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84-477: The Omoro Sōshi ( おもろさうし , Okinawan : Umuru U-Sōshi , Northern Ryukyuan : おもろおさうし Omoro O-Saushi ) is a compilation of ancient poems and songs from Okinawa and the Amami Islands , collected into 22 volumes and written primarily in hiragana with some simple kanji . There are 1,553 poems in the collection, but many are repeated; the number of unique pieces is 1,144. The hiragana used, however,

168-589: A central close vowel rather than the more common front and back close vowels [i] and [u], 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

252-434: A clitic, e.g. /si=nu/ . However, the syllable may still sometimes be relevant—for instance, the Ōgami topic marker takes a different form after open syllables with short vowels: Ryukyuan languages typically have a pitch accent system where some mora in a word bears the pitch accent. They commonly either have two or three distinctive types of pitch accent which may be applied. The category of foot also has relevance to

336-698: A cluster /ʔ/ + C, where the consonant /ʔ/ consists of its own mora. For instance, in the Amami dialect Yuwan the word /ʔma/ [ˀma] "horse" is bimoraic. Tsuken (Central Okinawan) restricts glottalization to glides and the vowels /a i/ . Southern Ryukyuan mostly has little to no glottalization, with some exceptions (e.g. Yonaguni). For instance, the Irabu dialect of the Miyako language only allows glottalization with /t/ and /c/ : /ttjaa/ [ˀtʲaː] "then", /ccir/ [ˀtɕiɭ] "pipe". Southern Ryukyuan stands out in having

420-468: A connection to tradition and history. Only a small handful of scholars has studied the documents in any significant depth. The vast changes in Ryukyuan culture and language over the last several centuries have made the poetry difficult to access and understand, and Iha Fuyū (d. 1947) and Nakahara Zenchū (d. 1964) were among the only ones to extensively study it. Iha, Nakahara, and several others have used

504-556: A distinction between the terminal form ( 終止形 ) and the attributive form ( 連体形 ), the genitive function of が ga (lost in the Shuri dialect), the nominative function of ぬ nu (cf. Japanese: の no ), as well as honorific/plain distribution of ga and nu in nominative use. Classical Japanese: 書く kaku One etymology given for the -un and -uru endings is the continuative form suffixed with uri ("to be; to exist", cf. Classical Japanese : 居り wori ): -un developed from

588-416: A method of dying clothes. And before alveolar and alveolo-palatal consonants, it becomes a syllabic alveolar nasal /n̩/ , as in /kaɴda/ [kan̩da] kanda "vine". In some varieties, it instead becomes a syllabic uvular nasal [ɴ̩] . Elsewhere, its exact realization remains unspecified, and it may vary depending on the first sound of the next word or morpheme. In isolation and at the end of utterances, it

672-628: A number of local dialects, the Shuri – Naha variant is generally recognized as the de facto standard, as it had been used as the official language of the Ryukyu Kingdom since the reign of King Shō Shin (1477–1526). Moreover, as the former capital of Shuri was built around the royal palace, the language used by the royal court became the regional and literary standard, which thus flourished in songs and poems written during that era. Today, most Okinawans speak Okinawan Japanese , although

756-663: A number of people still speak the Okinawan language, most often the elderly. Within Japan, Okinawan is often not seen as a language unto itself but is referred to as the Okinawan dialect ( 沖縄方言 , Okinawa hōgen ) or more specifically the Central and Southern Okinawan dialects ( 沖縄中南部諸方言 , Okinawa Chūnanbu Sho hōgen ) . Okinawan speakers are undergoing language shift as they switch to Japanese, since language use in Okinawa today

840-425: A number of syllabic consonants. These consonants are contextually nucleic, becoming syllabic when not adjacent to a vowel. Examples: Irabu Miyako: Ōgami Miyako Ōgami even shows a three-way length distinction in fricatives, though across a syllable boundary: Ikema (a Miyako dialect) has a voiceless moraic nasal phoneme /n̥/ , which always precedes another nasal onset and assimilates its place of articulation to

