Okinawan scripts

Okinawan language, spoken in Okinawa Island, was once the official language of the Ryukyu Kingdom. At the time, documents were written in kanji and hiragana, derived from Japan.

This article describes the modern Okinawan writing system. See the Okinawan language article for an overview of the language. For the writing systems in Ryukyuan languages in general, see the Ryukyuan languages article.

An example of traditional Okinawan writing circa 1471

Nowadays, most Japanese, as well as most Okinawans, tend to think of Okinawan as merely a dialect of Standard Japanese, even though the language is not mutually intelligible to Japanese speakers.[1] As a "dialect", modern Okinawan is not written frequently. When it is, the Japanese writing system is generally used in an ad hoc manner. There is no standard orthography for the modern language. Nonetheless, there are a few systems used by scholars and laypeople alike. None of them are widely used by native speakers, but represent the language with less ambiguity than the ad hoc conventions. The Roman alphabet in some form or another is used in some publications, especially those of an academic nature.

Systems

Conventional usages

The modern conventional ad hoc spellings found in Okinawa.

Council system

The system devised by the Council for the Dissemination of Okinawan Dialect (沖縄方言普及協議会).

University of the Ryukyus system

The system devised by Okinawa Center of Language Study, a section of University of the Ryukyus. Unlike others, this method is intended purely as a phonetic guidance, basically uses katakana only. For the sake of an easier comparison, corresponding hiragana are used in this article.

New Okinawan letters

新沖縄文字 (Shin Okinawa-moji), devised by Yoshiaki Funazu (船津好明, Funazu Yoshiaki), in his textbook Utsukushii Okinawa no Hōgen (美しい沖縄の方言; "The beautiful Okinawan Dialect"; ISBN 4-905784-19-0). The rule applies to hiragana only. Katakana is used as in Japanese; just like in the conventional usage of Okinawan.

Basic syllables and kai-yōon (palatalized syllables)

		i	u	e	o	ya	yu	yo
(Initial) ¹		[i] [ji]	[u] [wu]	[e] [je]	[o] [wo]	[ja]	[ju]	[jo]
(Elsewhere)		(Not used) ²				[ja]	[ju]	[jo]
Conventional		い	うをぅ	えいぇ	おをうぉ	や	ゆ	よ
Council		ゆぃ	をぅ	ゆぇ	を
Ryukyu Univ.		ゐ	をぅ	え
New Okinawan		い゙		え゙
'	'a a	'i i	'u u	'e e	'o o	'ya	'yu	'yo
(Initial) ¹	[ʔa]	[ʔi]	[ʔu]	[ʔe]	[ʔo]	[ʔja]	[ʔju]	[ʔjo]
(Elsewhere)	[a]	[i] [ji]	[u] [wu]	[e] [je]	[o] [wo]	[ʔja]	[ʔju]	[ʔjo]
Conventional	あ	い	う	えいぇ	おうぉ	や	ゆ	よ
Council				え	お	っや	っゆ	っよ
Ryukyu Univ.				いぇ		いゃ	いゅ	いょ
New Okinawan				え
k	ka	ki	ku	ke	ko	kya
	[ka]	[ki]	[ku]	[ke]	[ko]	[kja]
	か	き	く	け	こ	きゃ
g	ga	gi	gu	ge	go	gya
	[ɡa]	[ɡi]	[ɡu]	[ɡe]	[ɡo]	[ɡja]
	が	ぎ	ぐ	げ	ご	ぎゃ
s	sa	shi si	su	she se	so	sha sya	shu syu
	[sa]	[ʃi]	[su]	[ʃe]	[so]	[ʃa]	[ʃu]
Others	さ	し	す	しぇ	そ	しゃ	しゅ
Ryukyu Univ.	さ	しすぃ	す	しぇせ	そ	しゃ	しゅ
z	za	zi	zu	ze	zo
	[dza]	[dzi] [dʐi]	[dzu]	[dze]	[dzo]
Others	ざ	じ	ず	ぜ	ぞ
Ryukyu Univ.	ざ	づぃ	ずづ	ぜ	ぞ
j	ja	ji	ju	je	jo
	[dʒa]	[dʒi]	[dʒu]	[dʒe]	[dʒo]
Others	じゃ	じ	じゅ	じぇ	じょ
Ryukyu Univ.	じゃぢゃ	じぢ	じゅぢゅ	じぇぢぇ	じょぢょ
t	ta	ti	tu	te	to
	[ta]	[ti]	[tu]	[te]	[to]
Others	た	てぃ	とぅ	て	と
New Okinawan	た			て	と
d	da	di	du	de	do
	[da]	[di]	[du]	[de]	[do]
Others	だ	でぃ	どぅ	で	ど
New Okinawan	だ			で	ど
ch c	cha ca	chi ci	chu cu	che ce	cho co
	[tʃa]	[tʃi]	[tʃu]	[tʃe]	[tʃo]
	ちゃ	ち	ちゅ	ちぇ	ちょ
ts		tsi	tsu
		[tsi] [tʂi]	[tsu]
Ryukyu Univ.		つぃ	つ
n	na	ni	nu	ne	no	nya	nyu
	[na]	[ɲi]	[nu]	[ne]	[no]	[ɲa]	[ɲu]
	な	に	ぬ	ね	の	にゃ	にゅ
h	ha	hi	fu hu	he	ho	hya	hyu	hyo
	[ha]	[çi]	[ɸu]	[çe]	[ho]	[ça]	[çu]	[ço]
	は	ひ	ふ	へ	ほ	ひゃ	ひゅ	ひょ
b	ba	bi	bu	be	bo	bya	byu	byo
	[ba]	[bi]	[bu]	[be]	[bo]	[bja]	[bju]	[bjo]
	ば	び	ぶ	べ	ぼ	びゃ	びゅ	びょ
p	pa	pi	pu	pe	po	pya	pyu
	[pa]	[pi]	[pu]	[pe]	[po]	[pja]	[pju]
	ぱ	ぴ	ぷ	ぺ	ぽ	ぴゃ	ぴゅ
m	ma	mi	mu	me	mo	mya	myu	myo
	[ma]	[mi]	[mu]	[me]	[mo]	[mja]	[mju]	[mjo]
	ま	み	む	め	も	みゃ	みゅ	みょ
r	ra	ri	ru	re	ro
	[ɾa]	[ɾi]	[ɾu]	[ɾe]	[ɾo]
	ら	り	る	れ	ろ

