Names of Large Exotic Animals and the Urheimat of Japonic

Abstract

This article argues that three words designating large tropical animals not endemic for Japan: kisa ‘elephant’, tora ‘tiger’, and wani ‘saltwater crocodile’ were borrowed into Japonic from Austroasiatic or Kradai languages. If so, this becomes another important piece of evidence for locating the Urheimat of the Japonic Language family in Southern China and/or Northern South-East Asia driving yet another nail into the coffin of the ‘Altaic’ theory. Since all these words are disyllabic, they also contribute to the reconstruction of the disyllabic words in Austroasiatic and Kradai. This is especially important in the case of Kradai, where in spite of the rather recent fall of the monosyllabic curtain, the idea about the ‘primordial’ nature of the monosyllabic structure is still enjoying considerable support.