924-603: A process of glottalization of word-initial vowels. Hence, all vowels in Okinawan are predictably glottalized at the beginning of words ( */ame/ → /ʔami/ ami "rain"), save for a few exceptions. High vowel loss or assimilation following this process created a contrast with glottalized approximants and nasal consonants. Compare */uwa/ → /ʔwa/ Q wa "pig" to /wa/ wa "I", or */ine/ → /ʔɴni/ Q nni "rice plant" to */mune/ → /ɴni/ nni "chest". The moraic nasal /N/ has been posited in most descriptions of Okinawan phonology. Like Japanese, /N/ (transcribed using

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1008-526: A stone stele at the Tamaudun mausoleum, dating back to 1501. After the invasion of Okinawa by the Shimazu clan of Satsuma in 1609, Okinawan ceased to be used in official affairs. It was replaced by standard Japanese writing and a form of Classical Chinese writing known as kanbun . Despite this change, Okinawan still continued to prosper in local literature up until the nineteenth century. Following

1092-423: A subject of a sentence Pronouns are classified the same as nouns, except that pronouns are more broad. Adverbs are classified as an independent, non-conjugating part of speech that cannot become a subject of a sentence and modifies a declinable word (用言; verbs, adverbs, adjectives) that comes after the adverb. There are two main categories to adverbs and several subcategories within each category, as shown in

1176-403: A written work, but the origins and meaning of the term "omoro" are more elusive. Iha Fuyū was among the scholars who traced it to various words associated with oracles and divine songs. He further derived the term as referring to omori , a Ryukyuan word for sacred groves. Nakahara Zenchū , on the other hand, traced it back to the Ryukyuan umuru , or umui , meaning "to think". Regardless of

1260-518: Is a Japonic language , derived from Proto-Japonic and is therefore related to Japanese . The split between Old Japanese and the Ryukyuan languages has been estimated to have occurred as early as the 1st century AD to as late as the 12th century AD. Chinese and Japanese characters were first introduced by a Japanese missionary in 1265. Hiragana was a much more popular writing system than kanji ; thus, Okinawan poems were commonly written solely in hiragana or with little kanji. Okinawan became

1344-503: Is a Northern Ryukyuan language spoken primarily in the southern half of the island of Okinawa , as well as in the surrounding islands of Kerama , Kumejima , Tonaki , Aguni and a number of smaller peripheral islands. Central Okinawan distinguishes itself from the speech of Northern Okinawa, which is classified independently as the Kunigami language . Both languages are listed by UNESCO as endangered . Though Okinawan encompasses

1428-485: Is a traditional orthography which associates different sounds to the characters than their normal Japanese readings, due to it originally being based on an earlier stage of Northern Ryukyuan that has not yet undergone vowel raising characteristic of the modern languages. The characters used to write omoro , for example (おもろ), would be written this same way, but pronounced as umuru in Okinawan . The poetry contained in

1512-477: Is far from stable. Okinawans are assimilating and accenting standard Japanese due to the similarity of the two languages, the standardized and centralized education system, the media, business and social contact with mainlanders and previous attempts from Japan to suppress the native languages. Okinawan is still kept alive in popular music, tourist shows and in theaters featuring a local drama called uchinā shibai , which depict local customs and manners. Okinawan

1596-650: 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: 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 . It is generally accepted that the Ryukyu Islands were populated by Proto-Japonic speakers in

1680-403: Is largely due to the shift to Standard Japanese. Throughout history, Okinawan languages have been treated as dialects of Standard Japanese. For instance, in the 20th century, many schools used "dialect tags" to punish the students who spoke in Okinawan. Consequently, many of the remaining speakers today are choosing not to transmit their languages to younger generations due to the stigmatization of

1764-661: Is likely much lower. 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. 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

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1848-501: Is realized as a velar nasal [ŋ̍] . The Okinawan language was historically written using an admixture of kanji and hiragana . The hiragana syllabary is believed to have first been introduced from mainland Japan to the Ryukyu Kingdom some time during the reign of king Shunten in the early thirteenth century. It is likely that Okinawans were already in contact with hanzi (Chinese characters) due to extensive trade between

1932-451: Is the language of choice among the younger generation. 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"). To try to preserve

