Research areas
Descriptive and historical linguistics of the Japonic languages.
I am interested in descriptive linguistics, linguistic typology and historical comparative linguistics. My main research bears on the description of the endangered Ryukyuan languages, but I also try to reconstruct their linguistic history. I also actively work on the comparison with Japanese and Old Japanese philology.
I have written a PhD dissertation in 2009 on Ogami Ryukyuan. It consists in a general synchronic description of the language (phonetics and phonology, morphology, syntax) and also includes a classification of Ryukyuan, a reconstruction of proto-Miyako and some comparisons with Old Japanese.
I am now a post-doctoral fellow of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, at the Kyoto University.
Publications
Articles
2008. Proto-Japonic *e and *o in Eastern Old Japanese. Cahiers de Linguistique – Asie Orientale, 37(2), 133–158. full text (pdf).
Book chapters
to appear. Ōgami Ryukyuan. In Shimoji & Pellard (eds), Introduction to Ryukyuan Linguistics.
Edited works
to appear. Introduction to Ryukyuan Linguistics. Edited with Michinori Shimoji.
Book reviews
to appear. Review of B. Frellesvig & J. Whitman (eds)’s Proto-Japanese:
Issues and Prospects. Cahiers de linguistique — Asie orientale.
2010. Review of J. Bentley’s A Linguistic History of the Forgotten Islands: A Reconstruction of the Proto-Language of the Southern Ryukyus. Diachronica 27(1): 170–176.
2005. Review of C. Beckwith’s Koguryo, the language of Japan’s continental relatives. Korean Studies 29:167–170. full text (pdf).
Presentations
2010. 宮古語における動詞の連続体と接続形 [Verbal complexes and connective forms in Miyako]. With Yuka Hayashi. The 2nd Workshop on Ryukyuan Languages and Linguistic Research, University of the Ryukyus, Aug 6–7.
2010. 宮古語大神方言の副動詞と脱従属化 [Converbs and desubordination in Miyako (Ōgami diallect)]. 140th meeting of the Linguistic society of Japan, University of Tsukuba, June 19–20.
2010. The Ryukyuan languages and the reconstruction of Earlier Japanese. Invited talk, Japanese Times Now Past, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, June 11–12.
2010. 宮古語大神方言の音声と音韻：類型論的観点から見た危機言語の特殊性と重要性 [Phonetics and phonology of the Ōgami dialect of Miyako Ryukyuan: the typological peculiarity and importance of an endangered language]. Invited talk, phonology research group of the National Institute for Japanese language and linguistics. Kyoto, June 6.
2010. La famille des langues ryukyu. Journée doctorale de linguistique japonaise. Paris, Feb. 6.
2010. Why the study of the Ryukyuan languages is important: the example of Ōgami Ryukyuan. Invited talk, Oxford University. Jan. 19.
2009. The place of Ryukyuan within the Japonic family. Invited talk, Ohio State University. Nov. 19.
2009. The role of Ryukyuan in understanding the linguistic history of the Japanese islands. Invited talk, Cornell University. Nov. 17.
2009. Ryukyuan descriptive and comparative linguistics — A short introduction. Invited talk, Cornell University. Nov. 17.
2009. Ryukyuan — History & Classification. Invited talk, Workshop on Ryukyuan Languages and Linguistic Research. Oct. 23–25, 2009, UCLA.
2009. The word prosody of Ikema Ryukyuan. With Yuka Hayashi, Yukinori Takubo, Yōsuke Igarashi and Tomoyuki Kubo. Workshop on Ryukyuan Languages and Linguistic Research, UCLA. Oct. 23–25.
2009. Once again on long vowels and register in proto-Japonic. The History & Reconstruction of Japanese Accent, Paris. Sept. 3–4.
2009. The prosodic system of Ikema Ryukyuan. With Yuka Hayashi, Yukinori Takubo, Yōsuke Igarashi and Tomoyuki Kubo. The History & Reconstruction of Japanese Accent, Paris. Sept. 3–4.
2009. 琉球列島の歴史比較言語学 ― 宮古諸方言から琉球祖語、そして日本祖語へ ― [Historical and comparative linguistics of the Ryūkyū islands — From Miyako dialects to proto-Ryukyuan, and toward proto-Japonic]. Invited talk, Kyoto University, Mar. 26. pdf
2009. 大神島方言における無母音・無声の音節と語について [Voiceless vowelless syllables and words in Ōgami Ryukyuan]. 3rd Workshop on Ryukyuan linguistics, Tokyo. Jan. 24.
2008. Chevaux, prunes… Et autres (pseudo-)emprunts préhistoriques chinois en japonique. CRLAO. Oct. 20. (Horses, plums… And other prehistoric Chinese (pseudo)-loans in Japonic)
2008. Presentation with Anton Antonov of some lexicographical tools (FieldWorks and Lexique Pro), Cercle de linguistique japonaise (CELIJA). Oct. 20.
2008. The Sound of Silence — Voiceless syllables and voiceless words in Ōgami Ryukyuan. 22nd Paris Meeting on East Asian Linguistics. Paris. June 9–10.
2008. Les langues ryukyu. CRLAO. May 6. (The Ryukyuan languages) pdf
2007. 宮古諸方言の音韻の問題点 [Problems in the phonology of the Miyako dialects]. 2nd Workshop on Ryukyuan linguistics, Kyoto. Sept. 9. pdf
2007. Perspectives historiques sur la phonologie des kango. With Anton Antonov. Journée d’étude internationale « Aspects linguistiques des kango (lexique sino-japonais) », Université Michel de Montaigne – Bordeaux 3. May 12. (Historical perspectives on the phonology of kango)
2006. Les voyelles du proto-japonique et les marqueurs adnominaux des dialectes anciens et modernes. XXe Journées de Linguistique d’Asie Orientale, Paris. June 22–24. (The vowels of proto-Japonic and the adnominal markers of ancient and modern dialects)