Ryukyuan languages

Phonologically, the Ryukyuan languages have some cross-linguistically unusual features. Southern Ryukyuan languages have a number of syllabic consonants, including unvoiced syllabic fricatives (e.g. Ōgami Miyako /kss/ [ksː] 'breast'). Glottalized consonants are common (e.g. Yuwan Amami /ʔma/ [ˀma] "horse"). Some Ryukyuan languages have phonemic central vowels, e.g. Yuwan Amami /kɨɨ/ "tree". Ikema Miyako has a voiceless nasal phoneme /n̥/. Many Ryukyuan languages, like Standard Japanese and most Japanese dialects, have contrastive pitch accent.

Ryukyuan languages are generally SOV, dependent-marking, modifier-head, nominative-accusative languages, like Japanese. Adjectives are generally bound morphemes, occurring either with noun compounding or using verbalization. Many Ryukyuan languages mark both nominatives and genitives with the same marker. This marker has the unusual feature of changing form depending on an animacy hierarchy. The Ryukyuan languages have topic and focus markers, which may take different forms depending on the sentential context. Ryukyuan also preserves a special verbal inflection for clauses with focus markers—this unusual feature was also found in Old Japanese, but lost in Modern Japanese.

The Ryukyuan languages belong to the Japonic language family, related to the Japanese language.[3][4] The Ryukyuan languages are not mutually intelligible with Japanese—in fact, they are not even mutually intelligible with each other—and thus are usually considered separate languages.[3] However, for socio-political and ideological reasons, they have often been classified within Japan as dialects of Japanese.[3] Since the beginning of World War II, most mainland Japanese have regarded the Ryukyuan languages as a dialect or group of dialects of Japanese.

The Okinawan language is only 71% lexically similar to, or cognate with, standard Japanese. Even the southernmost Japanese dialect (Kagoshima dialect) is only 72% cognate with the northernmost Ryukyuan language (Amami). The Kagoshima dialect of Japanese, however, is 80% lexically similar to Standard Japanese.[5] There is general agreement among linguistics experts that Ryukyuan varieties can be divided into six languages, conservatively,[6] with dialects unique to islands within each group also sometimes considered languages.

A widely accepted hypothesis among linguists categorizes the Ryukyuan languages into two groups, Northern Ryukyuan (Amami–Okinawa) and Southern Ryukyuan (Miyako–Yaeyama).[4][7] Many speakers of the Amami, Miyako, Yaeyama and Yonaguni languages may also be familiar with Okinawan since Okinawan has the most speakers and once acted as the regional standard. Speakers of Yonaguni are also likely to know the Yaeyama language due to its proximity. Since Amami, Miyako, Yaeyama, and Yonaguni are less urbanized than the Okinawan mainland, their languages are not declining as quickly as that of Okinawa proper, and some children continue to be brought up in these languages.

• Northern Ryukyuan languages
  • Amami
    • Kikai
    • Amami Ōshima
      • Northern
      • Southern
    • Tokunoshima
  • Kunigami
    • Okinoerabu
    • Yoron
    • Kunigami
  • Okinawan
• Southern Ryukyuan languages
  • Miyakoan
    • Central Miyako
    • Irabu
    • Tarama
  • Yaeyama
  • Yonaguni

Each Ryukyuan language is generally unintelligible to others in the same family. There is wide diversity among them. For example, Yonaguni has only three vowels, whereas varieties of Amami may have up to seven, excluding length distinctions. The table below illustrates the different phrases used in each language for "thank you" and "welcome", with standard Japanese provided for comparison.

A market sign in Naha, written in Okinawan (red) and Japanese (blue)

There is no census data for the Ryukyuan languages, and the number of speakers is unknown.[7] As of 2005, the total population of the Ryukyu region was 1,452,288, but fluent speakers are restricted to the older generation, generally in their 50s or older, and thus the true number of Ryukyuan speakers should be much lower.[7]

The six Ryukyuan languages are listed in the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger. UNESCO said all Ryukyuan languages are on course for extinction by 2050.[10]

Starting in the 1890s, the Japanese government began to suppress the Ryukyuan languages as part of their policy of forced assimilation in the islands.

Children being raised in the Ryukyuan languages are becoming increasingly rare throughout the islands, and usually occurs only when the children are living with their grandparents. The Ryukyuan languages are still used in traditional cultural activities, such as folk music, folk dance, poem and folk plays. There has also been a radio news program in the Naha dialect since 1960.[11]

Circa 2007, in Okinawa, people under the age of 40 have little proficiency in the native Okinawan language.[12] A new mixed language, based on Japanese and Okinawan, has developed, known as "Okinawan Japanese".[13] Although it has been largely ignored by linguists and language activists, this is the language of choice among the younger generation.[13]

Similarly, the common language now used in everyday conversations in Amami Ōshima is not the traditional Amami language, but rather a regional variation of Amami-accented Japanese, known as Amami Japanese. It’s locally known as トン普通語 (Ton Futsūgo, literally meaning "potato [i.e. rustic] common language").[14][15]

