Yonaguni language

Yonaguni
与那国物言/ドゥナンムヌイ Dunan Munui
Pronunciation	[dunaŋmunui]
Native to	Japan
Region	Yonaguni
Native speakers	400 (2008)
Language family	Japonic Ryukyuan Southern Ryukyuan Macro-Yaeyama Yonaguni
Writing system	Japanese
Language codes
ISO 639-3	yoi
Glottolog	yona1241
ELP	Yonaguni
Yonaguni is classified as Severely Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger

The Yonaguni language (与那国物言/ドゥナンムヌイ Dunan Munui) is a Southern Ryukyuan language spoken by around 400 people on the island of Yonaguni, in the Ryukyu Islands, the westernmost of the chain lying just east of Taiwan. It is most closely related to Yaeyama. Due to the Japanese policy on languages, the language is not recognized by the government, which instead calls it the Yonaguni dialect (与那国方言, Yonaguni hōgen). As classified by UNESCO, the Yonaguni language is one of the most endangered languages in all of Japan, after the Ainu language.

Phonology

Vowels

The table below shows the vowels present in the Yonaguni language. Vowels which are only allophonic or marginal appear in parentheses.

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Near-close	(ɪ)		(ʊ)
Close-Mid			(o)[a]
Open		a	(ɑ)

^a [o] can also be recognized as an independent phoneme and not just as an allophone of /u/. However, its distribution is very limited. Excluding a few interjections, the only morpheme in which it appears is the sentence-final, exclamatory particle do.

Consonants

The table below shows the consonants present in the Yonaguni language.

Consonants

		Labial	Alveolar	Alveolo- palatal	Palatal	Velar	Labio- velar	Glottal
Nasal		m	n			ŋ
Plosive	lenis		tʰ			kʰ
	fortis	pˀ	tˀ			kˀ
	voiced	b	d			ɡ
Affricate			tsˀ ~ [tɕˀ]
Fricative		[ɸ]	s ~ [ɕ]		[ç]		[ʍ]	h
Flap			ɾ
Approximant					j		w

Plosive and affricate phonemes have three-way contrast. Hirayama et al. (1967) describe the contrast as voiceless non-laryngealized, voiceless laryngealized, and voiced. Yamada et al. (2015) describe the contrast as fortis (unaspirated and tense), lenis (weakly aspirated and lax), and voiced. The lenis/fortis distinction neutralized in word-medial positions, both becoming phonetically fortis.

In positions other than prevocalic, all nasals are phonetically homorganic with a following consonant (e.g. ng [ŋɡ], nd [nd], nb [mb]). Nasals are velar ([ŋ]) in final position.

Phonological cognates

As a Southern Ryukyuan language, Yonaguni, similar to Miyakoan and Yaeyama, has /b/ in place with Standard Japanese /w/, such as Yonaguni /bata/ ('stomach, belly'), cognate with Japanese /wata/ ('guts, bowels'). Yonaguni also has /d/ where Japanese and other Ryukyuan languages have /j/ (orthographically y). Thus, for example, Yonaguni /dama/ ('mountain') is cognate with Japanese and Yaeyama /jama/ ('id.'). Yonaguni /d/ is probably a recent development from an earlier */j/, however, judging from the fact that even the */j/ in loanwords of Sinitic origin is pronounced /d/ by speakers of the Yonaguni language, such as dasai 'vegetables' from Middle Chinese *jia-tsʰʌi (野菜). An entry in the late-15th-century Korean annals Seongjong Taewang Sillok records the local name of the island of Yonaguni in Idu script as 閏伊是麼, which has the Middle Korean reading zjuni sima, with sima glossed in the text as the Japonic word for 'island'. That is direct evidence of an intermediate stage of the fortition *j- > *z- > d-, leading to the modern name /dunaŋ/ 'Yonaguni'.

The Yonaguni language exhibits intervocalic voicing of plosives, as do many Japonic languages. It also exhibits the tendency for /ɡ/, especially when intervocalic, to be pronounced as a velar nasal /ŋ/, as in Standard Japanese.

Syllable structure

Below is the syllable template for Dunan:

(C (G) ) V₁ (V₂) (N)

• C = consonant
• G = glide [w] or [j]
• V = vowel
• N = moraic nasal

The onset allows for a single consonant with the occasional presence of a glide. The nucleus can contain up to two vowels. The only allowable coda is a moraic nasal.

Writing system

Main article: Kaidā logogram

Yonaguni was once written with a unique writing system called Kaidā logograms. However, after conquest by the Ryukyu Kingdom and later annexation by the Empire of Japan, the logograms were replaced by Japanese kana and Kanji.

Further reading

• 高橋俊三. "与那国方言." 言語学大辞典セレクション：日本列島の言語. 三省堂, 1997. Print. (in Japanese) (ISBN 978-4385152073)
• 高橋俊三. "沖縄県八重山郡与那国町の方言の生活語彙." 方言研究叢書. 4 (1975): Print. (in Japanese)
• 平山輝男, 中本正智. 琉球与那国方言の研究. 東京: 東京堂, 1964. Print. (in Japanese)
• 高橋俊三. "琉球・与那国方言の語彙". 東京: 法政大学沖縄文化硏究所, 1987. Print. (in Japanese)
• 西岡敏. "与那国方言の動詞継続相のアクセント対立". 地域研究シリーズ 35, 95-105, 2008. (in Japanese)
• 加治工真市, 仲原穣. "与那国方言について(与那国島の伝統文化調査研究報告書,加治工真市教授退官記念)". 沖縄芸術の科学 : 沖縄県立芸術大学附属研究所紀要 16, 17-74, 2004 (in Japanese)
• 与那国方言辞典編集委員会. どぅなんむぬい辞典第二版. 与那国町: 与那国著教育委員会. 2021. Print. (in Japanese)

External links

• Yonaguni phrasebook on Wikivoyage