Ryukyuan languages
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Ryukyuan | ||
|---|---|---|
| Spoken in: | Japan (Okinawa Prefecture, Amami Islands of Kagoshima Prefecture) | |
| Total speakers: | over 1,000,000 | |
| Language family: | Japonic Ryukyuan |
|
| Official status | ||
| Official language of: | none | |
| Regulated by: | no official regulation | |
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639-1: | none | |
| ISO 639-2: | ||
| ISO 639-3: | — | |
| Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See IPA chart for English for an English-based pronunciation key. | ||
The Ryukyuan languages are spoken in the Ryukyu Islands and make up a subfamily of the Japonic language family. Some disagree as to how these languages should be divided. However, there is a consensus among Ryukyuanists that there are 6 different groups[1].
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[edit] Current situation
Most linguists, at least those outside Japan, consider Ryukyuan languages as different languages from Japanese, while they are generally perceived as "dialects" by mainland Japanese and Ryukyuans themselves. In Okinawa, standard Japanese is almost always used in formal situations. In informal situations, de facto everyday language among Okinawans under their 60s is the Okinawa-accented mainland Japanese called ウチナーヤマトゥグチ (Uchinā Yamatuguchi "Okinawan Japanese"), which is often misunderstood as the Okinawan language proper, ウチナーグチ (Uchināguchi "Okinawan language"). Similarly, everyday language in Amami Island is not the Amami language proper, but the Amami-accented mainland Japanese called トン普通語 (Ton Futsūgo "Potato Standard"). [1]
Nowadays, there are a little over 1 million native speakers of "traditional" Ryukyuan languages, but many of them are elderly (a significant percentage are even centenarians[citation needed]). There are still some children learning Ryukyuan languages natively, but this is rare on mainland Okinawa and usually only happens when children live with grandparents. Native speakers of Okinawan under 20 are rare. The language still is used in traditional cultural activities, such as folk music, or folk dance. There is a radio news program in the language as well. [2]
[edit] Types of Ryukyuan
- Amami Spoken: islands of the Amami district; Standard: Naze; Speakers: 130,000
- Miyako (Miyako: myaaku hutsi) Spoken: islands of the Miyako district; Standard: Hirara; Speakers: 55,783
- Okinawan (Okinawan: uchinaaguchi) Spoken: southern and central districts of the Okinawan mainland and the surrounding minor islands; Standard: traditionally Shuri, modern Naha; Speakers: 900,000
- Kunigami Spoken: the Yanbaru district of the Okinawan mainland as well as the surrounding minor islands; Standard: Kunigami; Speakers: ???
- Yaeyama (Yaeyama: yaima munii) Spoken: islands of the Yaeyama district; Standard: Ishigaki; Speakers: 44,650
- Yonaguni Spoken: Yonaguni island in the Yaeyama district; Standard: Yonaguni; Speakers: 1,800
Each Ryukyuan language is generally unintelligible to others in the same family. There is a wide diversity between them. For example, Yonaguni has only 3 vowels, while Amami has 14, including longer vowels. Below is a table showing simple phrases in each languages.
| Thank you | Welcome | |
|---|---|---|
| Japanese | Arigatō | Irasshaimase |
| Amami | Arigatesama ryōta | Imōrī |
| Kunigami | Mihediro | Ugamiyabura |
| Okinawan | Nifēdēbiru | Mensōrē |
| Miyako | Tandigātandi | Nmyāchi |
| Yaeyama | Mīfaiyū | Ōritōri |
| Yonaguni | Fugarasa | Wari |
In many cases, speakers of the Amami, Miyako, Yaeyama, or Yonaguni languages will also know Okinawan. Many Yonaguni speakers also know Yaeyama. Since Amami, Miyako, Yaeyama, and Yonaguni are less urbanised than the Okinawan mainland, their languages are not declining as quickly as that of Okinawa proper, and children continue to be brought up in these languages. The proportion of adults to children in speakers of Okinawan is much more uneven than with the other languages: it is quickly losing ground as a native language, while the other Ryukyuan languages, although they are losing ground, are slipping only gradually.
[edit] Grammar
Ryukyuan and Japanese are said to differ more in vocabulary and grammar than do English and German. The Okinawan language is only 71% lexically similar to Tokyo Japanese. Even the southernmost Japanese dialect (Kagoshima dialect) is only 72% lexically similar to the northernmost Ryukyuan language (Amami). The Kagoshima dialect of Japanese, however, is 80% lexically similar to Tokyo Japanese[2]. Other Ryukyuan languages such as Miyako, Yaeyama, and Yonaguni are even further from Tokyo Japanese.
