hey, mike: Uchinâguchi

I have studied a little bit of Japanese and lived in mainland Japan for a few years before coming to Okinawa. Does Okinawa have its own language? If so, can you teach me a few phrases?

—Linus Harrison

Although the official national language is Nihongo (Japanese), many people of the Ryukyu Archipelago, especially members of the elder generation, still communicate in tongues considered unique to the southern islands of Amami, Okinawa, and the Sakishima chain. And on Okinawa, this local language is known as Uchinâguchi.

While many of the local forms of verbal communication share some of the same roots as Nihongo and are considered offshoot dialects (called hogen), each of these southern languages is unintelligible to many people in mainland Japan. In some cases, residents of islands less than 30 minutes away by plane would need a translator to speak to each other in their native tongue.

Archeological evidence suggests that the Ryukyu Islands were originally settled while still connected to Taiwan and the Asian land mass during ancient times. It is also believed that Hokkaido, located in the northern portion of mainland Japan, was also connected via land bridges and ice during the winter. Many think that this connection explains the similarities in the roots of the languages—no matter how dissimilar they may seem.

Initially, varying dialects were spoken throughout the Ryukyu Archipelago. However, during the 15th century, the kingdom of Chuzan "unified” the three Ryukyu Kingdoms (consisting of Hokuzan in the north, Chuzan in the center and Nanzan in the southern portion of the island), and annexed the Amami and Sakishima island groups. During this period, many members of the upper classes throughout the kingdom became fluent in the Shuri dialect (Shuri being the capital of Chuzan). Over time, even though local dialects were still used by merchants and commoners, they were slowly influenced by Shuri speech patterns. Almost all traditional court poems and music from the Ryukyu Kingdom, many of which are still read and performed today, were written in the Shuri dialect.

During the 17th century, the Ryukyu Kingdom fell under the influence of the Satsuma Shogunate. However, since the mainland Japanese controlled the Ryukyu Islands through the Shuri government (to maintain lucrative trade with China), the Shuri dialect remained in use until the early 1900s.

After the establishment of Okinawa as the 47th prefecture of Japan, Japanese replaced Uchinâguchi as the standard language throughout the southern islands. The use of local languages was not only discouraged, in some Okinawa schools speaking a single word of Uchinâguchi earned students a stiff punishment. And, during the last days of World War II, some Okinawans caught speaking the local tongue were distrusted and even branded as spies by members of the Japanese military.

Today, even as many younger Okinawans have difficulties communicating with their grandparents and katakana (written Japanese characters reserved exclusively for foreign languages) is used to write Uchinâguchi, many older Okinawans continue to speak their language with pride—working hard to ensure that the language of the Ryukyu Kingdom does not die with them.

Following are a few words and phrases in Uchinâguchi:

Good Morning
Ukimi so chi

Hello
Haisai

How do you do?
Hajimiti wuga nabira

Thank you very much
Nifé débiru

Good bye
Guburi sabira

Friend
Dushi

—Mike Daley

Got questions for Mike? E-mail editor@okinawa.usmc-mccs.org.