Pronunciation [mja藧kufutss泰] Region Miyako Islands | Native to Okinawa, Japan Ethnicity 68,000 (2000) | |
 | ||
Native speakers (mostly over age 20 cited 1989) Language family Japonic
Ryukyuan
Southern Ryukyuan
Miyako | ||
The Miyako language (瀹彜鍙?銉熴儯銉笺偗銉曘儎 Myaakufutsu [mja藧kufutss泰] or 宄跺彛/銈广優銉曘儎 Sumafutsu) is a language spoken in the Miyako Islands, located southwest of Okinawa. The combined population of the islands is about 52,000 (as of 2011). Miyako is a Southern Ryukyuan language, most closely related to Yaeyama. 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 (瀹彜鏂硅█, Miyako h艒gen), reflected in the education system, people below the age of 60 tend to not use the language except in songs and rituals, and the younger generation mostly uses Japanese as their first language. Miyako is notable among the Japonic languages in that it allows non-nasal syllable-final consonants, something not found in most Japonic languages.
Contents
- Dialects
- Phonology
- Vowels
- Consonants
- References
Dialects
The most divergent dialect is that of Tarama Island, the farthest island away. The other dialects cluster as Ikema鈥揑rabu and Central Miyako.
An illustrative lexeme is Alocasia (evidently an Austronesian loan: Tagalog /bi藧伞a蕯/). This varies as Central Miyako (Hirara, 艑gami) /bi蕥kas藧a/, Ikema /b莎b莎藧伞am藧/, Irabu (Nagahama) /b森b森藧伞as藧a/, Tarama /biv藧u森伞as藧a/.
Phonology
The description here is mostly based on the 艑gami dialect, the Central Miyako dialect of the smallest of the Miyako islands, from Pellard (2009).
Central Miyako dialects do not have pitch accent; therefore, they are of ikkei type. Tarama dialect distinguishes accent on the phonological word (stem plus clitics), e.g. /juda隇妋ai neen/, /jadu隇妋ai隃 neen/, /madu隃滉瀶mai neen/,
Vowels
There are five vowels.
/莎/ is truly unrounded, unlike the compressed Japanese u. It is centralized after /s/. /u/ is rounded normally, but varies as [蕣]. /蓻/ varies from [e] to [忙].
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 /扫/ as *e and *o rose to /i/ and /u/. The blade of the tongue in /扫/ is close to the alveolar ridge, and this feature has been inaccurately described as "apical" (it is actually laminal). In certain environments /扫/ rises beyond vowel space to syllabic /s泰/ after /p/ and /k/ (especially before another voiced consonant) and, in dialects that hav=x騨 逗x 8椗5?Y蓭哟糜vj;兹9e voiced stops, to /z泰/ after /b/ and /伞/:
*pito > pstu 'person', *kimo > ksmu 'liver', *tabi > tabz 'journey' in Shimazato dialect.艑gami vowels other than /扫/ 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) as being phonemically consonantal as well.
Tarama has four main vowels, and two marginal vowels /e, o/ found in a restricted set of words.
In Tarama, /扫/ is [s泰] between voiceless consonants, otherwise [刷扫] after plosives, and [扫] elsewhere:
[ps泰tu] 'person', [k刷扫藧ru] 'yellow', [m扫藧伞扫] 'right'The sequences /*t扫/, /*d扫/, /*n扫/, /*r扫/ do not occur. They have changed to /ts扫/, /z扫/, /n泰/ and /r/ ([森]).
Consonants
In 艑gami dialect there are nine consonants, without a voicing contrast. (Most Miyako dialects do distinguish voicing.)
The plosives tend to be somewhat aspirated initially and voiced medially. There are maybe a dozen words with optionally voiced initial consonants, such as babe ~ pape (a sp. of fish) and gakspstu ~ kakspstu 'glutton', but Pellard suggests they may be loans (babe is found in other dialects, and gaks- is a Chinese loan; only a single word gama ~ kama 'grotto, cave' is not an apparent loan).
/k/ may be spirantized before /蓱/: kaina 'arm' [k蓱in蓱 ~ x蓱in蓱], a隇妅a 'I (nominative)' [蓱k蓱 ~ 蓱x蓱 ~ 蓱桑蓱].
