Miyako (Ryukyuan)
Toshihide Nakayama
Yoshi Ono
Ryukyuan languages are spoken on the Ryukyu Islands, Japan. They are closely related to Japanese and all are endangered. Miyako Ryukyuan, spoken in the Southern Ryukyus, consists of several dialects, and in this practicum we examine Ikema, spoken on three separate islands in the area. We focus both on the linguistic and human aspects in working with endangered languages. After going over some general characteristics of the language, practicum participants will work on their individual projects. We will be flexible in accommodating participants’ needs, but having some knowledge of Japanese will be essential in doing this practicum. Please note that our focus is not on descriptive or theoretical analyses of the language for the sake of advancement of academic research. It is inspired by the recent views of documentary linguistics and CoLang where we aspire to work collaboratively with the speakers and communities in order to create a comprehensive record of the language as a whole and how it is used in actual context. The main goal of this practicum, therefore, is to gain hands-on experience in planning and carrying out a documentation project by applying documentary linguistic methods and skills acquired during the two-week workshop. Our featured speaker will be Mr. Hiroyuki Nakama, a Miyako and Japanese bilingual who originally came from Nishihara on Miyako Island.
