School of Cultures, Languages and Linguistics -- Asian Studies

ABSTRACT The purpose of our investigation is to shed light on the behavior or English category-changing affix en, to which little attention has been paid in the generative phonological framework. ... http://www.tulips.tsukuba.ac.jp/mylimedio/dl/page.do?issueid=417568&tocid=100024960&page=133-137

琉球のいくつかの方言にみられる希求形式の使用状況から、琉球方言の =イタシ系の希求形式は生理的に不随意の身体機能を表す動詞のみと共起し、必要性を訴えるのが古い使用法であると考えられる。この =イタシは ｢痛みを感じるほど痛烈に感じる状態に達する｣ という意味から発達したとみられるものである。本土日本語の =イタシも、｢甚(イタ)シ｣ からではなく、琉球方言と同じ文法化の経路をたどって、希求形式になったと思われ、その文法化の出だしは日琉祖語の時代に遡ると推測される。
As the desiderative, -itasi first appears as a colloquial expression.  This paper proposes a scenario of how the adjective itasi became a desiderative, taking over from the earlier -amaFosi, based on a distinction between post-verbal POSI and ITASI observed in a number of geographically separated Ryukyuan dialects. 
In the Hatoma dialect (Yaeyama branch of Southern Ryukyuan), -pus- (POSI) is the desiderative form, but -cca- (ITASI) is also attested, used predominantly when denoting involuntary physical actions.  A similar situation is found in the Northern Ryukyuan dialect of Tsuha.  In the Agarisuji dialect of Kuroshima (Yaeyama, Southern Ryukyuan), both POSI and ITASI can be used with the same verbs but the -cca- (ITASI) form implies a very strong form of desire, bordering on necessity.  Necessity, rather than desire, is what ITASI with involuntary physical actions indicates, and so it can be seen that the Agarisuji situation is a development of the situation observed in the other dialects, with ITASI now cooccurring with controllable actions. 
It has been noted in the literature that, in contrast with -amaFosi, -itasi was commonly used with verbs expressing physiological desires (especially ‘eat’ and ‘drink’).  This is what would be expected if desiderative ITASI developed from the use of ITASI with involuntary physiological processes, meaning ‘extreme feeling / necessity’.  I propose that the desiderative usage of ITASI developed from a much earlier usage of ITASI with verbs denoting involuntary physical actions, meaning ‘need to’.  This is attested in the form nebu-tasi ‘be sleepy’, but it is expected that it would also have been widely used in reference to other actions like going to the toilet or vomiting.

Based on Welsh, a language which has separated stress (intensity/ amplitude) and pitch onto different syllables in polysyllabic words,
Griffen (1998) argues that vowel reduction correlates with pitch, not stress. He also notes that aspiration correlates with stress. This note takes issue with both of these points. The Ryukyuan language of Taketomi, a pitch language with no phonemic stress, has historical vowel reduction which does not correlate with pitch. An explanation is proposed for this vowel reduction, and it is suggested that this explanation may also apply in the case of Welsh. In the Ryukyuan language of Nakijin, a pitch accent language with no phonemic stress, aspiration correlates with foot structure, not stress. Indications are that Welsh aspiration may be similarly distributed.