Only the elderly speak the Ryukyu language on a regular basis. But in Okinawa they mix in many Okinawan words with Japanese. Many town names are pronounced in Okinawan.
Rarely spoken by people below 40. I hear it the most around older gentlemen in their 50s+. It is usually mixed with Japanese. I would venture to say that in another generation the language will be mostly dead.
Younger people use some words as slang like shini, naicha, naichi, etc… but it’s all mixed in with standard Japanese. They likely wouldn’t understand if you spoke the language straight up to them. Older people (like 60/70 years old) will mix it in more, but it’s still mostly Japanese. The language died off because they were not allowed to speak it for fear of being spies when the Japanese occupied the island.
It’s actually a bunch of Ryukyuan languages that are quite distinct from each other.
The main island has two languages due to geography and the fact that there was a Northern and Southern Kingdom.
I was told that fire fighters had to learn it because some people still spoke it but that was years ago and I don’t know how true it was coming from my friend (native Okinawan)
Common with the older generation but not the younger. I cannot understand my husband’s grandmother or auntie when they go full out, and even baby niece asked once if they were speaking English (the only non Japanese language she knew of at the time)
Ryukyuan language? It’s Japanese. In Japan, we call it a dialect. There are dialects in almost every region, such as Osaka, Akita, and Hokkaido.
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Only the elderly speak the Ryukyu language on a regular basis. But in Okinawa they mix in many Okinawan words with Japanese. Many town names are pronounced in Okinawan.
Rarely spoken by people below 40. I hear it the most around older gentlemen in their 50s+. It is usually mixed with Japanese. I would venture to say that in another generation the language will be mostly dead.
Younger people use some words as slang like shini, naicha, naichi, etc… but it’s all mixed in with standard Japanese. They likely wouldn’t understand if you spoke the language straight up to them. Older people (like 60/70 years old) will mix it in more, but it’s still mostly Japanese. The language died off because they were not allowed to speak it for fear of being spies when the Japanese occupied the island.
It’s actually a bunch of Ryukyuan languages that are quite distinct from each other.
The main island has two languages due to geography and the fact that there was a Northern and Southern Kingdom.
I was told that fire fighters had to learn it because some people still spoke it but that was years ago and I don’t know how true it was coming from my friend (native Okinawan)
Common with the older generation but not the younger. I cannot understand my husband’s grandmother or auntie when they go full out, and even baby niece asked once if they were speaking English (the only non Japanese language she knew of at the time)
Ryukyuan language? It’s Japanese. In Japan, we call it a dialect. There are dialects in almost every region, such as Osaka, Akita, and Hokkaido.