Amami Ōshima language

Not to be confused with Amami languages or Amami Oshima Sign Language.

The Amami language or languages (島口, シマユムタ, Shimayumuta), also known as Amami Ōshima or simply Ōshima ('Big Island'), is a Ryukyuan language spoken in the Amami Islands south of Kyūshū. The southern variety of the Setouchi township may be a distinct language more closely related to Okinawan than it is to northern Ōshima.

Amami Ōshima
Amami
島口/シマユムタ Shimayumuta
Native to	Japan
Region	Amami Ōshima and neighboring islands, Kagoshima Prefecture
Native speakers	ca. 12,000 (2004)^[1]
Language family	Japonic Ryukyuan Northern Ryukyuan Amami Amami Ōshima
Writing system	Japanese
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Either: ryn – Northern ams – Southern (Setouchi)
Glottolog	oshi1235
Tan in south: Southern Amami. Green, pink, and tan in north: Northern Amami. Each orange area indicates where people characterize the local dialect as being the same language as they speak.
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

As Amami does not have recognition within Japan as a language, it is officially known as the Amami dialect (奄美方言, Amami Hōgen).

Speakers

The number of competent native speakers is not known, but native speakers are found mostly among old people—as a result of Japan's language policy which suppresses proliferation of minority languages, the younger generations speak mostly Japanese as their first language. Estimates run around 10,000 for the northern variety and 2,000 for the southern (Setouchi) variety.^[1]

Classification

Linguists mostly agree on the validity of the Amami–Okinawan languages as a family. The subdivisions of Amami–Okinawan, however, remain a matter of scholarly debate, with two major hypotheses:

• In a two-branch hypothesis, posited by Nakasone (1961), Hirayama (1964) and Nakamoto (1990), among others, Amami–Okinawan divides into Amami and Okinawan, with the northern and southern varieties of Amami Ōshima both falling within the Amami branch.
• In a three-subdivision hypothesis, proposed by Uemura (1972) as one of several possible classifications and supported by Karimata (2000),^[2] Northern Amami Ōshima (perhaps together with Kikai) and Central/Southern Okinawa form two branches, while the intervening varieties – Southern Amami Ōshima (Setouchi), Kunigami, and the dialects/languages of the islands between – form a third branch. In this proposal, Amami Ōshima does not constitute a single language, and the northern and southern varieties are not even more closely related to each other than they are to other Ryukyuan languages.

The two-subdivision hypothesis is convenient for discussing the modern languages since the posited linguistic boundary corresponds to the centuries-old administrative boundary that today separates Kagoshima and Okinawa Prefectures. In addition, several isoglosses do group Northern and Southern Amami together. In Amami, word-medial /k/ is changed to /h/ or even dropped when it is surrounded by /a/, /e/ or /o/. This can rarely be observed in Okinawan dialects. Standard Japanese /-awa/ becomes /-oː/ in Amami and /-aː/ in Okinawan.^[2]

The three-subdivision hypothesis is more phylogenetically-oriented. A marked isogloss is the vowel systems. Standard Japanese /e/ corresponds to /ɨ/ in Northern Amami Ōshima while it was merged into /i/ in Southern Amami Ōshima through Okinawan.^[2]

The vowel system-based classification is not without complication. The northern three communities of Kikai Island share the seven-vowel system with Amami Ōshima and Tokunoshima to the south, while the rest of Kikai falls in with Okinoerabu and Yoron even further south. Based on other evidence, however, Karimata (2000)^[2] and Lawrence (2011)^[3] tentatively group Kikai dialects together.

Dialects

Amami Ōshima can be divided into Northern Amami Ōshima and Southern Amami Ōshima despite conflicting patterns of isoglosses.^[4] The distribution of Southern Amami Ōshima roughly corresponds to Setouchi Town, including offshore islands. The rest of the main island speaks Northern Amami Ōshima.^[4]

Shibata et al. (1984) takes a lexicostatistic approach to subgrouping Northern Amami Ōshima dialects:^[5]

• East China Sea side
  • Akatana^{[clarification needed]}
  • Yamato Village
  • Uken Village
• Pacific Ocean side
  • Komi (Kominato)^{[clarification needed]}
  • Northern Sumiyō
  • Southern Sumiyō

In addition, Sani, a small community on a peninsula at the northern tip of the island, is known to have distinct phonology.

