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102-779: Gusuku ( グスク, 城 , Okinawan : gushiku ) often refers to castles or fortresses in the Ryukyu Islands that feature stone walls. However, the origin and essence of gusuku remain controversial. In the archaeology of Okinawa Prefecture , the Gusuku period refers to an archaeological epoch of the Okinawa Islands that follows the shell-mound period and precedes the Sanzan period , when most gusuku are thought to have been built. Many gusuku and related cultural remains on Okinawa Island have been listed by UNESCO as World Heritage Sites under

204-529: A Okinawan dictionary written in Chinese, maps Chinese "皇城" (imperial palace) to the transcription "姑速姑" ( gu-su-gu ). Similarly, the Yiyu yinshi (音韻字海) assigns "窟宿孤" ( ku-su-gu ) to "皇城." There is no consensus about the etymology of gusuku . Chamberlain analyzed the word as the combination of gu (< honorific go 御) and shuku (宿). Kanazawa Shōzaburō also segmented gusuku into gu and suku but considered that

306-552: A distinction between the terminal form ( 終止形 ) and the attributive form ( 連体形 ), the genitive function of が ga (lost in the Shuri dialect), the nominative function of ぬ nu (cf. Japanese: の no ), as well as honorific/plain distribution of ga and nu in nominative use. Classical Japanese: 書く kaku One etymology given for the -un and -uru endings is the continuative form suffixed with uri ("to be; to exist", cf. Classical Japanese : 居り wori ): -un developed from

408-613: A dozen of gusuku were transformed into fortress/castle-like structures is unclear, but he conjectured that some rulers had expanded gusuku substantially by building their family residences around them. Shuri Castle , for example, encompasses sacred places such as Sui mui gusuku and Madan mui gusuku , which suggests the original nature of the castle. Archaeologists from Okinawa Prefecture have labeled some archaeological findings as gusuku. Takemoto Masahide claimed that gusuku were defensive communities. He classified what he considered gusuku into three types: According to Takemoto, Type B, which

510-415: A dozen were fortifications. Each community usually had a gusuku. Gusuku were typically located on hills, but some were on sand dunes, on cliff edges, and in caves. In some communities, what were called gusuku were actually stone tombs. Nakamatsu explained the great diversity of gusuku by one feature in common: sacredness. According to Nakamatsu, a gusuku was in origin a place of "aerial burial." The reason that

612-706: A historian and an archaeologist from Okinawa dated them to the late 12th to early 13th centuries and claimed that they were predecessors of gusuku with stone walls. This view was actively criticized by Takanashi Osamu in the late 1990s and 2000s. Archaeological studies in the Sakishima Islands in southern Okinawa Prefecture are not so active as those in the main Okinawa Islands . Some Okinawa-led archaeological reports labeled some sites in Miyako and Yaeyama as "gusuku-like." Archaeologist Ono Masatoshi raised concern about

714-416: A method of dying clothes. And before alveolar and alveolo-palatal consonants, it becomes a syllabic alveolar nasal /n̩/ , as in /kaɴda/ [kan̩da] kanda "vine". In some varieties, it instead becomes a syllabic uvular nasal [ɴ̩] . Elsewhere, its exact realization remains unspecified, and it may vary depending on the first sound of the next word or morpheme. In isolation and at the end of utterances, it

816-617: A number of local dialects, the Shuri – Naha variant is generally recognized as the de facto standard, as it had been used as the official language of the Ryukyu Kingdom since the reign of King Shō Shin (1477–1526). Moreover, as the former capital of Shuri was built around the royal palace, the language used by the royal court became the regional and literary standard, which thus flourished in songs and poems written during that era. Today, most Okinawans speak Okinawan Japanese , although

918-644: A number of people still speak the Okinawan language, most often the elderly. Within Japan, Okinawan is often not seen as a language unto itself but is referred to as the Okinawan dialect ( 沖縄方言 , Okinawa hōgen ) or more specifically the Central and Southern Okinawan dialects ( 沖縄中南部諸方言 , Okinawa Chūnanbu Sho hōgen ) . Okinawan speakers are undergoing language shift as they switch to Japanese, since language use in Okinawa today

1020-579: A partition of a mansion and stone walls surrounding an agricultural field. Nakamatsu Yashū claimed that suku -like word forms were more prominent in Miyako and Yaeyama than gusuku . Regardless of whether it is appropriate to call them gusuku , the Yaeyama Islands have archaeological remains with stone walls, such as Mashuku Village of Hateruma Island , Hanasuku and Gumaara Villages and Shinzato Villages of Taketomi Island . These villages were abandoned around

1122-603: A process of glottalization of word-initial vowels. Hence, all vowels in Okinawan are predictably glottalized at the beginning of words ( */ame/ → /ʔami/ ami "rain"), save for a few exceptions. High vowel loss or assimilation following this process created a contrast with glottalized approximants and nasal consonants. Compare */uwa/ → /ʔwa/ Q wa "pig" to /wa/ wa "I", or */ine/ → /ʔɴni/ Q nni "rice plant" to */mune/ → /ɴni/ nni "chest". The moraic nasal /N/ has been posited in most descriptions of Okinawan phonology. Like Japanese, /N/ (transcribed using

