Developing word lists of highly endangered dialects of Yaeyama Ryukyuan with sound examples and sample sentences

2019 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 17K13470
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Japanese linguistics
• Research Institution: Nagasaki University
• Principal Investigator: HARADA Soichiro 長崎大学, 多文化社会学部, 准教授 (00796427)
• Project Period (FY): 2017-04-01 – 2020-03-31
• Keywords: 危機方言

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The development of word lists of highly endangered Yaeayama Ryukyuan dialects with sound example and sample sentences was the goal of this research project.As the result, around 700 words of Kuroshima dialect of Yaeyaman and 200 words of Minna dialect, which is neighboring dialect of Yaeyaman, were collected. However, we cannot have consents with some of consultants about publishing the voice online. Through making the word list, the grammatical aspects of Kuroshima dialect was revealed. The morphological, syntactic and semantic description of its adjectives and the the distribution of the related form was pointed out for the first time in the history of the Ryukyuan and Japanese linguistics, making it an important work for this field.

Free Research Field

日本語学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究の社会的意義は、消滅の危機に瀕する言語（方言）の記録を作成したことにある。日本国内には消滅の危機に瀕している言語（方言）が無数にあるため、そのすべてを記録することに価値がある。本研究では、特に危機度が高く、かつ、言語的多様性が高い八重山地域と近隣地域を対象にしたため、より研究上の意義があると言える。