91179
Most of the search results while trying to research this question turned up
with tutorials on verb conjugation.

Why do all Japanese verbs in dictionary form end with -u? What is the reason,
linguistically? Did they start off with some not ending with -u, then evolving
to end with -u by analogy?
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-11-12T04:05:34.317
91169
2021-11-13T01:15:14.927
2021-11-12T13:43:31.910
48708
48708
question
verbs history
Why do all Japanese verbs in dictionary form end with -u?
### Why do all Japanese verbs in dictionary form end with -u? What is the
reason, linguistically?

Japanese dictionaries lemmatize (choose the headword form of) conjugating
words using the so-called 終止形【しゅうしけい】 or **terminal** / **terminative** /
**predicative form** (the form used to end a sentence in a plain indicative
mood). For the entirety of the history of the Japanese language (where we have
text written in Japanese), the _shūshikei_ of almost all verbs has ended in
_-u_.

_(The one notable exception in older texts is the copula ( "to be" verb)_
有【あ】り _and its derivatives. That said, at least some linguists theorize that
this is an exceptional form that evolved from an older_ shūshikei _of_ aru.
_It is generally the case that the most exceptional terms in any language are
the ones that are used the most: consider the oddities of English_ "to be"
_or_ "to go", _and the stranger conjugation forms for these very-common verbs.
Within modern Japanese, consider the oddities of how_ だ _conjugates.)_

### Did they start off with some not ending with -u, then evolving to end with
-u by analogy?

As for _why_ the terminal forms for Japanese verbs all end in _-u_ , the
reasons for this are not clear. I recall reading some commentary somewhere
that certain linguists theorize that ''-u'' may have been an ancient verb-
forming suffix. In modern Japanese, we do see that ''-ru'' can be used in a
similar fashion to form some slang-y neologisms like ググる (from グーグル) or スタバる
(from スターバックス). But why was _-u_ ultimately used for the _shūshikei_ verb
ending instead of something else? Who knows? I've never read any theories
about this. It may have to do with unknowables, such as cultural perceptions
of sound textures over time, or the ease of pronunciation of specific sounds
in specific sequences, etc. etc.

Looking at European languages, we could ask similar "why" questions -- why do
all Spanish infinitives (the dictionary form) end in _-r_? Why do all German
infinitives end in _-en_? Why do all Hungarian infinitives end in _-ni_? Why
do all English infinitives start with _to_?

### Exploring "why" questions about Japanese

⇒ When it comes to languages, certain kinds of "why" questions are very
difficult to answer. The younger the records of the language, the more
difficult these questions become. Consider that Hungarian is only reliably
recorded [since the
900s](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungarian_language#Old_Hungarian), while
texts in Japanese only go back [to the
700s](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Japanese#Sources_and_dating). English
is a bit of a mongrel, but even so, we have textual evidence [since the
mid-600s](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_English#History). Spanish,
meanwhile, is attested in some form or another [all the way back into
Latin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_language#History), and Latin
itself has [literature dating from the 200s
BC](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Latin#Works_of_literature).

Digging into "why" questions becomes a bit easier if the given language has
known relatives, and we can [explore comparisons and connections between the
languages](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparative_linguistics) and
reconstruct more of the pre-historical (not-yet-recorded) [proto-
language](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proto-language), based on what we know
and can derive about how sounds and meanings change over time. For English,
Spanish (and Latin before that), German, and Hungarian, there are numerous
known relatives, and we can compare these to derive more information about
earlier stages, stretching back before our textual horizons. For Japanese,
however, there isn't quite so much -- we've got a good number of Japanese
dialects, and Okinawan and the other Ryūkyūan languages, but no confirmed
relatives outside of the Japanese archipelago.

There is a good bit of recent and current ongoing research comparing the
various Japonic languages (mainstream Japanese, Japanese dialects, and the
Ryūkyūan languages). I've noticed that some volunteers are creating and
editing [various Proto-Japonic entries at
Wiktionary](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Category:Proto-Japonic_language);
that said, I myself haven't read enough of the underlying academic research to
tell how accurate these are.

If you're interested in the historical development of Japanese, and current
theories about the likely pre-history of Japanese, here are a few authors you
might find informative:

  * Alexander Vovin
  * Bjarke Frellesvig
  * J. Marshall Unger
  * Samuel Martin
  * Marc Miyake

I'm sure there are others; this list is just intended as a starting point.
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-11-13T00:02:01.497
91179
2021-11-13T01:15:14.927
2021-11-13T01:15:14.927
5229
5229
91169
answer