- Convenors:
-
Sachiyo Fujita-Round
(Daito Bunka University)
Natsuko Nakagawa (Kyushu University)
Akiko Yokoyama (National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics)
Seira Machida (Yomitan Village History Editorial Office, University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo)
Send message to Convenors
- Discussant:
-
Patrick Heinrich
(Ca' Foscari University of Venice)
- Format:
- Panel
- Section:
- Language and Linguistics
Short Abstract
This panel discusses the revitalization of endangered Ryukyuan languages in Japan. We will argue that language revitalization includes the holistic use of these languages in everyday life; therefore, an interdisciplinary and collaborative approach should be made to keep ‘our’ languages alive.
Long Abstract
The present context of language endangerment in the Ryukyu Islands mirrors twentieth-century modernization in Japan, which dates back to the Meiji Era (1868–1912). Language standardization policy in Japan was concomitant with imperialism, and the Japanese government adopted a hyōjungo (standard language) policy for the nation (Carroll 2001). For the implementation of this policy, a centralist approach was applied (Gottlieb 2005). As a result, Japanese as a national language was spread from Hokkaido, inhabited by the indigenous Ainu people and incorporated into Japan in 1869, to the Ryukyu Archipelago that once was the Ryukyuan kingdom and became Okinawa Prefecture in 1879 (Morris-Suzuki 1998).
The issue of language endangerment in Japan first came to attention in Japan after UNESCO’s Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger appeared in 2009. The specific objective of our panel is to inform participants of the endangerment of Ryukyuan languages; however, we will also proceed beyond discussing endangerment and explore how to revitalize Ryukyuan languages within communities for the sake of future generations.
There is currently no long-term language planning in Japan for endangered languages. This panel will present four case studies which explain the current situation regarding language endangerment and language revitalization practices in Yonaguni Island, Yaeyama Islands (i.e. Taketomi Island and Ishigaki Island), Okinawa Island and Okinoerabu Island, all in the Ryukyu Islands. Drawing from these four cases, we would like to discuss how these languages can be revitalized. Each case study will focus on a different approach: new pedagogy, learning method and style, identity issues of new speakers, and implementation of a Master-Apprentice Program on the island.
Together with the ongoing language documentation in some Ryukyuan islands, we are aware that the holistic use of these languages in everyday life needs to be revitalized. For this revitalization process, language practices could take an interdisciplinary and collaborative approach: from linguistics, sociolinguistics, education, indigenous studies, and art and design. This panel will argue that adopting this approach is the best fit for current and future speakers and will keep ‘our’ language alive (Hinton, 2002; 2011).
| Abstract in Japanese (if needed) |
Accepted papers
Paper short abstract
This presentation introduces practical initiatives aimed at passing local languages on to future generations. It emphasizes creating enjoyable opportunities for young people through picture books, exhibitions, and workshops, viewing language as something sustained through active use.
Paper long abstract
In this presentation, we introduce a range of initiatives we have undertaken to pass local languages on to future generations. Preserving a language certainly involves recording texts, audio, and video, as well as producing dictionaries and grammars. However, these efforts alone are not sufficient. What is especially important is creating opportunities for children and younger generations to become familiar with the language, to use it, and to experience it as something enjoyable.
To this end, we have produced picture books based on local languages and stories. We have also organized exhibitions of picture books and research materials in a traditional house on Taketomi Island, allowing community members to see and engage with the outcomes of our research. In addition, we have worked with children to create art inspired by the worlds of picture books, and we have held “treasure hunt” workshops in which participants walk around the island while listening to myths related to local plants and make leaf rubbings to capture their patterns.
Beyond these activities, we have developed playful learning materials such as a textbook for studying the Ishigaki–Miyara dialect (Mēramuni), puzzles that encourage learners to think about dialects through illustrations, and escape games in which participants solve riddles while following a story. Through these activities, we aim to convey the importance of viewing language not merely as something to be “preserved,” but as something that connects people and is passed on through active use.
