Wait Did I Post These

wait did i post these

lernen doodles bc i am deeply attached to him (mostly just younger version sorry 😭)

WHY DIDN'T THIS POST WITH THE OTHERS.

Alternate timeline The 3 (robbie + peter + mj) team up together to take down crime and everything is okay, actually. Shh. It's fine.

doc oc? the crime master? wdym its summer in the big apple and everyones having fun

Why are the Ryukyuan Languages Endangered?

CW: Mentions of war and violence

All of the native languages of the Ryukyu Islands (now known as “Okinawa”) are UNESCO listed endangered languages. There are several varieties, such as Uchinaaguchi, Myaakufutsu, Yanbaru Kutuuba, Shimayumuta, Yaimamuni, and Dunan-Munui. This means that the languages are not getting passed down from generation to generation, and are at a high risk of being lost completely without efforts to revitalize them. How did they get to this point?

The beginning of the decline of Ryukyuan languages can be traced to 1879, which is when the Ryukyu Kingdom was forcibly annexed, i.e. colonized, by Japan. Upon this act, the Japanese government swiftly enacted assimilationist policies to integrate Ryukyuans into the Japanese nation-state. This involved banning Ryukyuan languages in all public spheres and, educating them only in the Japanese language. To Ryukyuans, Japanese was a foreign language, and if they spoke their native language in schools, they were punished for doing so. This punishment for speaking their native language often involved having to wear something called a “Hougen Fuda” (Dialect Tag) around their necks. 

Going back to the hougen fuda, typically, the unfortunate student who was given this punishment had to keep wearing it until another student was caught speaking in a Ryukyuan language. Sometimes, kids would stomp on another kid’s foot to get them to say “Agaa!” which means “Ow!” in Uchinaaguchi in order to pass off the hougen fuda. As you could imagine, this experience was quite traumatic, and it caused Ryukyuans to associate their native languages with pain and punishment. 

In addition, in public buildings (City Hall, etc), Ryukyuans sometimes wouldn’t get served if they spoke in their native Ryukyuan language. They had to speak Japanese to get things done.

These experiences, as bad as they were, don’t even compare to what Ryukyuans went through in the Battle of Okinawa. The Battle of Okinawa was one of the deadliest battles to have taken place during WWII. Nearly one out of every three Ryukyuans died in it. Most of those who died were civilians, or forcibly conscripted into the Japanese army. Japan intentionally built up their troops in Okinawa as a way to delay the US Army from entering “mainland” Japan. Ryukyuans were dispensable in the eyes of the Japanese state. Some of them were pushed in front of Japanese soldiers to be used as human shields. Those who spoke in Shimakutuba were sometimes suspected to be spies, and then shot.

With all of this trauma from speaking their native Ryukyuan language, it is understandable why many Ryukyuans decided not to pass it down to their children. They began developing an inferiority complex towards their own native language, as the Japanese language became more prestigious and economically advantageous. Ryukyuan languages are generally not taught in schools, and there isn’t much funding available for it. However, this is not to say there isn’t interest in it. In surveys, many Okinawan youth state that they wish they could speak their heritage langaugein order to understand their grandparents. Without Shimakutuba, this intergenerational connection is getting broken, and young Ryukyuans are unable to understand many things in their culture, such as sanshin music, Ryukyuan literature, poetry, historical records, etc. Without the language, we lose an essential component of our culture. The Ryukyuan identity is at stake.

This is why I am learning Uchinaaguchi. This is a language that should have been passed down to me if only my people were allowed to speak it. The more Uchinaaguchi I learn, the more I understand my culture. My grandparents have already passed on, but if I can speak Uchinaaguchi, I could know the sounds that came out of their mouths, and learn their Indigenous way of thinking through the language. I could feel more connected to them, and all of my ancestors.

I am fortunate to have learned why my heritage language is endangered, and to have the ability (time/money) to pursue learning it. However, most young Ryukyuans are unaware of this history, as it isn’t taught much in mainstream Japanese education. I’m not sure exactly how to reverse the cause of the decline in Ryukyuan languages, but I will do my best to learn it and help other Ryukyuans who want to learn it.

https://apjjf.org/-Patrick-Heinrich/3138/article.html

Anderson, M., & Heinrich, P. (Eds.). (2014). Language crisis in the Ryukyus. Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

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