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{{Infobox language
|name=Amami–Okinawan
|states=]
|region=The ], ] and the ], ]
|familycolor=Altaic
|fam1=]
|fam2=]
|notice=IPA
}}
The '''Amami–Okinawan languages''', also known as '''Northern Ryukyuan''', is a group of languages spoken in the ], ] and the ], ] of southwestern ]. It is one of two primary branches of the ], which are then part of the ]. The subdivisions of Amami–Okinawan are a matter of scholarly debate.

==Subgroups==
]
The basic unit of language or language variety in Ryukyuan is a traditionally isolated village community called ''shima'', where people used to live their entire life. Each ''shima'' has developed its own form of speech. People are well aware of differences in speeches between neighboring ''shima''. Clustering languages of some 800 ''shima'' requires non-trivial scholarly work.<ref name="nishioka2011">{{cite book |author=Nishioka Satoshi 西岡敏 |chapter=''Ryūkyūgo: shima goto ni kotonaru hōgen'' 琉球語: 「シマ」ごとに異なる方言 |editor=Kurebito Megumi 呉人恵 |title=''Nihon no kiki gengo'' 日本の危機言語 |year=2011 |language=Japanese }}</ref> Understanding how they have evolved from a common ancestor is an even more challenging task.

At high level, linguists mostly agree to make the north–south division. In this framework, Amami–Okinawan covers the ], ] and the ], ]. The subdivision of Amami–Okinawan, however, remains a matter of scholarly debate.<ref name="karimata2000">{{cite journal|author=Karimata Shigehisa 狩俣繁久 |title=''Amami Okinawa hōgengun ni okeru Okinoerabu hōgen no ichizuke"'' 奄美沖縄方言群における沖永良部方言の位置づけ (Position of Okierabu Dialect in Northern Ryukyu Dialects) |journal=''Nihon Tōyō bunka ronshū'' 日本東洋文化論集 |number=6 |year=2000 |pages=43–69 |language=Japanese |url=http://ir.lib.u-ryukyu.ac.jp/handle/123456789/2379 }}</ref>

In the ''Okinawa-go jiten'' (1963), ] simply left its subgroups flat:
*Amami–Okinawan dialect group
**]
**Amami Ōshima Hontō dialect
***]
***]
**]
**]
***Eastern dialect
***Western dialect
**]
**]
**]
Note that Kunigami is used as an alias for Northern Okinawan and excludes Okinoerabu and Yoron. As a place name, Kunigami refers to the northern part of ] and never includes ] and ] of the Amami Islands.

Several others have attempted to create intermediate groups. One of two major hypotheses divides Amami–Okinawan into Amami and Okinawan, drawing a boundary between Amami's ] and ]. The same boundary was also set by early studies including ] (1961) and ] (1964). ] (1990) offered a detailed argument for it. He proposed the following classification.
*Northern Ryukyuan dialect
**]
***]
***Southern Amami
**]
***]
***]

The other hypothesis, the three-subdivision hypothesis, is proposed by Uemura (1972). He first presented a flat list of dialects and then discussed possible groupings, one of which is as follows:
*Amami–Okinawan dialect group
**]
**]
**]
The difference between the two hypotheses is whether Southern Amami and Northern Okinawan form a cluster. ] (2000) investigated Southern Amami in detail and found inconsistency among isoglosses. Nevertheless, he favored the three-subdivision hypothesis:
*Amami–Okinawan dialect group
**]
**]
**]<ref name="karimata2000" />

