Okinoerabu language
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The Okinoerabu dialect cluster ( ''Shimamuni''), also Oki-no-Erabu, is a
dialect cluster A dialect continuum or dialect chain is a series of language varieties spoken across some geographical area such that neighboring varieties are mutually intelligible, but the differences accumulate over distance so that widely separated vari ...
spoken on Okinoerabu Island,
Kagoshima Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located on the island of Kyushu and the Ryukyu Islands. Kagoshima Prefecture has a population of 1,599,779 (1 January 2020) and has a geographic area of 9,187 km2 (3,547 sq mi). Kagoshima Prefecture borders Kumamoto P ...
of southwestern
Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...
. It is part of the Amami–Okinawan languages, which are part of the
Japonic languages Japonic or Japanese–Ryukyuan, sometimes also Japanic, is a language family comprising Japanese, spoken in the main islands of Japan, and the Ryukyuan languages, spoken in the Ryukyu Islands. The family is universally accepted by linguists, and ...
.


Dialects

Okinoerabu dialects are classified into two groups: *Eastern Okinoerabu *Western Okinoerabu The linguistic boundary between Eastern and Western Okinoerabu roughly corresponds to the administrative boundary between Wadomari (east) and
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...
(west). In addition, the eastern community of Kunigami (part of Eastern Okinoerabu and not to be confused with Northern Okinawa) is known for sporadically retaining a centralized vowel, which is a characteristic of Northern Amami. For example, ("root", Standard Japanese /ne/) is contrasted with ("loads", Standard Japanese /ni/). The northwestern community of Tamina (part of Western Okinoerabu) has a distinctive accentual system.


Folk terminology

Takahashi Takayo (b. 1967), a cultural anthropologist from the island, stated that the language of each community or the island as a whole was called ''shimamuni''. Each language variety within the island had distinctive characteristics. The language of the community of Kunigami on the island, for example, was referred to as ''Kunigami-bushi''. It retained mutually intelligibility with the languages of the island's other communities. It is said that Okinoerabu was mutually unintelligible with neighboring Yoron and Tokunoshima.


Phonology


Eastern Okinoerabu

The following is the phonology of the Wadomari dialect (part of Eastern Okinoerabu), which is based on Hirayama et al. (1986). As with most Ryukyuan languages to the north of Central Okinawan, stops are described as "plain" C’ and "glottalized" C‘. Phonetically, the two series are lightly aspirated and tenuis , respectively.Samuel E. Martin (1970) "Shodon: A Dialect of the Northern Ryukyus", in the ''Journal of the American Oriental Society'', vol. 90, no. 1 (Jan–Mar), pp. 97–139.


Consonants

Notes *The
zero onset In orthography, a zero consonant, silent initial, or null-onset letter is a consonant letter that does not correspond to a consonant sound, but is required when a word or syllable starts with a vowel (i.e. has a null onset). Some abjads, abugidas, ...
/'/ may be added. It contrasts with glottal and . A
minimal pair In phonology, minimal pairs are pairs of words or phrases in a particular language, spoken or signed, that differ in only one phonological element, such as a phoneme, toneme or chroneme, and have distinct meanings. They are used to demonstrate ...
is ("stomach"), ("day") and ("soft rush"). *"Tense" , and are in process of merging into "plain" , and , respectively. * is before and , and before and . * is new and infrequent. * and are realized as and , respectively. * is before and , and elsewhere. *, and are phonemically analyzed as , and , respectively. *, and are phonemically analyzed as , and , respectively. *, and are phonemically analyzed as , and , respectively.


Vowels

Eastern Okinoerabu has , , , and , long and short.


Correspondences to Standard Japanese

Only major sound correspondences are listed. *Standard Japanese is merged into . *Standard Japanese is merged into . *Eastern Okinoerabu and are of secondary origin and mostly correspond to Standard Japanese diphthongs. *Standard Japanese , and correspond to , and . *Standard Japanese corresponds to by default. Japanese and are usually in Eastern Okinoerabu, but some words have for Standard Japanese . Reflexes in is occasionally found as well. *Historical is dropped when it appears between any vowel and . * and palatalized before . Standard Japanese and correspond to Eastern Okinoerabu and . *Standard Japanese corresponds to in the word-initial position and to elsewhere. *The fusion of consecutive morae resulted in the glottalized and 'tense' consonants in Eastern Okinoerabu.


Western Okinoerabu

The following is the phonology of the China dialect (part of Western Okinoerabu), which is based on Hirayama et al. (1986).


Consonants

Notes *The zero onset /'/ may be added. It contrasts with glottal and . * is before and , and before and . * is new and infrequent. * and are realized as and , respectively. * is before and , and elsewhere. *, , and are phonemically analyzed as , , and , respectively. *, and are phonemically analyzed as , and , respectively.


Vowels

Western Okinoerabu has , , , and , long and short.


Differences between Eastern and Western Okinoerabu

*Standard Japanese and are merged into in Western Okinoerabu while they correspond to and in Eastern Okinoerabu. *Similarly, Western Okinoerabu has not undergone palatalization. *Western Okinoerabu does not have , or .


References


Further reading

*Sakimura Hirofumi, 1987.
A New View on the Accentual Systems of the Japanese Dialects in Okino-erabujima
' (in Japanese).


External links


Database of Shimamuni
(in Japanese) * Videos in Kunigami dialect ** ** ** ** ** ** * {{DEFAULTSORT:Okinoerabu Language Kagoshima Prefecture Ryukyuan languages