Final Research Report

The Preservation of Ryukyuan

-Learning from Catalan-　　

My Starting Story

I was born and raised in Okinawa. I love my hometown because I think Okinawa is a characteristic place. For example, Okinawa differs from Honshu in climate, culture and language. As for culture, even today, annual events are held according to the lunar calendar, and traditional performing arts such as Eisa are often performed. In addition to that, I think the language make me feel that I am Okinawan when speaking it. I can hear Okinawan language or accent everyday life, so I most familiar with that. Among the people around me, the ones who can speak the language are my grandparents and relatives, but I haven't seen them speaking it lately. Since I wondered why they didn't use the language than before, I asked my grandmother. Then, she answered that a lot of people who could use it died and I gradually forgot it. I was sad to heard that, because I liked to see people speaking Okinawan language. That's why I decided to research the preservation of Okinawan language.

何を調べたいのか追加

Research Questions

Q How has the language situation in Okinawa changed and what is the current situation?

Q1　What is Ryukyuan?

Basic information -What is Okinawan language in the first place?

Okinawan language is called Ryukyuan or Okinawan. (I'll call it Ryukyuan in this research) Ryukyuan used to been an official language in Ryukyu Kingdom(1429-1879).

Fact

●Ryukyuan and old Japanese have similarities

-Ryukyuan was originally the same as old Japanese and it had changed in Nara period.

●Ryukyuan isn't only one

-Okinawa is geographically divided into the Northern and Southern Ryukyu, within which there are various regions and settlements. Thus, different language are used depending on region.

Q2 Current situation in Okinawa

According to Okinawa Prefecture's survey, it is clear that the percentage of people who use Ryukyuan differs greatly from generation to generation. "The level of understanding of Ryukyuan (しまくとぅばに対する理解度）" shows the tendency. The people who answered "well understand or somewhat understand is over 95% in over 70s. In contrast, over 70% of teen agers answered "don't know much or not at all.

The level of understanding of Ryukyuan

Toujisya's Voice

・If Okinawan people don’t understand Ryukyuan, they can't understand the meaning of classical lyrics and plays, so we should pass on to the next generation.

・No one around me uses it.

・I was taught not to use it in the past,

・There are words that can only be conveyed in Ryukyuan.

・My grandparents use a Ryukyuan and I want to learn どの調査の誰の意見？　この意見の意義

Q3 Action for Regaining Ryukyuan

1 Certification Test

県しまくとぅば普及センター conducts the certification test to familiarize Ryukyuan with Okinawan people. Anyone can take the test and receive a certificate if they pass.

2 Organization

There are as many as 76,000 folk tales in only Okinawa, while there are 60,000 in Japan as a whole. To preserve and inherit folk tales, 沖縄伝承話資料センター has recorded exactly what Ryukyuan speakers spoke through interview. By 2018, they achieved 40,000 recording and digitalization and donated those to museums and art galleries.

Q4 Problems found by research

Although there are institutions working to preserve the Ryukyuan, it is hard to say that they have directly contributed to its spread or recovery.

New Questions

How about other areas or countries with similar situation?

Catalan カタルーニャ語

Catalan is one of the four official languages in Spain. Also, it is the official language in Andorra. The number of people whose first language is Catalan is about 322-410 million.

Why I chose Catalan?

1 The cause of declining is similar with Okinawa

2 Catalan succeed to revitalize

My prospect

By comparing Ryukyuan and Catalan, I assume that I can apply Catalan case to Ryukyuan's problem.

1 The Similarity with Okinawa

Okinawan history

In 1879, Japan annexed the Ryukyu Islands. Later, as part of the assimilation policy(同化政策), the ordinance that restricts the use of dialects was issued. Firstly, the ordinance prohibited the use in government offices, but gradually in school. "Hougen Huda (方言札) " is one example of prohibition. It was used as punishment to children who used Ryukyuan in 1920-30.

During Battle of Okinawan in the Pacific War, Okinawan people who used Ryukyuan were regarded as spy because of Japanese army.

Catalan history

Catalan used to be called " Golden Age" from 13-15 century. However, because of the War of Spanish Succession（スペイン継承戦争）, people are banned to speak Catalan in public in 1701-1714.

In 1939-1975, Spain became a dictatorship under Francisco Franco. He announced the policy called 純スペイン(pure Spain). As part of that policy, he banned not only the use of Catalan but also deprived culture and the name of places, streets, people.

In 1980, Catalan became the official language with the democratization of Spain.

→Both languages were affected by part of policy and war

2 The difference of Okinawa and Catalonia

1 How to recover suppressed language

Catalan way

言語正常化法（1983）

Restoration and promotion of normal use of Catalan

1 Administration -Mandatory use in government institutions

2 Mass media -Recommendation of Catalan language and culture

3 Education -Mandatory for all children to learn two languages ( Catalan and Castilian)

Example : Immersion Education

言語正常化法(1983) stipulated that Catalan was the proper language for all educational levels. Immersion education involves learning by "immersing" yourself in a foreign language environment in order to acquire the language. In Catalonia, a language immersion program had been established. This program aims to teach classes in general in Catalan.

