Ryukyuan languages


The Ryukyuan languages, also Lewchewan or Luchuan, are the indigenous languages of the Ryukyu Islands, the southernmost part of the Japanese archipelago. Along with the Japanese language and the Hachijō language, they make up the Japonic language family.
Just as among Japanese dialects, which can have low mutual intelligibility, the Ryukyuan and mainland 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 the languages "definitely endangered" and two others "severely endangered".

Overview

Phonologically, the Ryukyuan languages have some cross-linguistically unusual features. Southern Ryukyuan languages have a number of syllabic consonants, including unvoiced syllabic fricatives. Glottalized consonants are common. Some Ryukyuan languages have a central close vowel rather than the more common front and back close vowels and , e.g. Yuwan Amami "tree". Ikema Miyako has a voiceless nasal phoneme. Many Ryukyuan languages, like Standard Japanese and most Japanese dialects, have contrastive pitch accent.
Ryukyuan languages are generally subject–object–verb order, 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.

Classification and varieties

The Ryukyuan languages belong to the Japonic language family, related to the Japanese language. The Ryukyuan languages are not mutually intelligible with Japanese—indeed, Ryukyuan languages are largely not 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 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 is only 72% cognate with the northernmost Ryukyuan language. 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 the Ryukyuan languages into two groups, Northern Ryukyuan and Southern Ryukyuan. 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.
LanguageLocal nameGeographic distributionSpeakersStandard dialectISO 639-3
Kikaiしまゆみた
Kikaijima13,000Onotsukzg
Amami島口 / シマユムタ
Amami Ōshima and surrounding minor islands12,000Setouchi, Naze ams, ryn
Tokunoshimaシマユミィタ
Tokunoshima5,100Kametsu, Tokunoshimatkn
Okinoerabu島ムニ
Okinoerabujima3,200Kunigamiokn
Yoronユンヌフトゥバ
Yoronjima950Higashi Mugiya-ku, Yoronyox
Kunigami
Northern Okinawa Island, and surrounding minor islands5,000Nakijin, but the largest community is Nagoxug
Okinawan沖縄口 / ウチナーグチ
Central and southern Okinawa Island and surrounding minor islands~228,000 native, ~1,143,000 total speakersTraditionally Shuri, modern Naharyu
Miyako

島口 / スマフツ
Miyako Islands50,000Hiraramvi
Yaeyama八重山物言 / ヤイマムニ
Yaeyama Islands 47,600Ishigakirys
Yonaguni
Yonaguni Island400Yonaguniyoi

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.
LanguageThank youWelcome
Standard JapaneseArigatōYōkoso
AmamiArigatesama ryōta
Arigassama ryōta		Imōre
Kunigami MihediroUgamiyabura
Menshōri
OkinawanNifēdēbiruMensōrē
MiyakoTandigātandi
Maifuka		Nmyāchi
YaeyamaMīfaiyū
Fukōrasān		Ōritōri
YonaguniFugarasaWāri

Status

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 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 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 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 is locally known as .
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, as the day's numerals in goroawase spell out ku, tu, ba ; kutuba is one of the few words common throughout the Ryukyuan languages meaning "word" or "language". A similar commemoration is held in the Amami region on February 18 beginning in 2007, proclaimed as by Ōshima Subprefecture in Kagoshima Prefecture. Each island has its own name for the event:
  • Amami Ōshima: or
  • Kikaijima:
  • Tokunoshima: or
  • Okinoerabujima:
  • Yoronjima:.
Yoronjima's fu ''tu ba is the goroawase source of the February 18 date, much like with Okinawa Prefecture's use of kutuba''.

History

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 as well as the Shiraho Saonetabaru Cave Ruins 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. 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 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 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, a method of public humiliation. Students who regularly wore the card would receive corporal punishment. 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. 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 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 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.