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1224-450: A residence, a well, an utaki , and storage buildings. Larger gusuku, like Nakijin Castle, could have more than five baileys, while smaller gusuku, like Iha Castle , had a single bailey. Gusuku have one or more entrances, often guarded by a heavy gate or gatehouse . Gates were the strongpoints of gusuku. Many gusuku, like Nakijin Castle, were adapted to have gun ports next to their gates. At

1326-522: A result, gusuku came to mean castles/fortresses. In any case, a flood of archaeological discoveries in the 1970s led Okinawan archaeologists to establish archaeological periods of the Okinawa Islands that were distinct from those of Japan (Amami and the Sakishima group also have unique archaeological periods distinct from Japan and one another). In their framework, the Gusuku period is an archaeological epoch of

1428-447: A room within a single building. From later Saxon times, the standard manorial plan began to emerge - the excavated tenth century hall at Sulgrave (Northamptonshire) has a definite 'high' end with an attached stone chamber wing and 'low' end with a cross-passage, services and detached kitchen. In the late tenth century, first floor stone halls began to be built in both France and England, partly for reasons of security. This form would become

1530-662: A similar medieval style, as do the Inns of Court and the Livery Companies in London . The "high table" (often on a small dais or stage at the top of the hall, farthest away from the screens passage) seats dons (at the universities) and Masters of the Bench (at the Inns of Court), whilst students (at the universities) and barristers or students (at the Inns of Court) dine at tables placed at right angles to

1632-516: A stone stele at the Tamaudun mausoleum, dating back to 1501. After the invasion of Okinawa by the Shimazu clan of Satsuma in 1609, Okinawan ceased to be used in official affairs. It was replaced by standard Japanese writing and a form of Classical Chinese writing known as kanbun . Despite this change, Okinawan still continued to prosper in local literature up until the nineteenth century. Following

1734-423: A subject of a sentence Pronouns are classified the same as nouns, except that pronouns are more broad. Adverbs are classified as an independent, non-conjugating part of speech that cannot become a subject of a sentence and modifies a declinable word (用言; verbs, adverbs, adjectives) that comes after the adverb. There are two main categories to adverbs and several subcategories within each category, as shown in

1836-473: Is Furusutobaru Castle , residence of Oyake Akahachi , which was attacked by Nakasone Toyomiya of Miyako shortly before the invasion by Ryukyu. Linguist Nakamoto Masachie noted that in some dialects of Yaeyama, gusuku / gushiku means stone walls themselves (not a structure with stone walls) and conjectured that this might be the original meaning of gusuku . According to Ono Masatoshi, gusuku has various meanings, depending on dialects of Yaeyama, including

1938-569: Is a Japonic language , derived from Proto-Japonic and is therefore related to Japanese . The split between Old Japanese and the Ryukyuan languages has been estimated to have occurred as early as the 1st century AD to as late as the 12th century AD. Chinese and Japanese characters were first introduced by a Japanese missionary in 1265. Hiragana was a much more popular writing system than kanji ; thus, Okinawan poems were commonly written solely in hiragana or with little kanji. Okinawan became

2040-498: Is a Northern Ryukyuan language spoken primarily in the southern half of the island of Okinawa , as well as in the surrounding islands of Kerama , Kumejima , Tonaki , Aguni and a number of smaller peripheral islands. Central Okinawan distinguishes itself from the speech of Northern Okinawa, which is classified independently as the Kunigami language . Both languages are listed by UNESCO as endangered . Though Okinawan encompasses

2142-481: Is assigned to it. In later ryūka and kumi odori , the reading shiro is also used for the same Chinese character, in addition to also using 城内 (shiro-uchi; inside the castle). The references to gusuku in the Omoro Sōshi are mostly about castles and fortresses, but sacred places and places of worship are called gusuku as well. In some cases, gusuku simply refers to Shuri Castle . The Liuqiu-guan yiyu (琉球館訳語),

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2244-477: Is far from stable. Okinawans are assimilating and accenting standard Japanese due to the similarity of the two languages, the standardized and centralized education system, the media, business and social contact with mainlanders and previous attempts from Japan to suppress the native languages. Okinawan is still kept alive in popular music, tourist shows and in theaters featuring a local drama called uchinā shibai , which depict local customs and manners. Okinawan

2346-403: Is largely due to the shift to Standard Japanese. Throughout history, Okinawan languages have been treated as dialects of Standard Japanese. For instance, in the 20th century, many schools used "dialect tags" to punish the students who spoke in Okinawan. Consequently, many of the remaining speakers today are choosing not to transmit their languages to younger generations due to the stigmatization of

2448-452: Is of the opinion that the great hall retained vitality into the sixteenth century, with many of the most impressive halls being later, like those of Eltham Palace (1475-80) and Hampton Court Palace (1532-35). The hall would originally have had a central hearth, with the smoke rising through the hall to a vent in the roof, examples can be seen at Stokesay Castle and Ludlow Castle . Later chimneys were added, and it would then have one of

2550-460: Is overwhelming in number, appeared during the transitional period between primitive society and class society. As noted by Asato Susumu, there is a significant gap in the use of the term gusuku . While Nakamatsu referred to limited space as gusuku, Takamoto applied the term to the whole archaeological site. Archaeologist Tōma Shiichi hypothesized that a gusuku was the residence of an aji (local ruler or warlord) and his family. Since most gusuku in

