Ryukyuan sociolinguistics

Ishihara, Masahide; Miyahira, Katsuyuki; Lubbe, Gijs van der; Heinrich, Patrick

doi:10.4324/9781315213378-2

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

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“…75% of consultants were aged in their 70s or older, while 25% were middle-aged, in their 40s, 50s and 60s.4 4.1 Kumejima All Kumejima varieties are mutually intelligible with South-Central Okinawan. Sui-kutuba, the language of Shuri, which was the seat of government of the Ryukyu Kingdom, functions as a de facto standard towards which the use of uyameekutuba is oriented throughout the Okinawan language sphere (Ishihara et al, 2019). As an effect, conversations about honorific use in Okinawan imply references to Shuri.…”

Section: Contemporary Attitudes Towards Honorific Speechmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pragmatic Consequences of Language Shift: A Contrastive Study of Politeness Marker Loss in Northern Ryukyuan

van der Lubbe,

Tsutsui Billins,

Heinrich

2021

Contrastive Pragmatics

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This paper analyses the loss of politeness markers across three generations in the Ryukyuan Islands of Japan. Honorific registers are first lost in endangered languages, and last speakers of an endangered language often state that they avoid using the language to semi-speakers because they do not use polite registers. We give an overview of language endangerment, analyse how individuals reflect on politeness markers, and how language loss and the awareness thereof manifest in language use. We find that the loss of politeness markers does not result in an affront to convention and social order. Japanese, the replacing language, is employed to construct social orders. Linguistically constructed orders in Japanese are different from those in Ryukyuan. In one of the two communities studied, politeness markers no longer function to construct social hierarchies but serve as a ‘we-code’ among locals. The experience of language endangerment works here as a social levelling mechanism.

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Section: Contemporary Attitudes Towards Honorific Speechmentioning

confidence: 99%