Okinawan writing system

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This article describes the modern Okinawan writing system. See the Okinawan language article for an overview of the language. For the writing systems in Ryukyuan languages in general, see the Ryukyuan language article.

Okinawan language, spoken in Okinawa Island, was once the official language of the Ryukyuan Kingdom. At the time, documents were written in kanji and hiragana, derived from Japan. However, after Japan annexed the kingdom, the language was labeled as the "dialect" of mainland Japanese. Nowadays, most mainland Japanese, as well as most Okinawans, tend to think Okinawan as merely the dialect, even though the language is mutually unintelligible to mainland Japanese.

As a "dialect", modern Okinawan language is not written frequently. When it is, Japanese letters are generally used with an ad hoc manner. There is no standard orthography for the modern language. Nonetheless, there are a few systems announced by scholars and alike. None of them are wide spread among the native speakers yet, but those systems can write the language with less ambiguity than the ad hoc conventions. The Roman alphabet in some form or another is used in some publications, especially those of an academic nature.

1 Systems
2 Basic syllables and kai-yōon (palatalized syllables)
3 Gō-yōon (labialised syllables)
4 Others

[edit] Systems

Conventional usages: The modern conventional ad hoc spellings found in Okinawa.
Council system: The system devised by the Council for the Dissemination of Okinawan Dialect (沖縄方言普及協議会). [1]
University of the Ryukyus system: The system devised by Okinawa Center of Language Study, a section of University of the Ryukyus. Unlike others, this method is intended purely as a phonetic guidance, basically uses katakana only. For the sake of an easier comparison, corresponding hiragana are used in this article.
New Okinawan letters: 新沖縄文字 (Shin Okinawa-moji), devised by Yoshiaki Funazu (船津好明, Funazu Yoshiaki^?), on his textbook Utsukushii Okinawa no Kotoba (美しい沖縄の方言; "The beautiful Okinawan words"; ISBN 4-905784-19-0). The rule applies on hiragana only. Katakana is used as in Japanese; just like in the conventional usage of Okinawan.

[edit] Basic syllables and kai-yōon (palatalized syllables)

		i	u	e	o	ya	yu	yo
(Initial) ¹		[i] [ji]	[u] [wu]	[e] [je]	[o] [wo]	[ja]	[ju]	[jo]
(Elsewhere)		(Not used) ²				[ja]	[ju]	[jo]
Conventional		い	うをぅ	えいぇ	おをうぉ	や	ゆ	よ
Council		ゆぃ	をぅ	ゆぇ	を
Ryukyu Univ.		ゐ	をぅ	え
New Okinawan
'	'a a	'i i	'u u	'e e	'o o	'ya	'yu	'yo
(Initial) ¹	[ʔa]	[ʔi]	[ʔu]	[ʔe]	[ʔo]	[ʔja]	[ʔju]	[ʔjo]
(Elsewhere)	[a]	[i] [ji]	[u] [wu]	[e] [je]	[o] [wo]	[ʔja]	[ʔju]	[ʔjo]
Conventional	あ	い	う	えいぇ	おうぉ	や	ゆ	よ
Council				え	お	っや	っゆ	っよ
Ryukyu Univ.				いぇ		いゃ	いゅ	いょ
New Okinawan				え
k	ka	ki	ku	ke	ko	kya
	[ka]	[ki]	[ku]	[ke]	[ko]	[kja]
	か	き	く	け	こ	きゃ
g	ga	gi	gu	ge	go	gya
	[ɡa]	[ɡi]	[ɡu]	[ɡe]	[ɡo]	[ɡja]
	が	ぎ	ぐ	げ	ご	ぎゃ
s	sa	shi si	su	she se	so	sha sya	shu syu
	[sa]	[ʃi]	[su]	[ʃe]	[so]	[ʃa]	[ʃu]
Others	さ	し	す	しぇ	そ	しゃ	しゅ
Ryukyu Univ.	さ	しすぃ	す	しぇせ	そ	しゃ	しゅ
z	za	zi	zu	ze	zo
	[dza]	[dzi] [dʐi]	[dzu]	[dze]	[dzo]
Others	ざ	じ	ず	ぜ	ぞ
Ryukyu Univ.	ざ	づぃ	ずづ	ぜ	ぞ
j	ja	ji	ju	je	jo
	[dʒa]	[dʒi]	[dʒu]	[dʒe]	[dʒo]
Others	じゃ	じ	じゅ	じぇ	じょ
Ryukyu Univ.	じゃぢゃ	じぢ	じゅぢゅ	じぇぢぇ	じょぢょ
t	ta	ti	tu	te	to
	[ta]	[ti]	[tu]	[te]	[to]
Others	た	てぃ	とぅ	て	と
New Okinawan	た			て	と
d	da	di	du	de	do
	[da]	[di]	[du]	[de]	[do]
Others	だ	でぃ	どぅ	で	ど
New Okinawan	だ			で	ど
ch c	cha ca	chi ci	chu cu	che ce	cho co
	[tʃa]	[tʃi]	[tʃu]	[tʃe]	[tʃo]
	ちゃ	ち	ちゅ	ちぇ	ちょ
ts		tsi	tsu
		[tsi] [tʂi]	[tsu]
Ryukyu Univ.		つぃ	つ
n	na	ni	nu	ne	no	nya	nyu
	[na]	[ɲi]	[nu]	[ne]	[no]	[ɲa]	[ɲu]
	な	に	ぬ	ね	の	にゃ	にゅ
h	ha	hi	fu hu	he	ho	hya	hyu	hyo
	[ha]	[çi]	[ɸu]	[çe]	[ho]	[ça]	[çu]	[ço]
	は	ひ	ふ	へ	ほ	ひゃ	ひゅ	ひょ
b	ba	bi	bu	be	bo	bya	byu	byo
	[ba]	[bi]	[bu]	[be]	[bo]	[bja]	[bju]	[bjo]
	ば	び	ぶ	べ	ぼ	びゃ	びゅ	びょ
p	pa	pi	pu	pe	po	pya	pyu
	[pa]	[pi]	[pu]	[pe]	[po]	[pja]	[pju]
	ぱ	ぴ	ぷ	ぺ	ぽ	ぴゃ	ぴゅ
m	ma	mi	mu	me	mo	mya	myu	myo
	[ma]	[mi]	[mu]	[me]	[mo]	[mja]	[mju]	[mjo]
	ま	み	む	め	も	みゃ	みゅ	みょ
r	ra	ri	ru	re	ro
	[ɾa]	[ɾi]	[ɾu]	[ɾe]	[ɾo]
	ら	り	る	れ	ろ

