Information Structure, Focus, and Focus-Marking Hierarchies in Ryukyuan Languages
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Genetic Lineage of the Amami Islanders Inferred from Classical Genetic Markers
bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.04.18.440379; this version posted April 19, 2021. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under aCC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license. Genetic lineage of the Amami islanders inferred from classical genetic markers Yuri Nishikawa and Takafumi Ishida Department of Biological Sciences, Graduate School of Science, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan Correspondence: Yuri Nishikawa, Department of Biological Sciences, Graduate School of Science, The University of Tokyo, Hongo 7-3-1, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan. E-mail address: [email protected] 1 bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.04.18.440379; this version posted April 19, 2021. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under aCC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license. Abstract The peopling of mainland Japan and Okinawa has been gradually unveiled in the recent years, but previous anthropological studies dealing people in the Amami islands, located between mainland Japan and Okinawa, were less informative because of the lack of genetic data. In this study, we collected DNAs from 104 subjects in two of the Amami islands, Amami-Oshima island and Kikai island, and analyzed the D-loop region of mtDNA, four Y-STRs and four autosomal nonsynonymous SNPs to clarify the genetic structure of the Amami islanders comparing with peoples in Okinawa, mainland Japan and other regions in East Asia. -
NOT WRITING AS a KEY FACTOR in LANGUAGE ENDANGERMENT: the CASE of the RYUKYU ISLANDS Patrick Heinrich Dokkyo University, Tokyo
NOT WRITING AS A KEY FACTOR IN LANGUAGE ENDANGERMENT: THE CASE OF THE RYUKYU ISLANDS Patrick Heinrich Dokkyo University, Tokyo Abstract: Language shift differs from case to case. Yet, specifi c types of language shift can be identifi ed. Language shift in the Ryukyu Islands is caused by the socioeconomic changes resulting from the transition from the dynastic realms of the Ryukyu Kingdom and the Tokugawa Shogunate to the modern Meiji state. We call the scenario of shift after the transition from a dynastic realm to a modern state ‘type III’ language shift here. In type III, one language adopts specifi c new functions, which undermine the utility of other local or ethnic languages. The dominance of one language over others hinges, amongst other things, on the extent to which a written tradition existed or not. In the Ryukyu Kingdom, Chinese and Japanese were employed as the main languages of writing. The lack of a writing tradition paved the way for the Ryukyuan languages to be declared dialects of the written language, that is, of Japanese. Such assessment of Ryukyuan language status was fi rst put forth by mainland bureaucrats and later rationalized by Japanese national linguistics. Such a proceeding is an example of what Heinz Kloss calls near-dialectization. In order to undo the effects thereof, language activists are turning to writing in order to lay claim to their view that the endangered Ryukyuan Abstand languages be recognized as languages. Key words: Ryukyuan languages, language shift theory, writing, language adaptation, language revitalization INTRODUCTION The Ryukyuan languages have rarely been written in their history. -
The Languages of Japan and Korea. London: Routledge 2 The
To appear in: Tranter, David N (ed.) The Languages of Japan and Korea. London: Routledge 2 The relationship between Japanese and Korean John Whitman 1. Introduction This chapter reviews the current state of Japanese-Ryukyuan and Korean internal reconstruction and applies the results of this research to the historical comparison of both families. Reconstruction within the families shows proto-Japanese-Ryukyuan (pJR) and proto-Korean (pK) to have had very similar phonological inventories, with no laryngeal contrast among consonants and a system of six or seven vowels. The main challenges for the comparativist are working through the consequences of major changes in root structure in both languages, revealed or hinted at by internal reconstruction. These include loss of coda consonants in Japanese, and processes of syncope