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| Miyakoan | |
|---|---|
| 宮古口/ミャークフツMyākufutsu | |
| Pronunciation | [mjaːkufutss̩] |
| Native to | Okinawa,Japan |
| Region | Miyako Islands |
| Ethnicity | 66,000 (2020)[1] |
Native speakers | (mostly over age 20 cited 1989)[1] |
| Dialects |
|
| Japanese | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | mvi |
| Glottolog | miya1259 |
| ELP | Miyako |
 | |
TheMiyakoan language (宮古口/ミャークフツMyākufutsu/Myākufutsї[mjaːkufutss̩] or島口/スマフツSumafutsu/Sїmafutsї,Japanese:宮古語,romanized: Miyako-go) is a diversedialect cluster spoken in theMiyako Islands, located southwest ofOkinawa. The combined population of the islands is about 52,000 (as of 2011). Miyakoan is aSouthern Ryukyuan language, most closely related toYaeyama. The number of competent native speakers is not known; as a consequence of Japanese language policy which refers to the language as the Miyako dialect (宮古方言,Miyako hōgen), reflected in the education system, people below the age of 60[timeframe?] tend to not use the language except in songs and rituals, and the younger generation mostly uses Japanese as their first language. Miyakoan is notable among theJaponic languages in that it allows non-nasal syllable-final consonants, something not found in most Japonic languages.
The most divergent dialect is that ofTarama Island, the farthest island away. The other dialects cluster asIkema–Irabu and Central Miyako. Given the low degree of mutual intelligibility,Tarama language is sometimes considered a distinct language in its own right.[citation needed]
An illustrative lexeme is the name of the plantAlocasia (evidently an Austronesian loan:Tagalog/biːɡaʔ/). This varies as Central Miyako (Hirara, Ōgami)/biʋkasːa/, Ikema/bɯbɯːɡamː/, Irabu (Nagahama)/bɭ̆bɭːɡasːa/, Tarama/bivːuɭ̆ɡasːa/.
A short description of the Aragusuku dialect (spoken in the southeastern area of Miyako Island and not to be confused with theYaeyama dialect of the same name) was published in 2022 by Wang Danning.[citation needed]
The description here is mostly based on the Ōgami dialect, the Central Miyakoan dialect of the smallest of the Miyako islands, from Pellard (2009).[2] There is additional description based on the Irabu dialect, the Ikema-Irabu dialect of the second largest of the Irabu islands.[3]
Central Miyakoan dialects do not havepitch accent; therefore, they are ofikkei type, except for the dialects of Ikema, Karimata, Uechi, and Yonaha, which have at most three types of pitch accent. Tarama distinguishes three types of accent on the phonological word (stem plus clitics), e.g./juda꞊maineen/,/jadu꞊maiꜜneen/,/maduꜜ꞊maineen/,
There are five vowels in Ōgami.
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i~ɪ | ɨ~ɯ | u~ʊ |
| Mid | ɛ | ||
| Open | ɑ |
/ɯ/ is truly unrounded, unlike the compressed Japaneseu. It is centralized after/s/./u/ is rounded normally, but varies as[ʊ]./ɛ/ varies from[e] to[æ].
Numerous vowel sequences occur, and long vowels are treated as sequences of identical vowels, keeping the inventory at five.
Historical *i and *u centralized and merged to/ɨ/ as *e and *o rose to /i/ and /u/. The blade of the tongue in/ɨ/ is close to the alveolar ridge, and this feature has been inaccurately described as "apical" (it is actually laminal).[4] In certain environments/ɨ/ rises beyond vowel space to syllabic[s̩] after/p/ and/k/ (especially before another voiced consonant) and, in dialects that have voiced stops, to[z̩] after/b/ and/ɡ/:
Ōgami vowels other than/ɨ/ are not subject to devoicing next to unvoiced consonants the way Japanese high vowels are. Sequences of phonetic consonants have been analyzed by Pellard (2009)[2] as being phonemically consonantal as well.
