Reconciling comparative and internal reconstruction: The case of old Japanese (ti, ri, ni)

Some Korean-Japanese comparisons involving Japanese coronals complicate the internal reconstruction of pre-Old Japanese. Post-OJ verb forms that end u niformly in, for example, ki have distinct OJ final syllables (ki not equal kwi) according to the form or paradigm of the verb. This is not true for O J syllables like ii, but scholars have assumed that pre-OJ *ti not equal *t wi, etc., were distributed in corresponding verb forms in the same way as O J ki not equal kwi, etc. Whitman, however, has introduced K-J etymologies r equiring that pre-OJ *ti > si, *ri and *ni > i, and hence that ALL OJ ti < *twi, etc. These conflicting results can be resolved if other pre-OJ sound changes supported by Korean etymologies are properly integrated into the in ternal reconstruction of Japanese verb paradigms.