Paper short abstract
This paper explores the fostering of “new speakers” of Okinoerabu, an endangered Northern Ryukyuan in Japan. Focusing on a Master–Apprentice Program combined with grammar learning, it examines recent efforts, challenges, and ongoing refinements toward a feasible model of language revitalization.
Paper long abstract
This paper reports on the fostering of “new speakers” of Okinoerabu, a Northern Ryukyuan language spoken on Okinoerabu Island and one of Japan’s endangered languages. While fluent speakers are now mainly in their sixties and older, there exists a substantial group of “passive speakers” in their forties to sixties who can understand the language but cannot speak it. At the same time, community awareness and motivation for language transmission are extremely high. Under these circumstances, the two towns on Okinoerabu Island and the National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics (NINJAL) have concluded a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on language documentation and revitalization, within whose framework various initiatives have been carried out. This paper focuses on one such initiative.
A major challenge in the transmission of Okinoerabu is its internal linguistic diversity. The island consists of 42 districts, each with its own local variety, and speakers’ linguistic identities are strongly tied to these local forms. For this reason, transmission at the district level is considered ideal. To address this diversity, this study adopts the Master–Apprentice Program (MAP; Hinton 2001), which pairs a fluent speaker and a learner in one-on-one interaction using only the target language in everyday activities. While this approach supports community-based transmission, the original MAP model requires a substantial time commitment, making it difficult to implement in contemporary Japan.
To overcome this limitation, the program combines MAP with grammar learning to promote more efficient acquisition. In 2024, a six-month program was implemented, and participants’ language abilities were assessed before and after the program. Statistically significant improvements were observed in grammar, listening comprehension, and speaking ability; however, sessions tended to shift toward study-oriented activities with limited immersion. In response, the 2025 program emphasized immersion more explicitly and introduced CEFR-based can-do lists. Through this process of evaluation and refinement, this paper explores a practical model of “new speaker” development that may be applicable to other minority-language communities.
| Abstract in Japanese (if needed): | 本稿は、日本の危機言語の一つである北琉球・沖永良部島で話されていることば（沖永良部語）における「新しい話者」の育成について報告する。沖永良部語の流暢な話者は現在、主に60代以上に限られている一方、40～60代には、話せないが聞いたら分かる「受動的話者」が一定数存在する。また、地域内では言語継承に対する意識や意欲が非常に高い。こうした状況のもと、沖永良部島の二つの町と国立国語研究所（NINJAL）は、言語の記録と復興に関する協力覚書（MOU）を締結し、その枠組みのもとでさまざまな取り組みが進められてきた。本稿では、その一環として行われている言語復興の取り組みを取り上げる。 沖永良部語の継承における主要な課題の一つは、言語内部の多様性である。島内には42の集落が存在し、それぞれに固有の方言がある。話者の言語的アイデンティティは各集落のことばと強く結びついているため、集落単位での言語継承が理想的であると考えられる。 このような多様性に対応するため、筆者らはマスター・アプレンティス・プログラム（MAP；Hinton 2001）に注目した。MAPは、流暢な話者（マスター）と学習者（アプレンティス）が1対1のペアを組み、日常生活におけるさまざまな活動を通じて、目標言語のみを使用しながら言語を習得するアプローチである。このアプローチは、教室型の言語教育と異なり、地域内部での言語継承を可能にする点で有効である。一方で、オリジナルのMAPは多大な時間的コミットメントを必要とし、現代日本の社会状況では実施が難しいという課題がある。 この課題に対応するため、本研究ではMAPと文法学習を組み合わせ、より効率的な言語習得を目指す試みを行っている。2024年には6か月間のプログラムを実施し、その前後で参加者の言語能力を評価した。その結果、文法、聴解、発話能力において統計的に有意な向上が確認された一方、多くのペアでMAPの時間が「勉強会」になり、言語への没入が行われていなかったという課題も見つかった。2025年は、参加者に没入アプローチの有効性を伝えたほか、CEFRのcan-do listを用いるなどの改良を行った。こうした検証と改良を通じて、本稿は、他の少数言語コミュニティにも応用可能な「新しい話者」育成モデルを探る。 |
Paper short abstract
This paper examines a new-speaker-led Okinawan language revitalization initiative in Yomitan Village, framing revitalization as a relational practice through which new speakers rethink history, identity, and collective well-being.