Karimata (2000)'s proposal is mostly on phonetic grounds. ] /e/ corresponds to /ï/ in Northern Amami while it was merged into /i/ in Southern Amami and Okinawan.<!-- Note: keep the glottal stop sign ʻ unchanged because in Karimata (2000) it is contrasted with ʼ for the unglottalized stops. -->
{|class="wikitable"
|-
!
!eye
!hair
!front
|-
|Itsubu, Naze (Amami Ōshima)
|mï
|kʻï
|më
|-
|Shodon, Setouchi
|mïː
|kʻïː
|mëː
|-
|Inokawa, Tokunoshima
|mïː
|kʻïː
|mëː
|-
|Inutabu, Isen (Tokunoshima)
|mïː
|kʻïː
|mëː
|-
|Nakazato, Kikai (Southern Kikai)
|miː
|kʻiː
|meː
|-
|Kunigami, Wadomari (Eastern Okinoerabu)
|miː
|kʻiː
|meː
|-
|Gushiken, China (Western Okinoerabu)
|miː
|kiː
|meː
|-
|Jana, Nakijin (Northern Okinawa)
|miː
|kʻiː
|meː
|-
|Shuritonokura, Naha (Southern Okinawa)
|miː
|kiː
|meː
|}
Word-initial /k/ was changed to /h/ before certain vowels in Southern Amami and several Northern Okinawan dialects while Northern Amami uses glottalized /kʼ/. The boundary between Northern and Southern Amami is clear while Southern Amami and Northern Okinawan have no clear isogloss.
{|class="wikitable"
|-
!Japanese
!/ka/
!/ko/
!/ke/
!/ku/
!/ki/
|-
|Itsubu, Naze (Amami Ōshima)
| colspan="3" |kʻ
| colspan="2" |kʼ
|-
|Shodon, Setouchi
| colspan="3" |kʻ
| colspan="2" |kʼ
|-
|Inokawa, Tokunoshima
| colspan="3" |kʻ
| colspan="2" |kʼ
|-
|Inutabu, Isen (Tokunoshima)
| colspan="3" |kʻ
| colspan="2" |kʼ
|-
|Shitooke, Kikai (Northern Kikai)
| colspan="3" |h
| colspan="2" |kʼ
|-
|Nakazato, Kikai (Southern Kikai)
| colspan="3" |h
|kʼ
|t͡ʃ
|-
|Kunigami, Wadomari (Eastern Okinoerabu)
| colspan="3" |h
|kʼ
|t͡ʃ
|-
|Wadomari, Wadomari (Eastern Okinoerabu)
| colspan="3" |h
|kʼ
|t͡ʃ
|-
|Gushiken, China (Okinoerabu)
| colspan="3" |h
| colspan="2" |kʼ
|-
|Gusuku, Yoron
| colspan="3" |h
| colspan="2" |k
|-
|Benoki, Kunigami (Northern Okinawa)
| colspan="3" |h
| colspan="2" |k
|-
|Ōgimi, Ōgimi (Northern Okinawa)
| colspan="3" |h
| colspan="2" |k
|-
|Yonamine, Nakijin (Northern Okinawa)
| colspan="2" |h
| kʻ
| kʼ
| tʒ
|-
|Kushi, Nago (Northern Okinawa)
| colspan="3" |kʻ
| colspan="2" |kʼ
|-
|Onna, Onna (Northern Okinawa)
| colspan="3" |kʻ
| colspan="2" |kʼ
|-
|Iha, Ishikawa (Southern Okinawa)
| colspan="4" |k
| t͡ʃ
|-
|Shuri, Naha (Southern Okinawa)
| colspan="4" |k
| t͡ʃ
|}
The pan-Japonic shift of /p → ɸ → h/ can be observed at various stages in Amami–Okinawan. Unlike Northern Amami and Southern Okinawan, Southern Amami and Northern Okinawan tend to maintain ] although the degrees of preservation vary considerably.
{|class="wikitable"
|-
!Japanese
!/ha/
!/he/
!/ho/
!/hu/
!/hi/
|-
|Itsubu, Naze (Amami Ōshima)
| colspan="5" |h
|-
|Shodon, Setouchi
| colspan="5" |h
|-
|Inokawa, Tokunoshima
| colspan="5" |h
|-
|Inutabu, Isen (Tokunoshima)
| colspan="5" |h
|-
|Shitooke, Kikai (Northern Kikai)
| colspan="2" |pʻ
| colspan="2" |ɸ
|pʻ
|-
|Nakazato, Kikai (Southern Kikai)
|ɸ
|h
| colspan="3" |ɸ
|-
|Kunigami, Wadomari (Eastern Okinoerabu)
| colspan="5" |ɸ
|-
|Gushiken, China (Western Okinoerabu)
|ɸ
|h
| colspan="2" |ɸ
|h
|-
|Gusuku, Yoron
| colspan="5" |ɸ
|-
|Benoki, Kunigami (Northern Okinawa)
| colspan="5" |ɸ
|-
|Ōgimi, Ōgimi (Northern Okinawa)
|ɸ
|pʼ
| colspan="2" |ɸ
|pʼ
|-
|Yonamine, Nakijin (Northern Okinawa)
| colspan="3" |pʻ
|pʻ
|pʼ
|-
|Kushi, Nago (Northern Okinawa)
| colspan="3" |ɸ
| colspan="2" |pʼ
|-
|Onna, Onna (Northern Okinawa)
| colspan="3" |pʻ
| colspan="2" |pʼ
|-
|Iha, Ishikawa (Southern Okinawa)
| colspan="5" |h
|-
|Shuri, Naha (Southern Okinawa)
|h
|ɸ
| colspan="2" |h
|ɸ
|}
These shared features appear to support the three-subdivision hypothesis. However, Karimata also pointed out several features that group Northern and Southern Amami together. In Amami, word-medial /k/ is changed to /h/ or even dropped when it is surrounded by /a/, /e/ or /o/. This can rarely be observed in Okinawan dialects. Japanese /-awa/ corresponds to /-oː/ in Amami and /-aː/ in Okinawan. Uemura (1972) also argued that if the purpose of classification was not of phylogeny, the two-subvdivision hypothesis of Amami and Okinawan was also acceptable.

