Talk:な

Plural?
@Chuterix, any chance you could quote the part in Vovin proposing that this is a plural marker? I don't have access to A Descriptive and Comparative Grammar of Western Old Japanese, and I am not going to pay $500+ for a PDF e-book version -- that is just criminally greedy on the part of the Bril people. Anyway, I can't think of any cases where this would make sense as a plural marker, neither semantically nor syntactically. ‑‑ Eiríkr Útlendi │Tala við mig 22:26, 7 December 2023 (UTC)


 * It's also bizzare Brill does this (if you're a well comtributor to Wikimedia services than you have access to Wikipedia Library (Brill is accessible there)). Anyways, here I go (formatting may be bad): Chuterix (talk) 23:14, 7 December 2023 (UTC)
 * ugh copy paste doesn't work to wiktionary on my phone; will do later Chuterix (talk) 23:14, 7 December 2023 (UTC)
 * 1.2.1.4 Plural Marker -na
 * There is another plural marker -na in Western Old Japanese that is not produc-
 * tive: it survives predominantly in compounds. Traditional Japanese analysis
 * defines it as a genitive case marker in some cases (Yamada 1954: 419–420), and
 * as a locative suffix in other cases (Omodaka et al. 1967: 512–513; Ōno 1990: 964),
 * Alexander Vovin - 978-90-04-42281-0
 * Downloaded from Brill.com11/09/2020 11:16:03AM
 * via free access
 * 120 Chapter 4
 * but a closer examination reveals that it has nothing to do with either the geni-
 * tive or the locative. This plural marker also survives in modern compounds like
 * ta-na-gokoro ‘palm of the hand(s),’ ma-na-ko ‘pupil of the eye,’ etc. From the
 * examples below it becomes clear that -na follows stems of nouns designating
 * paired body parts (ma- ‘eye,’ ta- ‘hand,’ a- ‘foot’), objects usually used in multi-
 * tude (nu- ‘jewel’), and two temporal nouns: asa-na ‘mornings’ (asa ‘morning’),
 * more frequently appearing in the reduplicated form as asa-na [a]sa-na ‘every
 * morning’ (also surviving in Classical Japanese poetry as asa-na asa-na ‘every
 * morning’) and yupu-na ‘evenings’ (yupu ‘evening’).16 Such usage seems to be
 * in perfect agreement with the above proposal that -na represents a relic plural
 * marker. It is interesting that it predominantly occurs with inanimate nouns,
 * although from the historical view it appears that it could have been used with
 * animate nouns as well at one time (see on suffix -naŋgara below).
 * 麻奈迦比爾母等奈可可利提
 * ma-na kapi-ni mǝtǝna kakar-i-te
 * eye-PLUR interval-LOC for.no.reason hang-CONV-SUB
 * [they] hover for no reason in front (lit.: between) [my] eyes (MYS 5.802)
 * 伊勢乃白水郎之朝魚夕菜尓潜
 * ISE-nǝ AMA-NƏ ASA-na YUPU-na-ni KAⁿDUK-U
 * Ise-GEN fisherman-GEN morning-PLUR evening-PLUR-LOC dive-FIN
 * Fishermen of Ise dive [into the sea] in the mornings and in the evenings
 * (MYS 11.2798)
 * If -na was a locative case marker, as tradition has it, it is incomprehen-
 * sible why it would have another locative case marker -ni after it, as in
 * yupu-na-ni ‘in the evenings.’ This example, therefore, proves, that -na is
 * not a locative case marker.
 * 16 There is also yo-na yo-na (night-PLUR night-PLUR) ‘every night,’ attested in the kana
 * glosses in the Nihonshoki text (Omodaka et al. 1967: 800), but since these glosses are later
 * than any Old Japanese texts, I omit this example here. In the first edition of this grammar
 * I have also believed that OJ mina ‘water’ also includes plural -na, but now I think that this
 * word consists of the honorific prefix mi- and na(m) ‘water,’ which is found in compounds,
 * cf. na-ⁿ-tuk- ‘to soak in water,’ naminda ‘tear’ (n.) < *nam-i-ma/ita ‘water of the eye.’ This
 * na(m) ‘water’ is strikingly resemblant of Proto-Kadai *r-nam or *d-nam ‘water.’
 * Alexander Vovin - 978-90-04-42281-0
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 * via free access
 * 121NOMINALS
 * 奈泥之故我波奈爾毛我母奈安佐奈佐奈見牟
 * naⁿdesiko-ŋga pana n-i moŋgamǝ na asa-na [a]sa-na MI-m-u
 * carnation-POSS flower DV-CONV DP EP morning-PLUR morning-PLUR see-
 * TENT-FIN
 * [I] wish [you] were a carnation flower! So [I] would see [you] every morning
 * (MYS 17.4010)
 * Another evidence against -na as a locative case marker comes from this
 * and the next example. To the best of my knowledge, there are no cases of
 * reduplication in Old Japanese that would have a locative case marker on
 * both members of a reduplicated form.
