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60-604: The administrative divisions of the Ryukyu Kingdom were a hierarchy composed of districts, magiri , or Okinawan : majiri cities, villages, and islands established by the Ryukyu Kingdom throughout the Ryukyu Islands . There were three districts ( 方 ) or hō : Kunigami  [ ja ] ( 国頭 ) , Nakagami  [ ja ] ( 中頭 ) , and Shimajiri  [ ja ] ( 島尻 ) , which roughly correspond to

120-552: 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

180-416: 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

240-654: 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

300-516: 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

360-423: 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

420-403: 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

480-437: 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

540-500: 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 is far from stable. Okinawans are assimilating and accenting standard Japanese due to the similarity of

600-511: 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

660-578: 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

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720-642: 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

780-399: The Ryukyu Kingdom who ruled between 1477 and 1526. The magiri were originally controlled by individual aji and oyakata , whose ruling area overwrapped in parts. While as the Ryukyu Kingdom centralized at the turn of the 15th century, the aji relocated to the capital of the kingdom at Shuri . After this period the title of aji became symbolic, and low-ranking officials were assigned

840-591: The Sanzan period . Nakagami District ( 中頭方 , Nakagami-hō , also known as [Wiikata] Error: {{Langx}}: transliteration text not Latin script (pos 1) ( help ) ) or Chūzan-fu ( 中山府 ) in Kanbun, roughly correspond to the territory of Chūzan during the Sanzan period . Shimajiri District ( 島尻方 , Shimajiri-hō , also known as [Shimukata] Error: {{Langx}}: transliteration text not Latin script (pos 1) ( help ) ) or Nanzan-fu ( 南山府 ) in Kanbun, roughly correspond to

900-538: 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

960-580: 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

1020-466: 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

1080-602: 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

1140-487: 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

1200-652: 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

1260-458: 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

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1320-662: The World's Languages in Danger , following Uemura (2003), includes Okinoerabu and Yoron as varieties of Kunigami. The speakers of Kunigami have various words for "language", "dialect", and "style of speech". For example, linguist Nakasone Seizen (1907–1995) stated that the dialect of his home community Yonamine, Nakijin Village had (corresponding Standard Japanese word forms in parentheses): /kʰu⸢tsʰii/ ( kuchi ), /hut˭uu⸢ba/ ( kotoba ) and /munu⸢ʔii/ ( monoii ). The language of one's own community

1380-587: The borders of the three Okinawan kingdoms during the Sanzan period . There were 57 magiri ( 間切 , Okinawan : majiri ) throughout the kingdom including the Amami Islands. In concept they were similar to present-day Japanese prefectures , but in size they were closer to Japanese cities, towns and villages. There were four cities: Shuri ( 首里 ) , Naha ( 那覇 ) , Tomari ( 泊 ) , and Kume ( 久米 ) . They were comparable to Japanese urban prefectures . There were over 600 villages ( 村 , Okinawan: mura ) throughout

1440-557: The central government at Shuri assigned each village a noro priestess to carry out the religious functions of the settlement. The area was mapped on the Ryukyu kuni-ezu ( 琉球國絵図 of 1696 or 9th year of Genroku ) was compiled. That made it possible for the first time, to clarify the geopolitical location of ancient place names. The magiri system continued to varying degrees in the Amami Islands even after they were ceded to Satsuma Domain in 1624. On Okinawa Island, there were 27 magiri at

1500-407: 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

1560-418: The day-to-day administration of the magiri . Each magiri had several villages, sometimes referred to as shima , which represented an administrative unit similar to the mura , or village, in feudal Japan. Each magiri had five to ten villages. Ryukyuan commoners were registered to a particular village, and movement to or from the administrative areas was generally not permitted. Under the system of Shō Shin

1620-449: 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

1680-454: 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

1740-423: 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 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

1800-611: 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

1860-448: 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/

Administrative divisions of the Ryukyu Kingdom - Misplaced Pages Continue

1920-540: 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

1980-482: The kingdom including the Amami Islands. There were approximately 24 shima ( 島 ) or "outlying islands", but only including islands that weren't already part of a magiri . The three districts are based on the three kingdoms of Hokuzan , Chūzan , and Nanzan . The origin of the magiri system is unclear, but was solidified by the beginning of the reign of Shō Shin , the third king of the Second Shō Dynasty of