and medial consonant lenition in Korean. The chapter then reviews a small number (50) of pJR/pK lexical comparisons in a number of lexical domains, including pronouns, numerals, and body parts. These expand on the lexical comparisons proposed by Martin (1966) and Whitman (1985), in some cases responding to the criticisms of Vovin (2010). It identifies a small set of cognates between pJR and pK, including approximately 13 items on the standard Swadesh 100 word list: „I‟, „we‟, „that‟, „one‟, „two‟, „big‟, „long‟, „bird‟, „tall/high‟, „belly‟, „moon‟, „fire‟, „white‟ (previous research identifies several more cognates on this list). The paper then concludes by introducing a set of cognate inflectional morphemes, including the root suffixes *-i „infinitive/converb‟, *-a „infinitive/irrealis‟, *-or „adnominal/nonpast‟, and *-ko „gerund.‟ In terms of numbers of speakers, Japanese-Ryukyuan and Korean are the largest language isolates in the world. -
Subj: Revision
Intercultural Communication Studies IX-1 Fall 1999-0 Hoffer - Review REVIEW Multilingual Japan. John C. Maher and Kyoko Yashiro, editors. Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters. 1995. Multilingual Japan, a special issue of the Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Matters, edited by John C. Maher and Kyoko Yashiro, is an excellent book from which to learn more about the language and cultural history and status of Japan. The stereotype that Japan is a unique monolingual/ monocultural country is one that refuses to go away. All countries are unique and, as they make clear, Japan has never been monolingual and monocultural. We need more such serious empirical studies like that conducted by Maher and Yashiro to help change the rather resistant attitudes of the government and a segment of the population at large. On the more than 3000 islands which stretch from Hokkaido almost to Taiwan, the languages which are present in identifiable numbers include Japanese, Ainu, the various types of Ryukyuan languages, Korean, Chinese, English, and some languages from Southeast Asia. Maher and Yashiro note that required English courses have produced millions of Japanese with some level of bilingual ability and that the large number of Japanese families which have returned after lengthy stays abroad means that there is a large number of bilinguals involving several of the world's languages. Japan is and has been a multilingual country with a large number of bilinguals in the mainstream of society. Matsumori's chapter covers Ryukyuan, a cover term for a group of languages which are spoken in the southern islands of Japan and which have a close relation to the Japanese language. -
Mapping Small Islands Communicative Ecologies: a Case Study from the Amami Islands
South Pacific Studies Vol.39, No.1, 2018 Mapping Small Islands Communicative Ecologies: a Case Study from the Amami Islands Papoutsaki Evangelia 1* and Kuwahara Sueo2 1: School of Arts and Science, University of Central Asia, Naryn Campus, 310 Lenin St. Naryn, 722918, Kyrgyz Republic 2: Center for General Education, Kagoshima University *Corresponding author E-mail: [email protected] Abstract This paper provides a conceptual framework for an islands’ communication ecology (CE) approach and an overview of the key findings of exploratory ethnographic research that aimed at mapping the CE of the Amami islands. The communicative ecology approach refers to the various forms, resources, activities, channels and flows of communication and information unique to an island or group of islands, to the island context and identity and a milieu of island agents. This research contributes towards an in-depth understanding of these Islands’ communicative environment; identifies key island mediated communicative networks and practices; explores the role of media in localized information flows unique to the islands; and attempts to explore how small island experiences can help contextualize the theoretical approach of communicative ecology. Key words: Amami Island, Island Media, Island Radio, Islands Communicative Ecology, Mapping Islands Information Ecosystems ―――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――― Received: 01 September, 2018 Accepted: 30 November, 2018 26 South Pacific Studies Vol.39, No.1, 2018 Introduction This article draws upon a research project aimed at exploring the Amami Islands’ communicative environment by identifying key communicative networks and practices that contribute to sustaining the Amami Islands’ sociocultural cohesion and investigating the role that key mediated forms of communication, particularly community based, play in localized information flows unique to these islands. -
