Iheya (Okinawa, Northern Ryukyuan)

要旨

The Language and Its Speakers 1.1 Geography Iheya is spoken in Iheya village, which extends over Iheya island and Noho island, located north of the Motobu peninsula, in the northern part of the Okinawan archipelago.There are five districts in Iheya: Dana, Maedomari, Gakiya, Shimajiri and Noho.The population is about 1200 people.Its economy is mostly based on fishing and agriculture.Whilst it is located in the northern part of Okinawa, together with the neighboring island of Izena, Iheya has historically had strong ties with the royal government in Shuri, located in the southern part of the island, since together with Izena it was considered to be the place of origin of the Shō Dynasty, which unified the Okinawan kingdoms of Nanzan, Chūzan, and Hokuzan, and later the whole Ryukyuan archipelago.This relationship may have influenced the language, an influence which manifests itself at the phonological, morphological and lexical levels. 1.2Language Outline Iheya Okinawan (henceforth Iheya) is a regional variation of the Okinawan language, the language spoken in the Okinawan archipelago.The Okinawan language belongs to the Northern Ryukyuan language group, which itself belongs to the Ryukyuan language family.1There are five districts in Iheya, but the internal linguistic difference between the districts is small.This paper mostly focuses on data collected in Dana.2 Iheya is an endangered language, its speakers being mostly over 60 years old, and the number of speakers about 400.The younger generations may be only semi-fluent or not fluent at all.

主題