Ryukyu languages

In total there are 3-4 Ryukyu languages. Often their number increases to six, then adverbs are considered separate languages.

Severnorukyuk group (Amami-Okinawan group)

the differences between the two components are just on the verge of differences between language and adverb:

• Amami (Amami) - spoken on the Amami Islands ; 130 thousand carriers;
  • North Amami dialect:
    • North Oshima dialect - north of Oshima island
    • Kikai dialect - about. Kikai
  • South Amami dialect:
    • South Oshim dialect - south of Oshima island
    • Tokunoshima dialect - about. Tokunoshima
• Okinawan - spoken on Okinawa :
  • Okinoerabus dialect - about. Okinoerabu
  • Yoron dialect - about. Yoron
  • Kunigam dialect (North Okinawan, Kunigami; self-name - Kundjiang) - is common in the north of the island, in particular in the Yambaru region and on the surrounding islands; 5,000 carriers.
  • the Okinawan dialect proper (Central South Okinawan; self-designation - Uchinaaguchi ) - is common in the south and in the center of Okinawa and on the nearest small islands; the most famous dialect is Shuri (modern Naha ); 900,000 carriers.

South Noryuk group

• Sakishima language (Sakishima) - Sakishima island, includes two dialects:
  • Miyako dialect (miyako; self-name - myaaku hutsi , me: ku hutsi ) - is common on the Miyako Islands ; the most famous dialect of the city of Hirara ; 55,783 carriers.
  • Yayeyama dialect (Yayeyama; self-name - yaima munii , Yayima munii ) - is common on the islands of Yayeyama ; famous Ishigaki dialect; 44,650 carriers.
• Yonagun language (Yonaguni) - spoken on Yonaguni Island; 1800 carriers.

The Ryukyu languages ​​and Japanese were divided “shortly before the appearance of the first written Japanese texts, that is, in the region of the 7th century” ^[2] .

In Japan, including Okinawa, linguists have not yet reached a consensus on whether the Ryukyu languages ​​are a separate language group, or whether these are just dialects of the Japanese language. In general, the problem of “language or dialect” does not have an unambiguous solution, and naming takes into account socio-historical and political conditions. The more complicated is the situation with the Ryukyu languages.

One way to find out if two idioms are languages ​​or dialects is to check their mutual understanding. If the idiom A is not understood by a native speaker of B who does not speak other idioms, then B is considered a separate language. However, this is not an absolute criterion.

• From one point of view, the Ryukyu languages ​​are separate languages ​​that are part of a group on a territorial basis. This opinion is based on the fact that the Ryukyushas are completely incomprehensible with the Japanese, and also contain many linguistic features that are absent in Japanese.
• From another point of view, within Japan itself there are dialects incomprehensible to native Japanese literatures.
• It is believed that the Ryukyu languages ​​are included in the Japanese language group, without becoming Japanese dialects.

Languages ​​and dialects are usually correlated with nationalities and nationalities. For example, if the carriers of the idiom A do not have state sovereignty , then their idioms are more likely to be called a dialect. However, this criterion is often criticized.

The Satsuma dialect is also located between the dialect of the Japanese language and the Ryukyu language, which only complicates the problem. The resolution of contradictions is also hindered by the scatter of views on Okinawan nationalism. Japanese linguists usually evade a direct answer, saying that Ryukyus can be considered both a language and a dialect. At the same time, a clarification is possible: this is a language, when compared with literary Japanese, on the basis of the Tokyo dialect, but compared to the Kyushu dialects, it is a dialect. It should be noted that the literary language was formed only in the 19th century, after the Meiji restoration , when the capital moved to Tokyo .

In Okinawa , they use literary Japanese in official situations. In everyday speech, Okinawans under 60 speak literary Japanese with Okinawan reprimand. This dialect is called ウ チ ナ ー ヤ マ ゥ ゥ グ У ( Utinaa Yamatoguchi , “ Okinawan Japanese ”), it is often mistaken for the Okinawan language ( ウ チ ナ ー グ チ , Utinaaguchi ). In the same way, the home language of the inhabitants of Amami Island is not the Amami language , but the local dialect of the literary language. It is called ト ン 普通 語 ( tone futsu: go , "literary potato") ^[3] .

Today, the Ryukyu language remains native to about a million people, most of whom are old people. Some children learn Ryukyuk, usually if they live with their grandparents. Few of the twenty-year-olds call Ryukyus their native language. Folk songs are sung in Ryukyus. A bilingual news radio broadcast is produced ^[4] .

