Reconstruction talk:Proto-Japonic/ni

Derivation
I believe it's Frellesvig who describes this as likely an outgrowth of an ancient copular element nu, paralleling a similar copular element tu.


 * From nu, we get completion auxiliary, appositive / genitive particle , locative / adverbial particle , verb.
 * From tu, we get completion auxiliary (and conjunctive form ), appositive / quotative / adverbial particle, possibly even verb.

More distantly, I note that Navajo has a completion aspect manifesting as an n or ''ni' element.

Both languages also have a similar word for "earth; dirt; ground": 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬. Young and Morgan mentioned that the Navajo term might be related to ideas of "done-ness" as expressed through the completion aspect. I have not followed up with Vajda's much more wide-ranging work on Dene-Yeniseian to see if he mentions anything similar. If the broader Dene-Yeniseian family does have this, the similarities with Japonic might point to ancient contact.

→ Even setting aside the speculative Dene-Yeniseian possibilities, considering the likely derivational connections in ancient Proto- or Pre-Proto-Japonic, the Indo-Iranian suggestion looks like it's probably off-base. ‑‑ Eiríkr Útlendi │Tala við mig 04:29, 18 February 2023 (UTC)