まー : maa | define meaning

Cognate with Kikai じゃー jaa; Tokunoshima だー daa; Okinoerabu うだー udaa; Yoron いだ ida and いだー idaa; Kunigami (Iejima, Nago, Benoki) だー daa; Kunigami (Benoki) らー raa; Okinawan (Kudaka, Mae, Naha, Shuri, Yomitan) まー maa; Yaeyama (Hateruma) づぁー dzaa; Yaeyama (Hatoma) まー maa; Yonaguni んま nma "where". The form ずま zuma is also recorded in historical Ryukyuan poetry. Ultimately related to the Old Japanese indefinite interrogative stem *idu-, seen in いづく idzuku, いずく izuku, いずこ izuko and どこ doko "where".

Historical Ryukyuan attestations

• 混効験集 Konkoukenshuu (1711), "Words of the Royal Palace", records "「ずま」何方の事".
• Vocabulary of the language spoken at the Great Loo-Choo island in the Japan Sea (1818), by Herbert John Clifford, records "Where is Tayin gone, Táyin makáyee ga únjara".
• Essay in Aid of a Grammar and Dictionary of the Luchuan Language (1895), by Basil Hall Chamberlain, records "Mā?; doko? (class. idzuko); 'where?'".
• 沖縄語典 Okinawa goten (Okinawan language dictionary) (1896), by Masayo Nakamoto, records "「まー」何處（ドコ）。" and "「まー」何方（ドチラ）。".

Discussion

• The Okinawan, Hatoma and Yonaguni forms feature a locative suffix, ま -ma, akin to the こ -ko in Japanese どこ doko "where". They also appear to have assimilated and, in Okinawan and Hatoma's cases, dropped the initial morpheme entirely.
• It is possible that other Ryukyuan varieties also once featured a locative suffix, ま -ma, but dropped the -m-. This would explain the vowel difference between Old Japanese and Ryukyuan.