2652-494: Is realized as a velar nasal [ŋ̍] . The Okinawan language was historically written using an admixture of kanji and hiragana . The hiragana syllabary is believed to have first been introduced from mainland Japan to the Ryukyu Kingdom some time during the reign of king Shunten in the early thirteenth century. It is likely that Okinawans were already in contact with hanzi (Chinese characters) due to extensive trade between

2754-603: Is their wall (s). Gusuku walls are primarily made with Ryukyuan limestone and, sometimes, coral. There are three types of gusuku walls: aikata-zumi , nozura-zumi , and  nuno-zumi . Examples of each are Nakagusuku Castle , Nakijin Castle , Zakimi Castle , and parts of Shuri Castle . The shape of gusuku walls usually follows the contours of the land. They are usually thick, and sometimes have low parapets atop them. Some gusuku walls, like those of Nakagusuku Castle , were designed to resist cannon fire. Gusuku have one or more baileys . The baileys of typical gusuku usually contained

2856-578: Is unmotivated. Consequently, the existence of /ɸ/ must be regarded as independent of /h/ , even though the two overlap. Barring a few words that resulted from the former change, the aspirate /h/ also arose from the odd lenition of /k/ and /s/ , as well as words loaned from other dialects. Before the glide /j/ and the high vowel /i/ , it is pronounced closer to [ç] , as in Japanese. The plosive consonants /t/ and /k/ historically palatalized and affricated into /t͡ɕ/ before and occasionally following

2958-642: The Meiji Restoration , the Japanese government abolished the domain system and formally annexed the Ryukyu Islands to Japan as the Okinawa Prefecture in 1879. To promote national unity, the government then introduced standard education and opened Japanese-language schools based on the Tokyo dialect . Students were discouraged and chastised for speaking or even writing in the local "dialect", notably through

3060-495: The Ryukyuan religion . The relationship between utaki and gusuku has led some experts to question the origin and essence of gusuku. Although it is widely recognized within the Okinawa Islands that gusuku are castles/fortresses, there is ample reason to question this perception. The origin and essence of gusuku were actively discussed in the 1960s and 70s and remain controversial. Cultural geographer Nakamatsu Yashū claimed that

3162-433: The great chamber and parlours , withdrawing rooms , and later for servants who finally achieved their own servants hall to eat in and servants’ bedrooms in attics or basements). By the late 16th century the great hall was beginning to lose its purpose. Increasing centralization of power in royal hands meant that men of good social standing were less inclined to enter the service of a lord to obtain his protection, and so

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3264-538: The phonemic and allophonic level. Namely, Okinawan retains the labialized consonants /kʷ/ and /ɡʷ/ which were lost in Late Middle Japanese , possesses a glottal stop /ʔ/ , features a voiceless bilabial fricative /ɸ/ distinct from the aspirate /h/ , and has two distinctive affricates which arose from a number of different sound processes . Additionally, Okinawan lacks the major allophones [t͡s] and [d͡z] found in Japanese, having historically fronted

3366-412: The 1960s and 70s. He revealed that most of what were called gusuku by local communities of Amami were by no means fortifications. He also noted that Amami had -suku toponyms, which were otherwise considered specific to Miyako and Yaeyama. However, his study on Amami went largely unnoticed. In the 1980s and 90s, Miki Yasushi, an expert of medieval mountain fortifications of Japan, extended his research to

3468-506: The Amami Islands, largely independently of Okinawan archaeology. His comprehensive study found 129 gusuku toponyms in Amami Ōshima. Similarly, a 1982 research project by Kagoshima Prefecture covered 45 fortifications in Amami. Miki carefully noted that, as Nakamatsu had shown, most of what were called gusuku were not fortifications, and that conversely, some fortifications were not called gusuku by

3570-580: The Japanese government annexed Ryukyu and established Okinawa Prefecture. The prefectural office mainly consisted of people from Kagoshima Prefecture where the Satsuma Domain used to be. This caused the modernization of Okinawa as well as language shift to Japanese. As a result, Japanese became the standard language for administration, education, media, and literature. In 1902, the National Language Research Council ( 国語調査委員会 ) began

3672-529: The Middle Ages. A few university colleges, including Merton College, Oxford (1277), Peterhouse, Cambridge (1290), University College, Durham (between 1284 and 1311, originally for the Prince Bishop of Durham ), Trinity Hall, Cambridge (1350), and New College, Oxford (14th century), have medieval halls which are still used as dining rooms on a daily basis; many other colleges have later halls built in

3774-466: The Northern Ryukyuan languages. 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

3876-529: The Okinawa Islands are accompanied with stone walls, he considered that the Gusuku Period was characterized by the formation of class society. Among archaeologists, however, Kokubu Naoichi supported Nakamatsu's theory considering poor living conditions of gusuku. Asato Susumu expressed concern about the association of gusuku with class society because the emergence of political rulers was not well attested by archaeological findings but mostly based on literature that

