Volume 3 | Issue 11 | Article ID 1596 | Nov 24, 2005 The Asia-Pacific Journal | Japan Focus Language Loss and Revitalization in the Ryukyu Islands Patrick Heinrich Language Loss and Revitalization in the The boundaries of languages and language Ryukyu Islands varieties – a term linguists prefer to dialects since it does not connote the idea of a deviation By Patrick Heinrich from a chosen standard – do not come into existence by themselves. They reflect the interests of those responsible for drawing these Every two weeks one of the world's estimated boundaries. The extension and the names of 6,000 languages dies. It appears inevitable to languages and language varieties are, more many that the number of languages spoken often than not, influenced by nation imagining throughout the world will have drastically ideology. diminished by the end of the 21st century. The Ryukyuan languages, their classification Pessimistic estimations consider that as many and assessment are a case in point. During the as 80% of the languages currently used will by forced assimilation of the Ryukyu Kingdom into then have vanished. The danger of such loss the emerging Japanese nation state between does not go unnoticed. Many speakers of 1872 and 1879, the various language varieties indigenous minority languages around the of the Ryukyu Islands came to be designated as world struggle to retain their mother tongues. Japanese dialects. The first such classification This holds also true for the Ryukyu Islands, was made by a bureaucrat. Matsuda Michiyuki, located between Kyushu and Taiwan. In the a high-ranking official in the Japanese foreign course of the nation building process since the ministry, was the first to stress linguistic Meiji era, a language regime was established correspondences between Japan and the throughout Japan in which the language of Ryukyu Islands in the early 1870s. He claimed Tokyo came to serve as the means of inter- that the varieties spoken in the Ryukyu Islands regional communication throughout Japan, were part of the Japanese language. including the Ryukyu Islands. The spread of Standard Japanese led to re-negotiations of the The first study on the Ryukyuan languages by a language-identity nexus in the Ryukyu Islands. trained linguist was that of Basil Hall As a matter of fact, so strong proved the idea of Chamberlain in 1895. It successfully one unitary Japanese national language to be in established evidences of a shared Ryukyuan- Japan that the Ryukyuan languages areJapanese genealogy. That is to say, seriously endangered today and conscious Chamberlain proved that Japanese and the efforts of language revitalization are necessary Ryukyuan language family share the same to ensure their future use. This is an account of ancestor language, similar to, say, French, how the Ryukyuan languages came to be Italian and Spanish. Today we know that endangered and of current efforts for their Japanese and the Ryukyuan languages must revitalization. have split not long before the first written evidences of Japanese appeared, that is to say, Modernist language ideology and the at some point before the 7th century. language – dialect question Chamberlain treated Ryukyuan as a set of 1 3 | 11 | 0 APJ | JF languages distinct from Japanese. South Okinawa Yoron There are good reasons for doing so. The chain Okinoerabu East Okinoerabu of mutual intelligibility is interrupted several West Okinoerabu times in the Ryukyu Islands. The concept of Tokunoshima mutual intelligibility serves linguists as an etic North Amami- Amami-Oshima tool, in other words, as a politically and Oshima culturally disinterested means for drawing South Amami-Oshima linguistic boundaries. In Japan, for instance, Kikai speakers of a Tohoku language variety and a Kyushu variety might experience severeIn contrast to the present paper, Hokama bases difficulties in understanding each other.his classification on language typology and not However, the chain of mutual intelligibility is on the concept of mutual intelligibility. nowhere interrupted in the Japanese main Nonetheless, reference to his classification is islands as mutual intelligibility to thehelpful here because it emphasizes the vast neighbouring local variety is always possible. differences that exist even within the major varieties spoken on Amami-Oshima, Okinawa, On the basis of mutual unintelligibility, five Miyako and Yaeyama. The biggest typological different varieties of the Ryukyuan language differences are those between Yonaguni, family can be ascertained. These are, from Sakijima and Amami-Okinawa. Typological north to south, the varieties spoken on Amami- differences with regard to phonology, Oshima, Okinawa, Miyako, Yaeyama and morphology and syntax between these three Yonaguni. These