いに【稲】 : ini | define meaning

Cognate with Amami (Koniya) いねィー inïï; Okinawan っんに qnni; Yaeyama (Miyara) いに ini; and standard Japanese いね【稲】 ine "rice plant" as well as its variants いな ina- and しね -shine, both of which are only found in limited compounds.

Related to (or, according to some authors, cognate with) Okinawan and Miyako (Uruka) ゆに yuni; and standard Japanese よね【米】 yone "husked rice, hulled rice".

Reconstructions:

• Benedict (1990) reconstructs proto-Japanese *jinai > Old Japanese yone > Middle Japanese ine, -shine. Benedict also compares the ending to ne "root".
• Alexandre Vovin (1994) reconstructs *(z)ina-Ci for proto-Japonic.
• Alexander Francis-Ratte (2016) proposes that the Old Japanese form jone is from *jə "rice plant" + *ne "root", with the form ine being a secondary development.
• Alexander Francis-Ratte (2017) reconstructs proto-Japonic *jə-naj "rice plant" > Old Japanese jone/ine.