Ryukyuan (Okinawan) Language Guide

Also spoken in
Japan
Script
Hiragana, Katakana

Where it's spoken

UNESCO's Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger places Okinawan in central and southern Okinawa Island and the surrounding islands. It is one of eight languages in Japan that the atlas lists as endangered; UNESCO does not distinguish between languages and dialects and calls all of them languages.

A beginners' textbook defines Uchinaaguchi as the language of the south-central part of Okinawa Island, south of Ishikawa, with Naha and Shuri at its center. The same textbook says it is mutually unintelligible with the speech of northern Okinawa (Yambaru) and of the Amami, Yaeyama, Miyako and Yonaguni zones. Within the south-central region, the dialects of Shuri, Naha and Oroku differ in some vocabulary and intonation but are intelligible to one another.

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Script & pronunciation

Okinawan has no single agreed spelling: Okinawa Prefecture notes that the International Phonetic Alphabet, katakana, hiragana, mixed kanji and kana, and original characters are all in use. The prefecture's own kana spelling is based on katakana, but it states that this does not reject writing in hiragana or in mixed kanji and kana. In that spelling a long vowel is written with the bar ー, as in チョーデー ("brothers").

This app's cards write Okinawan words in hiragana and borrowed words in katakana, as in わんや トランジットゥ やいびーん (Wan ya toranjittu yaibiin, "I'm in transit"), where トランジットゥ is borrowed from English. Long vowels use ー in the cards too; in めんそーれ (Men-soo-re, "Welcome") the romanization writes it as a doubled vowel letter. Some cards separate syllables with hyphens, while others write whole words.

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Grammar essentials

The verb comes at the end of an Okinawan sentence, and so does the copula ("is"). In わんや トランジットゥ やいびーん ("I'm in transit"), the polite copula やいびーん (yaibiin) comes last.

To make a yes-or-no question, the ending -mi is used, as in えーごーはなさりーみ？ (Ee-goo ha-na-sa-rii-mi?, "Do you speak English?"). Questions with a question word use the particle -ga, as in ふるや まーかい あが？ (Fu-ru ya maa-kai a-ga?, "Where is the toilet/bathroom?"). In that phrase, や (ya) follows ふる, the word for toilet, marking the topic.

The negative of the casual copula yan is aran, and the negative of the polite yaibiin is aibiran. This app's card for "No" is あらん (A-ran), which its note describes as the negative "it is not".

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Politeness & etiquette

Okinawan has polite and casual forms of verbs, adjectives and copulas. The ending -ibiin or -abiin marks the polite form, and without it the form is casual. The polite form is typically used when the listener is older or of higher social status, and also when talking to strangers; the casual form is for informal situations with a listener the same age or younger. The app's card うちなーぐち にがてー やいびーん ("I can't speak Ryukyuan (Uchinaaguchi)") ends in やいびーん (yaibiin), which its note calls the polite present affirmative.

The suffixes -sai and -tai show respect to the listener: -sai is used by male speakers and -tai by female speakers, whoever they are talking to, though -sai from a female speaker is acceptable in some dialects. People use hai-sai or hai-tai to greet strangers on the street; this app's card gives はいさい / はいたい (Hai-sai / Hai-tai, "Hello (male: haisai / female: haitai)"). The app's card for "Excuse me", ちゃーびらさい (Chaa-bi-ra-sai), ends in -sai, and its note says women use the -tai form instead.

To ask politely, this app's card for "Please wait", まちょーきみそーれー (Ma-choo-ki mi-soo-ree), uses みそーれー (mi-soo-ree), which its note calls the polite request ending. When addressing someone by name, the suffix -san, borrowed from Japanese, is added; family name plus -san sounds more polite than given name plus -san.

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