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The Yoron language is a dialect cluster spoken on Yoron Island, Kagoshima Prefecture of southwestern Japan. It is part of the Amami–Okinawan languages, which are part of the Japonic languages.

Classification

The classification of Yoron is a matter of scholarly debate as there are two competing hypotheses regarding the number of primary branches of the Amami–Okinawan languages. The two-subdivision hypothesis gives the following hierarchy.

• Amami–Okinawan / Northern Ryukyuan
  • Amami
    • Northern Amami
    • Southern Amami
      • Yoron
  • Okinawan

On the other hand, the three-subdivision hypothesis has a shallower hierarchy.

• Amami–Okinawan / Northern Ryukyuan
  • Ōshima–Tokunoshima / Amami–Tokunoshima / Amami
  • Okinoerabu–Northern Okinawan / Okinoerabu–Yoron-Northern Okinawan / Kunigami
    • Yoron
  • Southern Okinawan / South–Central Okinawan / Central Okinawan / Okinawan

Subgroups

According to local folklorist Kiku Chiyo, Yoron can be divided into three subgroups.

• Chabana
• Asato (/asi⸢tu/), Gusuku (/gusi⸢ku/ ～ /gusu⸢ku/), Ritchō, Kanō (/ha⸢noː/), Nama (/naː⸢ma/)
• Mugiya-higashiku, Mugiya-nishiku, Furusato (/puru⸢satu/)

The Mugiya district is often considered to have a distinct form of accent and intonation.

Folk terminology

According to Kiku Hidenori, who leads conservation activities, people of Yoron Island, Kagoshima Prefecture call their language "Yunnu Futuba." More precisely, a dictionary compiled by his mother Kiku Chiyo (b. 1927) gives /juɴnuhu⸢tuba/ as the word form of her home community, Mugiya-higashiku. Other words she collected include /juɴnu⸢juɴ/ (Yoron accent), /nizjaɴcju⸢juɴ/ (accent of people of Mugiya-higashiku and Mugiya-nishiku), /sima⸢juɴ/ (speaking the dialect), /sima⸢guci/ and /simahu⸢tuba/ (the island/home community's language). Yamada Minoru (b. 1916) provides the word forms of the community of Chabana: /⸢ju⸣ɴnu ⸢fu⸣tuba/ and /⸢ʃi⸣ma ⸢fu⸣tuba/ (the island's language).

Status

Yoron has no official status. Ethnologue identifies its status as 7 (Shifting).

Phonology

The following is the phonology of the Mugiya dialect, which is based on Hirayama et al. (1969).

Consonants

Notes

• The null phoneme /'/ may be added. It is contrasted with glottal /h/ and /ʔ/.
• /h/ is .
• /si/, /se/ and /t͡ʃu/ is realized as , , and , respectively.
• , and are phonemically analyzed as /t͡ʃja/, /t͡ʃju/ and /t͡ʃjo/, respectively.
• , and are phonemically analyzed as /sja/, /sju/ and /sjo/, respectively.
• /ɴ/ does not appear in the word-initial positions.

• Yorontō-go jien (1995) by Yamada Minoru. The author is from Chabana, Yoron Island of the Amami Islands but also collected data from other communities on the island.
• Yoron hōgen jiten (2005) by Kiku Chiyo and Takahashi Shunzō. A dictionary for Kiku's home community, Mugiya-higashiku, Yoron Island of the Amami Islands.

References

1. Yoron at Ethnologue (17th ed., 2013)
2. ^ Kiku Chiyo 菊千代 and Takahashi Shunzō 高橋俊三 (205). Yoro hōgen jiten 与論方言辞典 (in Japanese).
3. Kiku Hidenori 菊秀史 (2011). "Yoron no kotoba de hanasō 与論の言葉で話そう". Nihon no hōgen no tayōsei o mamoru tame ni 日本の方言の多様性を守るために (PDF) (in Japanese). pp. 12–23.
4. Yamada Minoru 山田實 (1995). Yorontō-go jiten 与論島語辞典 (in Japanese).
5. "Amami-Okinawan". SIL International. Retrieved 1 February 2014.
6. Hirayama Teruo 平山輝男, Ōshima Ichirō 大島一郎 and Nakamoto Masachie 中本正智 (1969). "Gengo 言語". In Hirayama Teruo 平山輝男 (ed.). Satsunan shotō no sōgōteki kenkyū 薩南諸島の総合的研究 (in Japanese). pp. 235–478.

Further reading

• Machi Hiromitsu, 1977. Nominalization in Yoron.

• Kagoshima Prefecture
• Ryukyuan languages