¹: At the beginning of a word.

²: University of the Ryukyus system is an exception, always using ゐ, をぅ, え, を (ヰ, ヲゥ, エ, ヲ) for [i], [u], [e], [o], and い, う, いぇ, お (イ, ウ, イェ, オ) for [ʔi], [ʔu], [ʔe], [ʔo], respectively.

Gō-yōon (labialised syllables)

	wa	wi	we
	[ɰa]	[ɰi]	[ɰe]
Conventional	わ	うぃ	うぇ
Council		うぃ	うぇ
Ryukyu Univ.		ゑぃ	ゑ
New Okinawan		ゐ	ゑ
'	'wa	'wi	'we
	[ʔɰa]	[ʔɰi]	[ʔɰe]
Conventional	わ	うぃ	うぇ
Council	っわ	っうぃ	っうぇ
Ryukyu Univ.	うゎ	うゐ	うぇ
New Okinawan
k	kwa qua	kwi qui	kwe que
	[kʷa]	[kʷi]	[kʷe]
Conventional	くぁくゎ	くぃ	くぇ
Council	くゎ	くぃ
Ryukyu Univ.	くゎ	くゐ
New Okinawan
g	gwa	gwi	gwe
	[ɡʷa]	[ɡʷi]	[ɡʷe]
Conventional	ぐぁぐゎ	ぐぃ	ぐぇ
Council	ぐゎ	ぐぃ
Ryukyu Univ.	ぐゎ	ぐゐ
New Okinawan
h	fa hwa	fi hwi	fe hwe
	[ɸa]	[ɸi]	[ɸe]
Conventional	ふぁ	ふぃ	ふぇ
Council	ふぁ
Ryukyu Univ.	ふゎ
New Okinawan

Others

	n ³	⁴	⁵
	ん	っ	ー
'	'n
Conventional	ん
Council	っん
Ryukyu Univ.	っん
New Okinawan

³: Hatsuon (moraic n)

⁴: Sokuon (geminated consonants)

⁵: Chōon (longer vowels): In conventional usages, longer vowels are sometimes spelled like in mainland Japanese as well; "ou" (おう) for ō, doubled kana for others. (e.g. うう for ū.)

gollark: If they tried to stop people protesting, there would probably be protests about it.

gollark: Weirdly enough, I basically lack any long-term memory of my life.

gollark: Or, well, mostly useless.

gollark: Introspection is entirely useless for understanding things like "the entire rest of the universe".

gollark: I should probably say more than variations on ... so give me a bit to think about it.

References

Central Okinawan at Ethnologue

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[1] Central Okinawan at Ethnologue