is the

Japanese language is spoken natively by about 128 million people, primarily by Japanese people and primarily in Japan, the only country where it is the national language. Japanese belongs to the Japonic or Japanese- Ryukyuan language family. There have been ...

as spoken by the people of

Okinawa Islands The Okinawa Islands ( or ) are an island group in Okinawa Prefecture, Japan and are the principal island group of the prefecture. The Okinawa Islands are part of the larger Ryukyu Islands group and are located between the Amami Islands of Ka ...

. Okinawan Japanese's accents and words are influenced by the traditional Okinawan and

Kunigami is a village in Kunigami District, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. It occupies the north tip of Okinawa Island, with the East China Sea to the west, Pacific Ocean to the east, and villages of Higashi and Ōgimi to the south. As of 2015, the village ...

languages. Okinawan Japanese has some loanwords from

American English American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the most widely spoken language in the United States and in most circumstances i ...

due to the United States administration after the Battle of Okinawa. Okinawan Japanese is a

Japanese dialect The dialects of the Japanese language fall into two primary clades, Eastern (including Tokyo) and Western (including Kyoto), with the dialects of Kyushu and Hachijō Island often distinguished as additional branches, the latter perhaps the most ...

(), unlike the Northern Ryukyuan Okinawan and Kunigami languages (which are, nevertheless, also officially considered as "Japanese" dialects in Japan).

History

The

Ryukyuan languages The , 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. ...

were once widely spoken throughout the

Ryukyu Islands The , also known as the or the , are a chain of Japanese islands that stretch southwest from Kyushu to Taiwan: the Ōsumi, Tokara, Amami, Okinawa, and Sakishima Islands (further divided into the Miyako and Yaeyama Islands), with Yona ...

, but saw a decline in speakers as a result of assimilation policies during much of pre-WW2 Japan. This event caused the

Ryukyuan people The Ryukyuan people ( ryu, 琉球民族 (るーちゅーみんずく), Ruuchuu minzuku or ryu, どぅーちゅーみんずく, Duuchuu minzuku, label=none, ja, 琉球民族/りゅうきゅうみんぞく, Ryūkyū minzoku, also Lewchewan or L ...

to experience a language shift towards Japanese. In the Okinawa Islands specifically, many learners of Japanese spoke it with a substrate from the Okinawan languages, causing a distinct variety of Standard Japanese to form, known as Okinawan Japanese.

Differences from Standard Japanese

Okinawan Japanese shares about 70% of its lexicon with Standard Japanese. There are a number of aspects of Okinawan Japanese that are borrowed from Standard Japanese, but have different uses or meanings. For example, a number of verb inflections and words indicating aspect and mood are the same in Standard Japanese and Okinawan Japanese, but have different uses in both. ''Hazu'' means "due, scheduled, or supposed to occur", which indicates a high degree of probability in Standard Japanese. Yet in Okinawan Japanese it indicates a much lower degree of probability, more like "probably" or "may occur". In Standard Japanese, the auxiliaries ''mashou'', ''you'', and ''ou'' are combined with the particle ''ne'' after a verb and used to make a suggestion. An example is ''ikimashou ne'' (Let's go). In Okinawan Japanese, this would express a speaker's will. It would mean "I will go" instead. Particles and demonstratives are another aspect of Okinawan Japanese grammar that differ from Japanese. The particle ''kara'' which means "from" or "since" in Japanese, means "as" or "because" in Okinawan Japanese. So, ''kara'' is used in Okinawan Japanese where ''wo'' or ''de'' is used in Japanese. Some words have different meanings in Standard Japanese. For example, ''aruku'' means "go around" or "work" in Okinawan Japanese, but means "walk" in Standard. ''Korosu'' means "hit" in Okinawan Japanese and "kill" in Standard. Many Okinawan youth use words borrowed from Japanese slang, such as ''mecchaa'' (very) and ''dasadasa'' (country bumpkin).

English borrowings

Okinawan Japanese contains some English loan words. Examples are ''paaraa'' (parlor), ''biichii paatii'' (beach party), and ''takoraisu'' ( taco rice). One word combines the English word 'rich' with the Okinawan suffix ''-aa'' to create ''ricchaa'' (a rich person).

References

Bibliography

* * * Heinrich, Patrick. 2004. "Language Planning and Language Ideology in the Ryukyu Islands." In ''Language Policy 3'' (2): 153-179. DOI:10.1023/B:LPOL.0000036192.53709.fc ISSN:1568-4555 * Heinrich, Patrick. "Language Communities of the Northern Ryukyus: Okinawan, Amami, and Kunigami." in ''Language Communities in Japan,'' edited by John C. Maher, 43-50''.'' Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198856610.003.0004

History

Differences from Standard Japanese

English borrowings

See also

References

Bibliography

Further reading