Hachijō language
The small group of Hachijō dialects, natively called Shima Kotoba, are, depending on classification, either the most divergent form of Japanese, or comprise a branch of Japonic languages. Hachijō is currently spoken on two of the Izu Islands south of Tokyo as well as on the Daitō Islands of Okinawa Prefecture, which were settled from Hachijō-jima in the Meiji era. It was also previously spoken on the island of Hachijō-kojima, which is now abandoned. Based on the criterion of mutual intelligibility, Hachijō may be considered a distinct Japonic language, rather than a dialect of Japanese.
Hachijō is a descendant of Eastern Old Japanese, retaining several unique grammatical and phonetic features recorded in dialect poems from Eastern Japan in the 8th-century Man'yōshū and the Fudoki of Hitachi Province.
Hachijō also has lexical similarities with the dialects of Kyushu and even the Ryukyuan languages; it is not clear if these indicate that the southern Izu islands were settled from that region, if they are loans brought by sailors traveling among the southern islands, or if they might be independent retentions from Old Japanese.
Hachijō is a moribund language with a small and dwindling population of primarily elderly speakers. Since at least 2009, the town of Hachijō has supported efforts to educate its younger generations about the language through primary school classes, karuta games, and Hachijō-language theater productions. Nevertheless, native speakers are estimated to number in the "low hundreds," and younger generations are not learning or using the language at home.
Classification and dialects
The Izu Islands dialects of Hachijō are classified into eight groups according to the various historical villages within Hachijō Subprefecture. On Hachijō-jima, these are Ōkagō, Mitsune, Nakanogō, Kashitate, and Sueyoshi; on Hachijō-kojima, these were Utsuki and Toriuchi; and the village of Aogashima is its own group. The dialects of Ōkagō and Mitsune are very similar, as are those of Nakanogō and Kashitate, while the Aogashima and Sueyoshi dialects are distinct from these two groups. The Utsuki and Toriuchi dialects have not been subcategorized within Hachijō, though the Toriuchi dialect has been noted to be very similar to the Ōkagō dialect in phonology. The dialect of the Daitō Islands also remain uncategorized.The Hachijō language and its dialects are classified by John Kupchik and the National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics, respectively, within the Japonic family as follows:
- Proto-Japonic
- * Proto-Japanese
- **Eastern Old Japanese
- ***Hachijō language
- **** Ōkagō & Mitsune dialects
- **** Nakanogō & Kashitate dialects
- **** Sueyoshi dialect
- **** Aogashima dialect
- **Central Old Japanese
- ***Japanese language
- * Proto-Ryukyuan
- **Ryukyuan languages
The dialects of Hachijō-jima are, like its villages, often referred as being "Uphill" or "Downhill". The villages of Ōkagō and Mitsune in the northwest are Downhill, while the villages of Nakanogō, Kashitate, and Sueyoshi in the south are Uphill—though the Sueyoshi dialect is not particularly close to those of the other "Uphill" villages. Therefore, the Sueyoshi dialect is often excluded from the term "Uphill dialects."
As the number of remaining speakers of Hachijō as a whole is unknown, the numbers of remaining speakers of each dialect are also unknown. Since the abandonment of Hachijō-kojima in 1969, some speakers of the Utsuki and Toriuchi dialects have moved to Hachijō-jima and continue to speak the Hachijō language, though their speech seems to have converged with that of the Downhill dialects. As late as 2009, the Toriuchi dialect had at least one remaining speaker, while the Utsuki dialect had at least five.
Phonology
Phonotactics
Like Standard Japanese, Hachijō syllables are V, that is, with an optional syllable onset C, optional medial glide ', a mandatory syllable nucleus V, and an optional coda ' or . The coda can only be present word-medially, and syllable nuclei can be short or long vowels.The medial glide represents palatalization of the consonant it follows, which also involves a change in place or manner of articulation for certain consonants. Like in Japanese, these changes can also be analyzed phonemically using separate sets of palatalized and non-palatalized consonants. However, from a morphological and cross-dialectal perspective, it is more straightforward to treat palatalized consonants as sequences of consonants and, as is done in this article, following the phonemic analysis made by Kaneda. Furthermore, when a vowel begins with the close front vowel, the preceding consonant becomes palatalized just as if a medial were present.
