TheKikai language is spoken onKikai Island,Kagoshima Prefecture of southwesternJapan. It is debated whether it is a singledialect cluster. Regardless, all Kikai dialects are members of theAmami–Okinawan languages, which are part of theJaponic languages.

The classification of Kikai is disputed. Some even dispute the existence of the Kikai cluster.

The languages of the Amami Islands can be divided into the conservative northern group (Northern Amami Ōshima,Southern Amami Ōshima andTokunoshima) and the innovative southern group (Okinoerabu andYoron). The problem here is which Kikai belongs to.

It has been noted that northern communities of Kikai are phonologically more conservative and show some similarity to Amami Ōshima and Tokunoshima while the rest of the island is closer to Southern Amami. For example, Northern Kikai retains seven vowels, /a/, /e/, /i/, /o/, /u/, /ɨ/ and /ɘ/ while South–Central Kikai only has five vowels. /k/ is palatalized into /t͡ɕ/ before /i/ in South–Central Kikai but not in Northern Kikai.

For this reason, Nakamoto (1976)^[2] disassembled Kikai into two:

By contrast,Karimata (2000) tentatively supported the Kikai cluster in consideration of other shared phonological features.^[3] Lawrence (2011) argued that lexical evidence supported the Kikai cluster although he refrained from determining its phylogenetic relationship with other Amami dialects.^[4]

Pellard (2018) presented a drastically different classification. Based on the irregular sound change *kaja>gja forthatch, he grouped Tokunoshima, Okinoerabu, and Yoron into a clade, and treated Amami Ōshima, Kikai, and the resultant clade as the primary branches of Amami.^[5]

There are 33 local communities on Kikai Island. Despite being a small, flat island, Kikai shows considerable variations in lexicon, phonology and morphology. The languages on the island are mutually intelligible. The northern communities of Onotsu, Shitooke (and Sateku) are phonologically more conservative than the rest of the island.^[6]

Iwakura Ichirō (1904–1943), a folklorist fromAden, stated that a language of Kikai Island was called/simajumita/ in the language of Aden.^[7]

The following is the phonology of the Onotsu dialect, which is based on Shirata (2013b).^[6]

As with most Ryukyuan languages to the north of Central Okinawan, stops are described as "plain" C’ and "glottalized" C‘. Phonetically, the two series are aspirated[Cʰ] andtenuis[C˭], respectively.^[8]

According to Shirata (2013b), Onotsu dialect has/a/,/e/,/i/,/o/ and/u/. In more conventional interpretations, two more vowels /ɨ/ and /ɘ/ are added.^[9]Following Hattori (1999), Shirata analyzes conventional/Ci/ and/Cɨ/ as/Cji/ and/Ci/, respectively. Similarly,/Ce/ and/Cɘ/ are interpreted as/Cje/ and/Ce/.^[10]

The following is the phonology of the Kamikatetsu dialect, which is based on Shirata (2013a).^[11]

Kamikatetsu has/a/,/e/,/i/,/o/ and/u/.

• Kikaijima hōgen-shū (1977[1941]) byIwakura Ichirō. A dictionary for the author's home community, Aden, and a couple of other southern communities on Kikai Island of the Amami Islands. Can also be accessed at the NDL Digital Collectionshere.
• Research Data on the Kikaijima Dialects Written in Kana (2012) edited by Ogawa Shinji. Contains basic vocabulary and sentences collected in nine communities of Kikai.

Kikai language test ofWikipedia atWikimedia Incubator

• Research Report on the Kikaijima DialectsArchived 2012-12-14 at theWayback Machine published by the National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics (in Japanese)
• ELAR archive ofLinguistic data of Kikai-Ryukyuan

• Culture in Kagoshima Prefecture
• Ryukyuan languages
• Languages of Japan
• Amami Islands

• Language articles citing Ethnologue 26
• CS1 uses Japanese-language script (ja)
• CS1 Japanese-language sources (ja)
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Language articles with old speaker data
• Pages with plain IPA
• Webarchive template wayback links