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46-624: In the Okinawa Islands, many learners of Japanese spoke it with a substrate from the Okinawan languages , causing a distinct variety of Japanese to form. This was a result of the language shift the Ryukyu Islands went through in the 20th century. The Ryukyuan languages were once widely spoken throughout the Ryukyu Islands , but saw a decline in speakers as a result of assimilation policies during much of pre-WW2 Japan . In 1907,

92-441: A boundary between Amami's Yoron Island and Okinawa Island . The same boundary was also set by early studies including Nakasone (1961) and Hirayama (1964). Nakamoto (1990) offered a detailed argument for it. He proposed the following classification. The other hypothesis, the three-subdivision hypothesis, is proposed by Uemura (1972). He first presented a flat list of dialects and then discussed possible groupings, one of which

138-505: A democratic election, the local electorate chose a governor who pledged reversion to Japan (this also happened in other native governments of Ryukyu, namely those of Okinawa, Miyakojima , and Yaeyama ). The United States Civil Administration of the Ryukyu Islands (USCAR) was alarmed by this development, and reduced the power of native governments to that of a figurehead status. In 1952, USCAR founded another governmental body called

184-406: A first language and Japanese as a second language. The Okinawan language shares about 70% of its lexicon with Standard Japanese, resulting in loaning of Okinawan words into Japanese speech. Okinawan Japanese has borrowed many words from Standard Japanese, some of which are used with slightly different meanings. For example, a number of verb inflections and words indicating aspect and mood are

230-562: A nobility class called the aji , who resided in castles called gusuku . Famous gusuku included Beru Castle in Kasari, Amami , and Yononushi Castle in Wadomari . Stronger aji battled each other to expand their territories. Local folklore states that some Taira clan members, having lost the Battle of Dan-no-ura in 1185, fled to Amami Ōshima. The historical accuracy of this claim

276-572: A style different from that of Ryukyu, and still remain as a part of their culture today. Under Satsuma's rule, names of Amami people underwent a great change, and they are today known for many unique one-character surnames. In 1871, after the Meiji Restoration , the Amami Islands were incorporated into Ōsumi Province , and then into Kagoshima Prefecture . During World War II , more than 20,000 Japanese soldiers were garrisoned in

322-514: A total area of approximately 1,240.28 square kilometres (478.87 sq mi), of which 308.3 square kilometres (119.0 sq mi) constitute the city ( -shi ) of Amami, and 931.9 square kilometres (359.8 sq mi) constitute the district ( -gun ) of Oshima. The highest elevation is Yuwandake with a height of 694 metres (2,277 ft) on Amami Ōshima . The climate is a humid subtropical climate ( Köppen climate classification Cfa ) with very warm summers and mild winters. Precipitation

368-525: A verb and used to make a suggestion. An example is ikimashou ne (Let's go). In Okinawan Japanese, this would express a speaker's will. It would mean "I will go" instead. Particles and demonstratives are another aspect of Okinawan Japanese grammar that differ from Japanese. The particle kara which means "from" or "since" in Japanese, means "as" or "because" in Okinawan Japanese. So, kara

414-560: Is as follows: The difference between the two hypotheses is whether Southern Amami and Northern Okinawan form a cluster. Thorpe (1983) presented a "tentative" classification similar to Uemura's: Karimata (2000) investigated Southern Amami in detail and found inconsistency among isoglosses. Nevertheless, he favored the three-subdivision hypothesis: Karimata (2000)'s proposal is based mostly on phonetic grounds. Standard Japanese /e/ corresponds to /ɨ/ in Northern Amami while it

460-517: Is high throughout the year, but is highest in the months of May, June and September. The area is subject to frequent typhoons . The population of the Amami Islands on 1 October 2020 was 104,281, of which 41,390 were in the city of Amami- shi and 62,891 were in the district of Oshima- gun . Islanders started to produce earthenware from 6,000 years ago, affected by the Jōmon culture in Kyushu . Initially,

506-632: Is substantially different from conventional ones. The renewed classification is adopted in Heinrich et al. (2015). The membership of Kikai Island remains highly controversial. The northern three communities of Kikai Island share the seven-vowel system with Amami Ōshima and Tokunoshima while the rest is grouped with Okinoerabu and Yoron for their five-vowel systems. For this reason, Nakamoto (1990) subdivided Kikai: Based on other evidence, however, Karimata (2000) tentatively grouped Kikai dialects together. Lawrence (2011) argued that lexical evidence supported

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552-593: Is unknown. This gusuku period is sometimes called the Aji period ( 按司世 , Ajin'yu ) . Eventually the Amami aji were forced to pay tribute to stronger nations to retain autonomy. Ryukyuan records state that Amami aji paid tribute to Eiso , the king of Chūzan in Sanzan period Okinawa. Okinoerabu and Yoron fell under Hokuzan 's control. However, since Okinawa itself was still rife with civil wars, it could not control

