Ryukyuan languages
The Ryukyuan languages (琉球語) are a subgroup of the Japonic family, spoken in the Ryukyu Islands off Japan. Some consider them to be Japanese dialects, although they are not mutually comprehensible with Japanese.
- Amami (奄美語)
- Okinawan (沖縄語)
- Miyako (宮古語)
- Yaeyama (八重山語)
- Yonaguni (与那国語)
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Introduction
Ryukyuan Languages make up a family of closely-related languages. Some disagree as to how these languages should be divided. There is a general consensus among Ryukyuanists that at least the following (and perhaps more) are distinct languages: Amami (spoken in the Amami Archipelago in Kagoshima Prefecture with Naze City as the standard dialect), Miyako (Miyako: ミャークフツ)(spoken in the Miyako Archipelago in southern Okinawa Prefecture with Hirara City as the standard dialect), Okinawa (Okinawa: ウチナーグチ) (spoken in the southern portion of Okinawa Archipelago in northern Okinawa Prefecture with Shuri Village/Naha City as the standard dialect), Kunigami (spoken in the northern portion of Okinawa Archipelago in northern Okinawa Prefecture with Kunigami Village or Nakijin Town as the standard dialect), Yaeyama (Yaeyama: ヤイマムニー) (spoken in the Yaeyama Archipelago, with the exception of Yonaguni Island, with Ishigaki City as the standard dialect), and Yonaguni (spoken on Yonaguni Island with Sonai Town as the standard dialect, however there is little or no dialectal variation as the island is fairly small).
Bilingualism
In many cases, speakers of Amami, Miyako, Yaeyama, or Yonaguni will also know Okinawa. Many Yonaguni speakers also know Yaeyama. Since Amami Archipelago, Miyako Archipelago, Yaeyama Archipelago, and Yonaguni Island are less developed than Okinawa Archipelago, their languages are not declining as quickly as that of Okinawa, and children continue to be brought up in these languages. Speakers of Okinawa form the majority of the speakers of Ryukyuan languages. There are perhaps 130000 speakers of Amami, 55783 speakers of Miyako, 44650 speakers of Yaeyama, and 1800 speakers of Yonaguni, but there are about 900000 speakers of Okinawa. However, the proportion of adults to children in speakers of Okinawa is much more uneven than with the other languages: it is quickly losing ground as a native language, while the other Ryukyuan languages, although they are losing ground, are slipping only gradually.
Dialects or Languages?
Since the beginning of WWII, most Mainland Japanese and even many Ryukyuans have regarded the Ryukyuan languages as a dialect/a group of dialects of Japanese. However, it should be noted that during WWII, Korean, Palauan, and a couple of other languages were considered dialects of Japanese, which they are most certainly not by any measurement. (today only some elderly Japanese and radical nationalists believe Korean to be a Japanese dialect.) With Ryukyuan languages, the distinction is not quite as clear as it is for former "dialects" such as Korean and Palauan. Before the annexation of the Ryukyuan Kingdom to Japan in the late 1800s, nobody would question the status of Ryukyuan languages as independent from Japanese. They differ more in vocabulary and grammar than English and German. The Okinawa language is only 71% similar to Tokyo Japanese. Even the southernmost Japanese dialect (Kagoshima dialect) is only 72% similar to the northernmost Ryukyuan language (Amami). The Kagoshima dialect of Japanese, however, is 80% similar to Tokyo Japanese. Other Ryukyuan languages such as Miyako, Yaeyama, and Yonaguni are even further from Tokyo Japanese. They cannot reasonably be considered Japanese dialects in this day and age.
Nowadays, there are a little over 1 million native speakers of Ryukyuan left, but a lot of them are elderly (some of them are extremely elderly, due to the Ryukyuan tendency to live past 90). There are still some children learning Ryukyuan as a native language, but this is fairly rare and usually only happens when they live with their grandparents. Basically, it's rare to find anybody below 30 that speaks it natively, and it's difficult to find anybody below 40. (except in rural areas)