Language scratchpad/Altlangs/Alternate reconstructions/Proto-Japonic scratchpad

This subarticle lists some of my notes on Proto-Japonic.

Disclaimer: The entirety of this article's contents is to be considered science fiction. They are not, in any way, verified and accepted reconstructions of real-life proto-languages, even if they are largely based on accepted reconstructions.

Pitch and tone
The following is based on Shimabukuro's (2002) reconstruction of the Proto-Japonic accent system. The tone in parentheses represents the tone of the first mora of any following suffix/clitic in the phonological word.

Monosyllables
Monosyllables may have been bimoraic in Proto-Japonic. Thus, all monosyllables featured long vowels (word shape oo instead of short O). The monosyllables develop into three tonal classes in Early Middle Japanese and Proto-Ryukyuan.

For the root shape column, which are my own reconstructions on the possible shape of the Proto-Japonic word, T represents a voiceless consonant, M a voiced consonant, V a vowel, C any consonant or /j/, and N any nasal.

The Namari column indicates the pitch accent shape and class of the reflex.

It is suggested that initial low tone is the result of voiced initials. If so, then example reconstructions of monosyllabic words are as follows:

Although this sample size is small, 1a and 1c tend to correspond to words ending in -y. This may mean that these classes are remnants of a "checked" tonal class.

Disyllables
Shimabukuro reconstructs eight different tonal classes for disyllables, corresponding to five in Early Middle Japanese and three in Proto-Ryukyuan.

Example reconstructions:

(A side note: some of the Namari forms show a sound change unique to the Yaezora dialect, high vowel dissimilation. High vowel dissimilation only affects word-initial /i/ and /u/, and it causes these vowels to lower to /e/ or /o/ respectively whenever they are followed by a mora with /i/ or /u/. Note that original /wi/ is not affected, although the only example I have is ijishi "pig".)

Classes 2g and 2h are hypothesised by Vovin (2008) to have ended in a nasal.

Trisyllables
Shimabukuro reconstructs twelve tonal classes for trisyllables. These classes give seven Early Middle Japanese tonal classes and six Proto-Ryukyuan tonal classes.

A side note: The pitch accent of Yaezora dialect has elements of both stress and tone. Each word has an inherent tone (high or low), and a mora in which the tone changes (corresponding to stress, as no word has no accent and only unstressed short /i/ and /u/ can be elided after /s/). Some words also have "secondary stress", where the tone changes back; secondary stress is limited to words with inherent low tone. Yaezora dialect tonal classes are given as X.Y.Z, where X is the number of morae in the word, Y is either L or H for words with inherent low or high tone respectively, or a number to indicate the location of the first tone change, and Z is a number indicating the location of the (second) tone change.

Example of Namari numerals:

Swadesh list
Note: Where I have [m,n] it reflects an alternation between Japanese and the Ryukyuan languages between the two consonants:
 * Proto-Japonic *[m,n]ipi becomes Japanese nii but Okinawan miisan.
 * Proto-Japonic *[m,n]inki-ri becomes Japanese migi(ri) but Okinawan nijiri.