2016-527: Is unmotivated. Consequently, the existence of /ɸ/ must be regarded as independent of /h/ , even though the two overlap. Barring a few words that resulted from the former change, the aspirate /h/ also arose from the odd lenition of /k/ and /s/ , as well as words loaned from other dialects. Before the glide /j/ and the high vowel /i/ , it is pronounced closer to [ç] , as in Japanese. The plosive consonants /t/ and /k/ historically palatalized and affricated into /t͡ɕ/ before and occasionally following

2100-565: The Japonic language family, related to the Japanese language . 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. However, for socio-political and ideological reasons, they have often been classified within Japan as dialects of Japanese. Since the beginning of World War II , most mainland Japanese have regarded

2184-605: The Meiji Restoration , the Japanese government abolished the domain system and formally annexed the Ryukyu Islands to Japan as the Okinawa Prefecture in 1879. To promote national unity, the government then introduced standard education and opened Japanese-language schools based on the Tokyo dialect . Students were discouraged and chastised for speaking or even writing in the local "dialect", notably through

2268-547: The phonemic and allophonic level. Namely, Okinawan retains the labialized consonants /kʷ/ and /ɡʷ/ which were lost in Late Middle Japanese , possesses a glottal stop /ʔ/ , features a voiceless bilabial fricative /ɸ/ distinct from the aspirate /h/ , and has two distinctive affricates which arose from a number of different sound processes . Additionally, Okinawan lacks the major allophones [t͡s] and [d͡z] found in Japanese, having historically fronted

2352-601: The Japanese government annexed Ryukyu and established Okinawa Prefecture. The prefectural office mainly consisted of people from Kagoshima Prefecture where the Satsuma Domain used to be. This caused the modernization of Okinawa as well as language shift to Japanese. As a result, Japanese became the standard language for administration, education, media, and literature. In 1902, the National Language Research Council ( 国語調査委員会 ) began

2436-474: The Northern Ryukyuan languages. Since the creation of Okinawa Prefecture, Okinawan has been labeled a dialect of Japanese as part of a policy of assimilation. Later, Japanese linguists, such as Tōjō Misao , who studied the Ryukyuan languages argued that they are indeed dialects. This is due to the misconception that Japan is a homogeneous state (one people, one language, one nation), and classifying

2520-524: The Okinawan language. This policy of linguicide lasted into the post-war occupation of the Ryukyu Islands by the United States . 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

2604-431: 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. 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

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2688-735: The Ryukyu Islands: the Amami Islands , the Okinawa Islands , the Miyako Islands , and the Yaeyama Islands . The former is in the Kagoshima Prefecture , while the latter three are in the Okinawa Prefecture . 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

2772-613: The Ryukyu Kingdom was colonized by the Satsuma Domain in the south of Japan. However, Satsuma did not fully invade the Ryukyu in fear of colliding with China, which had a stronger trading relationship with the Ryukyu at the time. When Ryukyu was annexed by Japan in 1879, the majority of people on Okinawa Island spoke Okinawan. Within 10 years, the Japanese government began an assimilation policy of Japanization , where Ryukyuan languages were gradually suppressed. The education system

2856-439: The Ryukyu Kingdom and China, Japan and Korea. However, hiragana gained more widespread acceptance throughout the Ryukyu Islands, and most documents and letters were exclusively transcribed using this script, in contrast to in Japan where writing solely in hiragana was considered "women's script". The Omoro Sōshi ( おもろさうし ), a sixteenth-century compilation of songs and poetry, and a few preserved writs of appointments dating from

2940-662: The Ryukyuan group linguistically. The Yonaguni dialect is very different in phonetics from the other groups but it comes closest to the Yaeyama dialect lexically. Outside Japan, Okinawan is considered a separate language from Japanese. This was first proposed by Basil Hall Chamberlain , who compared the relationship between Okinawan and Japanese to that of the Romance languages . UNESCO has marked it as an endangered language. UNESCO listed six Okinawan language varieties as endangered languages in 2009. The endangerment of Okinawan

3024-660: 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. There is general agreement among linguistics experts that Ryukyuan varieties can be divided into six languages, conservatively, with dialects unique to islands within each group also sometimes considered languages. A widely accepted hypothesis among linguists categorizes

