Talk:Okinawan Japanese

Katakana Contradiction
The katakana of this article (ウチナーヤマトゥグチ) contradicts the katakana of the Japanese article (ウチナーヤマトグチ). Isn't it more likely that the Japanese article is correct? I tried making the English article match the Japanese article, but my edit was reversed. Is there any reason not to make the English article's katakana agree with the Japanese article? – Westwind273


 * The Japanese article contradicts itself. Though the page is named ウチナーヤマトグチ, the first line in the head is written ウチナーヤマトゥーグチ, which is also repeated in the History section as well as the Vocabulary section. The other spelling (ト) isn't used elsewhere, though it appears in the title of a work cited. Given this, I'd prioritize the トゥ spelling, though it's likely that both spellings and pronunciations are invariably in use, with one emphasizing Ryukyuan phonology and the other, Japanese phonology. I'm also not sure why the Japanese Wikipedia lengthens the syllable in ウチナーヤマトゥーグチ, given that ウチナーヤマトゥグチ has about twenty times more results on Google. It may be worth adding an explanatory note for the three spellings. —  Io Katai  ᵀᵃˡᵏ  23:44, 8 April 2013 (UTC)


 * In my experience here in Okinawa the spelling ウチナーヤマトゥグチ is the most common. In Okinawa Language there are more syllables than in the Japanese. The Okinawans use tu and ti (whereas japanese don't, but instead use tsu and chi). And since Japan in Okinawan is spelled Yamatu (ヤマトゥ), ウチナーヤマトゥグチ is the most likel the correct spelling. --126.218.123.77 (talk) 11:14, 14 January 2018 (UTC)


 * Strictly speaking, the spelling ウチナーヤマトゥグチ ought to be regarded as 'correct' since that is the original spelling in Uchinaaguchi, the Okinawan language. However, the 'Japanized' spelling ウチナーヤマトグチ, which incorporates the Japanese pronunciation of 大和 as Yamato instead of Yamatu (the vowel is raised in Okinawan), is also frequently used. Both spellings have been used in the literature in both Japanese and English. The first use of the term in the literature was in Motonaga (1984) and Hirayama (1984), where the spelling in both was actually ウチナーヤマトグチ, but this was 'corrected' to ウチナーヤマトゥグチ in Yabiku (1987) . Since then, both spellings have been used by various scholars, but I'd say on balance ウチナーヤマトゥグチ is preferred and more common, probably because it reflects the origins of the word in its original language without 'Japanization'. The spelling ウチナーヤマトゥーグチ with the lengthened /u:/ is simply incorrect and should be deleted. Markusdow (talk) 06:22, 15 March 2018 (UTC)

English borrowings
There is a very wide array of english borrowings in Okinawa, although the degree of usage differs from area to area. Interestingly (well, from my experience at least) English borrowings are more common among the elder folks. They often borrow everyday words such as colours (yellow (イェッロー), red(レッド), green (グリーン)or blue (ブルー)) or time spelling (e.g. five o'clock (ファイヴオクロック) or am/pm (エイエム/ピーエム)). --126.218.123.77 (talk) 11:24, 14 January 2018 (UTC)

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