598-609: Is used in Okinawan Japanese where wo or de is used in Japanese. Some words have different meanings in Standard Japanese. For example, aruku means "go around" or "work" in Okinawan Japanese, but means "walk" in Standard. Korosu means "hit" in Okinawan Japanese and "kill" in Standard. Many Okinawan youth use words borrowed from Japanese slang, such as metchaa (very) and dasadasa (country bumpkin). Okinawan Japanese has some loanwords from American English due to

644-718: The Amami Islands , Kagoshima Prefecture and the Okinawa Islands , Okinawa Prefecture of southwestern Japan . It is one of two primary branches of the Ryukyuan languages , which are then part of the Japonic languages . The subdivisions of Northern Ryukyuan are a matter of scholarly debate. Within the Ryukyu Kingdom , territory was divided into magiri , which in turn were divided into shima . A magiri

690-469: The Amami Islands , Kagoshima Prefecture and the Okinawa Islands , Okinawa Prefecture . The subdivision of Northern Ryukyuan, however, remains a matter of scholarly debate. In the Okinawa-go jiten (1963), Uemura Yukio simply left its subgroups flat: Several others have attempted to create intermediate groups. One of two major hypotheses divides Northern Ryukyuan into Amami and Okinawan, drawing

736-708: The Amami language . It is divided into several dialects: the Kikai dialect, North Amami dialect, South Amami dialect, and Tokunoshima dialect. Dialects spoken in the southern islands of Okinoerabu and Yoron are part of the Kunigami language centered on Northern Okinawa Island. These dialects and languages all belong to the Northern Ryukyuan group of the Ryukyuan languages . Although the Ryukyuan languages belong to

782-551: The Azuchi-Momoyama period , led Shimazu Tadatsune , the ruler of Satsuma Domain in southern Kyushu, to invade the Ryukyu Kingdom in order to gain control of the shipping routes between Japan and China. In April 1609, Shimazu launched an invasion of the Ryukyu Kingdom. They landed on Amami Ōshima, then Tokuno, Okinoerabu, and Okinawa itself. Satsuma met fierce resistance, but eventually defeated Ryukyu, by capturing

828-466: The Battle of Amami-Ōshima , which resulted in a Japanese victory. Download coordinates as: As a part of the Ryukyuan cultural sphere, Amami culture is closer to that of the other Ryukyu Islands than to that of mainland Japan. However, the islands' history is different from Okinawa as well. Okinawa, including the Sakishima Islands , had strong cultural influences from China, whereas Amami

874-570: The Government of the Ryukyu Islands , in which "local leaders" were appointed by the American government. Amami residents were dissatisfied with these controls by the U.S. Moreover, the Amami economy suffered from separation from the Japanese market. Public funds of the U.S. administration were mostly used for heavily damaged Okinawa and the military bases there. The Amami Islands Homeland Restoration Movement, which had started immediately after

920-469: The Japonic family along with Japanese , they are often not mutually intelligible between each other and Japanese. Because of the education system put in place during the Meiji period, all Amami people today speak standard Japanese. However, the de facto common speech among Amami people under 60 is Amami Japanese , a dialect of the Japanese language that uses an Amami accent and some words and phrases from

966-673: The Tokara Islands to Japan in February 1952, and the Amami Islands on December 25, 1953. The U.S. government called it "a Christmas present to Japan". This period is called the American period ( アメリカ世 , Amerika-yo ) . Although the Amami Islands were returned to Japan in 1953, Okinawa remained under American control until 1972. Because of this, Amami people who worked in Okinawa suddenly became "foreigners", making their situations difficult. The Japanese government promulgated

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1012-600: The United States administration after the Battle of Okinawa . Okinawan Japanese has English loanwords exclusive to it. Examples are paaraa (parlor), biichii paatii (beach party), and takoraisu ( taco rice ). One word combines the English word 'rich' with the Okinawan suffix -aa to create ricchaa (a rich person). Okinawan languages The Northern Ryukyuan languages are a group of languages spoken in

1058-478: The pentatonic scale of Ab, C, Db, Eb, G - that is, a hemitonic scale with intervals 2-0.5-1-2-0.5 (leading note) - Amami folk songs use the scale of C, D, E, G, A - an anhemitonic scale with intervals 1-1-1.5-1-1.5 (the same as the Greek pentatonic scale). Singers use a falsetto voice when singing. Each community has multiple utaki shrines for the native religion , as well as Shinto shrines established by

1104-476: The Amami Islands Promotion and Development Special Measures Law. However, the economic gap between the islands and the mainland still exists to this day. The law did help residents by improving the island's infrastructure. However, its bureaucratic system has been criticized as causing unnecessary destruction of nature. In 2001, there was a small naval exchange between North Korea and Japan in