3108-458: The Ryukyuan languages as such would discredit this assumption. The present-day official stance of the Japanese government remains that Okinawan is a dialect, and it is common within the Japanese population for it to be called 沖縄方言 ( okinawa hōgen ) or 沖縄弁 ( okinawa-ben ) , which means "Okinawa dialect (of Japanese )". The policy of assimilation, coupled with increased interaction between Japan and Okinawa through media and economics, has led to

3192-505: The Ryukyuan languages into two groups, Northern Ryukyuan (Amami–Okinawa) and Southern Ryukyuan (Miyako–Yaeyama). 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

3276-733: 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). 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

3360-581: The South Seas. The Omoro Sōshi was first compiled in 1531, and again in 1613 and 1623, as part of attempts by the royal government to secure their cultural or spiritual legitimacy and power. The first compilation came just after the reign of Shō Shin , who consolidated, centralized, and reformed the government, and the second came just after Ryukyu became a direct vassal to Satsuma. At both times, cultural and ideological means, as well as more mundane political ones, were needed to ensure unity and to maintain

3444-444: The accentual systems of some Ryukyuan languages, and some Miyako varieties have a cross-linguistically rare system of tonal foot. However, Irabu Miyakoan does not have lexical accent. The Ryukyuan languages consistently distinguish between the word classes of nouns and verbs, distinguished by the fact that verbs take inflectional morphology . Property-concept (adjectival) words are generally bound morphemes . One strategy they use

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3528-407: The chart below, with major allophones presented in parentheses. The only consonant that can occur as a syllable coda is the archiphoneme |n| . Many analyses treat it as an additional phoneme /N/ , the moraic nasal , though it never contrasts with /n/ or /m/ . The consonant system of the Okinawan language is fairly similar to that of standard Japanese, but it does present a few differences on

3612-738: The commission proposed an unified spelling rule based on katakana for languages of Kunigami, Okinawa, Miyako, Yaeyama and Yonaguni on May 30 in 2022. Ryukyuan languages often share many phonological features with Japanese, including a voicing opposition for obstruents , CV(C) syllable structure, moraic rhythm , and pitch accent . However, many individual Ryukyuan languages diverge significantly from this pan-Japonic base. For instance, Ōgami does not have phonemic voicing in obstruents, allows CCVC syllables, and has unusual syllabic consonants such as /kff/ [kf̩ː] "make". The Northern Ryukyuan (Amami-Okinawa) languages are notable for having glottalic consonants . Phonemically these are analyzed of consisting of

3696-454: The compilation as a basis for research into ancient Ryukyuan customs and society. Thorough analysis has yielded elements of a foundation of understanding of ancient governance, social structures, and folk religion, but it cannot be expected that a comprehensive understanding may be derived from the material. Okinawan language The Okinawan language ( 沖縄口 , ウチナーグチ , Uchināguchi , [ʔut͡ɕinaːɡut͡ɕi] ) or Central Okinawan

3780-449: The development of Okinawan Japanese , which is a dialect of Japanese influenced by the Okinawan and Kunigami languages. Japanese and Okinawan only share 60% of the same vocabulary, despite both being Japonic languages. Okinawan linguist Seizen Nakasone states that the Ryukyuan languages are in fact groupings of similar dialects. As each community has its own distinct dialect, there is no "one language". Nakasone attributes this diversity to

3864-424: The different phrases used in each language for "thank you" and "welcome", with standard Japanese provided for comparison. There is no census data for the Ryukyuan languages, and the number of speakers is unknown. 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

3948-454: The first becoming a flap in word-medial position, and the second sometimes becoming a plosive in word-initial position. For example, /ɾuː/ rū "dragon" may be strengthened into /duː/ dū , and /hasidu/ hashidu "door" conversely flaps into /hasiɾu/ hashiru . The two sounds do, however, still remain distinct in a number of words and verbal constructions. Okinawan also features a distinctive glottal stop /ʔ/ that historically arose from

4032-751: 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 as well as the Shiraho Saonetabaru Cave Ruins suggest an earlier arrival to

