100 percent certain, based on the evidence available
~37,000
From Niinaga's fieldwork experience, adults over 65 in the Amami islands could speak the local Amami dialect fairly well. The estimate of 37,000 speakers of Amami comes from multiplying the population of the Amami islands as of 2010, which was 130,000 people, by the ratio of residents over 65, 29%.
DATE OF INFO
2010
DOMAINS OF USE
SPEAKER NUMBER TRENDS
TRANSMISSION
MORE ON VITALITY
"All dialects in the Amami Islands are endangered today. In other words, the younger generation does not speak these dialects. Depending on the situation, they speak a local variety of Japanese or Standard Japanese instead. Every dialect in the Amami Islands is endangered because Standard Japanese has more political, economical, and cultural power. If such imbalance of power continues, it will continue to be difficult, and unlikely, for younger people to choose to speak these dialects, which are not their first language."
OTHER LANGUAGES USED BY THE COMMUNITY
Japanese
LANGUAGE CONTEXT COMMENTS
Hara and Heinrich (2015)'s chapter in the Handbook of the Ryukyuan Languages discusses The Society for Okinawan Dialect Revitalization, est. 2000, which established an Uchinaaguchi kana orthography, published teaching materials, has conducted training for prospective Uchinaaguchi teachers, and has established a quarterly newspaper written only in Uchinaaguchi. Uchinaaguchi is taught as part of club activities in many elementary and high schools in Okinawa.
LOCATION DESCRIPTION
"The Amami Islands are located between Kyushu and the Okinawa Islands in the southwest of Japan. The Amami Islands include Amami Ōshima, Kikai, Tokunoshima, Okinoerabu, and Yoron. These islands stretch over a distance of 200 kilometres from north to south. The southern part of Amami Ōshima can be divided into Kakeroma, Yoro, and Uke. Each island in the Amami Archipelago has its own dialects."
Information from: “personal communication on Japonic languages” . Thomas Dougherty (2014)
Endangered
100 percent certain, based on the evidence available
~100,000
0
0
The total of all the Okinawan speakers is somewhere around 100,000. Most speakers are over the age of 50 and are bilingual in Amami-North Okinawan and Japanese. Please note that this estimate is given for all Amami and North Okinawan speakers, not only Amami speakers.
DATE OF INFO
2014
DOMAINS OF USE
SPEAKER NUMBER TRENDS
TRANSMISSION
MORE ON VITALITY
"Younger Amami-North Okinawan speakers are L1 Japanese speakers, and L2 Amami-North Okinawan learners (most people under 40 who learn are involved in traditional Okinawan culture, like the theater, with a growing number of language activists). And basically no children learn it at home from their parents, though there have been efforts to establish a language nest."
OTHER LANGUAGES USED BY THE COMMUNITY
Japanese
LANGUAGE CONTEXT COMMENTS
"'Language nest' is implemented at the community level, though the government has issued statements that it is certainly not opposed."
Scripts (Writing system)
kana
More on Orthography
It's not written until quite recently and speakers don't write much.
PLACES
Japan
LOCATION DESCRIPTION
Northeast Okinawa; Kikai island; Toku-no-shima Island; Yoron Island
Information from: “Glottolog” .
PLACES
Japan
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS
Note that the coordinates of Okinawa have been removed from this source as it does not reflect Pellard (2015)'s classification.
Information from: “Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger” . Christopher Moseley (ed.) (2010) UNESCO Publishing
PLACES
Japan
Information from: “Okinoerabu Grammar” (345-377) . Van der Lubbe, Gijs & Akiko Tokunaga (2015) , Heinrich, Patrick, Miyara, Shinsho, & Shimoji, Michinori. · De Gruyter Mouton
Threatened
20 percent certain, based on the evidence available
6,500
"There are about 14,000 people living in Okinoerabu Island, but the number of local language speakers is decreasing rapidly. Based on our fieldwork experience, we can say that people in their late 50s are fluent in the Okinoerabu language. Middle-aged people between 40 to 50 are usually passive bilinguals (see Anderson, this volume). People under 30 years of age are monolingual in Japanese. Considering the ratio of people older than 55 years, the number of speakers is assessed to be around 6,500 people, or of 45% of the total population." Note that Van der Lubbe & Tokunaga (2015) consider Okinoerabu to be a distinct language.