3978-622: The Okinawa Islands, which they consider was characterized by the widespread appearance of gusuku, the widespread use of iron, and farming. It follows the Shell Mound period and precedes the Sanzan period. It is parallel with the late Heian to Muromachi periods of Japan. Also, the beginning of the Gusuku period corresponds to that of the Old Ryukyu period of Okinawan historiography, both beginning in 1187 with

4080-613: The Okinawa-centered kingdom of Ryukyu was formed. While typical castle/fortress-type gusuku in the Okinawa Islands were featured by stone walls, it was discovered in the 1980s and 90s that some fortifications in northern Okinawa Island lacked stone walls but instead were characterized by earthworks, kuruwa and dry moats. This style of fortifications is in fact rather common in Amami Ōshima and representative of medieval mountain fortifications (中世山城) of Japan. Naka Shōhachirō and Chinen Isamu,

4182-440: The Okinawan gusuku-as-fortifications framework. Naka Shōhachiro investigated some gusuku in Amami Ōshima and discovered kuruwa and dry moats there. He claimed that the primary function of those gusuku was defensiveness, not religiousness as Nakamatsu claimed. He dated them to the late 12th to early 13th centuries and considered that they subsequently evolved into those with stone walls in Okinawa. By contrast, Miki conjectured that

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4284-602: The Ryukyu Kingdom was colonized by the Satsuma Domain in the south of Japan. However, Satsuma did not fully invade the Ryukyu in fear of colliding with China, which had a stronger trading relationship with the Ryukyu at the time. When Ryukyu was annexed by Japan in 1879, the majority of people on Okinawa Island spoke Okinawan. Within 10 years, the Japanese government began an assimilation policy of Japanization , where Ryukyuan languages were gradually suppressed. The education system

4386-439: The Ryukyu Kingdom and China, Japan and Korea. However, hiragana gained more widespread acceptance throughout the Ryukyu Islands, and most documents and letters were exclusively transcribed using this script, in contrast to in Japan where writing solely in hiragana was considered "women's script". The Omoro Sōshi ( おもろさうし ), a sixteenth-century compilation of songs and poetry, and a few preserved writs of appointments dating from

4488-652: The Ryukyuan group linguistically. The Yonaguni dialect is very different in phonetics from the other groups but it comes closest to the Yaeyama dialect lexically. Outside Japan, Okinawan is considered a separate language from Japanese. This was first proposed by Basil Hall Chamberlain , who compared the relationship between Okinawan and Japanese to that of the Romance languages . UNESCO has marked it as an endangered language. UNESCO listed six Okinawan language varieties as endangered languages in 2009. The endangerment of Okinawan

4590-458: The Ryukyuan languages as such would discredit this assumption. 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 沖縄方言 ( okinawa hōgen ) or 沖縄弁 ( okinawa-ben ) , which means "Okinawa dialect (of Japanese )". The policy of assimilation, coupled with increased interaction between Japan and Okinawa through media and economics, has led to

4692-650: The basis for the hall keep . Examples can be seen at Langeais Castle (France), Richmond Castle (England) and Chepstow Castle (Wales), as well as on the Bayeux Tapestry . Many large ground floor aisled halls were built in England following the Norman Conquest , as the key room in the new feudal society . The greatest was that at Westminster Palace , built by William Rufus as a setting for secular royal events. Even ground floor halls were increasingly built of stone as

4794-407: The chart below, with major allophones presented in parentheses. The only consonant that can occur as a syllable coda is the archiphoneme |n| . Many analyses treat it as an additional phoneme /N/ , the moraic nasal , though it never contrasts with /n/ or /m/ . The consonant system of the Okinawan language is fairly similar to that of standard Japanese, but it does present a few differences on

4896-453: The construction of these fortifications was triggered by repeated invasion by the Ryukyu Kingdom in the 15th and 16th centuries. In his survey of earlier studies, Takanashi Osamu criticized Naka's theory because his dating lacked evidence. In fact, gusuku with established dates were mostly from the 14th to 16th centuries. While other archaeologists had focused on mountain fortifications, he paid attention to gusuku in flat land. He also indicated

4998-450: The cooking. Commonly the fireplace would have an elaborate overmantel with stone or wood carvings or plasterwork which might contain coats of arms , heraldic mottoes (usually in Latin), caryatids or another adornment. In the upper halls of French manor houses, the fireplaces were usually very large and elaborate. Typically, the great hall had the finest decorations in it, as well as on

5100-449: 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. Okinawan linguist Seizen Nakasone states that the Ryukyuan languages are in fact groupings of similar dialects. As each community has its own distinct dialect, there is no "one language". Nakasone attributes this diversity to

5202-459: The essence of gusuku was a sacred place. His theory was backed by decades of field work that was not limited to the Okinawa Islands but that extended to Amami , Miyako and Yaeyama . He revealed that an overwhelming majority of what were called gusuku by local communities did not look like castles or fortresses at all. In fact, they were too isolated from local communities, too small to live in and lacked water supply. Among hundreds of gusuku, only

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5304-454: The first becoming a flap in word-medial position, and the second sometimes becoming a plosive in word-initial position. For example, /ɾuː/ rū "dragon" may be strengthened into /duː/ dū , and /hasidu/ hashidu "door" conversely flaps into /hasiɾu/ hashiru . The two sounds do, however, still remain distinct in a number of words and verbal constructions. Okinawan also features a distinctive glottal stop /ʔ/ that historically arose from