 * 阿佐奈佐奈安我流比婆理爾奈里弖之可
 * asa-na [a]sa-na aŋgar-u pimbari n-i nar-i-te-si ka
 * morning-PLUR morning-PLUR rise-ATTR skylark DV-CONV become-CONV-
 * PERF-PAST/ATTR EP
 * every morning, [I] want to have become a skylark, flying up (MYS 20.4433)
 * Other examples of -na in the phonographic script:
 * (1) 奴那登 nu-na-to̱ (< nu-na oto̱) ‘jewel sound.’ This compound occurs in the
 * following passage in the Kojiki:
 * 天照大御神先乞度建速須佐之男命所佩十拳劍. 打折三段而. 奴那登母母由
 * 良迩【此八字以音. 下效此】振滌天之眞名井而
 * The Great Goddess Amaterasu first asked Susanowo-no mikoto for a sword
 * as long as ten spans, broke it in three parts, and with the sound of jewels
 * [[read] these eight characters by sound. [when you see these characters]
 * below follow this reading] washed them in the Heavenly Well (KJK 1.16a)
 * The passage is not quite clear, but it probably describes that parts of the broken
 * sword were clinging to one another like the jewels. In any case, it is quite obvi-
 * ous that several jewels must have been involved, as one jewel does not produce
 * any sound. Thus, I gloss 奴那登 nu-na-[o]to̱ as ‘sound[s] of jewels.’
 * (2) 多奈須衛 ta-na suwe ‘finger nails’ (lit.: ‘hands’ end’) and 安那須惠 a-na
 * suwe ‘toe nails’ (lit. ‘feet end’). These compounds occur in a commentary in the
 * Nihonshoki, where they transcribe characters 手端 ‘hands end’ and 足端 ‘feet
 * end’ in the following passage:
 * 是以有手端吉棄物. 足端凶棄物.
 * [Susanowo’s] fingernails became offerings [bringing] luck, and [his] toenails
 * became offerings [protecting from] calamity (NSK 1.35.7)
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 * 122 Chapter 4
 * Historically, the same plural marker -na is found within the suffix -na ŋgara
 * ‘having the nature of’ < na, plural marker + -ŋ-, genitive + kara ‘clan,’ ‘nature.’ As
 * one can see, it precedes the genitive marker -ŋ- < -nǝ, so it is highly unlikely that
 * there were two genitive markers on the top of each other. From the same point
 * of view, a compound such as ta-na- ŋ-gǝkǝrǝ (‘hand-PLUR-GEN-heart’) ‘palm of
 * the hand(s)’ would contain double genitive markers if -na is to be analyzed as
 * a genitive and not as a plural marker. Examples of -na ŋgara:
 * 可武奈何良可武佐備伊麻須
 * kamu-na-ŋ-gara kamu-sambï imas-u
 * deity-PLUR-GEN-nature deity-like exist(HON)-FIN
 * [these two stones] are lying [there] having the nature of deities, and being
 * like deities (MYS 5.813)
 * 臣奈何良自首之
 * OMI-na-ŋ-gara MIⁿDUKARA ARAPAs-i
 * noble-PLUR-GEN-nature self confess-CONV
 * having the nature of nobles, [he] himself confessed [his crime] (SM 53)
 * Comparative Data
 * Level A: Other Japonic
 * A1: Eastern Old Japanese
 * In Eastern Old Japanese -na is not productive, either. It occurs only in the com-
 * pound word yanaŋgï ‘willow.’
 * 和加加都乃以都母等夜奈枳
 * wa-ŋga katu-nǝ itu-mǝtǝ ya-na-ŋ-gi17
 * I-POSS gate-GEN five-CL willow-PLUR-GEN-tree
 * five willow trees at my gate (MYS 20.4386)
 * A2: Ryukyuan
 * There is only one possible case of the plural marker -na in Ryukyuan, which
 * appears in the Omoro sōshi in a context where it is difficult to say whether it is
 * a plural or a genitive marker:
 * 17 Cf. yanaŋgi (WOJ yanaŋgï) ‘willow’ and its doublet yaŋgï ‘id.’ Both words are based on a
 * Chinese loan ya- ‘willow’ (< MC 楊 yang ‘id.’) + - ŋ-, genitive; + -kï ‘tree.’ Like in the similar
 * examples provided above, -na- in yanaŋgï cannot be a genitive marker, because in that
 * case we would get two genitive markers. These doublets, therefore, provide extra evi-
 * dence for -na as a plural marker.
 * Alexander Vovin - 978-90-04-42281-0
 * Downloaded from Brill.com11/09/2020 11:16:03AM
 * via free access
 * 123NOMINALS
 * くになつぢみちへ
 * kuni-na tudi mi-tife
 * country-PLUR?/GEN? summit look-SUB
 * looking at the province?/provinces? peaks (OS 14.1025)
 * Level B: External Comparisons
 * It is possible to reconstruct only proto-Japanese and not proto-Japonic plural
 * marker *-na, due to the lack of reliable attestations in Ryukyuan. There are no
 * external parallels, either. Chuterix (talk) 23:32, 7 December 2023 (UTC)