Okinawan (, , , ), or more precisely Central Okinawan, is a Northern Ryukyuan language spoken primarily in the southern half of the island of Okinawa, as well as in the surrounding islands of Kerama, Kumejima, Tonaki, Aguni and a number of smaller peripheral islands. Central Okinawan distinguishes itself from the speech of Northern Okinawa, which is classified independently as the Kunigami language. Both languages are listed by UNESCO as endangered.
Though Okinawan encompasses a number of local dialects, the Shuri–Naha variant is generally recognized as the de facto standard, as it had been used as the official language of the Ryukyu Kingdom since the reign of King Shō Shin (1477–1526). Moreover, as the former capital of Shuri was built around the royal palace, the language used by the royal court became the regional and literary standard, which thus flourished in songs and poems written during that era.
Today, most Okinawans speak Okinawan Japanese, although a number of people still speak the Okinawan language, most often the elderly. Within Japan, Okinawan is often not seen as a language unto itself but is referred to as the , or more specifically the . Okinawan speakers are undergoing language shift as they switch to Japanese, since language use in Okinawa today is far from stable. Okinawans are assimilating and accenting standard Japanese due to the similarity of the two languages, the standardized and centralized education system, the media, business and social contact with mainlanders and previous attempts from Japan to suppress the native languages, similar to policies historically seen in regions such as Tohoku region and main land Kyushu region. Okinawan is still kept alive in popular music, tourist shows and in theaters featuring a local drama called , which depict local customs and manners.
History
Pre-Ryukyu Kingdom Okinawan is a Japonic language, derived from Proto-Japonic and is therefore related to Japanese. The split between Old Japanese and the Ryukyuan languages has been estimated to have occurred as early as the 1st century AD to as late as the 12th century AD. Chinese and Japanese characters were first introduced by a Japanese missionary in 1265.Hung, Eva and Judy Wakabayashi. Asian Translation Traditions. 2014. Routledge. Pg 18.
Ryukyu Kingdom era Pre-Satsuma was a much more popular writing system than kanji; thus, Okinawan poems were commonly written solely in or with little kanji. Okinawan became the official language under King Shō Shin. The Omoro Sōshi, a compilation of ancient Ryukyuan poems, was written in an early form of Okinawan, known as Old Okinawan.
Post-Satsuma to annexation In 1609, the Ryukyu Kingdom came under the control of the Satsuma Domain and consequently came under even stronger influence from Kyushu dialects. As part of its policies, the Satsuma Domain required the use of kanji in Ryukyu, and kanji also came to play a more important role in poetry. In addition, official documents in Ryukyu came to be written in Classical Chinese, as in Japan. During this period, the Ryukyuan language gradually developed into modern Okinawan.
Japanese annexation to end of World War II Language shift to Japanese in Ryukyu/Okinawa began in 1879 when the Japanese government annexed Ryukyu and established Okinawa Prefecture. The prefectural office mainly consisted of people from Kagoshima Prefecture where the Satsuma Domain used to be. This caused the modernization of Okinawa as well as language shift to Japanese. As a result, Japanese became the standard language for administration, education, media, and literature.
In 1902, the began the linguistic unification of Japan to Standard Japanese. This caused the linguistic stigmatization of many local varieties in Japan including Okinawan. This policy of integration into Standard Japanese was implemented throughout Japan. In regions such as Satsuma and Hyūga, the Tōhoku region, and Okinawa,"dialect tags" (hōgen-fuda) were used to punish those who spoke local dialects. Even in the Kantō region, dialect suppression education was carried out in Kanagawa under what was called the "Ne-Sa-Yo Movement," in which students who spoke dialects were forced to stand in the hallway, and papers containing dialect expressions were burned collectively. As the discrimination accelerated, Okinawans themselves started to abandon their languages and shifted to Standard Japanese.
American occupation Under American administration, there was an attempt to revive and standardize Okinawan, but this proved difficult and was shelved in favor of Japanese. General Douglas MacArthur attempted to promote Okinawan languages and culture through education.Heinrich, P. (2004). "Language Planning and Language Ideology in the Ryūkyū Islands". Language Policy, 3(2)
Return to Japan to present day After Okinawa's reversion to Japanese sovereignty, Japanese continued to be the dominant language used, and the majority of the youngest generations only speak Japanese. There have been attempts to revive Okinawan by notable people such as Byron Fija and Seijin Noborikawa, but few native Okinawans know the language.
Outside of Japan
The Okinawan language is still spoken by communities of Okinawan immigrants in Brazil. The first immigrants from the island of Okinawa to Brazil landed in the Port of Santos in 1908 drawn by the hint of work and farmable land. Currently the Okinawan-Japanese centers and communities in the State of São Paulo are a world reference to this language helping it to stay alive. Courses in Okinawan language and literature are offered at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and books in Uchinaaguchi have been published in Hawaii.