4116-466: The following nasal. Amami has high and mid central vowels. Yonaguni only has three contrasting vowels, /i/ , /u/ and /a/ . The Ryukyuan languages operate based on the mora . Most Ryukyuan languages require words to be at least bimoraic, thus for example in Hateruma the underlying noun root /si/ "hand" becomes /siː/ when it is an independent noun, though it remains as /si/ when attached to

4200-611: The glide /j/ and the high vowel /i/ : */kiri/ → /t͡ɕiɾi/ chiri "fog", and */k(i)jora/ → /t͡ɕuɾa/ chura- "beautiful". This change preceded vowel raising, so that instances where /i/ arose from */e/ did not trigger palatalization: */ke/ → /kiː/ kī "hair". Their voiced counterparts /d/ and /ɡ/ underwent the same effect, becoming /d͡ʑ/ under such conditions: */unaɡi/ → /ʔɴnad͡ʑi/ Q nnaji "eel", and */nokoɡiri/ → /nukud͡ʑiɾi/ nukujiri "saw"; but */kaɡeɴ/ → /kaɡiɴ/ kagin "seasoning". Both /t/ and /d/ may or may not also allophonically affricate before

4284-448: The high vowel /u/ , and /ɸ/ does not occur before the rounded vowel /o/ . This suggests that an overlap between /ɸ/ and /h/ exists, and so the contrast in front of other vowels can be denoted through labialization. However, this analysis fails to take account of the fact that Okinawan has not fully undergone the diachronic change */p/ → /ɸ/ → */h/ as in Japanese, and that the suggested clusterization and labialization into */hw/

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4368-452: 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. 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 . After this initial settlement, there was little contact between

4452-699: 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. Circa 2007, in Okinawa , people under the age of 40 have little proficiency in the native Okinawan language . A new mixed language , based on Japanese and Okinawan, has developed, known as " Okinawan Japanese ". Although it has been largely ignored by linguists and language activists, this

4536-550: The isolation caused by immobility, citing the story of his mother who wanted to visit the town of Nago but never made the 25 km trip before she died of old age. The contemporary dialects in Ryukyuan language are divided into three large groups: Amami-Okinawa dialects, Miyako-Yaeyama dialects, and the Yonaguni dialect. All of them are mutually unintelligible. Amami is located in the Kagoshima prefecture but it belongs to

4620-400: The language using hiragana with kanji. In any case, no standard or consensus concerning spelling issues has ever been formalized, so discrepancies between modern literary works are common. Technically, they are not syllables, but rather morae . Each mora in Okinawan will consist of one or two kana characters. If two, then a smaller version of kana follows the normal sized kana. In each cell of

4704-530: 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") , 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

4788-572: The language. The Okinawan language is still spoken by communities of Okinawan immigrants in Brazil . The first immigrants from the island of Okinawa to Brazil landed in the Port of Santos in 1908 drawn by the hint of work and farmable land. Once in a new country and far from their homeland, they found themselves in a place where there was no prohibition of their language, allowing them to willingly speak, celebrate and preserve their speech and culture, up to

4872-432: The languages "definitely endangered" and two others "severely endangered". 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

4956-674: The languages in the past. There have been several revitalization efforts made to reverse this language shift. However, Okinawan is still poorly taught in formal institutions due to the lack of support from the Okinawan Education Council: education in Okinawa is conducted exclusively in Japanese, and children do not study Okinawan as their second language at school. As a result, at least two generations of Okinawans have grown up without any proficiency in their local languages both at home and school. The Okinawan language has five vowels, all of which may be long or short, though

5040-461: The linguistic unification of Japan to Standard Japanese. This caused the linguistic stigmatization of many local varieties in Japan including Okinawan. As the discrimination accelerated, Okinawans themselves started to abandon their languages and shifted to Standard Japanese. Okinawan dialect card , similar to Welsh Not in Wales, were adopted in Okinawa, Japan. Under American administration, there

5124-708: The main islands and the Ryukyu Islands for centuries, allowing Ryukyuan and Japanese to diverge as separate linguistic entities from each other. This situation lasted until the Kyushu -based Satsuma Domain conquered the Ryukyu Islands in the 17th century. In 1846-1849 first Protestant missionary in Ryukyu Bernard Jean Bettelheim studied local languages, partially translated the Bible into them and published first grammar of Shuri Ryukyuan. The Ryukyu Kingdom retained its autonomy until 1879, when it

