Dialects
The most divergent dialect is Tarama, spoken on Tarama Island, the farthest island away. The other dialects cluster as Ikema– Irabu and Central Miyako. Given the low degree of mutual intelligibility, Tarama language is sometimes considered a distinct language in its own right. An illustrative lexeme is the name of the plant '' Alocasia''. This varies as Central Miyako (Hirara, Ōgami) , Ikema , Irabu (Nagahama) , Tarama . A short description of the Aragusuku dialect (spoken in the southeastern area of Miyako Island and not to be confused with the Yaeyama dialect of the same name) was published in 2022 by Wang Danning. A descriptive grammar of Kurima dialect was published in 2024 by Alexandra Jarosz.Phonology
The description here is mostly based on the Ōgami dialect, the Central Miyakoan dialect of the smallest of the Miyako islands, from Pellard (2009). There is additional description based on the Irabu dialect, the Ikema-Irabu dialect of the second largest of the Irabu islands. Central Miyakoan dialects do not haveVowels
There are five vowels in Ōgami. is truly unrounded, unlike the compressed Japanese ''u''. It is centralized after . is rounded normally, but varies as . varies from to . Numerous vowel sequences occur, and long vowels are treated as sequences of identical vowels, keeping the inventory at five. Historical *i and *u centralized and merged to as *e and *o rose to /i/ and /u/. The blade of the tongue in is close to the alveolar ridge, and this feature has been inaccurately described as "apical" (it is actually laminal). In certain environments rises beyond vowel space to syllabic after and (especially before another voiced consonant) and, in dialects that have voiced stops, to after and : : *pito > pstu 'person', *kimo > ksmu 'liver', *tabi > tabz 'journey' in Shimazato dialect. Ōgami vowels other than are not subject to devoicing next to unvoiced consonants the way Japanese high vowels are. Sequences of phonetic consonants have been analyzed by Pellard (2009) as being phonemically consonantal as well. In Irabu there are five main vowels and two rare mid vowels that occur in loanwords and some clitics.Consonants
In Ōgami there are nine consonants, without a voicing contrast. (Most Miyakoan dialects do distinguish voicing.) The plosives tend to be somewhat aspirated initially and voiced medially. There are maybe a dozen words with optionally voiced initial consonants, such as ''babe ~ pape'' (a sp. of fish) and ''gakspstu ~ kakspstu'' 'glutton', but Pellard suggests they may be loans (''babe'' is found in other dialects, and ''gaks-'' is a Chinese loan; only a single word ''gama ~ kama'' 'grotto, cave' is not an apparent loan). may be spirantized before : ''kaina'' 'arm' , ''a꞊ka'' 'I (nominative)' . is at the end of a word, and assimilates to succeeding consonants () before another consonant. When final geminates, it becomes ; compare ''tin'' 'silver' with ''tinnu'' 'silver (accusative)'. It tends to devoice after and . , on the other hand, does not assimilate and appears finally unchanged, as in ''mku'' 'right', ''mta'' 'earth', and ''im'' 'sea'. is labiodental, not bilabial, and palatalizes to before the front vowels : ''pssi'' 'cold'. Some speakers insert an epenthetic between and in what would otherwise be a sequence thereof, as in ''ansi'' 'thus'. is clearly labiodental as well and tends to become a fricative when emphasized or when geminated, as in 'calf'. It can be syllabic, as can all sonorants in Ōgami: ''vv'' 'to sell'. Final contrasts with the high back vowels: 'snake', 'stick', 'fly' are accusative with the clitic ''-u''. is mainly heard in complementary distribution with , only occurring before vowels . There are 15 to 16 consonants in Irabu, which do have a voicing contrast. * The sequences are pronounced as �, tʃ * Sequences are heard as �ː, z̞z * /n/ is pronounced as a velar nasal �when preceding /k/. * /ʋ/ is heard as within consonant clusters. * /n/ can be heard as �when preceding /i/ or /j/. * is mostly phonetically pronounced as a less-fricated ̞ * /ɾ/ in word-final position is heard as � * /z̞/ is heard as voiceless ̞when occurring after a voiceless consonant. * Palatalization �occurs when consonants are preceding a palatal glide /j/ or a high-front /i/ (i.e. /mj, kj/; ʲ, kʲ * Syllabic nasal sounds ̩, n̩, (ŋ̩) are heard in word-initial position when preceding consonants.Phonotactics
Various sequences of consonants occur (''mna'' 'shell', ''sta'' 'under', ''fta'' 'lid'), and long consonants are bi moraic (''sta'' ''fta'' , ''pstu'' ), so they are analyzed as consonant sequences as well. These can be typologically unusual: : (sp. small fruit) : 'now' : 'you' : 'baby' : 'grass' : 'comb.' (from ''ff'' 'comb')''ff'' derives historically from ''fusi'', but there is no indication of vowels in the Ōgami word. : 'vegetable' : 'white' : 'dust.' (from ''ss'' 'dust') : 'mother' : 'potato.' (from ''mm'' 'potato') : 'day' Geminate plosives do not occur, apart from a single morpheme, the quotative particle ''tta''. There are a few words with no voiced sounds at all (compare Nuxálk language § Syllables): :''ss'' 'dust, a nest, to rub' :''kss'' 'breast/milk, hook / to fish, to come' :''pss'' 'day, vulva' :''ff'' 'a comb, to bite, to rain, to close' :''kff'' 'to make' :''fks'' 'to build' :''ksks'' 'month, to listen, to arrive', etc. :''sks'' 'to cut' :''psks'' 'to pull' The contrast between a voiceless syllable and a voiced vowel between voiceless consonants can be seen in ''kff puskam'' 'I want to make (it)', ''ff꞊nkɑi'' 'to꞊the.comb', and ''paks꞊nu꞊tu'' 'bee꞊꞊' (with a devoiced nasal after ''s''). There is a contrast between ''ff꞊mɑi'' 'comb꞊' and ''ffu꞊mɑi'' 'shit꞊'. With tongue twisters, speakers do not insert schwas or other voiced sounds to aid in pronunciation: :''kff ff'' 'the comb that I make' :''kff ss'' 'the nest that I make' :''kff kss'' 'the hook that I make' The minimal word is either VV, VC, or CC (consisting of a single geminate), as in ''aa'' 'millet', ''ui'' 'over', ''is'' 'rock', ''ff'' 'comb'. There are no V or CV words; however, CCV and CVV words are found, as shown above. Syllabification is difficult to analyze, especially in words such as ''usnkai (us-nkai)'' 'cow-' and ''saiafn (saiaf-n)'' 'carpenter-'.Orthography
References
* *External links