| Yaeyama | |
|---|---|
| Yaimamunii | |
| Spoken in | Japan |
| Region | Yaeyama Islands |
| Native speakers | number not known (date missing) |
| Language family | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | rys |
Yaeyama (Yaeyama: Yaimamunii) is a Ryukyuan language that is spoken in the Yaeyama Islands, the southernmost inhabited island group in Japan, with a combined population of about 50,000 (as of 2011). The Yaeyama Islands are situated to the southwest of the Miyako area of the Ryukyus and to the east of Taiwan. Yaeyama (Yaimamunii) is most closely related to Miyako. The number of competent native speakers is not known - as a consequence of Japanese language policy, reflected in the education system, people below the age of 60 tend to not use the language except in songs and rituals, and the younger generation exclusively uses Japanese as their first language. Yaeyama has three main dialects, named after the islands they are found on:
The speech of the island of Yonaguni, while related, is usually considered a separate language.
The Ryukyuan language split from Proto-Japonic when its speakers migrated to the Ryukyu Islands.
Some of the pronunciations that disappeared from Japanese around the 8th century, Japan's Nara period, can still be found in the Yaeyama languages. One example is the initial "p" sound, which in Japanese became an "h," while remaining a "p" in Yaeyama.
| Proto-Japanese | Modern Japanese | Yaeyama | |
|---|---|---|---|
| "Field" | para | hara | paru |
| "Boat" | pune | fune | puni |
| "Dove" | pato | hato | patu |
While the Yaeyama language was more "conservative" in some aspects, in the sense of preserving certain pronunciations, in other aspects it was more innovative. One example is the vowel system. Old Japanese had 5-8 vowels; this has been reduced to 5 in modern Japanese, but in Yaeyaman, vowel reduction has progressed further, to 3 vowels. Generally, when modern Japanese has an "e," the Yaeyama cognate will have an "i" (this is seen in "puni," above); and where modern Japanese has an "o," the Yaeyama cognate will have a "u" (as seen in "patu," above).
| Modern Japanese | Yaeyama | |
|---|---|---|
| "Thing" | mono | munu |
| "Seed" | tane | tani |
| "First time" | hajimete | hajimiti |
Many of these preserved pronunciations have been lost in the language of the main island of Okinawa. One explanation for this is that it is possible to travel by sea from mainland Japan until the main island of Okinawa, while keeping one island or another in sight nearly at all times; but there is then a gap between Okinawa island and the Yaeyamas, that would have required several nights on the open sea. For this reason, there was less traffic between mainland Japan and the Yaeyama islands, allowing further linguistic divergence.