Reconstruction talk:Proto-Japonic/uya

Probably not Proto-Japonic

I suspect that this is limited to Proto-Ryukyuan, and represents a Ryukyuan innovation from Japonic /ore/, which appears in the oldest texts as a second-person pronoun (unlike modern usage as a first-person pronoun). Various dialects to the southwest of the main Japanese islands, and dialects of Ryukyuan as well, demonstrate a shift from /r/ before front vowels in "mainstream" Japanese to /j/ instead, such as standard Japanese /ware/ reflecting as /wai/ in certain other dialects. See also Proto-Japonic /ware/ and Proto-Ryukyuan /waja/. There are suggestions of an even older similar /r/ → /j/ mechanism at work in this broader language family, as we see in Vovin's hypothesis about Proto-Japonic wasay. ‑‑ Eiríkr Útlendi │^{Tala við mig} 23:53, 12 September 2022 (UTC)