Yaeyama language

Yaeyama
八重山物言/ヤイマムニ Yaimamunii
Native to	Japan
Region	Yaeyama Islands
Ethnicity	47,600 (2000)
Language family	Japonic Ryukyuan Southern Ryukyuan Yaeyama
Language codes
ISO 639-3	rys
Glottolog	yaey1239

The Yaeyama language (八重山物言/ヤイマムニ, Yaimamuni) is a Southern Ryukyuan language spoken in the Yaeyama Islands, the southernmost inhabited island group in Japan, with a combined population of about 50,000 (as of 2011). The Yaeyama Islands are situated to the southwest of the Miyako Islands of the Ryukyus and to the east of Taiwan. Yaeyama (Yaimamunii) is most closely related to Miyako. The number of competent native speakers is not known - as a consequence of Japanese language policy which refers to the language as the Yaeyama dialect (八重山方言, Yaeyama hōgen), reflected in the education system, people below the age of 60 tend to not use the language except in songs and rituals, and the younger generation exclusively uses Japanese as their first language.

Yaeyama has three main dialects, named after the islands they are found on:

• Ishigaki
• Iriomote
• Taketomi (竹富物言 Teedun Muni)

The speech of the island of Yonaguni, while related, is usually considered a separate language.

History

The Ryukyuan language split from Proto-Japonic when its speakers migrated to the Ryukyu Islands.

Some of the pronunciations that disappeared from Japanese around the 8th century, Japan's Nara period, can still be found in the Yaeyama languages. One example is the initial "p" sound, which in Japanese became an "h," while remaining a "p" in Yaeyama.

	Proto-Japanese	Modern Japanese	Yaeyama
"Field"	para	hara	paru
"Boat"	pune	fune	puni
"Dove"	pato	hato	patu

While the Yaeyama language was more "conservative" in some aspects, in the sense of preserving certain pronunciations, in other aspects it was more innovative. One example is the vowel system. Old Japanese had eight vowels (some perhaps diphthongs); this has been reduced to five in modern Japanese, but in Yaeyaman, vowel reduction has progressed further, to three vowels. Generally, when modern Japanese has an "e," the Yaeyama cognate will have an "i" (this is seen in "puni," above); and where modern Japanese has an "o," the Yaeyama cognate will have a "u" (as seen in "patu," above).

	Modern Japanese	Yaeyama
"Thing"	mono	munu
"Seed"	tane	tani
"First time"	hajimete	hajimiti

Many of these preserved pronunciations have been lost in the language of the main island of Okinawa. One explanation for this is that it is possible to travel by sea from mainland Japan until the main island of Okinawa, while keeping one island or another in sight nearly at all times; but there is then a gap between Okinawa island and the Yaeyamas, that would have required several nights on the open sea. For this reason, there was less traffic between mainland Japan and the Yaeyama islands, allowing further linguistic divergence.

Wh-Questions

In Yaeyama, Wh-phrases are marked with du:

Subject wh-question and answer	taa-du suba-ba fai	who-DU soba-PRT ate	Who ate soba?
Object wh-question and answer:	kurisu-ja noo-ba-du fai	Chris-TOP what-PRT-DU ate	What did Chris eat?

Leaving du off of a wh-phrase leads to ungrammatically. Yet, du marking is optional for adverbial or adjunct wh-phrases. In questions with multiple wh-words, only one can be marked with du. Further research is needed to learn more about Wh-questions in Yaeyama.

Further reading

• (Japanese) Shigehisa Karimata, 2008. Phonological comparison of Yaeyama dialects[1]