In Irabu there are five main vowels and two rare mid vowels that occur in loanwords and some clitics.[3]
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | ɨ | u |
| Mid | (e) | (o) | |
| Open | a |
In Ōgami there are nine consonants, without a voicing contrast. (Most Miyakoan dialects do distinguish voicing.)
| Labial | Alveolar | Dorsal | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | |
| Plosive | p | t | k |
| Tap | ɾ | ||
| Fricative | f | s | |
| Approximant | ʋ | (j) |
The plosives tend to be somewhat aspirated initially and voiced medially. There are maybe a dozen words with optionally voiced initial consonants, such asbabe ~ pape (a sp. of fish) andgakspstu ~ kakspstu 'glutton',[5] but Pellard suggests they may be loans (babe is found in other dialects, andgaks- is a Chinese loan; only a single wordgama ~ kama 'grotto, cave' is not an apparent loan).
/k/ may be spirantized before/ɑ/:kaina 'arm'[kɑinɑ~xɑinɑ],a꞊ka 'I (nominative)'[ɑkɑ~ɑxɑ~ɑɣɑ].
/n/ is[ŋ] at the end of a word, and assimilates to succeeding consonants ([m~n~ŋ]) before another consonant. When final[ŋ] geminates, it becomes[nn]; comparetin[tiŋ] 'silver' withtinnu[tinnu] 'silver (accusative)'. It tends to devoice after/s/ and/f/./m/, on the other hand, does not assimilate and appears finally unchanged, as inmku 'right',mta 'earth', andim 'sea'.
/f/ is labiodental, not bilabial, and/s/ palatalizes to[ɕ] before the front vowels/iɛ/:pssi[pɕɕi] 'cold'. Some speakers insert an epenthetic[t] between/n/ and/s/ in what would otherwise be a sequence thereof, as inansi[ɑnɕi~ɑntɕi] 'thus'.
/ʋ/ is clearly labiodental as well and tends to become a fricative[v] when emphasized or when geminated, as in/kuʋʋɑ/[kuvvɑ] 'calf'. It can be syllabic, as can all sonorants in Ōgami:vv[v̩ː] 'to sell'. Final/ʋ/ contrasts with the high back vowels:/paʋ/ 'snake',/pau/ 'stick',/paɯ/ 'fly' are accusative[pɑvvu,pɑuju,pɑɯu] with the clitic-u.
[j] is mainly heard in complementary distribution with/i/, only occurring before vowels/u,a/.
Various sequences of consonants occur (mna 'shell',sta 'under',fta 'lid'), and long consonants are bimoraic (sta[s̩.tɑ]fta[f̩.tɑ],pstu[ps̩.tu]), so they are analyzed as consonant sequences as well. These can be typologically unusual:
Geminate plosives do not occur, apart from a single morpheme, thequotative particletta.
There are a few words with no voiced sounds at all (compareNuxálk language § Syllables):
The contrast between a voiceless syllable and a voiced vowel between voiceless consonants can be seen inkff puskam[k͡f̩ːpuskɑm] 'I want to make (it)',ff꞊nkɑi[f̩ːŋɡɑi] 'to꞊the.comb', andpaks꞊nu꞊tu[pɑksn̥udu] 'bee꞊NOM꞊FOC' (with a devoiced nasal afters). There is a contrast betweenff꞊mɑi 'comb꞊INCL' andffu꞊mɑi 'shit꞊INCL'. With tongue twisters, speakers do not insert schwas or other voiced sounds to aid in pronunciation:
The minimal word is either VV, VC, or CC (consisting of a single geminate), as inaa 'millet',ui 'over',is 'rock',ff 'comb'. There are no V or CV words; however, CCV and CVV words are found, as shown above.
Syllabification is difficult to analyze, especially in words such asusnkai (us-nkai) 'cow-DIR' andsaiafn (saiaf-n) 'carpenter-DAT'.
There are 15 to 16 consonants in Irabu, which do have a voicing contrast.
