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 ぬ (nu), appositive / genitive particle の (no), locative / adverbial particle に (ni), verb なる (naru, “to become”).
• From tu, we get completion auxiliary つ (tsu) (and conjunctive form て (te)), appositive / quotative / adverbial particle と (to), possibly even verb たる (taru, “to suffice, to be enough; to become full”).

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": Japanese 丹 (ni), Navajo niʼ. 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)