Editing Ryukyuans (section)

===Language===
{{main|Ryukyuan languages|Okinawan scripts|Okinawan name}}
Similarities between the [[Ryukyuan languages|Ryukyuan]] and [[Japanese language]]s point to a common origin, possibly of immigrants from continental Asia to the archipelago.<ref>Heinrich, Patrick, [http://japanfocus.org/-Patrick-Heinrich/1596 "Language Loss and Revitalization in the Ryukyu Islands"], ''Japan Focus'', November 10, 2005; {{cite web |url=http://www.sicri-network.org/ISIC1/j.%20ISIC1P%20Heinrich.pdf |title=What leaves a mark should no longer stain: Progressive erasure and reversing language shift activities in the Ryukyu Islands |date=2005 |postscript=; |publisher=SICRI |work=The 1st international Small Island Cultures conference |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210531130140/http://www.sicri-network.org/ISIC1/j.%20ISIC1P%20Heinrich.pdf |archive-date= May 31, 2021 }} citing [[Shiro Hattori]]. (1954) ''Gengo nendaigaku sunawachi goi tokeigaku no hoho ni tsuite'' ("Concerning the Method of Glottochronology and Lexicostatistics"), ''Gengo kenkyu'' (''Journal of the Linguistic Society of Japan''), Vols. 26/27.</ref> Although previously{{When|date=May 2022}} ideologically considered by Japanese scholars{{Who|date=May 2022}} as a Japanese dialect and a descendant of [[Old Japanese]],{{sfn|Dubinsky|Davies|2013|pp=13–16}}{{sfn|Bentley|2015|pp=39, 48}} modern linguists such as Thomas Pellard (2015) now classify the Ryukyuan languages as a distinct subfamily of [[Japonic languages|Japonic]] that diverged before the Old Japanese period (c. 8th century CE); this places them in contrast to Japonic languages that are direct descendants of Old Japanese, namely Japanese and [[Hachijō language|Hachijō]].{{sfn|Pellard|2015|pp=15–16}} Early literature which records the language of the [[Old Japanese language|Old Japanese]] imperial court shows archaisms which are closer to Okinawan dialects, while later periods of Japanese exhibit more significant [[Sinicization]] (such as [[Sino-Japanese vocabulary]]) than most Ryukyuan languages. This can be attributed to the fact that the Japanese (or [[Yamato people]]) received writing from the [[Sinosphere]] roughly a millennium before the Ryukyuan languages.{{sfn|Kerr|2000}}

As the Jōmon-Yayoi transition (c. 1000 BCE) represents the formative period of the contemporary Japanese people from a genetic standpoint, it is argued that the Japonic languages are related to the Yayoi migrants as well.{{sfn|Robbeets|2015|p=27}} The estimated time of separation between Ryukyuan and mainland Japanese is a matter of debate due to methodological problems; older estimates (1959–2009) varied between 300 BCE and 700 CE, while novel (2009–2011) around 2nd century BCE to 100 CE, which has a lack of correlation with archeology and new chronology according to which Yayoi period started around 950 BCE,{{sfn|Pellard|2015|pp=20–21}} or the proposed spread of the Proto-Ryukyuan speakers to the islands in the 10–12th century from Kyushu.{{sfn|Pellard|2015|pp=29–32}}{{sfn|Robbeets|2015|pp=28–29}} Based on linguistic differences, they separated at least before the 7th century, before or around [[Kofun period]] (c. 250–538), while mainland Proto-Ryukyuan was in contact with [[Early Middle Japanese]] until 13th century.{{sfn|Pellard|2015|p=23}}

The Ryukyuan languages can be subdivided into two main groups, [[Northern Ryukyuan languages]] and [[Southern Ryukyuan languages]].{{sfn|Pellard|2015|pp=16–20}} The Southern Ryukyuan subfamily shows north-to-south expansion,{{clarify|date=May 2022}} while Northern Ryukyuan does not, and several hypothetical scenarios can be proposed to explain this.{{sfn|Pellard|2015|pp=25–26}} It is generally considered that the likely homeland of Japonic—and thus the original expansion of Proto-Ryukyuan—was in Kyushu, though an alternate hypothesis proposes an expansion from the Ryukyu Islands to mainland Japan.{{sfn|Serafim|2008|pp=98–99}}{{sfn|Pellard|2015|pp=25–26}}{{sfn|Bentley|2015|pp=49, 54, 58}}