To try to preserve the language, the Okinawan Prefectural government proclaimed on March 31, 2006, that September 18 would be commemorated as Shimakutuba no Hi (しまくとぅばの日, "Island Languages Day"),[16] as the day's numerals in goroawase spell out ku (9), tu (10), ba (8); kutuba is one of the few words common throughout the Ryukyuan languages meaning "word" or "language" (a cognate of the Japanese word kotoba (言葉, "word")). A similar commemoration is held in the Amami region on February 18 beginning in 2007, proclaimed as Hōgen no Hi (方言の日, "Dialect Day") by Ōshima Subprefecture in Kagoshima Prefecture. Each island has its own name for the event:

• Amami Ōshima: Shimayumuta no Hi (シマユムタの日) or Shimakutuba no Hi (シマクトゥバの日) (also written 島口の日)
• On Kikaijima it is Shimayumita no Hi (シマユミタの日)
• On Tokunoshima it is Shimaguchi no Hi (シマグチ（島口）の日) or Shimayumiita no Hi (シマユミィタの日)
• On Okinoerabujima it is Shimamuni no Hi (島ムニの日)
• On Yoronjima it is Yunnufutuba no Hi (ユンヌフトゥバの日).

Yoronjima's fu (2) tu (10) ba (8) is the goroawase source of the February 18 date, much like with Okinawa Prefecture's use of kutuba.[17]

It is generally accepted that the Ryukyu Islands were populated by Proto-Japonic speakers in the first millennium, and since then relative isolation allowed the Ryukyuan languages to diverge significantly from the varieties of Proto-Japonic spoken in Mainland Japan, which would later be known as Old Japanese. However, the discoveries of the Pinza-Abu Cave Man, the Minatogawa Man, and the Yamashita Cave Man[18] as well as the Shiraho Saonetabaru Cave Ruins[19] suggest an earlier arrival to the island by modern humans. Some researchers suggest that the Ryukyuan languages are most likely to have evolved from a "pre-Proto-Japonic language" from the Korean peninsula.[20] However, Ryukyuan may have already begun to diverge from Proto-Japonic before this migration, while its speakers still dwelt in the main islands of Japan.[7] After this initial settlement, there was little contact between the main islands and the Ryukyu Islands for centuries, allowing Ryukyuan and Japanese to diverge as separate linguistic entities from each other.[21] This situation lasted until the Kyushu-based Satsuma Domain conquered the Ryukyu Islands in the 17th century.[21]

The Ryukyu Kingdom retained its autonomy until 1879, when it was annexed by Japan.[22] The Japanese government adopted a policy of forced assimilation, appointing mainland Japanese to political posts and suppressing native culture and language.[22] Students caught speaking the Ryukyuan languages were made to wear a dialect card (方言札 hōgen fuda), a method of public humiliation.[23][nb 1] Students who regularly wore the card would receive corporal punishment.[23] In 1940, there was a political debate amongst Japanese leaders about whether or not to continue the oppression of the Ryukyuan languages, although the argument for assimilation prevailed.[24] In the World War II era, speaking the Ryukyuan languages was officially illegal, although in practice the older generation was still monolingual.[23] During the Battle of Okinawa, many Okinawans were labeled as spies and executed for speaking the Okinawan language.[25] This policy of linguicide lasted into the post-war occupation of the Ryukyu Islands by the United States.[23] As the American occupation forces generally promoted the reforming of a separate Ryukyuan culture, many Okinawan officials continued to strive for Japanification as a form of defiance.

Nowadays, in favor of multiculturalism, preserving Ryukyuan languages has become the policy of Okinawa Prefectural government, as well as the government of Kagoshima Prefecture's Ōshima Subprefecture. However, the situation is not very optimistic, since the vast majority of Okinawan children are now monolingual in Japanese.

The Ryukyuan languages are spoken on the Ryukyu Islands, which comprise the southernmost part of the Japanese archipelago[3] There are four major island groups which make up the Ryukyu Islands: the Amami Islands, the Okinawa Islands, the Miyako Islands, and the Yaeyama Islands.[3] The former is in the Kagoshima Prefecture, while the latter three are in the Okinawa Prefecture.[3]

A letter from King Shō En to Shimazu oyakata (1471); an example of written Ryukyuan.

Older Ryukyuan texts are often found on stone inscriptions. Tamaudun-no-Hinomon (玉陵の碑文 "Inscription of Tamaudun tomb") (1501), for example. Within the Ryukyu Kingdom, official texts were written in kanji and hiragana, derived from Japan. However, this was a sharp contrast from Japan at the time, where classical Chinese writing was mostly used for official texts, only using hiragana for informal ones. Classical Chinese writing was sometimes used in Ryukyu as well, read in kundoku (Ryukyuan) or in Chinese. In Ryukyu, katakana was hardly used.