1150-523: The Amami Islands, although the islands were never invaded, and experienced only small scale airstrikes . This period, until 1945, is called the Yamato period ( 大和世 , Yamatun'yu ) . After the surrender of Japan , the Amami Islands fell under direct American military control, with American documents referring to the Amami Islands as the "Northern Ryukyu Islands". The Japanese government believed this indicated an American intention to permanently separate

1196-874: The Amami language, locally referred to as Ton-futsūgo ( トン普通語 , lit. "Potato standard") . The speech is different from Uchinaa-Yamatuguchi ( Okinawan Japanese ), the Okinawan equivalent used in Okinawa. Ton-futsūgo is affected not only by standard Japanese, but also by the Kagoshima dialect and the Kansai dialect . The local folk songs in Amami are called shima uta . Although shima means "island" in Japanese, it means "community" in Amami. Thus shima uta literally means "communities' songs". Singers of shima uta are called utasha  [ ja ] (lit. "singer"). Some utasha also sing pop songs as well, examples include Chitose Hajime , Kousuke Atari , Rikki , and Anna Sato  [ ja ] . Some believe that

1242-439: The Japanese government passed the “Ordinance to Regulate Dialects” to ban the teaching of Ryukyuan in schools. Then, in 1939, the Japanese government made it compulsory for government offices and institutions in Okinawa to use standard Japanese. This event caused the Ryukyuan people to experience a language shift towards Japanese. Many Ryukyuan-influenced Japanese dialects emerged from the post-war generations who learned Ryukuan as

1288-540: The Japanese government, whereas Buddhist temples are less common than in Japan. As in Okinawa, priestesses called noro exist, and the people worship according to the native religious norms. There are three Ryukyuan tomb styles: the house style, the turtle style, and the cave style. Most tombs in Amami use the house style, unlike in Okinawa where the turtle style is more prevalent. However, there are tombs called "Shiroma Tofuru" tombs, which were built 400 years ago, that use

1334-422: The Kikai cluster although he refrained from determining its phylogenetic relationship with other Amami dialects. As of 2014, Ethnologue presents another two-subdivision hypothesis: it groups Southern Amami, Northern Okinawa and Southern Okinawa to form Southern Amami–Okinawan, which is contrasted with Northern Amami–Okinawan. It also identifies Kikai as Northern Amami–Okinawan. Heinrich et al. (2015) refers to

1380-477: The Northern Amami Islands. Aji from Tokuno and further north just paid tribute to Okinawan kingdoms, and continued to remain independent. After 1429, Shō Hashi unified Okinawa Island , founding the Ryukyu Kingdom . During the 1430s and 1440s, Ryukyu expanded into the Amami Islands. By 1450, Ryukyuan forces had reached deep into the Tokara Islands and conquered all but Kikai Island , which

1426-482: The capital of Shuri . Ryukyu ceded the Amami Islands to Satsuma Domain in 1611. Satsuma started to directly rule the islands from 1613, sending a daikan commissioner. However, it was still nominally treated as Ryukyuan territory, and bureaucrats from the kingdom were dispatched as well. Satsuma control over the islands was formally recognized by the Tokugawa shogunate in 1624. At first, Satsuma's administration

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1472-399: The current Amami. The tenth kentō-shi mission (Japanese Imperial embassies to China ) traveled to Tang dynasty China via Amami Ōshima. Among locals, this prehistoric period is called the Amami period ( 奄美世 , Aman'yu ) . Agriculture came to the islands around the 12th century, and the people shifted to farming from hunting. As on Okinawa Island , this resulted in the development of

1518-503: The degree of preservation varies considerably. These shared features appear to support the three-subdivision hypothesis. However, Karimata also pointed out several features that group Northern and Southern Amami together. In Amami, word-medial /kʰ/ changed to /h/ or even dropped entirely when it was surrounded by /a/ , /e/ or /o/ . This can rarely be observed in Okinawan dialects. Japanese /-awa/ corresponds to /-oː/ in Amami and /-aː/ in Okinawan. Uemura (1972) also argued that if

1564-546: The group belongs to Kagoshima Prefecture , Japan . The Geospatial Information Authority of Japan and the Japan Coast Guard agreed on February 15, 2010, to use the name of Amami-guntō ( 奄美群島 ) for the Amami Islands. Prior to that, Amami-shotō ( 奄美諸島 ) was also used. The name of Amami is probably cognate with Amamikyu ( 阿摩美久 ) , the goddess of creation in the Ryukyuan creation myth . The Amami Islands are limestone islands of coralline origin and have

