Language Loss and Revitalization in the Ryukyu Islands

Extract

One element contributing to Okinawa's “difference” from the Japanese mainland is the existence in Okinawa of languages that are unintelligible to mainland Japanese. Paul Heinrich takes up the topic of language in Okinawa and, as he makes amply clear, the situation is complicated and, from the standpoint of language preservation, dire. In Heinrich's assessment, the Ryukyu Islands are home to five different, mutually unintelligible language groups. However, since the Ryukyu Kingdom's 1879 absorption into the Japanese Empire, as a consequence of strong official and unofficial pressure to adopt standard Japanese, which Heinrich details, these languages are disappearing rapidly. Notwithstanding the efforts of groups today to revitalize local Ryukyuan languages, Heinrich ultimately ends his piece on a pessimistic note. He claims that saving the endangered languages of the Ryukyus would require strong official support that is not currently forthcoming.