Japanese, Austronesian and Altaic : a study of possible connections

Abstract: The question of the origin of Japanese is a mystery still unsolved, proven by the academic world teeming with various contradictory hypotheses. This thesis evaluates whether the Austronesian connection with Japanese is plausible in the face of the by amount of evidence much more firmly established Altaic-Japanese hypothesis, showing that measured by linguistic evidence there may be a connection to both. Through analysing lexical items and their semantic domains, as well as historical and archaeological facts, this thesis attempts to determine whether the two hypotheses are completely incompatible or not.