[edit] Modern history
Since the beginning of World War II, most Mainland Japanese, and even many Ryukyuans, have regarded the Ryukyuan languages as a dialect or group of dialects of Japanese. Experts, however, tend to regard them as separate languages. Before the annexation of the Ryukyuan Kingdom to Japan in the late 1800s, nobody would have questioned the status of Ryukyuan languages as independent from Japanese. However, during World War II, in an effort to build consciousness in people as subjects of the Japanese Empire, not only Ryukyuan, but also Korean, Palauan, and various other languages were referred to as "dialects" of Japanese.[citation needed] This was a political usage of the term dialect, but now, only Ryukyuan, which is genetically related to Japanese, still is called a dialect.
After the Ryukyuan kingdom lost its independence, the languages, which were degraded as the "dialects", were severely suppressed in school education. This was different from the other parts of the empire, such as Korea or Taiwan, where the local languages were still briefly taught until the cultural assimilation policy was really enforced later. In Okinawa, when a student spoke in Ryukyuan, he had to wear a dialect card (方言札), a necklace with a card stating he spoke a dialect (thus is a bad student). This punishment was taken from 16th century France, where the regional languages such as Occitan, Provençal, or Breton were suppressed in favor of French. The same system was also used in other parts of Japan, such as the Tōhoku region.
Although being an inhumane linguicide, the dialect card system was often supported by Okinawan parents, who hoped their children to be able to work in mainland Japan. The system lasted as late as 1960s during the US administration.
Nowadays, in favor of multiculturalism, preserving Ryukyuan languages has become the policy of Okinawan Prefectural government. However, the situation is not very optimistic, since the vast majority of Okinawan children are now monolingual in Japanese.
[edit] The status of languages or dialects
In Japan (including Okinawa), there is a disagreement concerning whether Ryukyuan are independent languages or merely dialects of mainland Japanese. Linguistically, one can not draw a clear objective line between "language" and "dialect". Rather, the difference has been determined conventionally, regarding social and historical elements such as speaker's ethnicity, political status, or religion. In case of Ryukyuan, the surrounding situation is fairly complicated.
One linguistic basis to determine whether a speech is a dialect or an independent language, is its intelligibility to another. When the language A is unintelligible to the language B, A is considered as a different language from B. However, this criterion often disagrees with the actual conventions used.
- Some says Ryukyuan are independent languages, since they are unintelligible to Japanese speakers, and have a lot of linguistic features not found in Japanese. Others think that doesn't necessarily indicate they are different languages, since some dialects in mainland Japan, generally undisputed as "dialects", are also unintelligible to other Japanese speakers.
- Some says Ryukyuan are dialects, since their linguistic relationships to Japanese are clear. Others think the relationships merely show the fact Ryukyuan are the independent languages within Japonic language group.
Language or dialect is often associated with its nation or ethnicity. For instance, if the speakers of language A don't have an independent nation-state, A is often considered as a dialect. However, again, this criterion often disagrees with the actual convention.
- The name "Ryukyuan languages" may be used to state Ryukyuan as a different ethnicity from Japanese, or in promote of the Ryukyu independence.
- The name "Okinawan dialects" may be used to state Okinawa residents are Japanese, or in promote of Okinawa as an integral part of Japan.
- Some says such a discussion is irrelevant, since ethnicities and languages don't always correspond one to one.
[edit] Examples in other languages
- Chinese vernaculars are often unintelligible to each other, but generally treated as dialects. A similar situation occurs on Arabic vernaculars as well.
- Danish, Swedish, and Norwegian are highly intelligible to each other, but treated as different languages. Same goes for Serbian, Croatian, and Bosnian.
- Hindi and Urdu are generally intelligible, often used by same nationals (Indians), but treated as different languages, mainly due to their religious differences and writing systems.
- Speakers of Swiss German do have their independent nation, and they always use their idiom in informal situations, and sometimes even in formal situations. Still, Swiss German is considered as a dialect...
- ...in contrast to Dutch, which differs from Standard German about as much as Swiss Dialects do. However, Dutch is considered a language of its own.
- Irish Gaeilge and Scottish Gaidhlig are in some ways intelligible to each other, however both are conidered seperate languages under the same branch.
[edit] Writing system
- See also: Okinawan writing system
Older Ryukyuan texts are often found on stone inscriptions. Tamaudun-no-Hinomon (玉陵の碑文 "Inscription of Tamaudun tomb") (1501), for example. In Ryukyuan Kingdom, official texts were written in kanji and hiragana, derived from Japan. However, this makes the 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.
Common people did not learn kanji. Omorosōshi (おもろそうし) (1531-1623), famous Ryukyuan song collection, was mainly written in hiragana. Other than hiragana, they also used Suzhou numerals (sūchūma すうちうま in Okinawan), derived from China. In Yonaguni island particular, the numerals took completely different shapes and were called kaidādī (カイダー字 or カイダーディー). [3] [4] Under Japanese influence, all of those numerals became obsolete.
Nowadays, perceived as "dialects", Ryukyuan languages are not written frequently. When they are, Japanese letters are used with an ad hoc manner. There are no standard orthographies for the modern languages/dialects. Sounds not distinguished in Japanese letters, 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.