| Labial | Alveolar | Velar/ Glottal | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | sibilant | ||||
| Stop/ Affricate | voiceless | p | t | ts | k |
| voiced | b | d | dz | g | |
| Fricative | voiceless | f | s | (h) | |
| voiced | (v) | z | |||
| Nasal | m,mː | n,nː | |||
| Approximant | ʋ,ʋː | j | z̞,z̞ː | w | |
| Tap | ɾ,ɾː | ||||
| /i/ | /ɿ/ | /e/ | /a/ | /o/ | /u/ | /ja/ | /jo/ | /ju/ | /wa/ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| /Ø/ | い /i/ [i] | イ゜ /ɿ/ [zɨ] | え /e/ [e] | あ /a/ [a] | お /o/ [o] | う /u/ [u] | や /ja/ [ja] | よ /jo/ [jo] | ゆ /ju/ [ju] | わ /wa/ [wa] |
| /k/ | き /ki/ [ki] | キ゜ /kɿ/ [ksɨ] | け /ke/ [ke] | か /ka/ [ka] | こ /ko/ [ko] | く /ku/ [ku] | きゃ /kja/ [kja] | きょ /kjo/ [kjo] | きゅ /kju/ [kju] | くゎ /kwa/ [kwa] |
| /g/ | ぎ /gi/ [gi] | ギ /gɿ/ [gzɨ] | げ /ge/ [ge] | が /ga/ [ga] | ご /go/ [go] | ぐ /gu/ [gu] | ぎゃ /gja/ [gja] | ぎょ /gjo/ [gjo] | ||
| /s/ | すぃ /si/ [ʃi] | す /sɿ/ [sɨ] | さ /sa/ [sa] | そ /so/ [so] | すぅ /su/ [su] | しゃ /sja/ [ʃa] | しょ /sjo/ [ʃo] | しゅ /sju/ [ʃu] | ||
| /z/ | じ /zi/ [dʒi] | ず /zɿ/ [dzɨ] | ざ /za/ [dza] | ぞ /zo/ [dzo] | ずぅ /zu/ [dzu] | じゃ /zja/ [dʒa] | じょ /zjo/ [dʒo] | じゅ /zju/ [dʒu] | ||
| /c/ | ち /ci/ [tʃi] | つ /cɿ/ [tsɨ] | つぁ /ca/ [tsa] | つゅ /cu/ [tsu] | ちゃ /cja/ [tʃa] | ちょ /cjo/ [tʃo] | ちゅ /cju/ [tʃu] | |||
| /t/ | てぃ /ti/ [ti] | た /ta/ [ta] | と /to/ [to] | とぅ /tu/ [tu] | てゃ /tja/ [tja] | |||||
| /d/ | でぃ /di/ [di] | だ /da/ [da] | ど /do/ [do] | どぅ /du/ [du] | でゃ /dja/ [dja] | でょ /djo/ [djo] | ||||
| /n/ | に /ni/ [ni] | ね /ne/ [ne] | な /na/ [na] | の /no/ [no] | ぬ /nu/ [nu] | にゃ /nja/ [nja] | にゅ /nju/ [nju] | |||
| /f/ | ふぃ /fi/ [fi] | ふぁ /fa/ [fa] | ふぉ /fo/ [fo] | ふ /fu/ [fu] | /fja/ [fja] | |||||
| /v/ | ヴぃ /vi/ [vi] | ヴぁ /va/ [va] | ||||||||
| /p/ | ぴ /pi/ [pi] | ピ /pɿ/ [psɨ] | ぺ /pe/ [pe] | ぱ /pa/ [pa] | ぽ /po/ [po] | ぷ /pu/ [pu] | ぴゃ /pja/ [pja] | ぴょ /pjo/ [pjo] | ぴゅ /pju/ [pju] | |
| /b/ | び /bi/ [bi] | ビ /bɿ/ [bzɨ] | べ /be/ [be] | ば /ba/ [ba] | ぼ /bo/ [bo] | ぶ /bu/ [bu] | びゃ /bja/ [bja] | びょ /bjo/ [bjo] | びゅ /bju/ [bju] | |
| /m/ | み /mi/ [mi] | ミ゜ /mɿ/ [mɨ] | め /me/ [me] | ま /ma/ [ma] | も /mo/ [mo] | む /mu/ [mu] | みゃ /mja/ [mja] | みょ /mjo/ [mjo] | みゅ /mju/ [mju] | |
| /r/[8] | り /ri/ [ɾi] | れ /re/ [ɾe] | ら /ra/ [ɾa] | ろ /ro/ [ɾo] | る /ru/ [ɾu] | りゃ /rja/ [ɾja] | りょ /rjo/ [ɾjo] | |||
| ん /N/ [n, ŋ] | ム /M/ [m] | ヴ /V/ [v] | ー /ː/ [ː] | /Q/ [k,s,z,t,c,f,v,p] | ||||||
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| Ryukyuan |
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