How to make a mockery of Proto-Japanese

"Nikolayev and Starostin 1994 offer many putative cognate sets and reconstructions for Nakh-Daghestanian and its branches, as part of a reconstruction of a putative North Caucasian comprising Northwest Caucasian and Nakh-Daghestanian. These two families have not in fact been shown to be related. Nikolayev and Starostin proceed by assuming relatedness and then assembling cognate sets so as to maximize recurrent correspondences." (Berkeley Linguistics Society. Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society (1975), p.12)

Every once in a while I still get a few zealots from the long-ranger camp coming to the defense of Sergei Starostin's work with misguided and condescending comments to the effect of "How dare you criticize Starostin!" and "But look at all these correspondences". As to the first line of reasoning: a theory above rational criticism is called a cult. I don't do cults nor do I respect their followers. I also find it frustrating to talk to someone that persists on confusing academic criticism with personal attack and by so doing, creating arguments out of nothing. As to the second line of reasoning, it's the very implausibility of Starostin's correspondences that I object to, so showing me more of his paltry 'sound correspondences' is only being irritating and grievously wastes all of our time.

Recently, this letter was about the origin of Japanese numerals and it was evident that the commenter failed to absorb any of the simple facts I explained in The hidden binary behind the Japanese numeral system. So with guiltless glee I dropped his comment in the wastebasket with all the other troll trash. However, it's a chance to gloss over more pedantic silliness written by doctors of linguistics who should know better. Be brave; be self-sufficient; be curious; open your eyes wide and keep your brain closed to fantasy.

On page 341 of Choi, Japanese/Korean Linguistics, Vol. 3 (1993) (see link), in the article Notes on Some Japanese-Korean Phonetic Correspondences by Alexander Vovin, we see a list of reconstructed numerals comparing Proto-Japanese, Proto-Manchu-Tungus and Proto-Altaic. Notice, reader, how Proto-Japanese *mi 'three' is claimed to come from *ñi and that the attachment of *[ñ] to the Proto-Manchu-Tungus etymon is unexplained and ad hoc, together with the fact that a change of [ɲ] to [m] neighbouring a front high vowel is absurd and completely unmotivated from the perspective of rational notions of phonology. Compare also Starostin's *ŋ[i̯u] with Vovin's *ñïl₁ï and how fellow Altaicists aren't agreeing even on numerals or which cognates to use. We're led to believe that *mu 'six' is to be from *ñu as well and one might remark how curious it is that so many marked phonemes are being reconstructed for simple number terms. God knows why both his *-l₁ï in Altaic 'three' and *-ŋu in 'six' so conveniently disappear in Japanese, why *ñ- in '3' and *i- in '5' need to be added in Proto-Manchu-Tungus to smooth things over, et cetera ad absurdum. Indeed, maybe only God could explain such absurdity; one absurdity for another. Meanwhile, the *d- in 'four' and the same *d- in 'eight' are derived from different sources which, by doing so, ignores the unignorable vowel harmony inherent in the attested Old Japanese set (ie. mi- '3'/mu- '6'; yö- '4'/ya- '8')! No reasonable person can claim credibly that the consistent 'binary' pattern in Japanese numbers simply happened by chance from originally dissimilar roots as Vovin, Starostin et alia are effectively claiming by the shape of these reconstructions.

In other words, theory trumps facts just like we find in all religions. It's amazing what gets passed peer review (assuming such a thing was ever effective in weeding out nonsense).

The hidden binary behind the Japanese numeral system

I've been inspired to write this after recent comments on my ire-provoking entry How NOT to reconstruct a protolanguage showcasing Sergei Starostin's posthumous reconstructions as exemplary anti-scholarship.

One important fact that everyone needs to know about Japanese numbers before blindly reconstructing Proto-Altaic numerals for themselves is that the entire decimal-based system shows a series of pairs in Old Japanese that "rhyme" through the use of internal vowel alternations. Please direct your attention to the folowing table:

fitö- '1'	futa- '2'
mi- '3'	mu- '6'
yö- '4'	ya- '8'

Everyone sees this phonetic/mathematic pattern crystal clear now, ja? The pattern is undeniable. We see two regular vowel alternations, one of i with u and the other of ö with a, by way of rounding and derounding vowels in one root to derive the other. This was written about in detail by Miller in 1967^[1]. However, it seems upon my brief Google Book search that it was remarked upon as far back as 1873 by Ellis^[2]!

So when poor ol' Mr. Starostin had reconstructed *ŋ[i̯u] "3" and *ńu- "6" (using both Old Japanese mi- '3' *and* mu- '6' as examples in the two cognate sets), I can only assume that he lacked adequate literature in his local library to have possibly overlooked this simple fact about binary vowel alternations in Old Japanese numerals. Oopsy daisy! Naturally, it shouldn't have to be explained that only one of each pair in the table above may logically ever be attributed to Proto-Altaic. We have to choose one. This is yet another reason why Starostin's online database of reconstructions must be taken with a big pinch of salt (or perhaps an entire truckload of salt).

UPDATES
(2010 Jan 28) I fixed the links to Starostin's reconstructions in his lingering database online. Someone wrote me lately that the reconstruction, *ŋ[i̯u] "3", shouldn't have brackets but they're clearly there in the database, only adding to the dubiousness of relationships claimed.

NOTES
[1] Miller, The Japanese Language (1967), p.337.
[2] Ellis, On numerals as signs of primeval unity among mankind (1873), p.50 (see link).

Old Japanese Pronouns

All I do is search, search, search. Here's another link that somebody might appreciate:

• Old Japanese Pronouns [pdf] by Bjarke Frellesvig

It's not just about Old Japanese but also talks about reconstructed Proto-Japanese. Now we can get to know a great deal more about the good people who brought us Godzilla, electronics and the tasty but nasally dangerous condiment called wasabi that I can't seem to resist.