Based on phonetic and lexical evidence, Shibata et al. (1984) subdivide Southern Amami Ōshima into

• Higashi (Eastern) Magiri
• Nishi (Western) Magiri

reflecting the administrative divisions during the Edo period. While Uke Island belonged to the Nishi Magiri district, its dialect is closer to that of Higashi Magiri.^[5]

Southern Amami Ōshima contrasts with Northern Amami Ōshima in its final unreleased consonants. For example, "shrimp" is [ʔip] in Ōshama^{[clarification needed]} (Southern) and [ʔibi] in Tatsugō (Northern); "blade" is [katna] in Ōshama and [katana] in Tatsugō.^[6]

Names

According to Osada Suma (1902–1998), the dialect of Yamatohama, Yamato Village of Amami Ōshima had yumuta /ˈjumuθa/ for 'language', shimayumuta /simaˈjumuθa/ for 'island language' (i.e. Amami Ōshima) and Yamatoguchi /ˈjamaθoɡuci/^{[clarification needed]} for the language of mainland Japan (i.e. Standard Japanese).^[7] Another term, shimaguchi /simaɡuci/, is absent from Osada's dictionary. According to Kurai Norio (b. 1923), a local historian from Amami Ōshima, shimaguchi contrasted with Yamatoguchi, while shimayumuta was associated with accentual and intonational differences among various shima (villages).^[8] Ebara Yoshimori (1905–1988), a folklorist from Naze, Amami Ōshima, conjectured that shimaguchi was of relatively recent origin, possibly made through analogy with Yamatoguchi. He thought that the dialect of one's home community was better referred to as shimayumuta.^[9]

Phonology

Consonants

Historically, vowel-initial words acquired an epenthetic glottal stop. When *wo and *we later became /u/ and /i/ without an initial glottal stop, the glottal stop elsewhere became phonemic. When still later initial consonants were elided, an initial glottal stop merged with the following consonant, establishing a series of "glottalized" consonants. While the nasals are truly glottalized, the "glottalized" stops are merely tenuis [C˭], contrasting with the default aspirated stops [Cʰ].^[10]

Consonant phonemes
"N" = Northern (Naze dialect^[11]), "S" = Southern (Koniya dialect^[12])

	Bilabial			Alveolar			Post- alveolar			Palatal		Velar			Glottal
	LEN	FOR	VOX	LEN	FOR	VOX	LEN	FOR	VOX			LEN	FOR	VOX
Nasal		mˀ^(N)	m		nˀ^(N)	n
Stop	pʰ^(S)	p˭^(N)	b	tʰ	t˭	d						kʰ	k˭	ɡ	ʔ
Affricate							t͡ʃʰ	t͡ʃ˭
Fricative				s		(z)									h
Approximant											j			w
Flap									ɾ

In the southern Shodon dialect (just off Kakeroma Island), *pʰ has become /ɸ/, and /z/ is only found in recent loans from Japanese.

Closed syllables

In the southern Shodon dialect, the consonants /p t tɕ k ɕ ɾ m n/ occur at the end of a word or syllable, as in /k˭upʰ/ 'neck', /sakʰɾa/ 'cherry blossom' and /t˭ɨɾɡjo/ 'well'.^[13] Other dialects are similar. Final consonants are usually the result of eliding high front vowels. Elision is partly conditioned by pitch accent. In Shodon dialect, for example, the noun with accent classes 2.1 and 2.2^{[clarification needed]} are realized as [⎞mɨtʰ]^{[clarification needed]} (water, 2.1) and [⎞ʔiʃ]^{[clarification needed]} (stone, 2.2) while 2.3-5 nouns retain final vowels, e.g. [mi⎛miː]^{[clarification needed]} (ear, 2.3), [ha⎛ɾiː]^{[clarification needed]} (needle, 2.4) and [ha⎛ɾuː]^{[clarification needed]} (spring, 2.5).^[14]

Vowels

There are seven distinct vowel qualities in Amami Ōshima, in addition to a phonemic distinction between long and short vowels and in some dialects oral and nasal vowels.^[13]

Ōshima vowel qualities

	Front	Central	Back
High	i	ɨ	u
Mid	e	ɘ	o
Low		a

/ɨ/ and /ɘ/ are generally transcribed "ï" and "ë" in the literature.

/ɨ/ derives from *e and merges with /i/ after alveolar consonants. /ɘ/ mostly derives from a merger of *ae and *ai, and so is usually long. In several northern dialects, the nasal vowels /ã õ ɨ̃ ɘ̃/ developed from the loss of a word-medial /m/:

*pama > pʰaã 'shore', *jome > juw̃ɨ̃ 'bride', *kimo > k˭joõ 'liver', *ɕima > ɕoõ 'island', *mimidzu > mɘɘ̃dza 'earthworm'

Kasarisani dialect has 11 oral and nasal vowels, while Sani dialect adds long vowels for a total of 18, the largest inventory of any Ryukyuan dialect.

