been presented for its etymology. In this paper I discuss the merits and weaknesses of these etymologies and I offer a new etymology that is based on multiple pieces of linguistic and philological evidence.

   EOJ is attested exclusively in a few hundred poems in books 14 and 20 of the Man'yoshu (MYS) verse anthology, and based upon this linguistic record it is known to have been spoken in almost all of the easternmost provinces of Japan during the eighth century, with the exception of Topotuapumi and Suruga provinces, where a distinct variety of Old Japanese (OJ) was spoken (Kupchik 2013: 5).

   At present, Hachijo is a moribund language spoken across the Izu archipelago, which lies to the south of Tokyo. Five of its dialects (Mitsune, Okago, Kashitate, Nakanogo, and Sueyoshi) are spoken on Hachijo-jima, while another dialect is spoken on Aogashima. In the past, two dialects (Utsuki and Toriuchi) were spoken on Hachijo-kojima, but that island has not had occupants since 1969 (Yamada 2010). Hachijo is generally considered to be a daughter language of EOJ due to the linguistic features shared between the two languages. The strongest grammatical evidence for this claim is the retention of the innovative EOJ tentative mood marker -unam- in the Hachijo form -unou- (Kaneda 2001: 179). The EOJ form appears to be the result of regressive nasal assimilation (*r > n) of the Proto-Japanese form *-uram- (cf. Western Old Japanese (WOJ) -uram-). Hachijo also retains the EOJ interrogative form an- (

2. PREVIOUSLY PROPOSED ETYMOLOGIES OF TEGO

   In the sections that follow I describe the strengths and weaknesses of the previously proposed etymologies of tego. It should be noted that all of these hypotheses are concerned exclusively with EOJ tego, and the Hachijo meaning 'third daughter' is not discussed by any of the scholars who put forth these hypotheses.

   2.1 Matsuoka's Hypothesis

   In Nihon Kogo Daijiten [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], published in 1929, Matsuoka Shizuo [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] proposed that EOJ tego is a compound consisting of WOJ ti 'spiritual power, vital force' and ko 'girl', and that the syllable te in EOJ is the result of a later, sporadic ablaut. In support of this he offers the speculation that tego was used in reference to girls who aided in religious ceremonies (Matsuoka 1929: 883). However, there is absolutely no evidence to corroborate this idea. Moreover, this hypothesis is untenable in regard to phonetics because there are no other known cases in which any EOJ dialect lowered Proto-Japanese *i > e, and Ryukyuan reflexes such as the chi in Okinawan inuchi 'life' (Handa 1999: 202) (

   2.2 Frellesvig's Hypothesis

   Bjarke Frellesvig has proposed that EOJ tego is an earlier form of Classical Japanese (Heian period) tigo 'baby'. The Classical Japanese word is believed to be the result of an earlier contraction of unattested *ti-no ko 'milk/breast-gen child', meaning 'child of the milk/breast' (Vovin 2012: 75 n. 27). This hypothesis works well in regard to semantics, as it is plausible that the meaning 'baby' would extend to 'maiden' or be used in reference to a third-born girl. There is a problem with the phonetics, however. Specifically, there is no evidence for Frellesvig's hypothetical EOJ te 'milk; breast' (cf. WOJ ti 'id.'). Moreover, Hachijo usually retains EOJ e unchanged, instead of raising it to I'll, and we find chi for this morpheme in the Hachijo word chibu 'milk; milky liquid' (Asanuma 1999: 141). In addition, Ryukyuan evidence points to Proto-Japonic *ti 'milk; breast', rather than *te (Pellard 2010: 97). Therefore, due to the insurmountable problem with the first syllable, I think this hypothesis should also be rejected.

   2.3 Vovin's Hypothesis

   Alexander Vovin (2009a: 33-42; 2012: 75) has proposed that tego is wholly Ainu, consisting of a concatenation of the morphemes tek 'arm' and o 'take.in', literally meaning 'embrace in the arms', but lexically meaning 'maiden' in EOJ. In terms of phonetics the intervocalic voicing of k to g assumes that the phonetic intervocalic voicing of obstruents attested in modern Ainu dialects occurred in Nara-period Old Ainu dialects. The evidence is scarce, but the intervocalic consonant correspondences in Vovin's proposed EOJ borrowings of sida 'when' from Ainu hi-ta 'time-LOC and pizi 'sandbank' from Ainu pisi 'its shore' (see Table 1 above) offer support for this idea. In any case, in order for Vovin's hypothesis to work the phonetic form in Old Ainu had to be [tego], not [teko].

   Setting aside phonetics, there are problems with the semantics. Specifically, according to the Ainu dictionaries by Hattori et al. (1964), Tamura (1996), Nakagawa (1995), Kayano (2002), and Otsuka et al. (2008), the hypothetical Ainu word teko [tego] 'maiden' does not exist in any Ainu dialect. Moreover, I am unaware of any evidence to support the claim that Ainu tek-o 'arm-take.in' could be used as a noun in the sense of 'maiden'. The very specific meaning 'third daughter' in Hachijo is also difficult to account for with this hypothesis. Due to these problems I find this hypothesis difficult to accept.

   Vovin's hypothesis of an Ainu origin for this word is based on his broader hypothesis of Ainu words in Eastern Old Japanese poetry. Specifically, Vovin (2012: 11-12) examined a number of EOJ words in the MYS that have resisted Japonic-internal explanations. These are shown in Table 1 above. I find a few of the comparisons to be unconvincing (e.g., pa 'to find', mato 'girl', and unaru 'to search'), but most of them are strong and are firmly rooted in regular sound correspondences and plausible semantics. Moreover, Vovin's hypothesis is in accord with the fact that there was a sustained, non-hostile contact situation between the Ainu and the Eastern Japanese during the seventh and eighth centuries (Sansom 1958...