Susumu Ōno
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was a
Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...
-born
linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...
, specializing in the early history of the
Japanese language is spoken natively by about 128 million people, primarily by Japanese people and primarily in Japan, the only country where it is the national language. Japanese belongs to the Japonic or Japanese- Ryukyuan language family. There have been ma ...
. He graduated from the
University of Tokyo , abbreviated as or UTokyo, is a public research university located in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Established in 1877, the university was the first Imperial University and is currently a Top Type university of the Top Global University Project by ...
in 1943, where he studied under
Shinkichi Hashimoto was a Japanese linguist, born in Tsuruga, Fukui Prefecture, Japan. Biography Hashimoto is especially noted for the discovery of Jōdai Tokushu Kanazukai, which makes it clear that Old Japanese made more syllabic distinctions than later periods o ...
. He was professor emeritus at
Gakushuin University is a private university in Mejiro, Toshima Ward, Tokyo. It was re-established after World War II as an affiliate of the Gakushūin School Corporation. The privatized successor to the original Gakushūin University (or "Peers School") was estab ...
.


Career

Ōno is best remembered by fellow professional linguists for his work, following in the wake of his mentor Shinkichi Hashimoto, on the
kana The term may refer to a number of syllabaries used to write Japanese phonological units, morae. Such syllabaries include (1) the original kana, or , which were Chinese characters (kanji) used phonetically to transcribe Japanese, the most pr ...
writing system and
phonology Phonology is the branch of linguistics that studies how languages or dialects systematically organize their sounds or, for sign languages, their constituent parts of signs. The term can also refer specifically to the sound or sign system of a ...
of
Old Japanese is the oldest attested stage of the Japanese language, recorded in documents from the Nara period (8th century). It became Early Middle Japanese in the succeeding Heian period, but the precise delimitation of the stages is controversial. Old Jap ...
, published in 1953. He became known to the general reading public in 1957 with his popular book ''The Origins of the Japanese Language'', which, together with
Kindaichi Haruhiko Haruhiko Kindaichi (金田一 春彦, ''Kindaichi Haruhiko''; April 3, 1913 – May 19, 2004) was a Japanese linguist and a scholar of Japanese linguistics (known as ''kokugogaku''). He was well known as an editor of Japanese dictionaries and his ...
's ''The Japanese Language'', published the same year, created a lively interest in the nature, origins, and peculiarities of the language. He also collaborated with Takai Ichinosuke and Gomi Tomohide in the production of important editions of two early classics of
Japanese literature Japanese literature throughout most of its history has been influenced by cultural contact with neighboring Asian literatures, most notably China and its literature. Early texts were often written in pure Classical Chinese or , a Chinese-Japanes ...
, the
Man'yōshū The is the oldest extant collection of Japanese (poetry in Classical Japanese), compiled sometime after AD 759 during the Nara period. The anthology is one of the most revered of Japan's poetic compilations. The compiler, or the last in ...
(1957–1962) and the Nihon Shoki (1965–1967). In addition, he co-edited a standard dictionary of early Japanese, the '' Iwanami Kogo Jiten'' (1974, second revised edition, 1990), and co-edited a new edition of the complete works of
Motoori Norinaga was a Japanese scholar of ''Kokugaku'' active during the Edo period. He is conventionally ranked as one of the Four Great Men of Kokugaku (nativist) studies. Life Norinaga was born in what is now Matsusaka in Ise Province (now part of Mie Pre ...
, the greatest scholar of
Kokugaku ''Kokugaku'' ( ja, 國學, label=Kyūjitai, ja, 国学, label=Shinjitai; literally "national study") was an academic movement, a school of Japanese philology and philosophy originating during the Tokugawa period. Kokugaku scholars worked to refo ...
(1968–1993). As a result, he became one of the best-known linguists in Japan. His 1999 book for general readers, ''Nihongo Renshūchō'' (, Japanese Exercise Book), sold 1.8 million copies. Ōno made a significant contribution to the field of Japanese quantitative linguistics by indicating a statistical relationship, known as "
Ōno's lexical law Ōno's lexical law, or simply Ōno's law, is a statistical law for the varying rate that four word classes appear in the lexicon of classical Japanese literary works. The law was discovered by Japanese linguist Susumu Ōno was a Tokyo-born ling ...
", between the category of classical Japanese literary works and the rate of usage of word classes in their lexicons.


