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This paper argues that a number of grammatical morphemes in Korean and Japanese are cognate and reflect two alternating copula roots: proto-Korean-Japanese *t- ∼ *n-. First, K ulo 'noun particle' and J to 'copula; particle' are compared; it is argued that they are root-related, exhibiting the sound correspondence K -l(-) :: J -t-; the functional similarity of J ni with K ulo and J to is also detailed (section 2). Second, the relation of to 2 to other OJ forms in t- (tu 'genitive', -te 'gerund', -te/tu 'perfective') and of ni to forms in n- (no 2, na 'genitive', no 2 'adverbializer', -na/ni/nu 'perfective') is examined; it is argued that these forms reflect two alternating copula roots pJ *t- ∼ *n- (section 3). Third, the relation of ulo and its variant ula to other forms within K (primarily the copula variants ilo-, ila(-)) is discussed; it is proposed that these forms reflect a pre-MK copula root *l- < pK *t-, also reflected in a number of MK forms in t- (section 4). Finally, it is proposed that a number of K forms in n- take part in an alternation n- ∼ {t- ∼ -l-} within K, suggesting a pKJ copula root alternation *t- ∼ *n-, reflected as K {t- ∼ -l-} ∼ n :: J t ∼ n.