Although authors differ regarding [[Dialect#Dialect or language|which varieties are counted as dialects or languages]], one possible classification considers there to be five Ryukyuan languages: [[Amami language|Amami]], [[Okinawa language|Okinawa]], [[Miyako language|Miyako]], [[Yaeyama language|Yaeyama]] and [[Yonaguni language|Yonaguni]], while a sixth, [[Kunigami language|Kunigami]], is sometimes differentiated from Okinawan due to its diversity. Within these languages exist dialects of local towns and specific islands, many of which have gone extinct. Although the [[Shuri, Okinawa|Shuri]] dialect of Okinawan was historically a [[prestige language]] of the [[Kingdom of Ryukyu]], there is no officially standardized Ryukyuan language. Thus, the Ryukyuan languages as a whole constitute a cluster of local dialects that can be considered [[Abstand and ausbau languages|unroofed abstand languages]].{{sfn|Heinrich|Miyara|Shimoji|2015|pp=1–2}}

During the [[Meiji period|Meiji]] and post-Meiji period, the Ryukyuan languages were considered to be dialects of Japanese and viewed negatively. They were suppressed by the Japanese government in policies of forced assimilation and into using the standard Japanese language.{{sfn|Caprio|2014|p=14}}{{sfn|Liddicoat|2013|pp=151–152, 209}} From 1907, children were prohibited to speak Ryukyuan languages in school,{{sfn|Dubinsky|Davies|2013|pp=15–16}}{{sfn|Liddicoat|2013|pp=151–152}} and since the mid-1930s there existed [[dialect card]]s,{{sfn|Dubinsky|Davies|2013|p=16}} a system of punishment for the students who spoke in a non-standard language.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Mary Goebel Noguchi|author2=Sandra Fotos|title=Studies in Japanese Bilingualism |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lDBCqwLfp8UC&pg=PA72 |access-date=9 June 2012|year=2001|publisher=Multilingual Matters|isbn=978-1-85359-490-8|pages=72–}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Elise K. Tipton|title=Society and the State in Interwar Japan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pvoXnnI0Kf4C&pg=PA204 |access-date=9 June 2012|date=1997|publisher=Psychology Press|isbn=978-0-415-15069-9|pages=204–}}</ref> Speaking a Ryukyuan language was deemed an unpatriotic act; by 1939, Ryukyuan speakers were denied service and employment in government offices, while by the Battle of Okinawa in 1945, the Japanese military was commanded to consider Ryukyuan speakers as spies to be punished by death, with many reports that such actions were carried out.{{sfn|Dubinsky|Davies|2013|p=17}} After World War II, during the United States occupation, the Ryukyuan languages and identity were distinctively promoted, also because of ideo-political reasons to separate the Ryukyus from Japan.{{sfn|Liddicoat|2013|pp=152–154, 209}} However, resentment against the American occupation intensified Ryukyuans' rapport and unification with Japan, and since 1972 there has followed re-incursion of the standard Japanese and further diminution of the Ryukyuan languages.{{sfn|Dubinsky|Davies|2013|p=17}}{{sfn|Liddicoat|2013|p=209}}

It was considered that contemporary people older than 85 exclusively use Ryukyuan, between 45 and 85 use Ryukyuan and standard Japanese depending on family or working environment, younger than 45 are able to understand Ryukyuan, while younger than 30 mainly are not able to understand nor speak Ryukyuan languages.{{sfn|Hendrickx|2007|p=20}} Only older people speak Ryukyuan languages, because Japanese replaced it as the daily language in nearly every context. Some younger people speak Okinawan Japanese which is a type of [[Japanese language|Japanese]]. It is not a dialect of the [[Okinawan language]]. The six Ryukyuan languages are listed on the [[UNESCO]]'s [[Red Book of Endangered Languages|Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger]] since 2009, as they could disappear by the mid-century (2050).{{sfn|Heinrich|Miyara|Shimoji|2015|p=1}}<ref name="ryukyuan-tongue">{{cite web |author=Patrick Heinrich |url=https://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2014/08/25/voices/use-lose-theres-stake-language-reviving-ryukyuan-tongues/ |title=Use them or lose them: There's more at stake than language in reviving Ryukyuan tongues |publisher=The Japan Times |access-date=2019-10-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190107141707/https://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2014/08/25/voices/use-lose-theres-stake-language-reviving-ryukyuan-tongues/ |archive-date=2019-01-07|date=2014-08-25 }}</ref> It is unclear whether this recognition was too late, despite some positive influence by the Society of Spreading Okinawan.{{sfn|Dubinsky|Davies|2013|p=17}}