Amami Ōshima language

Amami
Native to	Japan
Region	Amami Islands
Native speakers	30,000
Language family	Japonic Ryukyuan Amami
Language codes
ISO 639-3	ryn – inclusive code Individual codes: ryn – Northern Amami ams – Southern Amami

The Amami language (奄美語) is spoken by around 30,000 people in the Amami Islands south of Kyūshū. It is a Ryukyuan language, most closely related to Okinawan.

Amami is sometimes considered two languages. The main dialects are as follows:

• Northern Amami
  • Northern Ōshima dialect
• Southern Amami
  • Southern Ōshima dialect
  • Yoron dialect

Phonology

Consonants

	Bilabial	Dental	Alveolar	Post- alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal	Place- less
Stops and affricates	p pj    b bj		t    d	tʃ tʃj		k kj kw    ɡ ɡj ɡw	ʔ ʔj ʔw	Q
Flaps				ɺ̠ ɺ̠j
Fricatives		θ	s sj    z zj		çj	x xj	h hj hw
Nasals	m mj ʔm		n nj ʔn ʔnj					N
Approximants					j	w̜

Vowels

There are seven distinct vowels in Amami, in addition to a phonemic distinction between long and short vowels.

	Short			Long
	Front	Central	Back	Front	Central	Back
High	i	ɨ	u	iː	ɨː	uː
Mid	e	ɘ	o	eː	ɘː	oː
Low		a			aː

External links

• Northern and Southern Amami-Oshima on Ethnologue