An Introduction to the Japonic Languages --- Chapter 1

Shimoji, Michinori. (2022). "Chapter 1 The Japonic Languages: an Introduction". In An Introduction to the Japonic Languages. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill. doi: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004519107_002

The Japonic languages comprise Japanese and Ryukyuan and their respective local dialects (Figures 1.1 and 1.2).

Under the name of ‘Japanese’ are subsumed all local varieties spoken on Japan’s mainland (Mainland dialects) and a language spoken in Hachijōjima, which lies to the south of Japan’s mainland. Ryukyuan languages are spoken in an area that was once an independent country (Ryukyuan kingdom, 1429–1869), from the Amami islands to Yonaguni. There is no mutual intelligibility between Japanese and Ryukyuan, between Mainland dialects and Hachijō, or between Northern and Southern Ryukyuan languages. Even within Northern and Southern Ryukyuan, there is no mutual intelligibility among major island varieties. So, it is a recent shared recognition among Japanese linguists that Japonic comprises several distinct languages, Mainland language (which is ‘Japanese’ in a narrower sense), Hachijō, Amami, Okinawan, Miyako and Yaeyama.

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