5406-404: The function of the hall began to narrow to solely a dining and circulation space, and architectural developments reflected that, with the rise of the wall fireplace and bay window (also known as an oriel) creating a more pleasant and specialised chamber. It was formerly considered that the decline of the hall began with the decline of feudalism in the 14th century. More recent scholarship, however,

5508-611: The glide /j/ and the high vowel /i/ : */kiri/ → /t͡ɕiɾi/ chiri "fog", and */k(i)jora/ → /t͡ɕuɾa/ chura- "beautiful". This change preceded vowel raising, so that instances where /i/ arose from */e/ did not trigger palatalization: */ke/ → /kiː/ kī "hair". Their voiced counterparts /d/ and /ɡ/ underwent the same effect, becoming /d͡ʑ/ under such conditions: */unaɡi/ → /ʔɴnad͡ʑi/ Q nnaji "eel", and */nokoɡiri/ → /nukud͡ʑiɾi/ nukujiri "saw"; but */kaɡeɴ/ → /kaɡiɴ/ kagin "seasoning". Both /t/ and /d/ may or may not also allophonically affricate before

5610-417: The hanging chandelier, often called the 'hart-horn' made of antler; ornamental weapons, commonly a halberd ; and the cloth and napery used for dining. Occasionally the great hall would have an early listening device system, allowing conversations to be heard in the lord's bedroom above. In Scotland, these devices are called a laird 's lug. In many French manor houses, there are small peep-holes from which

5712-569: The heart of most gusuku was the Main Hall ( 正殿 , Seidan ) . The Main Hall was typically the residence of a feudal lord ( Aji ). The palace at Shuri Castle is the most prominent Main Hall, being the only one remaining, but the site of the Main Hall is very obvious at other gusuku, such as Katsuren Castle . Almost all gusuku contain or are near an utaki ( 御嶽 ) , shrines and sites of religious importance in

5814-444: The high table and running down the body of the hall, thus maintaining the hierarchical arrangement of the medieval domestic, monastic or collegiate household. Numerous more recently founded schools and institutions have halls and dining halls based on medieval great halls or monastic refectories. From the 15th century onwards, halls lost most of their traditional functions to more specialised rooms, first for family members and guests to

5916-448: The high vowel /u/ , and /ɸ/ does not occur before the rounded vowel /o/ . This suggests that an overlap between /ɸ/ and /h/ exists, and so the contrast in front of other vowels can be denoted through labialization. However, this analysis fails to take account of the fact that Okinawan has not fully undergone the diachronic change */p/ → /ɸ/ → */h/ as in Japanese, and that the suggested clusterization and labialization into */hw/

6018-446: The highest social levels at the palaces of Yeavering (Northumberland) and Cheddar (Somerset). The halls at both palaces were 120 feet (37m) long, that at Yeavering being seventh century and that at Cheddar (the first of several) being ninth century. Saxon halls were routinely aisled and occasionally had side walls that were bowed out in plan. At this point the hall was merely the largest of several detached structures, rather than being

6120-518: The house, and for large scale entertaining, as at Christmas, for dancing, or when a touring company of actors performed. With the arrival of ballrooms and dedicated music rooms in the largest houses by the late 17th century, these functions too were lost. Where large halls survived, it was usually due to continuing institutional use, especially as a courtroom. This change of use preserved the halls of Winchester , Oakham and Leicester Castles. Other halls, like that at Eltham Palace, remained standing in

6222-540: The isolation caused by immobility, citing the story of his mother who wanted to visit the town of Nago but never made the 25 km trip before she died of old age. The contemporary dialects in Ryukyuan language are divided into three large groups: Amami-Okinawa dialects, Miyako-Yaeyama dialects, and the Yonaguni dialect. All of them are mutually unintelligible. Amami is located in the Kagoshima prefecture but it belongs to

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6324-419: The kitchen, buttery and pantry were on the opposite side of the screens passage. The dais end is generally referred to as the 'upper' end, and the screens end as the 'lower' end. Even royal and noble residences had few living rooms until late in the Middle Ages, and a great hall was a multifunctional room. It was used for receiving guests and it was the place where the household would dine together, including

6426-400: The language using hiragana with kanji. In any case, no standard or consensus concerning spelling issues has ever been formalized, so discrepancies between modern literary works are common. Technically, they are not syllables, but rather morae . Each mora in Okinawan will consist of one or two kana characters. If two, then a smaller version of kana follows the normal sized kana. In each cell of

6528-564: The language. The Okinawan language is still spoken by communities of Okinawan immigrants in Brazil . The first immigrants from the island of Okinawa to Brazil landed in the Port of Santos in 1908 drawn by the hint of work and farmable land. Once in a new country and far from their homeland, they found themselves in a place where there was no prohibition of their language, allowing them to willingly speak, celebrate and preserve their speech and culture, up to

6630-663: The languages in the past. There have been several revitalization efforts made to reverse this language shift. However, Okinawan is still poorly taught in formal institutions due to the lack of support from the Okinawan Education Council: education in Okinawa is conducted exclusively in Japanese, and children do not study Okinawan as their second language at school. As a result, at least two generations of Okinawans have grown up without any proficiency in their local languages both at home and school. The Okinawan language has five vowels, all of which may be long or short, though