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5208-469: The mid vowel /e/ , though this pronunciation is increasingly rare. Similarly, the fricative consonant /s/ palatalizes into [ɕ] before the glide /j/ and the vowel /i/ , including when /i/ historically derives from /e/ : */sekai/ → [ɕikeː] shikē "world". It may also palatalize before the vowel /e/ , especially so in the context of topicalization : [duɕi] dushi → [duɕeː] dusē or dushē "( topic ) friend". In general, sequences containing

5292-444: 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 , Shimakutuba seishohō kentō iinkai ) in 2018, and

5376-484: The official language under King Shō Shin . The Omoro Sōshi , a compilation of ancient Ryukyuan poems, was written in an early form of Okinawan, known as Old Okinawan. After Ryukyu became a vassal of Satsuma Domain , kanji gained more prominence in poetry; however, official Ryukyuan documents were written in Classical Chinese . During this time, the language gradually evolved into Modern Okinawan. In 1609,

5460-601: The only one to be recorded with any consistency. Outside of what might be inferred or reconstructed from the Omoro Sōshi , no record survives today of earlier forms of Ryukyuan music and dance. Though reflective of ancient folk traditions, the poetry also reflects the intricate links the Ryukyus enjoyed with other nearby states. Many of the Ryukyuan islands, largely culturally and linguistically isolated, are mentioned, along with various locations in Japan, China, Southeast Asia, and

5544-421: The palatal consonant /j/ are relatively rare and tend to exhibit depalatalization. For example, /mj/ tends to merge with /n/ ( [mjaːku] myāku → [naːku] nāku " Miyako "); */rj/ has merged into /ɾ/ and /d/ ( */rjuː/ → /ɾuː/ rū ~ /duː/ dū "dragon"); and /sj/ has mostly become /s/ ( /sjui/ shui → /sui/ sui " Shuri "). The voiced plosive /d/ and the flap /ɾ/ tend to merge, with

5628-491: 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 . There are four major island groups which make up

5712-526: The present day. Currently the Okinawan-Japanese centers and communities in the State of São Paulo are a world reference to this language helping it to stay alive. Okinawan is sometimes grouped with Kunigami as the Okinawan languages; however, not all linguists accept this grouping, some claiming that Kunigami is a dialect of Okinawan. Okinawan is also grouped with Amami (or the Amami languages) as

5796-459: The same century were written solely in Hiragana. Kanji were gradually adopted due to the growing influence of mainland Japan and to the linguistic affinity between the Okinawan and Japanese languages. However, it was mainly limited to affairs of high importance and to documents sent towards the mainland. The oldest inscription of Okinawan exemplifying its use along with Hiragana can be found on

5880-558: 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

5964-417: The short vowels /e/ and /o/ are quite rare, as they occur only in a few native Okinawan words with heavy syllables with the pattern /Ceɴ/ or /Coɴ/ , such as /m e ɴsoːɾeː/ m e nsōrē "welcome" or /t o ɴɸaː/ t o nfā . The close back vowels /u/ and /uː/ are truly rounded, rather than the compressed vowels of standard Japanese. The Okinawan language counts some 20 distinctive segments shown in

6048-422: The small capital /ɴ/ ) occupies a full mora and its precise place of articulation will vary depending on the following consonant. Before other labial consonants, it will be pronounced closer to a syllabic bilabial nasal [m̩] , as in /ʔɴma/ [ʔm̩ma] Q nma "horse". Before velar and labiovelar consonants, it will be pronounced as a syllabic velar nasal [ŋ̍] , as in /biɴɡata/ [biŋ̍ɡata] bingata ,

6132-541: The table below, the top row is the kana (hiragana to the left, katakana to the right of the dot), the middle row in rōmaji ( Hepburn romanization ), and the bottom row in IPA. Okinawan follows a subject–object–verb word order and makes large use of particles as in Japanese. Okinawan retains a number of Japonic grammatical features also found in Old Japanese but lost (or highly restricted) in Modern Japanese , such as

