All contributors to this volume are well-known specialists on their specific topics and all the authors of the chapters dealing with modern languages have personal experience of linguistic field work among Tungusic speakers. The volume is of interest for scholars working on general linguistic typology, as well as on the languages and ethnicities of the specific region of Northeast Asia. Because of this geographical focus, the volume is likely to be of particular relevance for scholars based in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Mongolia, as well as China and Russia. Other regions with scholars working on the Tungusic languages include Europe (especially Germany and Poland) and North America (both Canada and the US). Since the Tungusic languages are typologically often classified as “Altaic”, the volume will be of interest to scholars working on other “Altaic” languages, including, in particular, Mongolic and Turkic. Because of the current endangered status of all Tungusic languages, the volume is of interest for specialists on language endangerment and language revitalization.

This book presents for the first time all texts constituting the Eastern Old Japanese corpus as well as the dictionary including all lexical items found. Unlike its relative Western Old Japanese, Eastern Old Japanese is not based on the language of just two geographic localities, but is stretched along several provinces of Ancient Japan along the Pacific Seaboard (modern Aichi to Ibaraki) and across the island of Honshu from Etchu (Modern Toyama and parts of Ishikawa) province to Shinano and Kai provinces (modern Nagano and Yamanashi). Therefore, references to places of attestation are included into our dictionary, too.

"The echo of the stone/ where I carved the [Buddha's] honorable footprints/ reaches the Heaven, [...]". This book presents the transcription, translation, and analysis of Chinese (753 AD) and Japanese inscriptions (end of the 8th century AD) found on two stones now in the possession of the Yakushiji temple in Nara. All these inscriptions praise the footprints of Buddha, and more exactly their carvings in the stone. The language of the Japanese inscription, which consists of twenty-one poems, reflects the contemporary dialect of Nara. Its writing system shows a quite unique trait, being practically monophonic. The book is richly illustrated by photos of the temple and of the inscriptions.

The Studies in Japanese and Korean Historical and Theoretical Linguistics and Beyond presented in honour of Prof. John B. Whitman includes contributions by a range of mid-generation to senior scholars among his closest colleagues and collaborators representing the front line of contemporary research in the areas of historical and theoretical linguistics of Japanese and Korean as well of Chinese, Turkish, and Russian. Particularly, in all these areas it deals with still ongoing debates about the important issues in historical and theoretical linguistics concerning these languages that are reflected in articles often representing opposing points of view. This book can serve as a good introduction to the current state-of-art and the most essential problems in the fields it covers.

Book seventeen of the Man'yosh ('Anthology of Myriad Leaves') continues Alexander Vovin's new English translation of this 20-volume work originally compiled between c.759 and 782 AD. It is the earliest Japanese poetic anthology in existence and thus the most important compendium of Japanese culture of the Asuka and Nara periods. Book seventeen is the fifth volume of the Man'yosh to be published to date (following books fifteen (2009), five (2011), fourteen (2012) and twenty (2013)). Each volume of the Vovin translation contains the original text, kana transliteration, romanization, glossing and commentary.

Book fourteen of the "Man y sh " ( Anthology of Myriad Leaves ) continues Alexander Vovin s new English translation of this 20-volume major work which was compiled between c.759 and 782 AD, making it the earliest and largest Japanese poetic anthology in existence and thus the most important compendium of Japanese culture of the Asuka and Nara periods. Book fourteen is the third volume of the "Man y sh " to be published to date (following books fifteen (2009) and five (2011)) and contains 230 tanka poems, together with a few significant variants, bringing the total to 249. This volume will be followed by publication of book twenty (2013) (instead of the previously announced book seventeen) on account of the fact that book twenty also contains many poems by Border Guards written in the same Eastern Old Japanese (EOJ) as do many of the Azuma-period poems that are contained in book fourteen. Each volume of this new translation contains the original text, kana transliteration, romanization, glossing and commentary.

This new translation, the lifework of the author, is fully academically oriented. Given that it is the largest Japanese poetic anthology and thus the most important compendium of Japanese culture of the Asuka period (AD 592-710) and most of the Nara period (AD 710-784), it is very much more than a work of literature, which has been the single focus of previous translations by Pierson and Suga.Thus, in this translation the author has sought to present the Man'yoshu to the reader preserving as far as possible the flavour, sounds and semantics of the original poems. The result is a more literate but true translation. In addition, because the realia of the Man'yoshu are mostly alien to both Westerners and modern Japanese, the text contains appropriate commentaries that illuminate the context. Also unique to this new version is the appearance of the original text, kana transliterations, romanization and glossing with morphemic analysis for the benefit of specialists and students of Old Japanese. The entire translation will consist of 20 volumes, paralleling the original twenty books. The first to be published is volume 15 (announced here) one of six books written mostly in phonographic script. The author argues that the importance of book 15 lies in the fact that it contains a large number of Western Old Japanese grammatical forms and constructions that are not attested in any other Western Old Japanese text, but are extremely important in understanding this language, thereby providing a valuable foundation for all the other Man'yoshu texts, including those written in semantographic text. Volume 15 will be followed by publication of volumes 5 (Autumn 2009), 14 and 17 (2010), 18 and 20 (2011) also written largely in phonographic script. The publication sequence and anticipated dates of the remaining volumes will be announced at a future date.

The present study is the first large-scale investigation of the syntax of Old Japanese (mainly eighth-century Japanese). It gives a detailed account of complement clauses and related constructions in Old Japanese, based on an exhaustive investigation of the extant text corpus. The aim is twofold: first, to give a synchronic description of the types of complementation which are found in this period and of the system they are part of. Second, to address the diachronic issues of the origin of the Old Japanese complement system and more widely the pre-history of complementation in Japanese. Janick Wrona's study will be of interest to historical linguists and Japanologists alike.

Sakishima comprises a group of islands situated between Okinawa and Taiwan, forming a culturally important bridge between Japan and Taiwan. Studies of the languages of the Ryukyuan islands are valuable for an accurate understanding of the linguistic history of Japan as a whole. This monograph is the first attempt in any language at a large-scale reconstruction of the three languages of the southern Ryukyus (Sakishima), viz., Miyako, Yaeyama andYonaguni. An introduction outlines a brief history of the area, with a concise linguistic history, followed by an explanation of the languages studied. Succeeding chapters are devoted to the reconstruction of each of the three proto-languages. The three proto-languages are then compared and proto-Sakishima is reconstructed. This monograph provides data illustrating the importance of the language of Sakishima in understanding the linguistic history of the larger language family of Japonic.

This is the first detailed descriptive grammar in English (indeed, in any language other than Japanese) dedicated to the Western Old Japanese, which was spoken in the Kansai region of Japan during the seventh and eighth centuries. The grammar is divided into two volumes, with the first volume dealing with sources, script, phonology, lexicon and nominals. The second volume focuses on adjectives, verbs, adverbs, particles and conjunctions. In addition to descriptive data, the grammar also includes comparisons between Western Old Japanese and Eastern Old Japanese and Ryukyuan, together with a critical analysis of various external parallels.

Book one of the Man'yoshu ('Anthology of Myriad Leaves') continues Alexander Vovin's new English translation of this 20-volume work originally compiled between c.759 and 785 AD. It is the earliest Japanese poetic anthology in existence and thus the most important compendium of Japanese culture of the Asuka and Nara periods. Book one is the seventh volume of the Man'yoshu to be published to date (following books fifteen (2009), five (2011), fourteen (2012), twenty (2013), seventeen (2016) and eighteen (2016). Each volume of the Vovin translation contains the original text, kana transliteration, romanization, glossing and commentary.