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 37.46 ...

-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. Lingu ...

, 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 ...

. 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 b ...

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 ...

. 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 est ...

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 ...

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 ...

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'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 Gomi may refer to: * Gomi (surname) * 7035 Gomi, a main-belt asteroid * Gomi (comics) Gaea Gaea is one of the Elder Gods of Earth. Gaia Gaia, also known as the Guardian of the Universal Amalgamator, is a fictional superhero, depicted as poss ...

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 ...

, 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 t ...

(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", 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 Scienc ...

, most notably in 1981, that the Japanese 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, na ...

languages share a common ancestry. His theory has been severely criticized by prominent Japanese Indologist Tokunaga Muneo, and by other comparativists like Kazama Kiyozō. 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 written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as ...

. Ōno's attempt to confront his critics, in the article cited here, is successful in disarming Roy Andrew Miller'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, 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

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

Career

Hypothesis on a genetic link with the Tamil language

Popular works on Japanese

See also

References

External links