/n/ is [艐] at the end of a word, and assimilates to succeeding consonants ([m~n~艐]) before another consonant. When final [艐] geminates, it becomes [nn]; compare tin [ti艐] 'silver' with tinnu [tinnu] 'silver (accusative)'. It tends to devoice after /s/ and /f/. /m/, on the other hand, does not assimilate and appears finally unchanged, as in mku 'right', mta 'earth', and im 'sea'.
/f/ is labiodental, not bilabial, and /s/ palatalizes to [蓵] before the front vowels /i 蓻/: pssi [p蓵蓵i] 'cold'. Some speakers insert an epenthetic [t] between /n/ and /s/ in what would otherwise be a sequence thereof, as in ansi [蓱n蓵i ~ 蓱nt蓵i] 'thus'.
/蕥/ is clearly labiodental as well and tends to become a fricative [v] when emphasized or when geminated, as in /ku蕥蕥蓱/ [kuvv蓱] 'calf'. It can be syllabic, as can all sonorants in the 艑gami dialect: vv [v泰藧] 'to sell'. Final /蕥/ contrasts with the high back vowels: /pa蕥/ 'snake', /pau/ 'stick', /pa莎/ 'fly' are accusative [p蓱vvu, p蓱uju, p蓱莎u] with the clitic -u.
Various sequences of consonants occur (mna 'shell', sta 'under', fta 'lid'), and long consonants are bimoraic (sta [s泰.t蓱] fta [f泰.t蓱], pstu [ps泰.tu]), so they are analyzed as consonant sequences as well. These can be typologically unusual:
/mmt蓱/ (sp. small fruit) /nn蓱m蓱/ 'now' /蕥蕥蓱/ 'you' /f蓱蓱/ 'baby' /ff蓱/ 'grass' /fff蓱/ 'comb.TOP' (from ff 'comb') /suu/ 'vegetable' /ssu/ 'white' /sssu/ 'dust.ACC' (from ss 'dust') /mm蓱/ 'mother' /mmm蓱/ 'potato.TOP' (from mm 'potato') /pssma/ 'day'Geminate plosives do not occur, apart from a single morpheme, the quotative particle tta.
There are a few words with no voiced sounds at all (compare Nux谩lk language 搂 Syllables):
ss 'dust, a nest, to rub' kss 'breast/milk, hook / to fish, to come' pss 'day, vulva' ff 'a comb, to bite, to rain, to close' kff 'to make' fks 'to build' ksks 'month, to listen, to arrive', etc. sks 'to cut' psks 'to pull'The contrast between a voiceless syllable and a voiced vowel between voiceless consonants can be seen in kff puskam [k汀f泰藧pusk蓱m] 'I want to make (it)', ff隇妌k蓱i [f泰藧艐伞蓱i] 'to隇妕he.comb', and paks隇妌u隇妕u [p蓱ksn胎udu] 'bee隇夵span>NOM隇奆OC' (with a devoiced nasal after s). There is a contrast between ff隇妋蓱i 'comb隇夵span>INCL' and ffu隇妋蓱i 'shit隇夵span>INCL'. With tongue twisters, speakers do not insert schwas or other voiced sounds to aid in pronunciation:
kff ff 'the comb that I make' kff ss 'the nest that I make' kff kss 'the hook that I make'The minimal word is either VV, VC, or CC (consisting of a single geminate), as in aa '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 as usnkai (us-nkai) 'cow-DIR' and saiafn (saiaf-n) 'carpenter-DAT'.
Tarama dialect does have voiced stops:
The realization of /r/ is unclear. Word-finally it is [森].
The two nasals may be syllabic, as in mm 'potato' and nna 'rope'. 'Onsets' include geminate consonants, as in ssam 'loose' and ffa 'child'. Otherwise, the only consonant clusters are /Cj/, as in kjuu 'today', sjata 'sugar'. Sonorants can end syllables and words, as in kan 'crab', mim 'ear', and tur 'bird'. Vowel sequences include long vowels V藧 and the 'diphthongs' Vi, and V扫. This structure has been analyzed as a syllable, but initial geminate consonants, long vowels and diphthongs are all bimoraic, and codas are moraic as well, so that e.g. ssam is three moras ([s泰sam泰]. A phonological word must be at least two moras long.