Reconstruction:Proto-Japonic/-u

Reconstruction
Vovin (2014) reconstructs the shūshikei suffix with a nasal coda as a means of reconciling the Japanese shūshikei suffix with the Ryukyuan shūshikei suffix. He also reconstructs the nasal coda to resolve a violation of Arisaka's Law in the Old Japanese exclamative suffix -umo2, by dividing it into -um and -o2. This conclusion is rejected by Pellard, countering that Classical Okinawan did formerly have a similar shūshikei formation to Japanese. Pellard instead subscribes to the mainstream hypothesis that the Ryukyuan shūshikei forms would rather derive from an auxiliary cognate to, which Thorpe (1983) reconstructs as *womu. , but Vovin has noted that defenders of that theory have not come up with a conclusive explanation for the final nasal of that suffix anyway.