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Okinawan
Geographic distribution	Okinawa Islands, Okinawa Prefecture
Linguistic classification	Japonic Ryukyuan Amami–Okinawan Okinawan
Subdivisions	Northern Okinawan Southern/South–Central/Central Okinawan
Language codes
Glottolog	okin1244
Northern Okinawan   Southern/South–Central/Central Okinawan Darker areas represent regions that have been classified by Lewis (2009), Pellard (2009) and Curry (2004).

The Okinawan languages are a hypothetical dialect cluster spoken in the Okinawa Islands, Okinawa Prefecture of southwestern Japan. They constitute the northern branch of the Ryukyuan languages, which are then part of the Japonic languages. The subdivisions of Amami–Okinawan are a matter of scholarly debate. The Okinawan languages, together with the Amami languages, represent the two-subdivision hypothesis.

Classification

The basic unit of language or language variety in Ryukyuan is a traditionally isolated village community called shima, where people used to live their entire life. Each shima has developed its own form of speech. People are well aware of differences in speeches between neighboring shima. Clustering languages of some 800 shima requires non-trivial scholarly work. Understanding how they have evolved from a common ancestor is an even more challenging task.

At high level, linguists mostly agree to make the north–south division. In this framework, Amami–Okinawan covers the Amami Islands, Kagoshima Prefecture and the Okinawa Islands, Okinawa Prefecture. The subdivisions of Amami–Okinawan, however, remain a matter of scholarly debate. There are at least two competing hypotheses and names given to hypothetical clusters are far from standardized.

The cluster of the Okinawan languages bases its existence on the two-subdivision hypothesis:

• Amami–Okinawan / Northern Ryukyuan
  • Amami
    • Northern Amami
    • Southern Amami
  • Okinawan
    • Northern Okinawan
    • Southern Okinawan

The other hypothesis assigns three primary branches to Amami–Okinawan:

• Amami–Okinawan / Northern Ryukyuan
  • Ōshima–Tokunoshima / Amami–Tokunoshima / Amami
  • Okinoerabu–Northern Okinawan / Okinoerabu–Yoron-Northern Okinawan / Kunigami
  • Southern Okinawan / South–Central Okinawan / Central Okinawan / Okinawan

In this framework, the Okinawan languages in question are disassembled into the last two groups.

Subgroups

The Okinawan languages consist of the following subgroups.

• Northern Okinawan
• Southern/South–Central/Central Okinawan

Geographic distribution

The Okinawan languages are spoken on Okinawa Island and some surrounding islands. On Okinawa Island, the boundary between Northern and Southern Okinawan can be drawn between Ishikawa, Uruma City and Yaka, Kin Town on the east coast and between Onna, Onna Village and Tancha, Onna Village on the west coast. This corresponds to the administrative boundary between Yuntanza Magiri and Kin Magiri before Onna Magiri was created in 1673. Karimata conjectured that the linguistic boundary could be dated back at least to the Sanzan period, when a polity named Sanhoku supposedly controlled the modern-day Kunigami region.

Small islands around Okinawa Island show complex patterns. Nakamoto labeled the south–central islands of Kudaka and Tsuken as Northern Okinawan-like while he regarded the northern islands of Iheya and Izena as pretty Southern Okinawan-like.

References

1. Pellard, Thomas (2009). Ogami: Éléments de description d'un parler du sud des Ryukyus (PDF) (Thesis) (in French). Paris, France: École des hautes études en sciences sociales.
2. Curry, Stewart A. (2004). Small Linguistics: Lexical Loans in Nakijin Dialect Okinawan (PDF) (Thesis). University of Hawaii Library.
3. Nishioka Satoshi 西岡敏 (2011). "Ryūkyūgo: shima goto ni kotonaru hōgen 琉球語: 「シマ」ごとに異なる方言". In Kurebito Megumi 呉人恵 (ed.). Nihon no kiki gengo 日本の危機言語 (in Japanese).
4. ^ Karimata Shigehisa 狩俣繁久 (2000). "Amami Okinawa hōgengun ni okeru Okinoerabu hōgen no ichizuke" 奄美沖縄方言群における沖永良部方言の位置づけ (Position of Okierabu Dialect in Northern Ryukyu Dialects)". Nihon Tōyō bunka ronshū 日本東洋文化論集 (in Japanese) (6): 43–69. {{cite journal}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |journal= (help)
5. Nakamoto Masachie 中本正智 (1976). "Okinawa hōgen no on'in 沖縄方言の音韻". Ryūkyū hōgen on'in no kenkyū 琉球方言音韻の研究 (in Japanese). pp. 275–311.

• Ryukyuan languages