An example of traditional Okinawan writing circa 1471

Okinawan, spoken in Okinawa Island, was once the official language of the Ryukyu Kingdom. At the time, documents were written in kanji and hiragana, derived from Japan.

Although generally agreed among linguists to be a distinct language, most Japanese, as well as some Okinawans, tend to think of Okinawan as merely a regional dialect of Japanese, even though it is not intelligible to monolingual Japanese speakers.^[1] Modern Okinawan is not written frequently. When it is, the Japanese writing system is generally used in an ad hoc manner. There is no standard orthography for the modern language. Nonetheless, there are a few systems used by scholars and laypeople alike. None of them are widely used by native speakers, but represent the language with less ambiguity than the ad hoc conventions. The Roman alphabet in some form or another is used in some publications, especially those of an academic nature.

Systems

Basic syllables and kai-yōon (palatalized syllables)

		i	u	e	o	ya	yu	yo
(Initial) 1		[i] [ji]	[u] [wu]	[e] [je]	[o] [wo]	[ja]	[ju]	[jo]
(Elsewhere)		(Not used) 2
Conventional		い	う をぅ	え いぇ	お を うぉ	や	ゆ	よ
Council		ゆぃ	をぅ	ゆぇ	を
Ryukyu Univ.		ゐ		え
New Okinawan		い゙		え゙
'	'a a	'i i	'u u	'e e	'o o	'ya	'yu	'yo
(Initial) 1	[ʔa]	[ʔi]	[ʔu]	[ʔe]	[ʔo]	[ʔja]	[ʔju]	[ʔjo]
(Elsewhere)	[a]	[i] [ji]	[u] [wu]	[e] [je]	[o] [wo]
Conventional	あ	い	う	え いぇ	お うぉ	や	ゆ	よ
Council				え	お	っや	っゆ	っよ
Ryukyu Univ.				いぇ		いゃ	いゅ	いょ
New Okinawan				え
k	ka	ki	ku	ke	ko	kya
	[ka]	[ki]	[ku]	[ke]	[ko]	[kja]
	か	き	く	け	こ	きゃ
g	ga	gi	gu	ge	go	gya
	[ɡa]	[ɡi]	[ɡu]	[ɡe]	[ɡo]	[ɡja]
	が	ぎ	ぐ	げ	ご	ぎゃ
s	sa	si (s-i)	su	(sye) se	so	sya	syu
	[sa]	[ʃi]	[su]	[ʃe]	[so]	[ʃa]	[ʃu]
Others	さ	し	す	しぇ	そ	しゃ	しゅ
Ryukyu Univ.		し すぃ		しぇ せ
t	ta	ti	tu	te	to
	[ta]	[ti]	[tu]	[te]	[to]
Others	た	てぃ	とぅ	て	と
New Okinawan
d	da	di	du	de	do
	[da]	[di]	[du]	[de]	[do]
Others	だ	でぃ	どぅ	で	ど
New Okinawan
ts		tsi	tsu
		[tsi] [tʂi]	[tsu]
Ryukyu Univ.		つぃ	つ
z	za	zi (dzi)	zu (dzu)	ze	zo
	[dza]	[dzi] [dʐi]	[dzu]	[dze]	[dzo]
Others	ざ	じ	ず	ぜ	ぞ
Ryukyu Univ.		づぃ	ず づ
ty c	tya ca	tyi ci	tyu cu	tye ce	tyo co
	[tʃa]	[tʃi]	[tʃu]	[tʃe]	[tʃo]
	ちゃ	ち	ちゅ	ちぇ	ちょ
zy dy	zya dya	zyi dyi	zyu dyu	zye dye	zyo dyo
	[dʒa]	[dʒi]	[dʒu]	[dʒe]	[dʒo]
Others	じゃ	じ	じゅ	じぇ	じょ
Ryukyu Univ.	じゃ ぢゃ	じ ぢ	じゅ ぢゅ	じぇ ぢぇ	じょ ぢょ
n	na	ni	nu	ne	no	nya	nyu
	[na]	[ɲi]	[nu]	[ne]	[no]	[ɲa]	[ɲu]
	な	に	ぬ	ね	の	にゃ	にゅ
h	ha	hi	hu hwu	he	ho	hya	hyu	hyo
	[ha]	[çi]	[ɸu]	[çe]	[ho]	[ça]	[çu]	[ço]
	は	ひ	ふ	へ	ほ	ひゃ	ひゅ	ひょ
b	ba	bi	bu	be	bo	bya	byu	byo
	[ba]	[bi]	[bu]	[be]	[bo]	[bja]	[bju]	[bjo]
	ば	び	ぶ	べ	ぼ	びゃ	びゅ	びょ
p	pa	pi	pu	pe	po	pya	pyu
	[pa]	[pi]	[pu]	[pe]	[po]	[pja]	[pju]
	ぱ	ぴ	ぷ	ぺ	ぽ	ぴゃ	ぴゅ
m	ma	mi	mu	me	mo	mya	myu	myo
	[ma]	[mi]	[mu]	[me]	[mo]	[mja]	[mju]	[mjo]
	ま	み	む	め	も	みゃ	みゅ	みょ
r	ra	ri	ru	re	ro
	[ɾa]	[ɾi]	[ɾu]	[ɾe]	[ɾo]
	ら	り	る	れ	ろ

¹: At the beginning of a word.

²: University of the Ryukyus system is an exception, always using ゐ, をぅ, え, を (ヰ, ヲゥ, エ, ヲ) for [i], [u], [e], [o], and い, う, いぇ, お (イ, ウ, イェ, オ) for [ʔi], [ʔu], [ʔe], [ʔo], respectively.

Gō-yōon (labialised syllables)

	wa	wi	we
	[ɰa]	[ɰi]	[ɰe]
Conventional	わ	うぃ	うぇ
Council
Ryukyu Univ.		ゑぃ	ゑ
New Okinawan		ゐ
'	'wa	'wi	'we
	[ʔɰa]	[ʔɰi]	[ʔɰe]
Conventional	わ	うぃ	うぇ
Council	っわ	っうぃ	っうぇ
Ryukyu Univ.	うゎ	うゐ	うぇ
New Okinawan
k	kwa qua	kwi qui	kwe que
	[kʷa]	[kʷi]	[kʷe]
Conventional	くぁ くゎ	くぃ	くぇ
Council	くゎ
Ryukyu Univ.		くゐ
New Okinawan
g	gwa	gwi	gwe
	[ɡʷa]	[ɡʷi]	[ɡʷe]
Conventional	ぐぁ ぐゎ	ぐぃ	ぐぇ
Council	ぐゎ
Ryukyu Univ.		ぐゐ
New Okinawan
h	fa hwa	fi hwi	fe hwe
	[ɸa]	[ɸi]	[ɸe]
Conventional	ふぁ	ふぃ	ふぇ
Council
Ryukyu Univ.	ふゎ
New Okinawan

Others

	n 3	4	5
	ん	っ	ー
'	'n
Conventional	ん
Council	っん
Ryukyu Univ.
New Okinawan

³: Hatsuon (moraic n)

⁴: Sokuon (geminated consonants)

⁵: Chōon (longer vowels): In conventional usages, longer vowels are sometimes spelled like in mainland Japanese as well; "ou" (おう) for ō, doubled kana for others. (e.g. うう for ū.)

References

External Links

• 沖縄県における「しまくとぅば」の表記について (Trans.: About the notation of "Shimakutuba" in Okinawa Prefecture), March 2020. Department of Culture, Tourism and Sports, Okinawa Prefecture.