Yonaguni language

The Yonaguni language ( 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 . 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.

{| class="wikitable" style=text-align:center

|- style="font-size: 90%;"

!Front

!Central

!Back

! Close

! Near-close

! Close-Mid

| ()

! Open

: can also be recognized as an independent phoneme and not just as an allophone of . 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.

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"

|+Consonants

! colspan="2" |

! Labial

! Alveolar

! Alveolo- palatal

! Palatal

! Velar

! Labio- velar

! Glottal

! colspan="2" | Nasal

! rowspan="3" | Plosive

! colspan="2" |Affricate

| colspan="2" | ~

! colspan="2" | Fricative

|[]

| colspan="2" | ~

! colspan="2" | Flap

! colspan="2" | Approximant

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.

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

Syllable structure

Below is the syllable template for Dunan:

:(C (G) ) V1 (V2) (N)

C = consonant
G = glide or
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

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.

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center"

|+ Yonaguni Orthography (Ikema 2003)

! !! /a/ || /i/ || /u/ || /e/ || /o/ ||/ja/ || /ju/

! /Ø/

| ア /a/ [a] || イ /i/ [i] || ウ /u/ [u] || エ /e/ [e] || オ /o/ [o] || ヤ /ya/ [ja] || ユ /yu/ [ju]

! /k/

| カ /ka/ [ka] || キ /ki/ [ki] || ク /ku/ [ku] || ケ /ke/ [ke] || コ /ko/ [ko] || キャ /kya/ [kja] || キュ /kyu/ [kju]

! /k'/

| か /k'a/ [kˀa] || き /k'i/ [kˀi] || く /k'u/ [kˀu] || け /k'e/ [kˀe] || こ /k'o/ [kˀo] || ||

! /g/

| ガ /ga/ [ga] || ギ /gi/ [gi] || グ /gu/ [gu] || ゲ /ge/ [ge] || ゴ /go/ [go] || ギャ /gya/ [gja] || ギュ /gyu/ [gju]

! /ŋ/

| カ゚ /ŋa/ [ŋa] || キ゚ /ŋi/ [ŋi] || ク゚ /ŋu/ [ŋu] || ケ゚ /ŋe/ [ŋe] || コ゚ /ŋo/ [ŋo] || ||

! /s/

| サ /sa/ [sa] || シ /ɕi/ [ɕi] || ス /su/ [su] || セ /se/ [se] || ソ /so/ [so] || シャ /ɕa/ [ɕa] || シュ /ɕu/ [ɕu]

! /t/

| タ /ta/ [ta] || ティ /ti/ [ti] || トゥ /tu/ [tu] || テ /te/ [te] || ト /to/ [to] || ||

! /t'/

| た /t'a/ [tˀa] || てぃ /t'i/ [tˀi] || とぅ /t'u/ [tˀu] || て /t'e/ [tˀe] || と /t'o/ [tˀo] || ||

! /d/

| ダ /da/ [da] || ディ /di/ [di] || ドゥ /du/ [du] || デ /de/ [de] || ド /do/ [do] || ||

! /ts'/

| ツャ /ts'a/ [tsˀa] || チ /tɕ'i/ [tɕˀi] || ツ /ts'u/ [tsˀu] || || || ||

! /n/

| ナ /na/ [na] || ニ /ni/ [ni] || ヌ /nu/ [nu] || ネ /ne/ [ne] || ノ /no/ [no] || ||

! /h/

| ハ /ha/ [ha] || ヒ /hi/ [çi] || フ /hu/ [hu] || ヘ /he/ [he] || ホ /ho/ [ho] || ヒャ /ça/ [hja] || ヒュ /çu/ [hju]

! /p/

| パ /pa/ [pa] || ピ /pi/ [pi] || プ /pu/ [pu] || ペ /pe/ [pe] || ポ /po/ [po] || ピャ /pya/ [pja] || ピュ /pyu/ [pju]

! /b/

| バ /ba/ [ba] || ビ /bi/ [bi] || ブ /bu/ [bu] || ベ /be/ [be] || ボ /bo/ [bo] || ビャ /bya/ [bja]|| ビュ /byu/ [bju]

! /m/

| マ /ma/ [ma] || ミ /mi/ [mi] || ム /mu/ [mu] || メ /me/ [me] || モ /mo/ [mo] || ||

! /w/

| ワ /wa/ [wa] || || || || || ||

! /r/

| ラ /ra/ [ɾa] || リ /ri/ [ɾi] || ル /ru/ [ɾu] || レ /re/ [ɾe] || ロ /ro/ [ɾo] || ||

| ン /N/* [n, m, ŋ] || ー /ː/ [ː] || ッ (final) /ʔ/ [ʔ] ||colspan="4" | ッ /Q/ [k, g, s, ts, t, d, h, b, p]

<nowiki>*</nowiki> /m/ before labial consonants and /ŋ/ before velar consonants. Example ディンブンキルン [dimbuŋkirun] "to have a goal for".

References

External links

Yonaguni phrasebook on Wikivoyage