Research on Endangered Ryukuan Dialects with an Aim to Preserve
KAKENHI NEWS2009 vol.2 Research on Endangered Ryukuan Dialects � Culture & � Society with an Aim to Preserve and Propagate Shigehisa Karimata� Professor� University of the Ryukyus 【Background】� /ã, õ, ı˜/and /ë˜/ for a total of 18 vowels. particle ga is spoken in the interrogative, UNESCO announced in February 2009 But the dialect of Yonakuni Island, the and nu in yes-or-no questions, to enable that of the over six thousand languages westernmost island in Japan, primarily the speaker to add extra meaning to his spoken in the world, 2500 are in danger use the three vowels a, i and u. The Miya- question. The Ryukyuan languages shed of becoming extinct. Among them are Ja- ko Ookami Island dialect has only 10 con- light on the history of the Japanese lan- pan's Ryukyuan languages (UNESCO sonants: /p, t, k, f, v, s, m, n, j/and /r/. But guage, and has many interesting linguistic treats each Ryukyuan dialect as a separate it has been discovered that the consonants typological features. � language). Although experts have long /f, v, s, m/ and n are used as monosylla- � been aware of the threat to the dialects, bles, that the /f/ and /s/ in words such as 【Outlook】� and research on their preservation and /kffi/ (make) and /pstu/ (person) function Urgent research is needed on the Ryu- propagation has been ongoing for more as vowels in a syllable, and that there are kyuan languages in order to pass them than 30 years, the inclusion of Ryukyu also long and short consonants, with down to future generations. -
A Guide for the Study of Kinship and Social Organization in the Amami Islands Sumie NAKATANI
KAWAI, K., TERADA, R. and KUWAHARA, S. (eds): The Islands of Kagoshima Kagoshima University Research Center for the Pacific Islands, 15 March 2013 Chapter 9 A Guide for the Study of Kinship and Social Organization in the Amami Islands Sumie NAKATANI 1. Pioneering studies in the 1950s the Tohoku region of northern Japan, where dou- n the 1950s when the Amami Islands were re- zoku, a patrilineal family-kin network was domi- Iturned to Japan, a joint survey was conducted by nant. OYAMA’s study in Yoronjima Is. was finally the members of nine Japanese academic associa- published in the book “Nanseisyoto no Kazoku no tions (Kyu Gakkai Rengo). From 1955 to 1958, a Kenkyu (A Study of Family Systems in the Nansei total of 100 researchers participated in the survey Islands )” (OYAMA 1960). of five of the Amami Islands. Researchers in the In the 1950s, Japanese ethnologists were eager fields of ethnology and sociology were interested to identify the original form or roots of Japanese in kinship relations, locally called hara, haroji, culture. Rural communities of Amami were stud- and hiki, because they seemed to play central roles ied in comparison with those of mainland Japan. in the lives of the people of the Amami Islands. GAMOU, who did his fieldwork in Kikaijima Is. and Several papers based on the survey were focused on the kinship system called haroji, point- published in the journal “Jinrui Kagaku (Human ed out three characteristics of haroji. Science)” and in a book titled “Amami Shizen to 1: The membership of haroji could be traced Bunka (Amami: Nature and Culture)” (OYAMA bilaterally. -
Ryukyu Language (The Shuri Dialect)
International Journal of Humanities Social Sciences and Education (IJHSSE) Volume 2, Issue 11, November 2015, PP 115-123 ISSN 2349-0373 (Print) & ISSN 2349-0381 (Online) www.arcjournals.org Examining the Grammatical Functions of the Auxiliary Verb Rijun in the Shuri Dialect of Ryukyuan Languages Yan Kit Kwong Department of Asian and International Studies, City University of Hong Kong Y7714, Department of Asian and International Studies, Yellow Zone, 7/F, Academic 1, City University of Hong Kong, Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong [email protected] Abstract: This paper reexamines the functions of the auxiliary verb rijun (or riin) in the Ryukyuan languages. Ryukyuan languages, which are widely considered as sister languages to Japanese language, can be divided into Northern Ryukyuan languages