Honorific Auxiliary Verbs and Addressee-oriented Honorific Sentence-final Particles in the Taketomi Dialect(<Special Issue>Views of Ryukyuan, Views from Ryukyuan)

Abstract

Honorificity in the Taketomi dialect, as well as in the other Yaeyama dialects, is expressed in two ways: one is through the use of topic-person-oriented honorifics, which function as expressing respect for the person who is the topic, indicated by honorific verbs or auxiliary verbs; the other is through the use of addressee-oriented honorifics, which function to show politeness toward the addressee, indicated by sentence-final particles. Regarding the former type, in this paper I focus on the subject honorific auxiliary verb to:ruN (a respectable person 'gives'), and the object honorific auxiliary verbs oisuN ('give' to a respectable person) and Q∫eriruN ('say' to a respectable person), investigating in what context these can be used and at what stage of the bleaching (grammaticalizing) process they are located. It is observed that with the auxiliary to:ruN, the benefactive meaning is diminished; on the other hand, the auxiliary Q∫riruN retains the meaning of 'saying'. Regarding the latter addressee-oriented honorific sentence-final particles, I considered the distinction between ju: and na:ra. Though politeness toward the addressee is common to both particles, ju: expresses that the speaker keeps a distance from the addressee, whereas na:ra is used to actively show that the speaker and addressee share a common position.