varieties form the Ryukyu typological categories can then be further language family. Needless to say, none of these subcategorized into the typological categories varieties allows for mutual intelligibility with Yaeyama, Miyako, North-Okinawa etc. Since any Japanese variety. Following theHokama treats the Ryukyuan varieties within conventions of comprehensive glossaries of the concept of national language (kokugo), he world languages, rather than Japanese national lacks the concept of languages. As a result, we (identity) linguistics (kokugogaku), these find Yonaguni in the left column but Yaeyama, varieties will be treated as languages in the Miyako and Amami-Oshima in the middle following. Since the Amami-Oshima island column. Okinawa as a unified speech group is part of Kagoshima prefecture, the community is absent in his scheme, reflecting, term Ryukyu is preferred over Okinawa. as it does, the fact that there exist marked differences between Northern and Southern The linguistic situation in the Ryukyu Islands is Okinawan as well as the fact that the study of complex. The doyen of Ryukyuan linguistics, these two varieties has been conducted most Hokama Shuzen, proposes the followingcomprehensively. In other words, awareness of division of Ryukyuan varieties (from south to the differences between Northern Okinawan north): and Southern Okinawan is most pronounced. Language variation in the Ryukyu Islands does Yonaguni not stop at the types of langue varieties in Sakijima Yaeyama Ishigaki Hokama’s right column. All of the Hateruma approximately 50 populated islands have Miyako Miyako distinctive language varieties which very often Irabu allow for many more subdivisions within them. Tamara It is worthy of note in this context that the Amami-Okinawa North-Okinawa Okinawa Language Research Centre ( Okinawa 2 3 | 11 | 0 APJ | JF gengo kenkyu senta) has conductedThis deviance from Standard Japanese led to phonological studies into some 800 different the view that these varieties presented an local varieties. obstacle and should best be done away with. The Ryukyu Islands were thus perceived to The differences between the Ryukyuanhave a serious language problem and, varieties and Japanese are extensive. Tokyo consequently, the view emerged that university professor Hattori ShiroRyukyuans had to be relieved of the ‘burden’ of demonstrated in the 1950s that the percentage their languages. This specific view of language, of shared cognates in the basic vocabulary or language ideology as it is called in between Tokyo and Shuri (Okinawa) stands at linguistics, was not limited to the Ryukyu 66% and at 59% with regard to Miyako. The Islands. It became widespread across the world latter percentage is lower than that between as an effect of the emergence of modern nation German and English. As an illustration of the states. Such nation-imagining language differences in the lexicon and morphology, ideology is responsible for the fact that consider the following sentence taken from a bilingualism in nation states is, more often than contemporary version of the Momotaro tale: not, unstable. Speakers of minority languages are often pressured to express their loyalty to Okinawa : Sigu kadi nndandi ici hoocaasi the state by abandoning their mother tongue. taacinkai sakandi sakutu, naakakaraExactly this happened in the Ryukyu Islands uziraasigisaru ufuwikiganu nziti caabitan. after 1879. Standard Japanese: Sugu tabete miyo to itte Language shift before 1945 hocho de futatsu ni sako to shitara, naka kawairashii otoko no ko ga dete kimashita. During the first eight years of Japanese rule over the Ryukyu Islands a strict policy of English: When he said that he wanted to eat it preservation of ancient customs was right away and was just about to cut it into two implemented. It was only in 1879 that the first pieces with his knife, a cute boy emerged from two exceptions were made. The Meiji within (the peach). government ordered that this policy should not apply for education and industrial development. Mutual unintelligibility notwithstanding, Starting in 1880, the view began to prevail that Japanese linguists of the Meiji period chose to Japanese language dissemination was rely on Matsuda Michiyuki's view according to unavoidable in order to gain control over the which the Ryukyuan varieties were part of the islands and to govern them in the interests of same language. They included both the mainland Japan. Following the reorganization Japanese and the Ryukyuan varieties in the of the Ryukyu Domain into Okinawa Prefecture newly created concept of national language in 1879, Vice Minister of Education Tanaka (kokugo). In so doing, they followed the model Fujimaro was dispatched to the archipelago of most Western nation states which claimed