Documentation and Revitalization of Dunan (Yonaguni-Ryukyuan)

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26884025
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Research Field: Linguistics
• Research Institution: Kyoto University
• Principal Investigator: Yamada Masahiro 京都大学, アジア研究教育ユニット, 助教 (10734626)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-08-29 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: 琉球諸語 / 与那国語 / 消滅危機言語 / 言語復興 / 敬語

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This project conducted a documentation and a theoretical analysis of the honorific system of Dunan (Yonaguni-Ryukyuan). “Yonaguni Hoogen Club” was launched and became a place for the language documentation training. The members have been working with the researcher up to now and creating a language revitalization contents such as a picture book in local languages, continuing the text documentation.
The part of this project that collaborates with the local people formed a foundation of language revitalization project. The research result in Yonaguni island has been applied to Okinoerabu island, where another Ryukyuan language is spoken, and expanded to a general research project on language revitalization. I have given invited talks at many places such as elementary and high schools and a series of symposiums in Yonaguni and Okinoerabu islands so that the academic research can reach to the local community.

Free Research Field

理論言語学、フィールド言語学、言語復興