Hachijō contrasts three syllable weights depending on their rimes:Light syllables end in a short vowel with no coda.Heavy syllables have either a short vowel with a coda, or a long vowel with no coda.Superheavy syllables have both a long vowel and a coda.
Unlike light and heavy syllables, superheavy syllables are strongly avoided in Hachijō, and they are forbidden outright in most verbal inflections. Where they would occur, they are generally resolved by deletion of the coda or by shortening of the long vowel. Where the latter occurs, it can be written with a tie or as a short vowel, e.g., ⟨kogo͡oN⟩ or ⟨kogoN⟩ "in this way"; the former practice will be followed here. Though these shortened vowels are pronounced the same length as short vowels, they still follow the dialectal correspondences for long vowels.
Finally, there are a small number of words that contain N as a syllable nucleus instead of a vowel, such as NNmakja "tasty" .
Vowels
There are five short vowels found in all varieties of Hachijō:| Front | Central | Back | |
| Close | |||
| Mid | |||
| Open |
Many of Hachijō’s long vowels are properly diphthongs, though the majority of them vary in quality based on region, being long monophthongs in some dialects and diphthongs in others. Therefore, in this article, the term "long vowel" will be used to include diphthongs as well. There are relatively straightforward correspondences between the dialectsʼ long vowels:
| This Article | ii | uu | aa | ee | ei | oo | ou | aĭ | uĭ | oĭ |
| Kashitate | ||||||||||
| Nakanogō | ||||||||||
| Sueyoshi | ||||||||||
| Mitsune | ||||||||||
| Ōkagō | ||||||||||
| Toriuchi | ||||||||||
| Utsuki | ||||||||||
| Aogashima | ||||||||||
| Minami Daitō |
The long vowels aĭ, uĭ, and oĭ are comparatively rare, arising mainly from contractions.
Lastly, there are a very small number of discourse markers that contain nasal vowels, such as oĩ "Oh my!" and hõõ "Oh?" or "Oho!"
Consonants
Hachijō contains roughly the same consonants as Standard Japanese, with most consonants able to be followed by all vowels as well as by the medial glide.Phonological processes
In addition to the variations described above, Hachijō also exhibits a handful of other conditioned sound alternations:Affrication of and
When followed by the high vowels or, the plosive consonants t and d become affricates, merging into c and z respectively, which is also reflected in orthography. This change happens in addition to the palatalization of coronal consonants described below.Palatalization of coronal consonants
When followed by the vowel, or when combined with the medial glide, the coronal nasal n as well as all coronal obstruents—namely, t, d, c, z, s—change from an alveolar place of articulation to a palatal one. This change happens in addition to the affrication of t and d mentioned previously. Thus, t-j and c-j become cj, d-j and z-j become zj, s-j becomes sj, and n-j becomes nj.The consonant j is already palatal in articulation, reducing any would-be sequences of to simply.
Lastly, the coronal affricates c and z have a tendency to be sporadically palatalized to cj and zj; compare Utsuki mizoma and Kashitate mizjoma "sewer, drainage," cognate to Japanese 溝 mizo "ditch."
Vowel coalescence
Hachijō generally disallows vocalic segments in hiatus except for in the long vowels listed above. Where such a hiatus would appear, coalescence generally occurs instead. For combinations of two vowels, the following chart gives a general overview:| -e | -i | -o | -u | -wa | |
| a- | ee | ee | oo | oo | awa, oo |
| e- | ei | ei | ei | ei | ewa, ja |
| i- | je | ii | jo | ju | iwa, ja |
| o- | ei | ei | ou | ou | owa, oo |
| u- | ii | ii | uu | uu | uwa, uu |
Noteworthy irregularities or exceptions include:a-wo → ou, seen in the inflection of Class 1.1Aʼ verbs whose stems end in ...aw-, such as utaw- "to sing" → attributive
And although these rules are usually followed etymologically as well, there are some exceptions:
Coalescence can be blocked by leveling and reversed or altered by influence from other dialects or mainland Japanese.