6732-405: The largest fireplaces of the palace, manor house or castle, frequently large enough to walk and stand inside. Where there was a wall fireplace, it was generally at the dais end of the hall with the bay window, as at Raglan Castle, so the lord could get the most heat and light. The hearth was used for heating and also for some of the cooking, although most houses had a dedicated kitchen for the bulk of

6834-584: The late 17th century the halls of many new houses were simply vestibules , passed through to get to somewhere else, but not lived in. Several great halls like that at Great Hall in Lancashire were downsized to create two rooms. From the 16th century onwards it was common to insert a floor into the smaller halls to create a lower entrance hall and a commodious first floor chamber. The halls of late 17th, 18th and 19th-century country houses and palaces usually functioned almost entirely as impressive entrance points to

6936-513: The latter half was cognate with Old Japanese shiki , in which ki was a loan from Old Korean . Iha Fuyū proposed that suku was cognate with soko (塞, fortress). Hirata Tsugumasa considered that suku was cognate with Japanese soko (底, bottom). Similarly, Higashionna Kanjun raised doubts over the analysis of gu since older records always used honorific u (< o ) instead of gu (< go ). Nakahara Zenchū identified gu as go (stone). The most prominent feature of most gusuku

7038-1120: The latter was used only for public events, never used as a great hall here described). Penshurst Place in Kent , England , has a little-altered 14th century example, and Great Chalfield Manor has a similarly intact 15th century one. At the scale of yeoman housing, a restored 15th century hall can be seen in Bayleaf Farmhouse, now at the Weald and Downland Living Museum . Surviving 16th and early 17th century specimens in Britain are numerous, for example those at Eltham Palace (England), Longleat (England), Deene Park (England), Burghley House (England), Bodysgallen Hall (Wales), Darnaway Castle (Scotland), Muchalls Castle (Scotland) and Crathes Castle (Scotland). There are numerous ruined examples, notably at Linlithgow Palace (Scotland), Kenilworth Castle (England) and Raglan Castle (Wales). The domestic and monastic model applied also to collegiate institutions during

7140-457: The linguistic unification of Japan to Standard Japanese. This caused the linguistic stigmatization of many local varieties in Japan including Okinawan. As the discrimination accelerated, Okinawans themselves started to abandon their languages and shifted to Standard Japanese. Okinawan dialect card , similar to Welsh Not in Wales, were adopted in Okinawa, Japan. Under American administration, there

7242-511: The locals. A major difference from those in the Okinawa Islands was that gusuku in Amami (except those in Okinoerabu and Yoron ) nearly completely lacked stone walls. As a historian from Japan, Miki took much notice of the religious nature of gusuku in Amami, which is completely absent from Japanese fortresses. Publications from Amami gained attention of some Okinawan archaeologists in the 1980s and 90s, and they attempted to place Amami's gusuku in

7344-418: The lord and his high-ranking guests was moved up to the first-floor level. This was called the salle haute or upper hall (or "high room"). In some of the larger three-storey manor houses, the upper hall was as high as second storey roof. The smaller ground-floor hall or salle basse remained but was for receiving guests of any social order. It is very common to find these two halls superimposed, one on top of

7446-689: The lord could observe what was happening in the hall. This type of hidden peep-hole is called a judas in French. In England, such an opening is referred to as a squint - there are two connecting the hall and great chamber in Stokesay Castle . Many great halls survive. Three very large surviving royal halls are Westminster Hall , Ridderzaal in Binnenhof and the Vladislav Hall in Prague Castle (although

7548-563: The lord of the house, his gentleman attendants and at least some of the servants. At night some members of the household might sleep on the floor of the great hall. From the fall of the Roman Empire to the Renaissance the hall was at the heart of residential complexes. Early examples were timber built and have vanished, only being known from documentary sources like Beowulf , and excavations. Archaeologists have uncovered Anglo-Saxon halls from

7650-440: The material became more widely available, though in thickly forested areas timber remained the material of choice. From the 13th century improved carpentry techniques meant that roofs could span greater distances, eliminating the need for aisles, and by c. 1300 the standard hall plan with the dais and great chamber at the upper end and the entrance, screens passage and services at the lower end had become commonplace. After this time

7752-469: The mid vowel /e/ , though this pronunciation is increasingly rare. Similarly, the fricative consonant /s/ palatalizes into [ɕ] before the glide /j/ and the vowel /i/ , including when /i/ historically derives from /e/ : */sekai/ → [ɕikeː] shikē "world". It may also palatalize before the vowel /e/ , especially so in the context of topicalization : [duɕi] dushi → [duɕeː] dusē or dushē "( topic ) friend". In general, sequences containing

7854-607: The naïve application of the Okinawan gusuku-as-fortifications framework and urged that scholars should not turn a blind eye to the diversified nature of archaeological sites with stone walls in these islands. Few gusuku sites can be attributed to the fact that the Sakishima Islands were over a hundred years behind Okinawa socially and technologically. In 1500, Ryukyu invaded and annexed the islands, which would have limited further local gusuku development. The primary gusuku site in Yaeyama