Pellard (2009) took a computational approach to the classification problem. His phylogenetic inference was based on phonological and lexical traits. The results supported the Amami cluster and the Okinawan cluster.<ref name="pellard2009">{{cite thesis |last=Pellard |first=Thomas |title=Ogami: Éléments de description d'un parler du sud des Ryukyus |publisher=École des hautes études en sciences sociales |year=2009 |place=Paris, France |url=http://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/docs/00/44/41/50/PDF/ogami-cpr.pdf |language=French }}</ref>

The membership of Kikai Island remains highly controversial. The northern three communities of Kikai Island share the seven-vowel system with Amami Ōshima and Tokunoshima while the rest is grouped with Okinoerabu and Yoron for their five-vowel systems. For this reason, Nakamoto (1990) subdivided Kikai:
*Amami dialect
**Northern Amami dialect
***Northern Amami Ōshima
***Southern Amami Ōshima
***<u>Northern Kikai</u>
**Southern Amami dialect
***<u>Southern Kikai</u>
***Okinoerabu
***Yoron.
Based on other evidence, however, Karimata (2000) tentatively grouped Kikai dialects together.<ref name="karimata2000" /> Lawrence (2011) argued that lexical evidence supported the Kikai cluster although he refrained from determining its phylogenetic relationship with other Amami dialects.<ref name="lawrence2011">{{cite book |author=Wayne Lawrence |chapter=''Kikai-jima hōgen no keitōteki ichi ni tsuite'' 喜界島方言の系統的位置について |editor=Kibe Nobuko et al. |title=''Shōmetsu kiki hōgen no chōsa hozon no tame no sōgōteki kenkyū: Kikai-jima hōgen chōsa hōkokusho'' 消滅危機方言の調査・保存のための総合的研究: 喜界島方言調査報告書 (General Study for Research and Conservation of Endangered Dialects in Japan: Research Report on the Kikaijima Dialects ) |pages=115–122 |year=2011 |language=Japanese |url=http://www.ninjal.ac.jp/endangered/common/pdf/report_11-01.pdf#118 }}</ref>

As of 2014, ] presents another two-subdivision hypothesis: it groups Southern Amami, Northern Okinawa and Southern Okinawa to form Southern Amami–Okinawan, which is contrasted with Northern Amami–Okinawan. It also identifies Kikai as Northern Amami–Okinawan.<ref name="sil_ao">{{cite web |url=http://www.ethnologue.com/subgroups/amami-okinawan |title=Amami-Okinawan |publisher=SIL International |accessdate=1 February 2014}}</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{Japanese language |collapsed}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Amami–Okinawan Language}}
]

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