References


1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_Japanese
1a. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_Japanese#Altaic_hypothesis
1b. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_Japanese#Dravidian_hypothesis
2. Nihongo wa doko kara kita ka [Where did Japanese come from?] By Fujiwara Akira. (Kodan-sha gendai shinsho, 631.) Tokyo: Kodan-sha, 1981.
3. Roy Andrew Miller. Review: [untitled]. Language, Vol. 59, No. 1, pp. 207-211 (Published by: Linguistic Society of America), 1983.
4. Nihongo to tamirugo [Japanese and Tamil]. By Ohno Susumu. Tokyo: Shinchosha,
1981.
5. http://arutkural.tripod.com/tolcampus/jap-tamil.htm
6. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kana#History
7. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamil_Brahmi
8. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hinamatsuri
9. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golu
10. http://www3.tltc.ttu.edu/gorsuch/SawaraIMG_0180.jpg
11. http://web.mit.edu/hsc/www/Philosophy/Philosophy%204/kerala%20temple.jpg
12. Hanumanthan, K.R., “Evolution of Untouchability in Tamil Nadu upto AD 1600,”. in Subordinate and Marginal Groups in Early India (ed. Aloka Parasher-Sen). Oxford Univeristy Press, New Delhi, 2004.
13. http://www.umass.edu/wsp/reference/languages/chinese/romanization/
14. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mughal_Empire
15. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Iran
16. McMachon, A.M.S., "Understanding Language Change" (p. 155-156), Cambridge University Press, 1994.
17. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ural-Altaic_languages
18. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dravidian_languages#Position_among_other_language_families
19. http://pepper.idge.net/japanese/
20. http://www.uchimizu.jp/eng.html
21. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uchimizu

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Momoyo Kubo-sensei and Hisayo Okano-sensei of the Center for East Asian Studies at Stanford University, and my friends in the Japanese class at CEAS for useful discussions during the development of these ideas. My wife, Ranjini, did a wonderful job with redesigning the look and feel of this blog.

3 comments:

  1. UnknownMarch 25, 2013 at 10:35 PM

    Superb article. I noticed the same similarities while watching naruto and was intrigued by the idea that Tamil could share so many similarities with Japanese culture be it in language, culture and even in food

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousOctober 17, 2013 at 11:20 PM

    Omoshiroi. Yesterday, I watched a video of the teaching activities in India, and the activities were in a rural area. The video was subbed, so I could hear the Indians speak with their native language. The pattern of sounds they spoke with seemed very similar to Japanese. (I have been studying Japanese for the past few years..) It got me wondering about the similarities of the two languages. Your blog answers my questions.

    I think that Japanese likely originated from Tamil. Perhaps there were traders / pirates from India that took control of some territory in Japan, and that area then adopted the language of Tamil, but later, the Indians were perhaps conquered by other kingdoms (Alexander of Greece?), so then the Indians abandoned Japan. Being left alone, Japanese language evolved to something very different from Tamil. Well, that is one theory that came to mind.

    ReplyDelete
  3. LITERARY HAVENAugust 1, 2018 at 5:13 PM

    Check the works of Dr Manonmani Shunmugadas and Professor Shunmugadas, available in noolaham.com. Both of them worked with Professor Muno for a long time.

    ReplyDelete

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