7956-598: The north) in Aragusuku . In the archaeology of Yaeyama, human settlements prior to the conquest by Ryukyu are called "Suku Villages" because the names of these ruins have the suffix -suku . By extension, the archaeological epoch of the Suku Culture (11–16th centuries) is sometimes used by archaeologists. Formal studies of gusuku in the Amami Islands group in southern Kagoshima Prefecture were started by Nakamatsu Yashū in

8058-476: The official language under King Shō Shin . The Omoro Sōshi , a compilation of ancient Ryukyuan poems, was written in an early form of Okinawan, known as Old Okinawan. After Ryukyu became a vassal of Satsuma Domain , kanji gained more prominence in poetry; however, official Ryukyuan documents were written in Classical Chinese . During this time, the language gradually evolved into Modern Okinawan. In 1609,

8160-471: The other, in larger manor houses in Normandy and Brittany. Access from the ground-floor hall to the upper (great) hall was normally via an external staircase tower. The upper hall often contained the lord's bedroom and living quarters off one end. In Scotland, six common furnishings were present in the sixteenth-century hall: the high table and principal seat; side tables for others; the cupboard and silver plate;

8262-421: The palatal consonant /j/ are relatively rare and tend to exhibit depalatalization. For example, /mj/ tends to merge with /n/ ( [mjaːku] myāku → [naːku] nāku " Miyako "); */rj/ has merged into /ɾ/ and /d/ ( */rjuː/ → /ɾuː/ rū ~ /duː/ dū "dragon"); and /sj/ has mostly become /s/ ( /sjui/ shui → /sui/ sui " Shuri "). The voiced plosive /d/ and the flap /ɾ/ tend to merge, with

8364-555: The possibility that there were gaps in time among (1) the beginning of the archaeological sites, (2) the construction of defensive structures and (3) the applications of the name of gusuku. He re-evaluated Nakamatsu's sacredness theory and presented a working hypothesis that gusuku in Amami were of secondary origin, possibly related to the introduction of the noro priestess system by the Ryukyu Kingdom. Okinawan language The Okinawan language ( 沖縄口 , ウチナーグチ , Uchināguchi , [ʔut͡ɕinaːɡut͡ɕi] ) or Central Okinawan

8466-777: The possible presence of gusuku in the Tokara Islands , which are located to the north of Amami. From 1995 to 2000, a comprehensive investigation of gusuku was conducted in Naze (merged into the city of Amami in 2006) of northern Amami Ōshima. This project initially relied on gusuku toponyms to find archaeological remains but discovered far more remains in the mountains than expected. Among 45 sites discovered, only five had gusuku toponyms. This suggests that these sites were not gusuku in origin and that some of them were later transformed into gusuku. The toponymic survey also found that some earlier archaeological reports had labeled gusuku even though

8568-514: The present day. Currently the Okinawan-Japanese centers and communities in the State of São Paulo are a world reference to this language helping it to stay alive. Okinawan is sometimes grouped with Kunigami as the Okinawan languages; however, not all linguists accept this grouping, some claiming that Kunigami is a dialect of Okinawan. Okinawan is also grouped with Amami (or the Amami languages) as

8670-400: The referents were not called gusuku by locals. As a result, so-called "Uragami Gusuku", for example, was renamed to "Uragami-Arimori site." Earlier studies pointed to the similarity between gusuku in Amami, northern Okinawa Island and medieval mountain fortifications of Japan. Takanashi went further claiming that these fortifications were indeed medieval mountain fortifications. He considered

8772-454: The same century were written solely in Hiragana. Kanji were gradually adopted due to the growing influence of mainland Japan and to the linguistic affinity between the Okinawan and Japanese languages. However, it was mainly limited to affairs of high importance and to documents sent towards the mainland. The oldest inscription of Okinawan exemplifying its use along with Hiragana can be found on

8874-476: The semi-legendary ascension of King Shunten . Takanashi Osamu, an Amami-based archaeologist, criticized the trend of Okinawan archaeology. The Gusuku period lacked clear markers of dating from an archaeological perspective. Pottery seriation, in particular, remained poorly understood. The contemporaneousness of stone walls and excavated potteries was not established. He also noted a bias of Okinawan archaeologists, who he thought were preoccupied with questions of how

8976-417: The short vowels /e/ and /o/ are quite rare, as they occur only in a few native Okinawan words with heavy syllables with the pattern /Ceɴ/ or /Coɴ/ , such as /m e ɴsoːɾeː/ m e nsōrē "welcome" or /t o ɴɸaː/ t o nfā . The close back vowels /u/ and /uː/ are truly rounded, rather than the compressed vowels of standard Japanese. The Okinawan language counts some 20 distinctive segments shown in

9078-494: The size of the inner noble household shrank. As the social gap between master and servant grew, the family retreated, usually to the first floor, to private rooms. In fact, servants were not usually allowed to use the same staircases as nobles to access the great hall of larger castles in early times , and servants' staircases are still extant in places such as Muchalls Castle. Other reception and living rooms in country houses became more numerous, specialised and important, and by

9180-422: The small capital /ɴ/ ) occupies a full mora and its precise place of articulation will vary depending on the following consonant. Before other labial consonants, it will be pronounced closer to a syllabic bilabial nasal [m̩] , as in /ʔɴma/ [ʔm̩ma] Q nma "horse". Before velar and labiovelar consonants, it will be pronounced as a syllabic velar nasal [ŋ̍] , as in /biɴɡata/ [biŋ̍ɡata] bingata ,

