Phonological History of Okinawan Language: Mainly Focusing on its Palatalization and Affricative Changes

Abstract

This paper provides a general description of the phonological history of Okinawan language, mainly focusing on its palatalization and affricative changes. The outline of this paper is as follows; (1) Did the affricative change of */ki/ occur during the 16^th century? (2) The affricative change of */ti/ already occurred in the beginning of the 16^th century, prior to that of */ki/. (3) It appears that the affricative formation of */gi/ and */di/ occurred slightly later than that of */ki/ and */ti/. (4) The palatalization of */-ika/ had already occurred in the beginning of 16^th century. (5) The affricative formation of */ita/ occurred in the beginning of 16^th century. (6) The palatalization of */iga/ occurred in the beginning of 16^th century. (7) The palatalization of */ida/ must have occurred during the 16^th century.