6216-444: The table below. あぬ Anu 夫婦 （ ふぃとぅんだー ） Ryukyuan languages Although Japanese is spoken in the Ryukyu Islands, the Ryukyu and Japanese languages are not mutually intelligible . It is not known how many speakers of these languages remain, but language shift toward the use of Standard Japanese and dialects like Okinawan Japanese has resulted in these languages becoming endangered ; UNESCO labels four of

6300-457: The terminal form uri ; -uru developed from the attributive form uru , i.e.: A similar etymology is given for the terminal -san and attributive -saru endings for adjectives: the stem suffixed with さ sa (nominalises adjectives, i.e. high → height, hot → heat), suffixed with ari ("to be; to exist; to have", cf. Classical Japanese: 有り ari ), i.e.: Nouns are classified as independent, non-conjugating part of speech that can become

6384-587: The true meaning or origins of the term, however, a basic cloud of meanings is nevertheless apparent. The omoro sōshi , a "compilation of thoughts" or of collective memory, is also associated with sacred groves and with divine songs. The omoro , as a form, are said to be the predecessors in Ryukyuan culture to distinct forms of music, dance, and literature; they incorporate all three of these. Only after centuries of development, and influence from China, Japan, and various South Seas cultures, did distinct traditions of music, dance, and literature develop, literature being

6468-437: The use of " dialect cards " ( 方言札 ). As a result, Okinawan gradually ceased to be written entirely until the American takeover in 1945. Since then, Japanese and American scholars have variously transcribed the regional language using a number of ad hoc romanization schemes or the katakana syllabary to demarcate its foreign nature with standard Japanese. Proponents of Okinawan tend to be more traditionalist and continue to write

6552-653: The volumes extends from the 12th century, or possibly earlier, to some composed by the Queen of Shō Nei (1589-1619). Though formally composed and recorded at these times, most if not all are believed to derive from far earlier traditions, as a result of their language, style, and content. The poems contained in the compilation vary, but follow a general pattern of celebrating famous heroes of the past, from poets and warriors to kings and voyagers. A few are love poems. They range from two verses to forty, some making extensive use of rhyme and couplet structures. Sōshi (草紙) means simply

6636-439: The vowel /u/ to /i/ after the alveolars /t d s z/ , consequently merging [t͡su] tsu into [t͡ɕi] chi , [su] su into [ɕi] shi , and both [d͡zu] dzu and [zu] zu into [d͡ʑi] ji . It also lacks /z/ as a distinctive phoneme, having merged it into /d͡ʑ/ . The bilabial fricative /ɸ/ has sometimes been transcribed as the cluster /hw/ , since, like Japanese, /h/ allophonically labializes into [ɸ] before

6720-529: 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. In the World War II era, speaking the Ryukyuan languages was officially illegal, although in practice the older generation was still monolingual. During the Battle of Okinawa , many Okinawans were labeled as spies and executed for speaking

6804-530: 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

6888-634: Was an attempt to revive and standardize Okinawan, but this proved difficult and was shelved in favor of Japanese. General Douglas MacArthur attempted to promote Okinawan languages and culture through education. Multiple English words were introduced. After Okinawa's reversion to Japanese sovereignty, Japanese continued to be the dominant language used, and the majority of the youngest generations only speak Okinawan Japanese . There have been attempts to revive Okinawan by notable people such as Byron Fija and Seijin Noborikawa , but few native Okinawans know

6972-414: Was annexed by Japan. The Japanese government adopted a policy of forced assimilation, appointing mainland Japanese to political posts and suppressing native culture and language. Students caught speaking the Ryukyuan languages were made to wear a dialect card ( 方言札 hōgen fuda ), a method of public humiliation . Students who regularly wore the card would receive corporal punishment . In 1940, there

7056-476: Was the heart of Japanization, where Okinawan children were taught Japanese and punished for speaking their native language, being told that their language was just a "dialect". By 1945, many Okinawans spoke Japanese, and many were bilingual. During the Battle of Okinawa , some Okinawans were killed by Japanese soldiers for speaking Okinawan. Language shift to Japanese in Ryukyu/Okinawa began in 1879 when

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