Yonaguni language

E534397

The Yonaguni language is a highly endangered Ryukyuan language spoken on Japan’s Yonaguni Island, distinct from but related to Japanese and other Yaeyama languages.

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All labels observed (1)

Label Occurrences
Yonaguni language canonical 4

Statements (48)

Predicate Object
instanceOf Ryukyuan language
endangered language
language
alternativeName Dunan munui NERFINISHED
Yonaguni dialect NERFINISHED
Yonaguni-go NERFINISHED
classificationDebate often treated as separate from Yaeyama language
sometimes classified as a Yaeyama variety
country Japan
endangermentStatus moribund
severely endangered
geographicIsolation spoken on Japan’s westernmost inhabited island
hasCulturalRole carrier of Yonaguni Island traditions and oral literature
hasDomain home and informal community use among older speakers
hasGlottocode yona1241
hasISO6393Code yoi
hasLexicalFeature many basic vocabulary items not mutually intelligible with Japanese
hasMorphologicalFeature agglutinative morphology
hasPhonologicalFeature consonant and vowel inventory distinct from Standard Japanese
distinctive tone or pitch accent
hasSyntacticFeature basic SOV word order
influencedBy Japanese language NERFINISHED
intergenerationalTransmission largely broken
isDistinctFrom Japanese language NERFINISHED
Yaeyama language
languageFamily Japonic languages NERFINISHED
mutualIntelligibility low mutual intelligibility with other Yaeyama varieties
not mutually intelligible with Japanese
numberOfSpeakers very few
numberOfSpeakersTrend declining
recognizedAs distinct language by many linguists
region Yaeyama Islands NERFINISHED
relatedTo Japanese language NERFINISHED
Okinawan language NERFINISHED
Yaeyama language NERFINISHED
revitalizationEffort academic documentation and description
local community initiatives
spokenIn Japan NERFINISHED
Okinawa Prefecture NERFINISHED
Yonaguni Island NERFINISHED
subbranch Southern Ryukyuan languages NERFINISHED
subfamily Ryukyuan languages NERFINISHED
subjectOf language documentation projects
threatenedBy dominance of Standard Japanese in education and media
language shift to Japanese
usedBy Yonaguni people NERFINISHED
writingSystem Japanese kana
Latin alphabet
surface form: Latin script

Referenced by (4)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.

Yaeyama language closelyRelatedTo Yonaguni language
Proto-Japonic language ancestorOf Yonaguni language
Southern Ryukyuan languages hasPart Yonaguni language
Ryukyuan music language Yonaguni language