Kunigami language

Kunigami
山原言葉/ヤンバルクトゥーバ, Yanbaru Kutūba
Native toJapan
RegionNorthern Okinawa Islands
Native speakers
5,000 (2004)[1]
Japanese
Language codes
ISO 639-3xug
Glottologkuni1268
  Kunigami
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

The Kunigami or Northern Okinawan language (Yanbaru Kutūba (山原言葉/ヤンバルクトゥーバ)), is a Ryukyuan language of Northern Okinawa Island in Kunigami District and city of Nago, otherwise known as the Yanbaru region, historically the territory of the kingdom of Hokuzan.

The Nakijin dialect is often considered representative of Kunigami, analogous to the Shuri-Naha dialect of Central Okinawan. The number of fluent native speakers of Kunigami is not known. As a result of Japanese language policy, the younger generation mostly speaks Japanese as their first language.

  1. ^ Kunigami at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)