codzienność: Ryukyuan languages

Evidence: 100 • authority: 72

The Ryukyuan languages (琉球語派, Ryūkyū-goha; also 琉球諸語, Ryūkyū-shogo or 島言葉 in Ryukyuan, Shima kotoba, literally "Island Speech"), also Lewchewan or Luchuan (), are the indigenous languages of the Ryukyu Islands, the southernmost part of the Japanese archipelago. Along with the Japanese language and the Hachijō language, they make up the Japonic language family. Just as among Japanese dialects, which can have low mutual intelligibility, the Ryukyuan and mainland Japanese languages are not mutually intelligible. It is not known how many speakers of these languages remain, but language shift toward the use of Standard Japanese and dialects like Okinawan Japanese has resulted in these languages…

Evidence: 82 • authority: 72

The small group of Hachijō dialects (八丈方言, Hachijō hōgen), natively called Shima Kotoba (島言葉; [ɕima kotoba], "island speech"), are, depending on classification, either one of the most divergent forms of Japanese, or comprise a branch of Japonic languages (alongside mainland Japanese, Northern Ryukyuan, and Southern Ryukyuan). Hachijō is currently spoken on two of the Izu Islands south of Tokyo (Hachijō-jima and the smaller Aogashima) as well as on the Daitō Islands of Okinawa Prefecture, which were settled from Hachijō-jima in the Meiji era. It was also previously spoken on the island of Hachijō-kojima, which is now abandoned. Based on the criterion of mutual intelligibility, Hachijō may be…

Evidence: 82 • authority: 72

The most widely-spoken language in Japan is Japanese, which is separated into several dialects, of which the Tokyo dialect considered to be Standard Japanese. In addition to the Japanese language, Ryūkyūan languages are spoken in Okinawa and parts of Kagoshima in the Ryūkyū Islands. Along with Japanese, these languages are part of the Japonic language family, but they are separate languages, and are not mutually intelligible with Japanese, or with each other. All of the spoken Ryukyuan languages are classified by UNESCO as endangered. In Hokkaidō, there is the Ainu language, which is spoken by the Ainu people, who are the indigenous people of the island. The Ainu languages, of which Hokkaid…

Evidence: 54 • authority: 72

The dialects (方言, hōgen) of the Japanese language fall into two primary clades, Eastern (including modern capital Tokyo) and Western (including old capital Kyoto), with the dialects of Kyushu and Hachijō Island often distinguished as additional branches, the latter perhaps the most divergent of all. Japan with its numerous islands and mountains has the ideal setting for developing many dialects. The Ryukyuan languages of Okinawa Prefecture and the southern islands of Kagoshima Prefecture form a separate branch of the Japonic family and are completely distinct languages from Japanese. They are not Japanese dialects, although they are often erroneously referred to as such. The Ainu language o…

Evidence: 47 • authority: 72

Japonic or Japanese–Ryukyuan (Japanese: 日琉語族, romanized: Nichiryū gozoku) is a language family comprising Japanese, spoken in the main islands of Japan, and the Ryukyuan languages, spoken in the Ryukyu Islands. The family is universally accepted by linguists, and significant progress has been made in reconstructing the proto-language, Proto-Japonic. The reconstruction implies a split between all dialects of Japanese and all Ryukyuan varieties, probably before the 7th century. The Hachijō language, spoken on the Izu Islands, is also included, but its position within the family is unclear. Most scholars believe that Japonic was brought to the Japanese archipelago from the Korean Peninsula wit…

Evidence: 45 • authority: 72

Ryukyuan culture (Okinawan: 琉球ぬ文化, romanized: Ruucuu nu munkwa) are the cultural elements of the indigenous Ryukyuan people, an ethnic group native to Okinawa Prefecture and parts of Kagoshima Prefecture in southwestern Japan. The cultural elements of the Ryukyuans are far from a unified entity, with different islands having their own distinct subculture and practices. Furthermore, the inhabitants of the Tokara and Ōsumi Islands are of Yamato Japanese descent, akin to the inhabitants of mainland Japan.

Evidence: 39 • authority: 80

Chapter 3 Introducing the project Mutual Intelligibility between Closely Related Languages (MICReLa)