Native to Japan ISO 639-3 okn | Native speakers 3,200 (2004) Glottolog okin1246 | |
Region Okinoerabu Island of the Amami Islands, Kagoshima Prefecture Language family Japonic
Ryukyuan
Amami–Okinawan
Amami or Okinawan
Okinoerabu | ||
The Okinoerabu dialect cluster (島ムニ Shimamuni), also Oki-no-Erabu, is a dialect cluster spoken on Okinoerabu Island, Kagoshima Prefecture of southwestern Japan. It is part of the Amami–Okinawan languages, which are part of the Japonic languages.
Contents
Dialects
Okinoerabu dialects are classified into two groups:
The linguistic boundary between Eastern and Western Okinoerabu roughly corresponds to the administrative boundary between Wadomari (east) and China (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, [nɨː] ("root", Standard Japanese /ne/) is contrasted with [niː] ("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.
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 "glottolized" C‘. Phonetically, the two series are lightly aspirated [Cʰ] and tenuis [C˭], respectively.
Consonants
Notes
Vowels
Eastern Okinoerabu has /a/, /e/, /i/, /o/ and /u/, long and short.
Correspondences to Standard Japanese
Only major sound correspondences are listed.
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
Vowels
Western Okinoerabu has /a/, /e/, /i/, /o/ and /u/, long and short.