2040-400: 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

2100-564: 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

2160-663: 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

2220-457: 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

2280-469: 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

2340-409: The nasals and glides are truly glottalized , the stops are tenuis [C˭] , in contrast to the aspiration of the "plain" stops [Cʰ] . Kunigami is also notable for the presence of an /h/ phoneme separate from the /p/ phoneme that is believed to be the historical source of /h/ in most other Japonic languages ; Kunigami /h/ instead has two different sources: Proto-Japonic /*k/ or otherwise

2400-422: The northern portion of Okinawa Island, Kunigami is spoken on the small neighboring islands of Ie, Tsuken and Kudaka. Glottolog , following Pellard (2009), classifies Kunigami with Central Okinawan as the two Okinawan languages . Ethnologue adds Okinoerabu and Yoron ; these (along with all other languages of the northern Ryukyu Islands) are classified as Amami languages by Glottolog . The UNESCO Atlas of

2460-476: 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,

Administrative divisions of the Ryukyu Kingdom - Misplaced Pages Continue

2520-421: 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

2580-562: 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

2640-454: 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

2700-417: 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

2760-422: 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 ,

2820-516: The speech of Northern Okinawa, which is classified independently as the Kunigami language . Both languages are listed by UNESCO as endangered . Though Okinawan encompasses 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

2880-585: 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

2940-413: The table below. あぬ Anu 夫婦 （ ふぃとぅんだー ） Kunigami language The Nakijin dialect is often considered representative of Kunigami, analogous to the Shuri - Naha dialect of Central Okinawan . The number of fluent native speakers of Kunigami is not known. As a result of Japanese language policy, the younger generation mostly speaks Japanese as their first language. In addition to

3000-457: 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

3060-467: The territory of Nanzan during the Sanzan period . Okinawan language The Okinawan language ( 沖縄口 , ウチナーグチ , Uchināguchi , [ʔut͡ɕinaːɡut͡ɕi] ) or Central Okinawan 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

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3120-412: The turn of the 17th century, but by the 19th century Misato, Kushi, Motobu, Ginowan, Oroku, Onna, Ōgimi, and Yonagusuku were created, bringing the total to 35. The magiri system continued after the end of the Ryukyu Kingdom and annexation of the islands by Japan in 1879. In 1907, under Imperial Edict 46  [ ja ] , the Japanese administrative system of cities, towns, and village organization

3180-431: 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 is a Japonic language , derived from Proto-Japonic and

3240-488: 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

3300-439: 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

3360-679: The zero initial in certain conditioning environments. Thus, for example, the Nakijin dialect of Kunigami has /hak˭áí/ (light, a lamp, a shōji ), which is cognate with Japanese /akárí/ (light, a lamp); the Kunigami form is distinguished from its Japanese cognate by the initial /h/ , tenuis /k˭/ , and elision of Proto-Japonic *r before *i. The Kunigami language also makes distinctions in certain word pairs, such as Nakijin dialect /k˭umuú/ (cloud) and /húbu/ (spider), which in Japanese are almost homophonic ( /kúmo/ and /kumó/ ). One notable difference in

3420-628: 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

3480-473: Was extended to Okinawa. The magiri system was officially abolished on April 1, 1908. The following is a list of magiri by district: Kunigami District ( 国頭方 , Kunigami-hō , Okinawan: Kunjan-hō ) , also known as [Yanbaru] Error: {{Langx}}: transliteration text not Latin script (pos 1) ( help ) and Kunigami or Hokuzan-fu ( 北山府 ) in Kanbun , roughly correspond to the territory of Hokuzan during

3540-424: Was referred to as /simaagu⸢tsʰii/ or /sima(a)kʰu⸢t˭uu⸣ba/ . The Yonamine dialect was part of Nakijin's western dialect called /ʔirinsimaa kʰut˭uba/ . The northern part of Okinawa was colloquially known as Yanbaru and hence its language was sometimes called /jˀan⸢ba⸣rukʰut˭uuba/ . Like most Ryukyuan languages north of Central Okinawan, Kunigami has series of so-called "tensed" or "glottalized" consonants. While

3600-517: 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

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