The Japonic Languages: an Introduction

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Introduction to the Present Volume 1.1The Japonic Languages The Japonic languages comprise Japanese and Ryukyuan and their respective local dialects (Figures 1.1 and 1.2).Under the name of 'Japanese' are subsumed all local varieties spoken on Japan's mainland (Mainland dialects) and a language spoken in Hachijōjima, which lies to the south of Japan's mainland.Ryukyuan languages are spoken in an area that was once an independent country (Ryukyuan kingdom, 1429-1869), from the Amami islands to Yonaguni.There is no mutual intelligibility between Japanese and Ryukyuan, between Mainland dialects and Hachijō, or between Northern and Southern Ryukyuan languages.Even within Northern and Southern Ryukyuan, there is no mutual intelligibility among major island varieties.So, it is a recent shared recognition among Japanese linguists that Japonic comprises several distinct languages, Mainland language (which is 'Japanese' in a narrower sense), Hachijō, Amami, Okinawan, Miyako and Yaeyama.Based on various lexical, phonological, and morphosyntactic variations, several major dialectal groupings (isoglosses) have been suggested (Tojo 1966, Kindaichi 1964, Hirayama 1968, inter alia).The foundational classification is Tōjō's work, to which revisions, both major and minor, have been made subsequently by a number of researchers.According to Tōjō's classification and Hirayama's (1968) revision, the Japonic languages divide into three major dialectal groups: the Mainland dialects, the Hachijōjima dialect and Ryukyuan.The Mainland dialects further subdivide into (a) Eastern Japanese (E.Jpn) (Hokkaidō, Tōhoku, Kantō, Tōkai-Tōsan), (b) Western Japanese (W.Jpn) (Hokuriku, Kinki, Chūgoku, Shikoku), and (c) Kyūshū Japanese (K.Jpn).Ryukyuan subdivides into (a') Amami, (b') Okinawa, and (c') Miyako, Yaeyama and Yonaguni.A genetic subgrouping of the Japonic languages yields a different grouping of languages, according to which the Japonic family first divides into Japanese and Ryukyuan.Japanese further subdivides into Mainland dialects and the Hachijōjima dialect.Ryukyuan subdivides into Northern Ryukyuan (N.Ryu)

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