1610-739: The islands from Japan, and in response, stressed to the American occupation authorities that the islands were an integral part of Kagoshima Prefecture. In February 1946, the Amami Islands were officially separated from Japan. In October, the Provisional Government of the Northern Ryukyu Islands  [ ja ] was founded, formed by local leaders. It changed its name to the Amami Gunto Government  [ ja ] in 1950. However, under

1656-425: The purpose of classification was not of phylogeny, the two-subdivision hypothesis of Amami and Okinawan was also acceptable. Pellard (2009) took a computational approach to the classification problem. His phylogenetic inference was based on phonological and lexical traits. The results dismissed the three-subdivision hypothesis and re-evaluated the two-subdivision hypothesis although the internal classification of Amami

1702-414: The same in Standard Japanese and Okinawan Japanese, but have different uses. Hazu means "due, scheduled, or supposed to occur", which indicates a high degree of probability in Standard Japanese. Yet in Okinawan Japanese it indicates a much lower degree of probability, more like "probably" or "may occur". In Standard Japanese, the auxiliaries mashou , you , and ou are combined with the particle ne after

1748-416: The separation, became stronger. The Amami Communist Party , formed in 1947, also favored reunification. Among locals over 14 years old, 99.8% of them signed in a bid toward reversion. Some municipalities and communities went on a hunger strike after the example of Mahatma Gandhi . The Treaty of San Francisco in 1952 put the Amami islands under trusteeship as part of the Ryukyu Islands. The U.S. returned

1794-588: The styles were similar to those of the main islands of Japan, but later, a style original to Amami, known as "Usuki Lower Style", was developed. Among Japanese literature, mention of the islands first appeared in the late 7th century. The Nihon Shoki contains an entry dated 657 referring to Amami-shima ( 海見嶋 , "Amami Island") , and to the Amami-bito ( 阿麻弥人 , "Amami people") in 682. The Shoku Nihongi refers to Amami ( 菴美 ) in 699 and Amami ( 奄美 ) in 714. All of these are believed to be identical to

1840-552: The subdivisions of Northern Ryukyuan as only "Amami" and "Okinawan". There is a note that other languages, specifically within the Yaeyama language , should be recognized as independent due to mutual unintelligibility. Amami Islands The Amami Islands ( 奄美群島 , Amami-guntō ) is an archipelago in the Satsunan Islands , which is part of the Ryukyu Islands , and is southwest of Kyushu . Administratively,

1886-415: The word shima uta originally referred to Amami folk songs only, and is therefore now mistakenly used for Okinawan folk songs. The Japanese rock band The Boom 's 1992 hit song called Shima Uta , which incorporated some Okinawan styles and thus causes confusion as to the precision of the term. Others argue the word was used for Okinawan folk songs as well even before 1992. While Okinawan folk songs use

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1932-453: Was a mild one, but as the financial deterioration of the domain became worse, the administration changed to one of exploitation. Satsuma imposed high taxes payable in sugar. This resulted in sugarcane monoculture , which often resulted in severe famines. During these times, the Amami people found their joys in local liquors made from sugarcanes, awamori bought from Ryukyu, and folk songs sung with sanshin . Their folk songs evolved into

1978-442: Was affected more by Japan. Because of this, the Amami people themselves regard their culture as distinct from that of Okinawa. The Amami people treat the area between Kikai, Amami Ōshima, and Tokuno as part of their own cultural sphere. On the other hand, islanders from Yoron, just 22 km away from Okinawa, have much closer cultural ties to Okinawa. Idiolects spoken in a large part of the Amami Islands are collectively known as

2024-434: Was comparable to a Japanese prefecture while shima were individual villages. There were about 800 shima in the Ryukyu Kingdom. Linguists Seizen Nakasone and Satoshi Nishioka have proposed that each shima developed their own distinct dialects or accents due to people very rarely traveling outside of their shima. At high level, linguists mostly agree to make the north–south division. In this framework, Northern Ryukyuan covers

2070-454: Was invaded in 1466. Satsuma Domain of Japan attempted to invade Amami Ōshima in 1493, but Ryukyu defeated them. During the 16th century, there were three rebellions on Amami Ōshima that Ryukyu put down: one in 1536, one in 1537, and one in 1571. This period is called Naha period ( 那覇世 , Nahan'yu ) , after the major port of Ryukyu. Ryukyu's direct control lasted just over 170 years. Trade with Ming dynasty China, which flourished in

2116-669: Was merged into /i/ in Southern Amami and Okinawan. Word-initial /kʰ/ changed to /h/ before certain vowels in Southern Amami and several Northern Okinawan dialects while Northern Amami has /k˭/ . The boundary between Northern and Southern Amami is clear while Southern Amami and Northern Okinawan have no clear isogloss. The pan-Japonic shift of /p > ɸ > h/ can be observed at various stages in Amami–Okinawan. Unlike Northern Amami and Southern Okinawan, Southern Amami and Northern Okinawan tend to maintain labiality , though

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