9282-585: The table below, the top row is the kana (hiragana to the left, katakana to the right of the dot), the middle row in rōmaji ( Hepburn romanization ), and the bottom row in IPA. Okinawan follows a subject–object–verb word order and makes large use of particles as in Japanese. Okinawan retains a number of Japonic grammatical features also found in Old Japanese but lost (or highly restricted) in Modern Japanese , such as

9384-432: The table below. あぬ Anu 夫婦 （ ふぃとぅんだー ） Great Hall A typical great hall was a rectangular room between one and a half and three times as long as it was wide, and also higher than it was wide. It was entered through a screens passage at one end, and had windows on the long sides, often including a large bay window. There was often a minstrels' gallery above the screens passage. The screens passage

9486-457: The terminal form uri ; -uru developed from the attributive form uru , i.e.: A similar etymology is given for the terminal -san and attributive -saru endings for adjectives: the stem suffixed with さ sa (nominalises adjectives, i.e. high → height, hot → heat), suffixed with ari ("to be; to exist; to have", cf. Classical Japanese: 有り ari ), i.e.: Nouns are classified as independent, non-conjugating part of speech that can become

9588-746: The time of the conquest by the Ryukyu Kingdom. What are common to these villages are that they were located on top of cliffs, divided by inhomogeneous cell blocks and lacked roads. The whole village and each cell block were surrounded by stone walls. This type of abandoned settlement can also be found on Miyako Island but they are rather exceptional. The local people call these remains busu nu yashiki ( bushi 's mansion), busu nu yaa ishigaki (bushi's house's stone walls) or busu nu yaa (bushi's house), busu nu yama (bushi's mountain) in Ishigaki , bushin yaa (bushi's house) in Hatoma , nishi nu bushi nu yaa (bushi's house in

9690-528: The title Gusuku Sites and Related Properties of the Kingdom of Ryukyu . The Yarazamori Gusuku Inscription (1554) contains phrases, "pile gusuku " (くすくつませ) and "pile up gusuku and ..." (くすくつみつけて); apparently, gusuku in these phrases refers to stone walls. In the Omoro Sōshi (16th–17th centuries), the term gusuku is written as "くすく," or "ぐすく" in hiragana . Occasionally, the Chinese character "城" (castle)

9792-488: The use of " dialect cards " ( 方言札 ). As a result, Okinawan gradually ceased to be written entirely until the American takeover in 1945. Since then, Japanese and American scholars have variously transcribed the regional language using a number of ad hoc romanization schemes or the katakana syllabary to demarcate its foreign nature with standard Japanese. Proponents of Okinawan tend to be more traditionalist and continue to write

9894-439: The vowel /u/ to /i/ after the alveolars /t d s z/ , consequently merging [t͡su] tsu into [t͡ɕi] chi , [su] su into [ɕi] shi , and both [d͡zu] dzu and [zu] zu into [d͡ʑi] ji . It also lacks /z/ as a distinctive phoneme, having merged it into /d͡ʑ/ . The bilabial fricative /ɸ/ has sometimes been transcribed as the cluster /hw/ , since, like Japanese, /h/ allophonically labializes into [ɸ] before

9996-406: The window frame mouldings on the outer wall. Many French manor houses have very beautifully decorated external window frames on the large mullioned windows that light the hall. This decoration clearly marked the window as belonging to the lord's private hall. It was where guests slept. In western France, the early manor houses were centred on a central ground-floor hall. Later, the hall reserved for

10098-628: Was an attempt to revive and standardize Okinawan, but this proved difficult and was shelved in favor of Japanese. General Douglas MacArthur attempted to promote Okinawan languages and culture through education. Multiple English words were introduced. After Okinawa's reversion to Japanese sovereignty, Japanese continued to be the dominant language used, and the majority of the youngest generations only speak Okinawan Japanese . There have been attempts to revive Okinawan by notable people such as Byron Fija and Seijin Noborikawa , but few native Okinawans know

10200-401: Was divided from the hall by a timber screen with two openings. The portion of the screen between these openings could be movable, as survives at Rufford Old Hall . At the other end of the hall was the dais where the high table was situated. The ceiling above the dais was often ornamented to denote its higher status. The lord's family's more private rooms lay beyond the dais end of the hall, and

10302-517: Was the heart of Japanization, where Okinawan children were taught Japanese and punished for speaking their native language, being told that their language was just a "dialect". By 1945, many Okinawans spoke Japanese, and many were bilingual. During the Battle of Okinawa , some Okinawans were killed by Japanese soldiers for speaking Okinawan. Language shift to Japanese in Ryukyu/Okinawa began in 1879 when

10404-455: Was written centuries later. Folklorist Kojima Yoshiyuki was also a supporter of the sacredness theory. However, he opposed to Nakamatsu's theory about the origin of gusuku as a burial place. He argued that the word gusuku originally meant stonework. Separately of this, local communities handed down mountain cult, which shared roots with that of Yakushima and by extension Japan. Some sacred mountains were later fortified with stone walls, and as

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