Yonaguni (Yonaguni: Dunan munui ドゥナンムヌイ) is a Ryukyuan language

Ryukyuan languages

The Ryukyuan languages are spoken in the Ryukyu Islands, and make up a subgroup of the Japonic, itself controversially a subgroup of Altaic....

 spoken by around 800 people on the island of Yonaguni

Yonaguni

is one of the Yaeyama Islands. It is the westernmost inhabited island of Japan and lies from the east coast of Taiwan, between the East China Sea and the Pacific Ocean proper....

, in the Ryukyu Islands

Ryukyu Islands

The , also known as the , is a chain of islands in the western Pacific, on the eastern limit of the East China Sea and to the southwest of the island of Kyushu in Japan. From about 1829 until the mid 20th century, they were alternately called Luchu, Loochoo, or Lewchew, akin to the Mandarin...

, just east of Taiwan

Taiwan

Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...

. It is most closely related to Yaeyama

Yaeyama language

Yaeyama is a Ryukyuan language that is spoken in the Yaeyama Islands, the southernmost inhabited island group in Japan, with a combined population of about 50,000 . The Yaeyama Islands are situated to the southwest of the Miyako area of the Ryukyus and to the east of Taiwan. Yaeyama is most...

..

Phonology

In the Yonaguni language, as well as in Miyako

Miyako language

Miyako is a language spoken in the Miyako Islands, located southwest of Okinawa. The combined population of the islands is about 52,000 . Miyako is a Ryukyuan language, most closely related to Yaeyama...

, Yaeyama

Yaeyama language

Yaeyama is a Ryukyuan language that is spoken in the Yaeyama Islands, the southernmost inhabited island group in Japan, with a combined population of about 50,000 . The Yaeyama Islands are situated to the southwest of the Miyako area of the Ryukyus and to the east of Taiwan. Yaeyama is most...

, and other Southern Ryukyuan languages, /b/ is cognate with Standard Japanese /w/. Yonaguni also has /d/ where Japanese and other Ryukyuan languages have /j/. Thus, for example, Yonaguni /dami(-n)/ ('to hurt, to ache') is cognate with the archaic or dialectal Japanese verb /jame(-ru)/ ('to hurt, to ache') rather than with Japanese /itam(-u)/ (same meaning). Yonaguni /d/ is probably a recent development from an earlier */j/, however, judging from the fact that even the */j/ in loanwords of Sinitic

Chinese language

The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...

 origin is pronounced /d/ by speakers of the Yonaguni language.

Yonaguni language also exhibits intervocalic voicing of plosives, as do many dialects of Japanese.

It was once written with the Kaidā logogram

Kaidā logogram

Kaidā script is a writing system of unknown provenance once used in the Yaeyama islands and on Yonaguni, the southwestern-most of the Ryukyu Islands in Japan. They were primarily used along with Suzhou numerals for economic records: taxes, business transactions, crop and fishery yields, and the...

s.

Further reading

• 高橋俊三. "与那国方言." 言語学大辞典セレクション：日本列島の言語. 三省堂, 1997. Print. (ISBN 978-4385152073)
• 高橋俊三. "沖縄県八重山郡与那国町の方言の生活語彙." 方言研究叢書. 4 (1975): Print.
• 平山輝男, and 中本正智. 琉球与那国方言の研究. 東京: 東京堂, 1964. Print.
• 高橋俊三. "琉球・与那国方言の語彙". 東京: 法政大学沖縄文化硏究所, 1987. Print.

External links

• Yonaguni phrasebook on Wikitravel