Research Articles

Intonation in Ryukyuan: with reference to modality, syntax, and focus

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Abstract

Ryukyuan is a sister language to Japanese and is said to have branched from Proto-Japanese-Ryukuan. The Ryukyuan language is spoken on the Islands of Ryukyu and Amami by a total of 1.4 million people. According to UNESCO, all Ryukyuan dialects are either severely or definitely endangered. The Ryukyu Kingdom was an independent country before it was integrated into Japan in 1879. Due to the integration policy of the Japanese government, particularly after the Second World War, the Ryukyuan languages have been severely suppressed and the vast majority of the people on the Ryukyu Islands are monolingual in Japanese. There has been debate about whether Ryukyuan should be considered as an independent language with which Japanese constitutes a language family, or as a dialect of Japanese. In this paper, the term Ryukyuan will be used, since it is most widely established internationally. Due to differences between them in phonology, grammar, and lexicon, Japanese and Ryukyuan are not mutually intelligible. The purpose of this paper is to explore, document, and describe the intonation of Shuri Ryukyuan. Shuri used to be the capital of the Ryukyu Kingdom and is the most influential of the Ryukyuan dialects.

Keywords: Ryukyuan, Ryukyu, Amami, Shuri Ryukyuan, endangered languages, intonation, modality, syntax, focus

How to Cite:

Nagano-Madsen, Y., (2011) “Intonation in Ryukyuan: with reference to modality, syntax, and focus”, Language Documentation and Description 10, 177-207. doi: https://doi.org/10.25894/ldd194