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Hachijō language

Hachijō language

The small group of Hachijō or Hachijōjima dialects are the most divergent form of Japanese or form an independent fourth branch of Japonic.[2] They are spoken on the southern Izu Islands south of Tokyo, Hachijō Island and the smaller Aogashima, as well as on the Daitō Islands of Okinawa Prefecture, which were settled from Hachijō in the Meiji period. Based on the criterion of mutual intelligibility, Hachijō may be considered a distinct Japonic language.

Hachijō dialects retain ancient Eastern Japanese features, as recorded in the 8th-century Man'yōshū. There are also lexical similarities with the dialects of Kyushu and even the Ryukyuan languages; it is not clear if these indicate the southern Izu islands were settled from that region, if they are loans brought by sailors traveling among the southern islands, or if they might be independent retentions of Old Japanese.[3]

Hachijō
Native toJapan
Regionsouthern Izu Islands
Native speakers
Unknown; 10,000 inhabitants of the islands (2007)
Japonic
  • Hachijō
Language codes
ISO 639-3
ISO 639-6hhjm
Glottologhach1239 [6][1]

Dialects

The dialect of Aogashima is quite distinct. There are also numerous dialects on Hachijō Island, with the speech of nearly every village distinct. There may be a few speakers left of the dialect of Little Hachijō Island, which was abandoned in 1969.

Grammar

Hachijō uses the be-verb aru with all subjects, without the animate–inanimate (iru–aru) distinction made on the mainland. It also distinguishes between the attributive form (連体形 rentaikei) and terminal form (終止形 shūshikei) of verbs and adjectives, a distinction that existed in Early Middle Japanese but has all but vanished from the modern language.

Vocabulary

Hachijō preserves a number of phrases that have been otherwise lost in the rest of Japan, such as まぐれる magureru for standard 気絶する kizetsu suru 'to faint, pass out'. There are also words which occur in standard Japanese, but with different meanings:[4]

HachijōJapaneseMeaningJapanese cognate
yamahatakefieldyama 'mountain'
ureshi narubyōki ga naotte kuruto recover from an illnessureshiku naru 'to become happy'
kowaitsukareruto be tiredkowai 'to be scary/fearful'
gomitakigifirewoodgomi 'trash'
nikuiminikuito be uglynikui 'to be odious'
kamutaberuto eatkamu 'to chew'
oyakoshinsekirelatives, kinoyako 'parent and child'
ijimerukogoto o iuto chide, to scold, to rebuke, to reprove, to tell off, to nag, to complainijimeru 'to tease, to pick on, to bully'
hoeruoogoe de wamekuto utter a loud cry, to shout, to yell, to scream, to raise one's voicehoeru 'to bark, to howl (as a canine)'

References

[1]
Citation Linkglottolog.orgHammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Hachijo". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
Oct 1, 2019, 5:55 AM
[2]
Citation Linkopenlibrary.orgThomas Pellard. The comparative study of the Japonic languages. Approaches to endangered languages in Japan and Northeast Asia: Description, documentation and revitalization, National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics, Aug 2018, Tachikawa, Japan. ffhal-01856152
Oct 1, 2019, 5:55 AM
[3]
Citation Linkopenlibrary.orgMasayoshi Shibatani, 1990. The Languages of Japan, p. 207.
Oct 1, 2019, 5:55 AM
[4]
Citation Linkwww008.upp.so-net.ne.jp"八丈島の方言" [The Hachijō-jima dialect]. Ōwaki izakaya. 居酒屋おおわき. Retrieved 2013-08-23.
Oct 1, 2019, 5:55 AM
[5]
Citation Linkwww.town.hachijo.tokyo.jpSound clip and transcription of Hachijo
Oct 1, 2019, 5:55 AM
[6]
Citation Linkglottolog.orghach1239
Oct 1, 2019, 5:55 AM
[7]
Citation Linkglottolog.org"Hachijo"
Oct 1, 2019, 5:55 AM
[8]
Citation Linkwww008.upp.so-net.ne.jp"八丈島の方言"
Oct 1, 2019, 5:55 AM
[9]
Citation Linkwww.town.hachijo.tokyo.jpSound clip and transcription of Hachijo
Oct 1, 2019, 5:55 AM
[10]
Citation Linken.wikipedia.orgThe original version of this page is from Wikipedia, you can edit the page right here on Everipedia.Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Additional terms may apply.See everipedia.org/everipedia-termsfor further details.Images/media credited individually (click the icon for details).
Oct 1, 2019, 5:55 AM