Non-coalescence
As an exception to the vowel coalescence rules given above, there are special situations where the vowel can diphthongize with another short vowel a, o, or u without coalescing with it, forming the long vowels aĭ, oĭ, or uĭ instead of the expected ee, ei, or ii. Many notable examples of this occur when the light syllable re is contracted to, such as in waĭra "we" and nomaraĭdou "despite drinking". The frequency of such contracted forms depends on the dialect and individual.Non-coalescing vowels are comparatively common in the Utsuki dialect, as,, and often occur in place of other dialectsʼ ri, ru, and re due to the loss of the phoneme word-medially. As a result, former ari and aru have merged into the reflexes and of Common Hachijō ei and ou. Compare the following vocabulary:
| Common Hachijō | Mitsune Pronunciation | Utsuki Pronunciation | Meaning |
| ozjarijare | "welcome!" | ||
| taru | "barrel" | ||
| marubara | "died," "has died" | ||
| okireba | "when awakens" | ||
| kabure | "wear !" |
Consonant gemination
The majority of consonants undergo no special changes when geminated, merely becoming longer, e.g.: t → Qt. However, there are a few main exceptions. These first exceptions usually arise by the prefixing of -final suffixes onto words:- Gemination of h: When an h is made geminate, it becomes Qp —for example, oQ- + hesowa "to push" → oQpesowa "to push."
- Gemination of n and m: When an n or m is made geminate, it becomes Nn or Nm, respectively—for example, hiQ- + magarowa "to bend" → hiNmagarowa "to bend."
- Gemination of s: When an s or sj is made geminate, an excrescent causes it to become Qc or Qcj, respectively—for example, hiQ- + simerowa "to tie" → hiQcimerowa "to tie." This feature occurs in all dialects except for Sueyoshi, which has Qs and Qsj in these cases.
- Special gemination of b, d, g, z: In the Uphill dialects, etymological Nb, Nd, Ng, and Nz have often changed into geminate Qb, Qd, Qg, and Qz. For example, the participle of jomowa "to read" in the Kashitate dialect is joQde in contrast to most other dialectsʼ joNde.
''Rendaku''
Like all Japonic languages, Hachijō exhibits rendaku, wherein word-initial voiceless obstruents alternate with voiced ones in some compounds. The alternation is straightforward in Hachijō:All other consonants are unaffected by rendaku.
Grammar
Hachijō is head-final, left-branching, and topic-prominent; often omits nouns that can be understood from context; and has default subject–object–verb word order. Nouns do not exhibit grammatical gender, nor do they usually indicate grammatical number.Hachijō preserves several grammatical features from Old Japanese—particularly Eastern Old Japanese —that are not reflected in Modern Standard Japanese, for example:
- Verbal adjectives use the attributive ending -ke, from EOJ. Contrast Western Old Japanese -ki1, Modern Japanese ～い -i.
- Verbs use the attributive ending -o ~ -ro, from EOJ. Contrast Western Old Japanese and Modern Japanese -u ~ -ru.
- Verbs use the stative derivation -ar-, from EOJ. Contrast Western Old Japanese -e1r-, obsolete in Modern Japanese.
- Verbs use the past tense -ci ~ -zi, from Old Japanese -si. This affix is obsolete in Modern Japanese.
- Verbs use the conjectural extension -naw-, descended from EOJ -nam-. Contrast Western Old Japanese -ram-, Modern Japanese -rō.
- The existence verb arowa is used with all subjects, without the animate–inanimate (iru–aru) distinction made in Standard Japanese.
- * Relatedly, the verb irowa has only its original meaning of "to sit."
- The particles ga and no are both used to mark the nominative and genitive cases.
- Many interrogative particles are based on an-, such as ani "what," aNde "why," and aNsei "why." Contrast the Japanese cognates based on nan-: 何 nani "what," なんで nande "why," and なぜ naze "why".
- The Japonic grammatical phenomenon of kakari-musubi still occurs with the question particle ka and the focus particles ka and koo. This phenomenon started disappearing in Japanese in Late Middle Japanese, and it was lost entirely in Standard Japanese around the Edo Period.
- Many cases of Proto-Japanese
* e and* o are reflected as Hachijo e and o, as seen in EOJ. Contrast Western Old Japanese, which usually merged these vowels into i1 and u.
