Editing Okinawan language (section)

===Dialect of the Japanese language===

Since the creation of Okinawa Prefecture, Okinawan has been labeled a dialect of Japanese as part of a policy of assimilation. Later, Japanese linguists, such as [[Tōjō Misao]], who studied the Ryukyuan languages argued that they are indeed dialects. This is due to the misconception that Japan is a homogeneous state (one people, one language, one nation), and classifying the Ryukyuan languages as such would discredit this assumption.<ref>Heinrich, Patrick. ''The Making of Monolingual Japan''. 2012. Pp 85–87.</ref> The present-day official stance of the Japanese government remains that Okinawan is a dialect, and it is common within the Japanese population for it to be called {{nihongo|沖縄方言||okinawa hōgen}} or {{nihongo|沖縄弁||okinawa-ben}}, which means "Okinawa dialect (of [[Japanese dialects|Japanese]])". The policy of assimilation, coupled with increased interaction between Japan and Okinawa through media and economics, has led to the development of [[Okinawan Japanese]], which is a dialect of Japanese influenced by the Okinawan and Kunigami languages. Japanese and Okinawan only share 60% of the same vocabulary, despite both being Japonic languages.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Fifield |first1=Anna |title=In Okinawa, saving the local languages is about more than words — it's about identity, too |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/in-japans-okinawa-saving-local-languages-is-about-more-than-words/2014/11/26/f1b8e2d0-7023-11e4-a2c2-478179fd0489_story.html |access-date=4 April 2023 |newspaper=Washington Post |date=29 November 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230305125915/https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/in-japans-okinawa-saving-local-languages-is-about-more-than-words/2014/11/26/f1b8e2d0-7023-11e4-a2c2-478179fd0489_story.html |archive-date=5 March 2023}}</ref>