Okinawan, spoken in Okinawa Island. Documents in Ryukyu Kingdom were written in kanji and hiragana, derived from Japan.
Contents
- Systems
- Traditional Usage
- Conventional usages
- Council system
- University of the Ryukyus system
- New Okinawan letters
- Basic syllables and kai-yōon (palatalized syllables)
- Gō-yōon (labialised syllables)
- Others
- References
- External links
Although generally agreed among linguists to be a distinct language, most Japanese, as well as some Okinawans, tend to think of Okinawan as merely a regional dialect of Japanese, even though it is not intelligible to monolingual Japanese speakers. [1] Modern Okinawan is not written frequently. The Japanese writing system is used in Okinawan scripts.
Tana family documents (田名家文書), which are letters of rank appointment issued by the Shuri Royal Government, are written in Japanese Epistolary style (候文) with Hentaigana . However, after the Satsuma invasion, Japanese culture was banned as part of the policy of exoticizing Ryukyu, and under the policy of Haneji Ōji Chōshū , documents within Ryukyu also began to be written in classical Chinese. [2]
Comparison of official documents of Tana family documents.
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