and Southern Ryukyuan languages. This paper focuses on the Shuri dialect, one of the dialects belonging to the Northern Ryukyuan languages. In Ryukyuan languages, the auxiliary verb rijun can be used to express passive, potential, and honorific morpheme. In this paper, the author aims to reexamine the functions of rijun in order to clarify the grammatical functions and characteristics of rijun. Keywords: Ryukyuan language, Shuri dialect, auxiliary verb, rijun, passive voice, honorifics, potential form. 1. INTRODUCTION Ryukyuan languages are widely considered as sister languages of the Japanese language [1]. Phonological and grammatical similarities are found between Ryukyuan languages and Japanese Kyushu dialects and they also show close lexical connections [2]. Ryukyuan languages can be divided into two main groups, namely Northern Ryukyu language and Southern Ryukyu language. Northern Ryukyu language is further divided into Northern Amami dialect, Southern Amami and Northern Okinawa dialect, and South Central Okinawa dialect; on the other hand, Southern Ryukyu language can be subdivided into Miyako dialect, Yaeyama dialect, and Yonaguni dialect [3]. -
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Journal of World Languages, 2016 Vol. 3, No. 3, 204–223, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/21698252.2017.1308305 “Can you call it Okinawan Japanese?”: World language delineations of an endangered language on YouTube Peter R. Petruccia* and Katsuyuki Miyahirab aSchool of Humanities, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand; bFaculty of Law and Letters, University of the Ryukyus, Nishihara, Japan (Received 10 March 2016; Accepted 15 March 2017) This article addresses a language-versus-dialect discussion that arose out of a series of language lessons on YouTube. Designed to teach Uchinaaguchi, an endangered Ryukyuan language, the video lessons come in two versions, one for Japanese speakers and the other for English speakers. In either version, the video turns to an adroit combination of semiotic modes in an attempt to delineate Uchinaaguchi as a language distinct from Japanese. However, as we demonstrate here, when an endangered language appears on Internet platforms like YouTube, it tends to be framed in one or more world languages, a situation that problematizes the “singularity” of the endan- gered language (Blommaert, J. 1999. “The Debate Is Closed.” In Language Ideological Debates, edited by J. Blommaert, 425–438. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter). In the case of the Uchinaaguchi lessons, this is especially apparent in viewer commentary written primarily in English and/or Japanese. The analysis of this commentary reveals the ideological effects that world languages can bring into the discussion and delineation of endangered languages online. Keywords: language ideology; YouTube; language attitudes; endangered languages 1. Introduction It is in some ways ironic that minority language activists must turn to world languages to promote their cause. -
A Study on Wind Erosion Landforms in Humid Temperate Climate Focused on the Forming Processes of the Blowouts and Dunes on the Coastal Cliff Tops
1 A Study on Wind Erosion Landforms in Humid Temperate Climate Focused on the Forming Processes of the Blowouts and Dunes on the Coastal Cliff Tops in Northern and Eastern Japan Kikuko TANINO Supervisor Professor Makiko WATANABE Graduate School of Urban Environmental Sciences Tokyo Metropolitan University March, 2018 2 Summary The effect of moisture on threshold friction speed of particle transportation is a basic interest for scientists, even though the wind erosion studies have been majored in arid and semi-arid zones or coastal dune fields. This study is expected to provide some clues for the earliest developing stage of wind erosion landforms in terms of targeting studies in humid climate area, because some of large aeolian landforms in arid and semi-arid zones were originated from fluvial processes under a past humid climate. Moreover, the limited conditions for wind erosion due to mild and humid climate zones often lead our attention to the areas eroded on a large scale with unique characteristics of natural environments and to collecting information on histories of climate change. The objective of this study is to elucidate the geomorphological features and forming processes of wind erosion ‘blowouts’ under a humid temperate climate, and physicochemical properties of reworked deposits ‘dunes’. For this purpose, field studies supported by aerial photo interpretations at Esashi, Shiriyazaki, Isozaki-Ajigaura, and Kashima areas in northern and eastern Japan and physical, chemical and mineralogical analyses: pH(NaF), grain size distributions, total carbon content and humic properties (MI, PI, ΔlogK), color values (CIE-L*a*b*) and mineral composition of the dune materials were carried out. -
