Ryukyu tongues are not even recognised as separate from Japanese. But linguists reckon they have about as much in common as English and German
Save time by listening to our audio articles as you multitaskYonaguni’s is one of half a dozen indigenous languages spoken on the Ryukyu Islands. The island chain, which includes Okinawa, stretches thinly almost from Kyushu to Taiwan, and was once an independent kingdom. That precarious position has long made the Ryukyus a battleground for the chain’s bigger neighbours. Its languages are among their victims.
Though Ryukyuan languages and Japanese belong to the same family, linguists reckon they have about as much in common as English and German. But when Japan annexed the islands in the 1870s, it declared the Ryukyuan languages mere dialects of Japanese. They were banned in schools. Students who persisted in speaking them were forced to wear demeaning placards around their necks.
Ryukyuan families kept the languages alive at home. Then, after the second world war, America occupied Okinawa and encouraged a return to Ryukyuan languages in a bid to distance the islanders from the rest of Japan. By associating the local languages with its unpopular occupation, however, America probably hastened their demise. “Speaking Japanese became a tool to free the Ryukyus from the Americans,” says Patrick Heinrich of Ca’ Foscari University of Venice.
Dunan is probably the most threatened language. Only around 100 people speak it fluently. Yonaguni’s government has therefore made optional Dunan courses available in schools. Muramatsu Minoru of the local education board, who is from Honshu but has learned the island language, has led an effort to assemble new Dunan dictionaries. There is a Dunan saying that sums up the stakes: “If you forget the language, you forget the island; if you forget the island, you forget your parents.
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