Classification Okinawan is sometimes grouped with Kunigami as the Okinawan languages; however, not all linguists accept this grouping, some claiming that Kunigami is a dialect of Okinawan.Heinrich, P., Miyara, S., & Shimoji, M. (Eds.). (2015). Handbook of the Ryukyuan Languages. Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. Pp 598. Okinawan is also grouped with Amami (or the Amami languages) as the Northern Ryukyuan languages.
Dialect or language There is ongoing debate over whether the Ryukyuan languages should be regarded as dialects of Japanese or as independent languages. Mutual intelligibility between Okinawan and Standard Japanese is often difficult, and this has been cited as grounds for considering Ryukyuan an independent language. On the other hand, it has also been pointed out that linguistic differences between regions and social classes within Japan were historically extremely large, and that mutual unintelligibility alone cannot serve as a definitive criterion for distinguishing a language from a dialect.
During the Edo period, regional linguistic variation is said to have been even greater than it is today. In the first volume of Shikitei Sanba's Kyōgen Inaka Ayatsuri (1811), it is stated that speech would already differ only 20 chō (about 2 kilometers) outside Edo, and that at a distance of one ri (about 3.9 kilometers), the language would become entirely different from that of Edo. In addition, linguistic differences existed not only between regions but also between social classes, such as the speech of the Yamanote elite, court nobles, and the downtown commoners. Interpreters were reportedly not uncommon between regions. For this reason, there are limits to using "whether people can understand one another" as an absolute criterion for distinguishing a language from a dialect.
Within Japanese and Okinawan linguistics, several terms have been used to refer to the speech of Okinawa, including "Ryukyuan language," "Ryukyuan dialect," and "Okinawan dialect." At present, the term "dialect" is the more commonly used designation. Consequently, the term "Ryukyuan language" is not necessarily familiar to the general public. The linguist Ferdinand de Saussure stated that "it is difficult to determine where the difference between a language and a dialect lies. Even a dialect may be called a language if literature is written in it." Likewise, the linguist Katsuhiko Tanaka argued that whether a form of speech is considered an independent language or a dialect subordinate to another language is determined by the political circumstances and aspirations of its speakers, and cannot be decided unequivocally through natural-scientific objectivism.
The Ryukyus possess an indigenous literary tradition, including works such as the Omoro Sōshi, and from this perspective there are positions that regard Ryukyuan as an independent language. On the other hand, the peoples of Japan and Okinawa shared the Jōmon cultural sphere in ancient times, are believed to possess a common ancestral language and genetic connections, and Okinawa has historically been incorporated into the Japanese state for more than 500 years since the medieval period. Furthermore, within Okinawan society itself, the recognition of these speech forms as "dialects" is widespread. For these reasons, many researchers continue to use the term "Okinawan dialect."
Thus, whether Ryukyuan should be classified as a "language" or a "dialect" is not merely a linguistic question, but one deeply connected to history, politics, culture, and identity.
Dialects of the Ryukyuan language Okinawan linguist Seizen Nakasone states that the Ryukyuan languages are in fact groupings of similar dialects. As each community has its own distinct dialect, there is no "one language". Nakasone attributes this diversity to the isolation caused by immobility, citing the story of his mother who wanted to visit the town of Nago but never made the 25km trip before she died of old age.Nakasone, Seizen. Festschrift. 1962. Pp. 619.
The contemporary dialects in Ryukyuan language are divided into three large groups: Amami-Okinawa dialects, Miyako-Yaeyama dialects, and the Yonaguni dialect. All of them are mutually unintelligible. Amami is located in the Kagoshima prefecture but it belongs to the Ryukyuan group linguistically. The Yonaguni dialect is very different in phonetics from the other groups but it comes closest to the Yaeyama dialect lexically.Shibatani, Mayoshi (2008): The Languages of Japan. Cambridge University Press. . p. 194.
Sociolinguistics UNESCO listed six Okinawan language varieties as endangered languages in 2009. The endangerment of Okinawan is largely due to the shift to Standard Japanese. Throughout history, Okinawan languages have been treated as dialects of Standard Japanese. For instance, in the 20th century, many schools used "dialect tags" to punish the students who spoke in Okinawan. Consequently, many of the remaining speakers today are choosing not to transmit their languages to younger generations due to the stigmatization of the languages in the past.
There have been several revitalization efforts made to reverse this language shift. However, Okinawan is still poorly taught in formal institutions due to the lack of support from the Okinawan Education Council: education in Okinawa is conducted exclusively in Japanese, and children do not study Okinawan as their second language at school. As a result, at least two generations of Okinawans have grown up without any proficiency in their local languages both at home and school.
Okinawan language is 71% lexically similar to, or cognate with, standard Japanese. Even the southernmost Japanese dialect (Kagoshima dialect) is only 72% cognate with the northernmost Ryukyuan language (Amami). The Kagoshima dialect of Japanese, however, is 74% lexically similar to Standard Japanese.沖縄語辞典 (Okinawan dictionary). "前書き" (Preface). 国立国語研究所 1998.
Phonology Vowels
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