The graph on the right shows the figures of the survey of Catalan comprehension. In 1975 (the year Franco's dictatorship ended), speaking and writing levels are less than half. In 2013, understanding level became almost 90%. And especially when it comes to writing level, the score increased by more than 4 times.

Catalan comprehension survey

Okinawan way

Standard Japanese Education (end of war - 1960)

Since 1955, it has been found that standard Japanese has been popularized to improve children's academic ability.

In Miyako district, they made some methods how to correct language

・Distinguishing between correct and incorrect language and print outing for distribution to children and families

・Teaching how to speak correctly in Japanese class

・Correcting accent and intonation by using records and radio

・Language instruction by exchange students from Japan

Toujisya's voice

高良勉さん (He is 74 years old and university professor )

小学校一年生になってはじめて日本語に出会い…日本語を使うのは学校の授業だけで、休み時間やいえに帰ると琉球語が中心であった。…高校時代まで、基本の生活はうちな一ぐちだったように思います。…小学校三、四年生の頃から、「標準語励行運動」が盛んになり、毎週のように週訓は「共通語を使いましょう」になっていきました。そして校内に「方言札」が出廻るようになりました。…放課後まで方言札をもたされ、「週訓を守れなかった者」として担任から注意されます。それがたび重なると、放課後のこされて竹ぼうきの柄がバラバラになるまでおしりを叩かれることもありました。…しかも、その方言札が部落や地域にまで出廻るようになりました。おかげで、家に帰っても安心し琉球語が使えません。みんなだんだん無口になっていきました。

※うちなーぐち＝琉球語 Ryukyuan

➡Catalonia enacted a language policy law and carried out thorough language recovery. However, in Okinawa, a movement in the opposite direction to the restoration of the Ryukyuan language became active.

2 Language environment

Catalonia had 1.4 million immigrants from all over Spain during Franco's dictatorship. At the same time, Castilian came along with the people. As Castilian and Catalan became more mixed, the language used in society changed. According to 言語報告書(2013), the ratio of Castilian and Catalan used in ICT and media was as follows.

Newspaper 35%( Catalan) / 48%(Castilian)

Radio 43% / 45%

TV 47% / 83%

Magazine 12% / 85%

Internet 41% / 89%

For this result, in Catalonia, two languages are used together. Other research showed that Catalans are bilingual, depending on the situation. In that survey, subjects were asked what they would do if they spoke to someone in Catalan and the other person spoke back in Castilian. 71% of them answered they would continue to speak Castilian. For the opposite question, the 75,7% of them answered it.

➡In Catalonia, it was found that not only the public language but also people use two language flexibly.

➡This results further suggests that Catalonia has a well-established plurilingualism.

What is " Plurilingualism"?

-It is different from "multilingualism," where multiple languages simply coexist in society and do not interact with each other. “Plurilingualism” means that each individual learns more than one language, albeit with varying degrees of proficiency. And it is a state of mutual understanding of the culture behind the language, and interaction and coexistence.　(慶応義塾大学外国語教育研究センター）

My consideration

In a single language environment, I think the hurdles to learn other languages are high. However, in a society like Catalonia where two languages are used together, I think it would be easy to learn another language in daily life.

Summary -can the case of Catalonia be applied to the Okinawan problem?

I think it is difficult to apply the case of Catalonia to Okinawan problem. That's because Okinawa acted too late to try to restore the Ryukyuan language. In Catalonia, a few years after the suppression of the language ended, policies were put in place to restore the language. On the other hand, instead of implementing language policy, Okinawa promoted the standard language. Also, once a monolingual society is established for long time, it will be difficult to switch to plurilingualism.

Throughout this research, I was keenly aware of the difficulty of recovering a language. It may be nearly impossible to go back to the days when Ryukyuan was an everyday communication tool. However, as long as Ryukyuan continues to be the pride of Okinawa, I think it should be preserved as a culture.

References

https://www.pref.okinawa.lg.jp/site/bunka-sports/bunka/shinko/simakutuba/documents/kenminishiki.pdf

https://www.yomiuri.co.jp/fukayomi/20171012-OYT8T50088/2/

https://nufs-nuas.repo.nii.ac.jp/?action=repository_action_common_download&item_id=878&item_no=1&attribute_id=22&file_no=1

https://www.nihongo-appliedlinguistics.net/wp/archives/5161

https://www.newsweekjapan.jp/morimoto/2017/12/post_1.php

http://sjsrom.ec-net.jp/studrom/033/studrom_033_003.pdf

file:///C:/Users/tom__/Downloads/AN1011857X_20140300_1021%20(6).pdf

http://www.flang.keio.ac.jp/plurilingualism/

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