¹: At the beginning of a word.

²: University of the Ryukyus system is an exception, always using ゐ, をぅ, え, を (ヰ, ヲゥ, エ, ヲ) for [i], [u], [e], [o], and い, う, いぇ, お (イ, ウ, イェ, オ) for [ʔi], [ʔu], [ʔe], [ʔo], respectively.

[edit] Gō-yōon (labialised syllables)

	wa	wi	we
	[ɰa]	[ɰi]	[ɰe]
Conventional	わ	うぃ	うぇ
Council		うぃ	うぇ
Ryukyu Univ.		ゑぃ	ゑ
New Okinawan		ゐ	ゑ
'	'wa	'wi	'we
	[ʔɰa]	[ʔɰi]	[ʔɰe]
Conventional	わ	うぃ	うぇ
Council	っわ	っうぃ	っうぇ
Ryukyu Univ.	うゎ	うゐ	うぇ
New Okinawan
k	kwa	kwi	kwe
	[kʷa]	[kʷi]	[kʷe]
Conventional	くぁくゎ	くぃ	くぇ
Council	くゎ	くぃ
Ryukyu Univ.	くゎ	くゐ
New Okinawan
g	gwa	gwi	gwe
	[ɡʷa]	[ɡʷi]	[ɡʷe]
Conventional	ぐぁぐゎ	ぐぃ	ぐぇ
Council	ぐゎ	ぐぃ
Ryukyu Univ.	ぐゎ	ぐゐ
New Okinawan
h	fa hwa	fi hwi	fe hwe
	[ɸa]	[ɸi]	[ɸe]
Conventional	ふぁ	ふぃ	ふぇ
Council	ふぁ
Ryukyu Univ.	ふゎ
New Okinawan

[edit] Others

	n ³	⁴	⁵
	ん	っ	ー
'	'n
Conventional	ん
Council	っん
Ryukyu Univ.	っん
New Okinawan

³: Hatsuon (moraic n)

⁴: Sokuon (geminated consonants)

⁵: Chōon (longer vowels): In conventional usages, longer vowels are sometimes spelt like in mainland Japanese as well; "ou" (おう) for ō, doubled kana for others. (e.g. うう for ū.)

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Categories: Okinawa Prefecture | Japanese writing system | Writing systems