2002 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
Mandarin Chinese as vehicle language in Ryukyu Islands
| Project/Area Number |
13610536
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
中国語・中国文学
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| Research Institution | Kyoto University |
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Principal Investigator |
KIZU Yuko Kyoto University, 文学研究科, 助教授 (90242990)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2001 – 2002
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| Keywords | China / Ryukyu / Mandarin Chinese / frontier / drifing / castaway / genealogy |
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| Research Abstract |
The research project described in this abstract aimed to make it clear how differently Mandarin Chinese was used in China and its surrounding areas including the Ryukyu Islands during the Ming-Qing dynasty. Mandarin Chinese was considered as a standard language used in govemment officers in China. I studied the following: (1) who used Mandarin Chinese in the Ryukyu Islands in the Ming-Qing era, (2) how Mandarin Chinese was used, and (3) what special functions it had. I collected and analyzed historical materials relating to the Chinese language at local libraries and museums in Okinawa Prefecture:
(a) part of genealogies, collected by Yaeyama Museum, was written in Mandarin. Most of Mandarin scripts were documents about Chinese or Ryukyu peoples and ships drifting in the East China Sea. The most important findings were the genealogy which had the statements by Yao Heng-Shun, a Chinese castaway during the Qianlong era.
(b) Okinawa Prefectural Library owns Chinese letters exchanged between interpreters of Chinese language and Bettelhiem, a missionary bom in Budapest. Some of these letters written in Mandarin Chinese and mentioned its use in the Ryukyu.
c The statements by castaways drifting from the Ryukyu Islands, collected by Okinawa Prefectural Museum and Yaeyama Museum, have the detailed records of conversation in Mandarin Chinese between the castaways and Chinese officers.
These materials relating to Mandarin Chinese shows that Mandarin Chinese spread in the Ryukyu Islands beyond the East China Sea, and that Mandarin was widely used as a vehicle language, that is, not as a standard language but a kind of occupational communication tools, at conversation as well as writing. It is interesting that Mandarin Chinese used in the Ryukyu had some characteristics of pidgin Chinese, which were never found in the standard Mandarin in China.
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