Hypothesis on a genetic link with the Tamil language

Over the last three decades, Ōno has won notability, though not always complimentary, for his support of the hypothesis, first put forward by Susumu Shiba in 1970, and developed by
Akira Fujiwara was a Japanese historian. His academic speciality was modern Japanese history and he was a professor emeritus at Hitotsubashi University. In 1980 he became a member of the Science Council of Japan and was a former chairman of the Historical Scien ...
, most notably in 1981, that the
Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...
and the
Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nativ ...
languages share a common ancestry. His theory has been severely criticized by prominent Japanese Indologist
Tokunaga Muneo Muneo Tokunaga (徳永 宗雄, ''Tokunaga Muneo'') was a Japanese Indologist. A graduate of the doctoral program of Harvard University, he taught in the Indology Department of Kyoto University. Biography Tokunaga was a specialist in Sanskrit and t ...
, and by other comparativists like
Kazama Kiyozō is a Japanese surname. Notable people with the surname include: *, Japanese sport wrestler *, Japanese martial artist and actor *Kensuke Kazama, photographer * Sadao Kazama (born 1940), Greco-Roman wrestler * Shinji Kazama, motorcyclist *Shunsuke ...
. Generally speaking, like many other "amateur hypotheses" about the origins of the Japanese language, his theory "collapses" because the author, though a top-ranking scholar of Japanese, is thought to have presented his theories without taking into consideration the intricate complexities of the comparative methodologies of
philology Philology () is the study of language in oral and writing, written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defin ...
. Ōno's attempt to confront his critics, in the article cited here, is successful in disarming
Roy Andrew Miller Roy Andrew Miller (September 5, 1924 – August 22, 2014) was an American linguist best known as the author of several books on Japanese language and linguistics, and for his advocacy of Korean and Japanese as members of the proposed Altai ...
's critique but said to be failing to answer the general charge, made much earlier on his previous theories about an Austronesian origin for the language.
Murayama Shichirō Murayama may refer to: * Murayama (surname) *Murayama, Yamagata is a city located in Yamagata Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 23,643 in 8133 households, and a population density of 120 persons per km². The total a ...
, Kokubu Naoichi ''Genshi nihongo to minzoku bunka'', San'ichi Shobō, Tokyo 1979 pp.32f., 50ff.,
The argument for a similar word order in Tamil and Japanese, for example, also holds for Japanese and some Papuan languages.


Popular works on Japanese

*''Nihongo no kigen'', Iwanami, Tokyo 1957 *''Nihongo no nenrin'', Shinchō Bunko, Tokyo 1966 *''Nihongo o sakanoboru'', Iwanami, Tokyo 1974 *''Nihongo no bunpō o kangaeru'', Iwanami, Tokyo 1978 *''Nihongo izen'', Iwanami, Tokyo 1987 *''Nihongo no keisei'', Iwanami Shoten, Tokyo 2000 *''Yayoi bunmei to minami-Indo'', Iwanami Shoten 2004


See also

*
Japanese language classification The classification of the Japonic languages and their external relations is unclear. Linguists traditionally consider the Japonic languages to belong to an independent family; indeed, until the classification of Ryukyuan as separate languages wi ...
*
Japanese literature Japanese literature throughout most of its history has been influenced by cultural contact with neighboring Asian literatures, most notably China and its literature. Early texts were often written in pure Classical Chinese or , a Chinese-Japanes ...
*
Dravido-Korean languages Dravido-Koreanic, sometimes Dravido-Koreo-Japonic, is an abandoned proposal linking the Dravidian languages to Korean and (in some versions) to Japanese. A genetic link between the Dravidian languages and Korean was first hypothesized by Homer B. ...


References


External links


Japanese Tamil scholar Susumu Ohno passes away
Tamilnet, July 16, 2008

Ono Susumu {{DEFAULTSORT:Ono, Susumu 1919 births 2008 deaths Linguists from Japan Linguists of Japanese Japanese writers Japanese lexicographers Tamil scholars of non-Tamil background Paleolinguists University of Tokyo alumni 20th-century linguists 20th-century lexicographers