Talk:Yaeyama language

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment
This article is or was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Simonle0175.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 05:14, 18 January 2022 (UTC)

History section
Could someone provide the source for the "Proto-Japanese" (should this be "Proto-Japonic")? I'm interested in any information I can find about this language family. ThomasWinwood( tc ) 11:46, 27 July 2006 (UTC)
 * An entry for Proto-Japanese is on my to-do list.Bendono 07:50, 2 October 2006 (UTC)

Vowels
"One example is the vowel system. Proto-Japanese had 8 vowels; this has been reduced to 5 in modern Japanese,"

The 8 vowel hypothesis applies to Old Japanese. I must emphasis that it but one hypothesis. Another popular hypothesis was that the A/B distinction palalatized the consonant. There is little academic agreement on the issue. Wikipedia should not state the issue as if it is a fact.

There is more agreement that Proto-Japanese had fewer vowels than Old Japanese -- more likely 4 vowels. Refer to works by Susumu Ōno.

There is no need to evoke modern Japanese to discuss a 5 vowel system. Classical Japanese, immediately following Old Japanese, had 5 vowels. Bendono 08:05, 2 October 2006 (UTC)


 * Confusingly, the JA WP article at ja:八重山方言 makes the statement that the Yaeyama dialect has six vowels in general (i, ï, u, e, o, a), with the Hateruma Island variety having seven (i, ï, u, e, ë, o, a), and the Hatoma, Kuro, and Iriomote varieties having just five (i, u, e, o, a), i.e. the standard five seen in mainland Japanese. Ben, or anyone else, can you say any more about this?  -- Eiríkr Útlendi │ Tala við mig 06:15, 7 June 2012 (UTC)

Migration from the Asian mainland?
What is the evidence for claiming that the Ryukyuan languages diverged from Japanese when their speakers migrated from the Asian continent to the Ryukyu Archipelago? This claim seems to be totally indefensible.

Also, I would like to see a citation for the source of Yaeyama /tani/ ("seed"). In most Ryukyuan languages, this etymon (the words cognate with Japanese /tane/ "seed") actually have the meaning "penis" (c.f. Kunigami language /tanii/ "penis", /hu?pudani/ "large penis," /tanii-bu?taa/ or /tanimagii/ "one who has a large penis," etc.).

Hajimiti
Is hajimiti a borrowing from mainland Japanese? If not, then why is it not *pajimiti? That is, why did the /p/ weaken in that word? Nik42 03:30, 4 October 2007 (UTC)
 * p occurs only in certain Yaeyama dialects. I haven't read about the language in a couple of years, but from what I recall, this does not include the dialect of Ishigaki, arguably the most-spoken. --Node (talk) 03:43, 19 February 2008 (UTC)

Phonology / Writing System
Does someone have a phonology table for this language? Something like on Amami or Icelandic phonology.

Ideally, a table that explains the writing system and its correlation to the sounds of Yaeyama.

I found this:, but it doesn't explain the writing system and looks incomplete. (I suppose it would be ideal if all these Japonic language articles would be expanded, but I suppose that's life :) )

James Who (talk) 07:32, 15 June 2009 (UTC)


 * The JA WP article at ja:八重山方言 uses the Latin alphabet to describe the Yaeyama sound system, but otherwise doesn't mention how Yaeyama speakers themselves actually write the language. -- Eiríkr Útlendi │ Tala við mig 06:09, 7 June 2012 (UTC)

I am a student in a linguistics course. As part of a class assignment, I have added the vowel and consonant charts for Hateruma phonemes, as well as some additional information about how the Hateruma dialect differs from others in its group. Theawoh (talk) 01:59, 24 December 2018 (UTC)

Agaru and oriru
Quoth the article:

> frame of reference system in which "north" and "south" are expressed in an intrinsic frame of reference as the verbs agaru ("go up, climb") and oriru ("go down, descend"), instead of Standard Japanese kita ("north") and minami ("south").

This quote seems to misunderstand its source. First of all should this be under "Syntax" section? Second of all the section references cardinal direction, but the source mentions that this is not the system used for this particular frame of reference. A town that's south of the mountain, or the Ishigaki urban center, refers to the southern direction as "sagaru/oriru" while in Shiraho, which is south-east of the summit, refers to the south-eastern direction as "sagaru/oriru". This is clearly referencing altitude in standard Japanese, and not cardinal direction or "syntax". --Kaledomo (talk) 19:46, 2 June 2019 (UTC)

Yaeyama grammar
Where is a grammar of Yaeyama language (as an important part for Wikipedia)? Frozen Bok (talk) 14:45, 27 September 2023 (UTC)