Historically, official documents in Ryukyuan were primarily written in a form of classical Chinese writing known as Kanbun, while poetry and songs were often written in the Shuri dialect of Okinawan.

Commoners did not learn kanji. Omoro Sōshi (1531–1623), a noted Ryukyuan song collection, was mainly written in hiragana. Other than hiragana, they also used Suzhou numerals (sūchūma すうちゅうま in Okinawan), derived from China. In Yonaguni in particular, there was a different writing system, the Kaidā glyphs (カイダー字 or カイダーディー).[26][27] Under Japanese influence, all of those numerals became obsolete.

Nowadays, perceived as "dialects", Ryukyuan languages are not often written. When they are, Japanese characters are used in an ad hoc manner. There are no standard orthographies for the modern languages. Sounds not distinguished in the Japanese writing system, such as glottal stops, are not properly written. Sometimes local kun'yomi are given to kanji, such as agari (あがり "east") for 東, iri (いり "west") for 西, thus 西表 is Iriomote.

Okinawa Prefectural government set up the investigative commission for orthography of shimakutuba (しまくとぅば正書法検討委員会) in 2018, and the commission proposed an unified spelling rule based on katakana for languages of Kunigami, Okinawa, Miyako, Yaeyama and Yonaguni on May 30 in 2022.[28]

Ryukyuan languages often share many phonological features with Japanese, including a voicing opposition for obstruents, CV(C) syllable structure, moraic rhythm, and pitch accent.[21] However, many individual Ryukyuan languages diverge significantly from this pan-Japonic base.[21] For instance, Ōgami does not have phonemic voicing in obstruents, allows CCVC syllables, and has unusual syllabic consonants such as /kff/ [kf̩ː] "make".[21]

Thorpe (1983)[42] reconstructs the following pronouns in Proto-Ryukyuan. For the first person, the singular and plural are assumed based on the Yonaguni reflex.

• *a, 'I' (singular)
• *wa 'we' (plural)
• *u, *e 'you' (singular)
• *uya, *ura 'you' (plural)

Pellard (2015)[47] reconstructs the following cultural vocabulary words for Proto-Ryukyuan.

• *kome B 'rice'
• *mai A 'rice'
• *ine B 'rice plant'
• *momi A 'unhulled rice'
• *mogi B 'wheat'
• *awa B 'foxtail millet'
• *kimi B 'broomcorn millet'
• *umo B 'taro, yam'
• *patake C 'field'
• *ta B 'rice paddy'
• *usi A 'cow'
• *uwa C 'pig'
• *uma B 'horse'
• *tubo A 'pot'
• *kame C 'jar'
• *pune C 'boat'
• *po A 'sail'
• *ijako B 'paddle'

• Ryūka
• Jōmon

• Sanseido (1997). 言語学大辞典セレクション：日本列島の言語 (Selection from the Encyclopædia of Linguistics: The Languages of the Japanese Archipelago). "琉球列島の言語" (The Languages of the Ryukyu Islands).
• Ashworth, D. E. (1975). A generative study of the inflectional morphophonemics of the Shuri dialect of Ryukyuan. Thesis (Ph. D.)—Cornell University, 1973.
• Heinrich, Patrick (2004). "Language Planning and Language Ideology in the Ryūkyū Islands". Language Policy. 3 (2): 153–179. doi:10.1023/B:LPOL.0000036192.53709.fc. S2CID 144605968.
• Heinrich, Patrick, Shinsho Miyara, Michinori Shimoji, eds. 2015. Handbook of the Ryukyuan Languages. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.
• Serafim, L. A. (1985). Shodon: the prehistory of a Northern Ryukyuan dialect of Japanese. [S.l: s.n.
• Shimabukuro, Moriyo. 2007. The accentual history of the Japanese and Ryukyuan languages: a reconstruction. Languages of Asia series, v. 2. Folkestone, Kent: Global Oriental. ISBN 978-1-901903-63-8
• Thorpe, Maner Lawton (1983). Ryūkyūan language history (PhD thesis). University of Southern California.
• Uemura, Yukio, and Wayne P. Lawrence. 2003. The Ryukyuan language. Endangered Languages of the Pacific Rim (Series), A4-018. Osaka, Japan: ELPR.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ryukyuan languages.

Wikivoyage has a phrasebook for Ryukyuan.

• Ryukyuan language phonetic database Archived 2009-12-12 at the Wayback Machine
• Documents about Shima kutuba, Okinawa Prefecture
• Web archives of Okinawan Folktales, Okinawa Prefectural Museum
• What is a dialect?, Amami Culture Foundation
• Database of Endangered Languages of Japan, National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics
• 伊波普猷文庫目録 Archived 2009-04-01 at the Wayback Machine
• 仲宗根政善言語資料
• うちなあぐち
• メーラムニ用語便覧
• おーりたぼーり：メーラム二（宮良言葉）の学習者のためのポッドキャスト Archived 2020-01-28 at the Wayback Machine