- The final verb ending -u ~ -ru has been replaced by a new declarative -owa ~ -rowa for many uses.
- The participle of k- and g-stem verbs end in -Qte and -Nde, in contrast to most Japanese dialectsʼ -ite and -ide.
- Several verb affixes have arisen based around an optative-like suffix -oosi, related in some way to the Middle Japanese optative ～ま欲し -maosi.
Vocabulary
Hachijō contains a large number of vocabulary words whose phonetic shapes are not predictable from their Japanese cognates. These differences often reflect forms Hachijō inherited from Eastern Old Japanese or irregular sound changes in one or both languages.| Hachijō | Eastern OJ | Cognate |
| nubur- "to climb" | – | 上る nobor- no2bor- nubuyuɴ |
| horow- "pick up" | pirop- | 拾う hirow- 拾ふ firof- pi1rip- firiɴ ~ firiyuɴ pʰurūruɴ |
| houm- "hold in the mouth" | popom- | 含む fukum- "contain" pupum- |
| nogow- "wipe" | nogop- | 拭う nuguw- 拭ふ nogof- nuguyuɴ |
| ote- "to fall" | – | 落ちる ochi- oti- ʔutiyuɴ |
| ore- "to descend, to disembark" | – | 降りる ori- ori- ʔuriyuɴ |
| memezume "earthworm" | – | 蚯蚓 mimizu mimidu mimiji |
| asub- "to play" | – | 遊ぶ asob- aso1b- asibuɴ ~ ashibuɴ |
| igok- "to work" | – | 動く ugok- "to move" ugo1k- ʔɴjuchuɴ, ʔɴjuk- |
| kasjag- "to lean, to slant" | – | 傾ぐ kashig- kashig-, katag- |
| kasik- "to cook by steaming or boiling" | – | 炊ぐ kashig- kasik- kashichii "okowa" |
| katog- "to bear" | – | 担ぐ katsug- katug- |
| jo "fish" | – | 魚 uo uwo ~ iwo ʔiyu ɿɿu |
| hito, tecu ~ teQcu "one, one thing" | – | 一 hito, 一つ hitotsu pi1to2, pi1to2tu chu, tiitsi pɿtu, pɿtiitsɿ |
Hachijō also preserves vocabulary that has become obsolete in most Japanese dialects, such as:
| Hachijō | Cognate |
| magure- "to faint" | 眩る magure- "to get dizzy" |
| heirak- "to hurt, to sting" | 疼らく fifirak- "to tingle, to sting" |
| hotour- "to be hot" | 熱る fotofor- ~ fotobor- "to emit heat" |
| sjo-ke "known" | 著き siru-ki1 ~ siro1-ki1 "known, evident" |
| nabure- "to hide" | 隠る nabar- ~ namar- "to hide" |
| njow- "to groan" | 呻吟ふ niyof- ~ niyob- "to groan" |
| kour- "to love" | 恋ふ kofi- ko1pi2- |
There are some words which do occur in standard Japanese, but with different meanings:
| Hachijō | Japanese Cognate |
| jama "field" | 山 yama "mountain" |
| gomi "firewood" | ゴミ gomi "trash" |
| oyako "relatives, kin" | 親子 oyako "parent and child" |
| kowakja "tired, exhausted" | 怖い kowai "scary, scared" |
| nikukja "ugly" | 憎い nikui "detestable, difficult" |
| kamowa "to eat" | 噛む kamu "to chew, to bite" |
| izimerowa "to scold" | 苛める ijimeru "to tease, to bully" |
| heirowa "to shout, to cry out" | 吠える hoeru " to bark, to howl" |
| jadorowa "to sleep " | 宿る yadoru "to stay the night" |
| marubowa "to die" | 転ぶ marobu "to collapse, to fall down" |
Lastly, Hachijō also has unique vocabulary words whose relationship to Japonic are unclear or unknown:
| Hachijō | Meaning |
| togirowa | to invite, to call out to |
| kasurowa | to forget |
| deecikja | pretty, clean, tidy |
| kucukawasime | cicada |
| keebjoome | lizard |
| hjoura | lunch, midday meal |
| cube | roof |
| zokume | bull |
| abi | strawberry, raspberry |