Yaeyama

Yaeyama (Yaimamuni; ISO 639-3: rys) is a Southern Ryukyuan Japonic language, or closely related cluster, spoken on Ishigaki, Iriomote, Taketomi, Kohama, Hateruma, and Yaeyama islands in Okinawa Prefecture. Yonaguni, although related, has its own code and is treated as a separate language; Yaeyama shows island-to-island variation that can impede mutual understanding. It is not mutually intelligible with Standard Japanese and has agglutinative, generally subject–object–verb grammar, with sound systems and pitch patterns that differ among island varieties. UNESCO classified Yaeyama as severely endangered, and fluent traditional speech is now concentrated among older generations after Standard Japanese displaced it in most intergenerational use. Yaeyama has been primarily oral; adapted kana and various romanizations are used for documentation and teaching, but no spelling covers every island variety; community classes, dictionaries, recordings, songs, and performance traditions support revitalization, though it has no official status.

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