Aleksandra Jarosz, Miyako-Ryukyuan and Its Contribution to Linguistic
Miyako-Ryukyuan and its contribution to linguistic diversity Aleksandra Jarosz (Adam Mickiewicz University Poznan) Abstract The paper provides introductory information on Miyako-Ryukyuan (Miyakoan). Miyakoan belongs to the Sakishima branch of the Japonic language family, the concept of which counterbalances the until-recently prevalent notion that Japan should be a linguistically homogenous country, and Japanese a language isolate with many unintelligible “dialects”. Following the statement that the endangered Miyako- Ryukyuan language is in an urgent need of extensive documentation and in-depth description, as well as producing more works in English devoted to it, the author introduces a few topics that may be of interest to Japanese/ Japonic linguists and language typologists alike: the “apical” vowel, syllabic consonants, focus marking strategies and formal modality markers. Each topic has been exemplified by Miyako- Ryukyuan samples from Nikolay Nevskiy’s Taishō-era handwritten fieldnotes, as retrieved and analyzed by this author. 1 Foreword The goal of this paper is to exemplify the ways in which Miyako-Ryukyuan (or Miyakoan), an endangered language of the southern periphery of Japan, contributes to the linguistic diversity in Japan and worldwide. The concept of Japonic languages – i.e. of the family to which Miyako-Ryukyuan belongs – which interprets the ethnolects of Japan as multiple related languages rather than as Japanese and its dozens of often unintelligible “dialects”, is still relatively new, only gaining popularity in the last ten-fifteen years. Few research results have so far been made available to the English-speaking readers1, and therefore, the topic of Japan’s endangered languages is still often absent from discussions concerning language documentation or linguistic typology. -
ʻscalingʼ the Linguistic Landscape in Okinawa Prefecture, Japan
View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Archivio istituzionale della ricerca - Università degli Studi di Venezia Ca' Foscari Internationales Asienforum, Vol. 47 (2016), No. 1–2, pp. 315–347 ʻScalingʼ the Linguistic Landscape in Okinawa Prefecture, Japan PATRICK HEINRICH* Abstract This paper discusses four different linguistic landscapes in Okinawa Prefecture1: Naha Airport, Yui Monorail, Heiwadōri Market and Yonaguni Island. In addition to Japanese, Ryukyuan local languages are spoken there – Uchinaaguchi in Okinawa and Dunan in Yonaguni. Okinawan Japanese (Ryukyuan-substrate Japanese) is also used. In the linguistic landscapes these local languages and varieties are rarely represented and, if they are, they exhibit processes of language attrition. The linguistic landscape reproduces language nationalism and monolingual ideology. As a result, efficiency in communication and the actual language repertoires of those using the public space take a back seat. English differs from all languages employed in that it is used generically to address ‘non-Japanese’ and not simply nationals with English as a national language. The public space is not simply filled with language. The languages employed are hierarchically ordered. Due to this, and to the different people using these public spaces, the meaning of public sign(post)s is never stable. The way in which meaning is created is also hierarchically ordered. Difference in meaning is not a question of context but one of scale. Keywords Linguistic landscape, scales, social multilingualism, Okinawa, Japanese, Ryukyuan 1. Introduction Japan’s long-overlooked autochthonous multilingualism has become much more visible in recent years. Upon the publication of the UNESCO Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger of Extinction (Moseley 2009), Asahi Shinbun * PATRICK HEINRICH, Department of Asian and North African Studies, Ca’Foscari University of Venice, [email protected].