Okinawan language

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Okinawan ʔucināguci, うちなーぐち, 沖縄口
Spoken in:	Japan
Region:	Okinawa Island
Total speakers:	fewer than 2 million
Language family:	Japonic Ryukyuan Amami-Okinawan Southern Amami-Okinawan Okinawan
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	none
ISO 639-2:	`mis`
ISO 639-3:	`ryu` — [[]]
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See IPA chart for English for an English-based pronunciation key.

Okinawan (Okinawan: ʔucināguci) is a Ryukyuan language spoken in Japan on the southern island of Okinawa, as well as the surrounding islands of Kerama, Kume-jima, Tonaki, Aguni, and a number of smaller islands located to the east of the main island of Okinawa.

It is divided into two main groups: Central (Standard, Shuri-Naha) and Southern. The Shuri dialect was standardized during the era of the Ryukyuan Kingdom, during the reign of King Sho Shin (1477-1526). It was the official language used by royalty and aristocracy. All of the songs and poems in the language from that era are written in the Shuri dialect.

The speech of Northern Okinawa is usually considered a separate language, see Kunigami language.

1 Phonology
2 Grammar
3 See also
4 Bibliography
- 4.1 Japanese
5 External links
- 5.1 English
- 5.2 Japanese

Okinawan has three short vowels, /a i u/, and five long vowels, /aː eː iː oː uː/. Note that /u/ is rounded, unlike in Japanese.

	Bilabial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Plosive	p b	t d		k ɡ		ʔ
Nasal	m	n			ɴ
Tap or flap		ɾ
Fricative	ɸ	s				h
Approximant			j	w
Laryngeal approximant			ʔj	ʔw

(Technically, these are morae, not syllables.)

ʔi	ʔe	ʔa	ʔo	ʔu	ʔja	ʔjo	ʔju		ʔwa	ʔɴ
[ʔi]	[ʔe]	[ʔa]	[ʔo]	[ʔu]	[ʔja]	[ʔjo]	[ʔju]		[ʔɰa]	[ʔn] [ʔm]
i	e	a	o	u	ja	jo	ju	we	wa	ɴ
[i] [ji]	[e] [je]	[a]	[o] [wo]	[u] [wu]	[ja]	[jo]	[ju]	[ɰe]	[ɰa]	[n] [m] [ŋ] [ɴ]
hi	he	ha	ho	hu	hja	hjo	hju	―	hwa
[çi]	[çe]	[ha]	[ho]	[ɸu]	[ça]	[ço]	[çu]	―	[ɸa]
gi	ge	ga	go	gu	gja	―	―	gwe	gwa
[ɡi]	[ɡe]	[ɡa]	[ɡo]	[ɡu]	[ɡja]	―	―	[ɡʷe]	[ɡʷa]
ki	ke	ka	ko	ku	kja	―	―	kwe	kwa
[ki]	[ke]	[ka]	[ko]	[ku]	[kja]	―	―	[kʷe]	[kʷa]
ci	ce	ca	co	cu	―	―	―	―	―
[ʨi]	[ʨe]	[ʨa]	[ʨo]	[ʨu]	―	―	―	―	―
zi	ze	za	zo	zu	―	―	―	―	―
[ʥi]	[ʥe]	[ʥa]	[ʥo]	[ʥu]	―	―	―	―	―
si	se	sa	so	su	sja	―	sju	―	―
[ɕi]	[ɕe]	[sa]	[so]	[su]	[ɕa]	―	[ɕu]	―	―
di	de	da	do	du	―	―	―	―	―
ri	re	ra	ro	ru	―	―	―	―	―
[di]	[de]	[da]	[do]	[du]	―	―	―	―	―
[ɾi]	[ɾe]	[ɾa]	[ɾo]	[ɾu]	―	―	―	―	―
ti	te	ta	to	tu	―	―	―	―	―
[ti]	[te]	[ta]	[to]	[tu]	―	―	―	―	―
mi	me	ma	mo	mu	mja	mjo	―	―	―
[mi]	[me]	[ma]	[mo]	[mu]	[mja]	[mjo]	―	―	―
bi	be	ba	bo	bu	bja	bjo	bju	―	―
[bi]	[be]	[ba]	[bo]	[bu]	[bja]	[bjo]	[bju]	―	―
pi	pe	pa	po	pu	pja	―	pju	―	―
[pi]	[pe]	[pa]	[po]	[pu]	[pja]	―	[pju]	―	―
										q
										[h] [j] [s] [t] [p]
										e
										[ː]

Japanese	Okinawan	Notes
/e/	/i/	[ti] not [tʃi]
/o/	/u/	[tu] not [tsu], [du] not [dzu]
/ai/	/eː/
/ae/	/eː/
/au/	/oː/
/ao/
/aja/
/k/	/k/	/ɡ/ also occurs
/ka/	/ka/	/ha/ also occurs
/ki/	/ʨi/	[ʨi]
/ku/	/ku/	/hu/, [ɸu] also occurs
/si/	/si/	/hi/, [çi] also occurs
/su/	/si/	[ɕi]; formerly distinguished as [si] /hi/ [çi] also occurs
/tu/	/ʨi/	[ʨi]; formerly distinguished as [tsi]
/da/	/ra/	[d] and [ɾ] have merged
/de/	/ri/
/do/	/ru/
/ni/	/ni/	Moraic /ɴ/ also occurs
/nu/	/nu/	Moraic /ɴ/ also occurs
/ha/	/hwa/	/pa/ also occurs, but rarely
/hi/	/pi/ ~ /hi/
/he/	/pi/ ~ /hi/
/mi/	/mi/	Moraic /ɴ/ also occurs
/mu/	/mu/	Moraic /ɴ/ also occurs
/ri/	/i/	/iri/ unaffected
/wa/	/wa/	Tends to become /a/ medially

Okinawan dialects retain a number of old grammatical features, such as a distinction between the terminal form (終止形) and the attributive form (連体形), the genitive function of が ga (lost in the Shuri dialect), the nominative function of ぬ nu (Japanese: の no), as well as honorific/plain distribution of ga and nu in nominative use.

書く kaku to write
		Classical		Shuri
Irrealis	未然形	書か	kaka-	kaka-
Continuative	連用形	書き	kaki-	kaci-
Terminal	終止形	書く	kaku	kacun
Attributive	連体形	書く	kaku	kacuru
Realis	已然形	書け	kake-	kaki-
Imperative	命令形	書け	kake	kaki

One etymology given for the -un and -uru endings is the continuative form suffixed with uri (Classical Japanese: 居り wori, to be; to exist): -un developed from the terminal form uri; -uru developed from the attributive form uru, i.e:

kacuru derives from kaci-uru;
kacun derives from kaci-uri; and
yumun (Japanese: 読む yomu, to read) derives from yumi + uri.

A similar etymology is given for the terminal -san and attributive -saru endings for adjectives: the stem suffixed with さ sa (nominalises adjectives, i.e. high → height, hot → heat), suffixed with ari (Classical Japanese: 有り ari, to exist; to have), i.e:

takasan (Japanese: 高い takai, high; tall) derives from taka-sa-ari;
atsusan (Japanese: 暑い atsui, hot; warm) derives from atsu-sa-ari; and
yutasaru (good; pleasant) derives from yuta-sa-aru.