Language name and locationː Northern Amami-Oshima, Okinawa, Japan [Refer to Ethnologue]
 语言名称和分布地区: 北奄美大岛琉球语, 日本琉球群岛奄美群岛中奄美大岛北部

 

1. tˀɨɨ

21.  ɲidʑuːitɕi

2. tˀaːtsɨ

22.  ɲidʑuːɲiː

3. mi:tsɨ

23.  ɲidʑuːsan

4. ju:tsɨ

24.  ɲidʑuːɕi

5. ɨcɨtsɨ

25.  ɲidʑuːɡo

6. muːtsɨ

26.  ɲidʑuːɾoku

7. nanaːtsɨ 

27.  ɲidʑuːɕitɕi

8. jatsɨ

28.  ɲidʑuːhɑtɕi

9. kˀuːnutsɨ   

29.  ɲidʑuːkʲuː

10. tu:

30.  sandʑuː

11. dʑuːitɕi

40.  jondʑuː

12. dʑuːɲi

50.  ɡodʑuː

13. dʑuːsan

60.  ɾokudʑuː

14. dʑuːɕi

70.  nanadʑuː

15. dʑuːɡo

80.  hɑtɕidʑuː

16. dʑuːɾoku

90.  kʲuːdʑuː

17. dʑuːɕitɕi

100. çɑku

18. dʑuːhɑtɕi

200. ɲiçɑku

19. dʑuːkʲuː

1000. ɕen

20. ɲidʑuː

2000. ɲiɕen

 

Linguist providing data and dateː Dr. Yuto Niinaga, Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan, April 10, 2013.
提供资料的语言学家: 新永悠人博士, 2013 年 4 月 10 日

 

Other comments: Northern Amami-Oshima is spoken by approximately 9,800 adult speakers only in Kagoshima prefecture: north Amami-Oshima and northwest Okinawa islands. There are Naze, Sani dialects and inherent intelligibility generally impossible, or very difficult, with Ryukyuan languages and Japanese 

Northern Amami has a decimal system. The above data are taken from Yuwan dialect of Northern Amami. Note that after ten are loan words from Japanese with phonological adaptations.

Yuwan Amami Phonemic Systemː
Consonantsː 

 

Bilabial

Alveolar

Palatal

Velar

Glottal

Stops (non-glottalized)

p, b

t, d

  

k, ɡ

 

Stops (glottalized)

 

      tˀ

  

   kˀ

 

Affricates (non-glottalized)

 

 c[ts]

  

  

 

Affricates (glottalized)

 

 cˀ [tsˀ]

  

 

 

Fricatives

 

    s, z

  

 

   h

Nasals (non-glottalized)

m

n

  

  ŋ

 

Nasals (glottalized)

 mˀ

      nˀ

  

 

 

Approximants (non-glott.)

w

 

  j

 

 

Approximants(glottalized)

 wˀ

 

  jˀ

 

 

Flap

  

ɾ

  

 

 

 

Yuwan has 22 consonants.

Notesː

   a. Stops, affricates, and fricatives have voice opposition; ³

   b. Stops (excepts /p/), affricates, nasals, and approximants have glottalization
  opposition; ⁴

   c.  Alveolar affricates and fricatives behave similarly in terms of morphophonological
  rules; ik

   d. Approximants and the flap behave similarly in terms of (morpho)phonological
  rules.

Vowelsː

 

Front

Central

Back

High

  i

   ɨ

  u

Mid

 (e)¹

 ə [ɜ]

o [o̞]

Low

 

    

a [ɑ̞]

 

    Long vowels and diphthongsː Every vowel in Yuwan can be lengthened, and this is treated as a vowel sequence.  All diphthongs in Yuwan are combinations of a particular vowel plus /i/. aː aa, ai; uː uu, ui; iː ii, ɨː ɨi, ɨɨ

[1] /e/ is used for a small number of loanwords from Standard Japanese (e.g., /sinsjei
      / ‘teacher’) or interjections  (e.g., /ude/ ‘hey’).

[2] /p/ often appears as a geminate in the combination of stem and affixes (or clitics).
     Yuwan has a very restricted number of lexicons that have /p/ (12 lexemes so far),
     where non-geminated lexemes are pon+wata ‘big belly,’ anpəə ‘appearance,’ piri
     ‘tail end,’ and mai=nu pɨɨ (hip=GEN hole) ‘anus,’ excluding onomatopoeia and
     alleged modern loan words.

[3] /z/ can be realized as [(d͡)z] (or [(d͡)ʑ]) in Yuwan; however, we regard it as a

      voiced counterpart of the fricative /s/ since /s/ can precede all the vowels that /z/

      can precede, but the affricate /c/cannot precede all of these vowels. For example,

      there are phoneme sequences such as /za/ or /sa/, but not /ca/ (see the table in

       §1.2.1.1).

[4]  The glottal phoneme could be analyzed as /ʔC/, reducing the total number of

      phonemes; however, this analysis would assume double onset slots for the word-
      initial syllable. For example, [ʔmɑ̟] ‘horse’ is /ʔma/ (CCV), which destroys the

      commonality of syllable structures within a word ( \r \h). We agree with the

      analysis of /Cˀ/ since it is difficult to propose there is a slot for /ʔ/, since /ʔ/

      cannot precede all the consonants.

[5] This means there is no consonant in the onset C slot.

 

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