Yonaguni language


The Yonaguni language 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. As classified by UNESCO, the Yonaguni language is the most endangered language in all of Japan.

Phonology

Vowels

The table below shows the vowels present in the Yonaguni language. Vowels which are only allophonic appear in parentheses.
FrontCentralBack
Close
Near-close
Close-Mid
Open

Consonants

The table below shows the consonants present in the Yonaguni language. Consonants which are only allophonic appear in parentheses. Plosive and affricate phonemes have three-way contrast between fortis, lenis, and voiced consonants.

Phonological cognates

As a Southern Ryukyuan language, Yonaguni, similar to Miyako and Yaeyama, has in place with Standard Japanese, such as Yonaguni , cognate with Japanese . Yonaguni also has where Japanese and other Ryukyuan languages have . Thus, for example, Yonaguni is cognate with Japanese and Yaeyama . Yonaguni is probably a recent development from an earlier, however, judging from the fact that even the in loanwords of Sinitic origin is pronounced by speakers of the Yonaguni language.
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:
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.