Paper long abstract
This paper examines practices of language revitalization carried out in Yomitan Village through Uchinaaguchi Umui Project (Okinawan language feelings/thoughts project), a movement led by new speakers of the Okinawan language. The project was launched in 2022 by three new speakers, including the author, who initially connected through online Okinawan language study sessions.
The project emerged from a set of fundamental yet deeply rooted questions: Why are we, despite having been born and raised in Okinawa, unable to speak the Okinawan language? Why do we continue to feel that a language often described as no longer socially functional still matters to us? We, as new speakers, have continuously verbalized and shared these questions in Okinawan language, engaging in practices aimed at reclaiming their own language through interactions with family members and local community residents.
Rather than framing language revitalization solely as a pedagogical or policy-driven endeavor, this paper approaches it as a lived and relational practice embedded in everyday life. The analysis focuses on the effects of specific new-speaker-led practices introduced in this project on its core members and related participants, and is informed by the author’s positionality as an Uchinaanchu (Okinawan person), a new speaker actively involved in the movement, and a researcher reflecting from within the process.
This paper argues that language revitalization is not merely the recovery of linguistic competence. Rather, for new speakers, it constitutes a process of critically re-evaluating the social structures and historical conditions in which they are situated, from their own perspectives, and of reclaiming the capacity to imagine and create futures for themselves and their communities.
Thus, language revitalization functions as a process through which new speakers reconstruct identity, reconfigure relationships with family and community, and cultivate forms of collective and relational well-being.
Paper short abstract
This presentation reports on a language revitalization effort for Dunan Munui (Yonaguni language) and argues that the school and community domains can provide alternative spaces to use the language innovatively for the next generation, since it is no longer transmitted within the family.
Paper long abstract
In this presentation, the language revitalization effort of Dunan Munui (Yonaguni language) on Yonaguni Island in the Southern Ryukyu will be the focus. The issues of language revitalization in the context of Yonaguni are: 1) the 70s and 80s fluent Dunan speakers are aging, and 2) the children leave the island at15 years old, since there is no senior high school (16–18 years old) in Yonaguni. Once they left, they were immersed in Japan's societal language entirely in their late teens and were not exposed to or naturally raised in Dunan, the language of their island.
This presentation will report on the implementation of Video Workshop (VW) on Yonaguni Island in 2025, a new pedagogy applied at the school and community. It is a creative approach in nature and an art based program for school pupils, initially programmed by a video artist and a junior high school art teacher in Tottori prefecture. In our case study, VW was planned by the video artist, Yonaguni Education Authority, and a researcher (the author), contextualizing it as a pedagogy of language revitalization: making a Japanese/Dunan bilingual movie at a junior high school and a ‘Dunan word chain game (Dunan Shiritori asobi)’ movie at an event in town.
The latter event, with 20 mixed participants, turned out to be an active Dunan learning space where both full speakers and new speakers worked as a team and made a short movie. The elderly speaker helped Dunan, and the younger new speaker helped handle the iPad. This is one way to create Dunan learning materials in the community, and in the process of making the movie, the language could be well used and passed on from the full speaker to the new speaker. Those ‘Dunan word chain game’ movies were shown in the entrance hall of DiDi Yonagui Exchange Center for one month, informing other islanders about the Dunan language to raise their awareness.
The language is no longer actively transmitted in the family, therefore, school, and community domains can provide alternative spaces to use the language in an innovative way for the next generation