Japonic languages

Japanese Ryukyu (Japanese日本语 族, nihongozoku, dt " Japanese language family " ) is a small language family, whose languages ​​are spoken on the islands of Japan. It includes the modern Japanese with its regional dialects ( a total of 125 million speakers) and the five Ryukyu languages ​​or dialect clusters on the Ryukyu Islands - are spoken by about a million people - especially Okinawa. Sometimes the Japanese Ryukyu family is also known as Japanese language or family - called japonische language family - related to the English term Japonic languages ​​.

Japanese and the Ryukyu languages

Some linguists make between Japanese and Japanese - Ryukyu no difference and only talk about the Japanese language, the Ryukyu languages ​​are then viewed as different " dialects " of the Japanese. However, a mutual understanding between the actual and the Japanese Ryukyu languages ​​is usually not possible.

Due to the geographical conditions, many regional dialects have been preserved in Japan: In addition to the division into four major and several thousand small islands, the country has only a few large fertile plains, 80 % of the country are the mountains which form natural boundaries for the language areas. The connecting band was the coastal shipping. The same applies to the Ryukyu languages ​​that are split on a long archipelago with many small islands with their communities of speakers in individual dialects. A strict separation between the Japanese and the Ryukyu languages ​​is now hardly possible because the dialects of the Ryukyu Islands to the modern Japanese assimilate the more, the closer they are geographically in the main islands. In the south, however, increases the size of the Ryukyu - specific elements.

The number of Ryukyu residents who only speak standard Japanese, constantly increasing, so that the Ryukyu languages ​​in their number of speakers decrease accordingly ( about one million today). For the largest Ryukyu Okinawa language applies: adult speakers are usually bilingual Okinawa Japanese, the age group between 20 and 50 understands Okinawa, but generally uses - even at home - Japanese. The Under-20 year olds are monolingual grown Japanese. Monolingual Okinawa speaker is also available in the oldest group of speakers barely. Thus, even these Ryukyu language is (the one with the most speakers ) threatened in their survival; this is even more true for the smaller languages ​​of this group.

The structure of the language family

After the presentation of most researchers, the Japanese Ryukyu family includes the following languages ​​and dialects:

• Japanese Ryukyu (5 languages ​​or dialect cluster with 126 million speakers) Japanese Japanese ( 125 million speakers)

• Okinawa - Amami (about 900 thousand speakers) Amami, dialects: Amami Oshima -, Kikai, Toku -no- shima
• Okinawa, dialects: Shuri, Motobu, Oki -no- Erabu, Yoron

• Miyako- Yaeyama dialects: Miyako, Yaeyama ( possibly two languages)
• Yonaguni

Origin hypotheses

The languages ​​of the Japanese Ryukyu family be attributed to a hypothetical Proto - Japonisch on which the modern languages ​​( or dialects ) are to be based. The Japonische has possibly developed from a creole language that originated in a mixed culture from the Japanese original inhabitants - had and immigrants from Korea or Central Asia formed - usually identified with the bearers of the Jōmon culture.

Together with the Korean - - by some researchers to japonischen languages ​​are included in the group of so-called Altaic languages ​​( see also macro - Altaic ). Whether the Altaic a genetic unit (ie a language family ) is or forms only a areal Sprachbund is controversial. The majority opinion tends to Sprachbund thesis. ( See Japanese- Korean- Altaic word equations. )

Syntax, agglutinative language structure and polite language indicate a relationship with the Altai languages, especially the Korean. However, lacking the Altaic in other languages ​​- Turkic, Mongolian and Tungusic languages ​​languages ​​- widespread vowel harmony. The phonetics of the Japanese language does not fit into the picture, it looks more like the sound system of the Austronesian languages.

Unclear is where the " urjapanische " vocabulary is derived which forms the customer reading the Japanese characters today. Although, however, the modern Korean and modern Japanese show great consistency in the Chinese loan words, beyond just slight similarity in the lexical elements.

Studies try lexical similarities to the language of the historical Korean state of Goguryeo ( Koguryo ) and even to the Dravidian languages ​​prove (the latter as part of the nostra matic macro family).

The best underpinned by parallel studies in archeology and genetics theory is the relationship to the language of Goguryeo. The hypothesis of the Buyeo languages ​​goes so far as to summarize Altjapanisch and the Goguryeo language to a family and to be distinguished from the language of the kingdom of Silla, which had the strongest influence on the development of modern Korean. However, many Korean linguists see all the historical Korean dialects as belonging to a family, what the Buyeo- theory contradicts.

Japanese - Altaic word equations

The following table shows some Altaic - Korean-Japanese word equations, which could indicate a relationship between these languages. In addition to the Japanese and Korean forms also Turkic, Mongolian and Tungusic be introduced given subject. However, the word equations refer not only to individual concepts, but on some quite wide fields of meaning. The presentation includes for each term or each semantic field in the first line the reconstructed proto- forms of five proto-languages ​​( the Korean and Japanese occupied the oldest forms ), as well as the hypothetical Altaic proto- form. In a second line of a concrete example of a single language is then given: Turkish for the Turkic family, Khalkha Mongolian for the Mongolian family, Manchu or Ewenki for the Tungusic and new (or newer ) forms of Korean and Japanese.

As to the word equations in this table much is very interpretable (eg the reconstruction of proto- forms, the width of the field of meaning ), they can not be regarded directly as a proof of the genetic unit of a macro -Altaic language group, despite the wealth of data. Many parallels could also be due to early language contacts and borrowings. On the other hand, shows this material - that can only could be amplified - that a genetic unit is not easy to dismiss the least of Altaic in the narrow sense, but also the affiliation of Korean and maybe even the Japanese.

Word equations between Turkish, Mongolian, Tungusic, Korean, and Japanese ( simplified phonetic representation of proto- forms and individual linguistic examples):