Ryukyuan languages

Following on from Sunday’s language quiz, I found an interesting article about Language Loss and Revitalization in the Ryukyu Islands.

There are apparently quite a few different languages spoken in the Ryukyu Islands – at least 10, and while they are related to Japanese, the percentage of shared cognates is 66% or less – 59% for Miyako (less than between English and German).

Do any of you speak these languages? Or have you studied them?

One thought on “Ryukyuan languages

  1. I want to, but so far it’s mostly consisted of picking up bits and pieces about Uchinaaguchi (Okinawan) from various online sources. Most of the material for people who would be interested is in Japanese, so I’ve got to raise my Japanese proficiency first…

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