Resources

• Amami hōgen bunrui jiten (1977–1980) by Osada Suma, Suyama Nahoko and Fujii Misako. A dictionary for the dialect of Osada's home community, Yamatohama, Yamato Village of Amami Ōshima (part of Northern Amami Ōshima). Its phonemic romanization was designed by Hattori Shirō. He also supervised the early compilation process. This dictionary is partially available online as the Amami Dialect Dictionary [1].
• The Phonetics and Vocabulary of the Sani Dialect (Amami Oshima Island, Ryukyuan language group)' (2003) by Karimata Shigehisa. Sani is known as a language island.
• Kikaijima hōgen-shū (1977 [1941]) by Iwakura Ichirō. A dictionary for the author's home community, Aden, and a couple of other southern communities on Kikai Island of the Amami Islands (its membership disputed).
• Samuel E. Martin, 1970. Shodon: A Dialect of the Northern Ryukyus
• Shigehisa Karimata, 1995–1996. The Phonemes of the Shodon dialect in Amami-Oshima[2] 2015-04-10 at the Wayback Machine[3] 2016-01-31 at the Wayback Machine

References

1. Northern at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
   Southern (Setouchi) at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
2. Karimata Shigehisa 狩俣繁久 (2000). . Nihon Tōyō bunka ronshū 日本東洋文化論集 (in Japanese) (6): 43–69. Archived from the original on 2022-02-02. Retrieved 2014-10-24.
3. Wayne Lawrence (2011). "Kikai-jima hōgen no keitōteki ichi ni tsuite 喜界島方言の系統的位置について". In Kibe Nobuko; et al. (eds.). (PDF) (in Japanese). pp. 115–122. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-05-02. Retrieved 2014-10-24.
4. Shibata Takeshi 柴田武 (1982). "Amami Ōshima no hōgen kukaku 奄美大島の方言区画". In Kyū gakkai rengō Amami chōsa iinkai 九学会連合奄美調査委員会 (ed.). Amami 奄美 (in Japanese). pp. 150–156.
5. Shibata Takeshi 柴田武; Sanada Shinji 真田信治; Shimono Masaaki 下野雅昭; Sawaki Motoei 沢木幹栄 (1984). Amami Ōshima no kotoba 奄美大島のことば (in Japanese).
6. Nakamoto Masachie 中本正智 (1976). Ryūkyū hōgen on'in no kenkyū 琉球方言音韻の研究 (in Japanese).
7. Osada Suma 長田須磨; Suyama Nahoko 須山名保子; Fujii Misako 藤井美佐子, eds. (1980). Amami hōgen bunrui jiten gekan 奄美方言分類辞典 下巻 (in Japanese). pp. 387–388.
8. Kurai Norio 倉井則雄 (2004). "Shimayumuta imamukashi シマユムタいまむかし". In Matsumoto Hirotake 松本泰丈; Tabata Chiaki 田畑千秋 (eds.). Amami fukki 50 nen 奄美復帰50年 (in Japanese).
9. Ebara Yoshimori 恵原義盛 (1987). Amami no hōgen sanpo II 奄美の方言さんぽII (in Japanese). pp. 10–11.
10. 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.
11. Nakamoto Masachie 中本正智 (1976). "Amami hōgen no on'in 奄美方言の音韻". Ryūkyū hōgen on'in no kenkyū 琉球方言音韻の研究 (in Japanese). pp. 312–370.
12. Hirayama Teruo 平山輝男; et al., eds. (1966). Ryūkyū hōgen no sōgōteki kenkyū 琉球方言の総合的研究 (in Japanese).
13. Shigehisa Karimata (2015) "Ryukyuan languages: a grammar overview", in Heinrich, Miyara, & Shimoji (eds) Handbook of the Ryukyuan Languages: History, Structure, and Use
14. Karimata Shigehisa かりまたしげひさ (1996). . Nihon Tōyō bunka ronshū 日本東洋文化論集 (in Japanese) (2): 1–57. Archived from the original on 2016-01-31. Retrieved 2012-02-16.

Further reading

• Samuel E. Martin, 1970. Shodon: A Dialect of the Northern Ryukyus
• Yuto Niinaga, 2009. How Do We Describe Demonstratives in Yuwan Ryukyuan?^{[permanent dead link]}

In Japanese

• Shigehisa Karimata, 1995–1996. The Phonemes of the Shodon dialect in Amami-Oshima[4] 2015-04-10 at the Wayback Machine[5] 2016-01-31 at the Wayback Machine
• Masao Ono, 2003.
• Nobuko Kibe, 2011. Phonological characteristics of Kikaijima

Link

 

Southern Amami Ōshima test of Wikipedia at Wikimedia Incubator

 

Northern Amami Ōshima test of Wikipedia at Wikimedia Incubator

• Research Report on the Kikaijima Dialects 2012-12-14 at the Wayback Machine published by the National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics (in Japanese)