In general, speakers of the main Ryukyuk languages ​​do not understand each other. So, there are only three vowels in yonaguni phonetics , and 14 in amami, counting long vowels. The following is a comparative table of phrases in Ryukyuk and Japanese.

Speakers of dialects (languages) of Amami, Miyako, Yayeyama, Yenaguni usually also know Okinawan . Many yonaguni carriers know yayama. Since the islands of Amami , Miyako , Yayeyama and Yonaguni are less urbanized than Okinawa , their languages ​​do not die out as quickly as Okinawan; children still speak them. The age ratio of Okinawan speakers is unknown, but it is rapidly losing ground in the Okinawan native language.

From ancient times, official documents on the Ryukyu were written in classical Chinese. For carriers of modern Chinese reading these documents or inscriptions on the Ryukyus gravestones is not difficult. Japanese began to influence the Ryukyu languages ​​about 130 years ago, with the final conquest of the archipelago and its transformation into Okinawa Prefecture.

Since the beginning of World War II, most Japanese people have looked at the Ryukyu languages ​​as a group of dialects of Japanese. Before the conquest of the Ryukyu Kingdom by Japan at the end of the 19th century, the independent status of the Ryukyu languages ​​was not in doubt. However, during World War II, the Japanese government tried to enhance the prestige of the Japanese language by declaring the Ryukyu, Korean, Palauian and some other languages ​​as dialects of Japanese. Ryukyu languages ​​are still called "dialects."

After the loss of Ryukyu independence in educational institutions, they stopped teaching in Ryukyu languages. In Korea and Taiwan, for example, they continued to teach in local languages ​​for some time. In Okinawan schools, students convicted of using the Ryukyu languages ​​were put on a lace with a “dialect card” ( 方言 札 ) around their neck, which stated that this was a bad student, since he uses a dialect. “Cards” is a borrowing from 19th-century French language policy , from which the concept of bergony also comes from , that is, “shame” in the oppressed Occitan language . The French government opposed the use of local languages, Provencal (Occitan) , Catalan , Breton . In the UK , for example, there was a similar persecution . Other dialects were criticized, for example, in Tohoku .

Despite the apparent destruction of local languages, Okinawan parents often supported the “dialect card” system, hoping that their children would be able to go to big cities. The post-war American occupation of Japan put an end to the system.

Today, the government of Okinawa Prefecture seeks to preserve the Ryukyu languages, including the revival of multiculturalism in official politics. However, the situation continues to be unstable, as most Okinawan children are Japanese monolinguals.

On the stones, ancient ryukyu inscriptions are often found. For example, Tamaudun-no-hinomon ( 玉 陵 の 碑文 "The inscription on the grave of Tamaudun ") (1501). In the Ryukyu Kingdom, government inscriptions were usually written using kanji and the Hiragana syllable alphabet, borrowed from Japan. In Japan itself in those days, all orders and government documents were written in classical Chinese (wenyang), and hiragana was used only in unofficial cases. Wenyang was sometimes used on the Ryukyu, reading it with the kundoku method or in Chinese. Almost never used Katakana on the Ryukyu.

The inhabitants did not learn kanji. The famous collection of songs by Omoroso: si (1531-1623) was written mainly by hiragana. In addition to hiragana on the Ryukyu, the figures of Suzhou or huam imported from China were also used ( su: tu: maす う ち う ま in Okinawan). Yonaguni Island had its own writing system, Kaida logograms (カ イ ダ ー 字 or カ イ ダ ー デ ィ ー). ^[5] All of these scripts are obsolete under Japanese influence.

Today, speech in Ryukyu languages ​​is rarely recorded, considered "dialectic." When Ryukyu phrases are nevertheless recorded, Japanese writing is used for this. For modern languages, there are no standard spelling rules. Sounds that are not in Japanese, such as the laryngeal bow , are not displayed on the letter.

Sometimes kanji are assigned by local kunyomi , for example, agari (あ が り “east”) for 東 , iri (い り “west”) for 西 , so “西 表” is read by Iriomote (one of the Yaeyama islands) .

• Ashworth, DE (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 , in: Language Policy 3.2, (2004): 153-179.
• Serafim, LA (1985). Shodon: the prehistory of a Northern Ryukyuan dialect of Japanese. [Sl: sn
• 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
• Uemura, Yukio, and Wayne P. Lawrence. 2003. The Ryukyuan language. Endangered Languages ​​of the Pacific Rim (Series), A4-018. Osaka, Japan: ELPR.