🌏 Region(s): Ryukyu (Okinawa)
いぃー・ゆぃー・ゐー【良・良い】 : yii | define meaning
yii
Pronunciation: [jiː]
Definition
Prefix
- Good; great; fine; nice
- いぃーむん【良物】
yii mun
"good thing" - いぃーっちゅ【良人】
yii cchu
"good person" - いぃーかんげー【良考】
yii kangee
"good idea"
- いぃーむん【良物】
Etymology
Cognate with standard Japanese いい【良い】 ii "good" and its variants よい yoi and ええ ee.
Historical Ryukyuan attestations
- おもろさうし Omoro Saushi (1531-1623) records "よかるひに", "よしや", "よく", "よくむ", "よくも", and "ゑしま", among other examples.
- Vocabulary of the language spoken at the Great Loo-Choo Island, in the Japan Sea (1818), by Herbert John Clifford, records "[English] Good man [Japanese] Jukka fito [Loo-Choo] Yookachoo" and "Weather, fine. Yetínsee*, or tínchee".
- Essay in Aid of a Grammar and Dictionary of the Luchuan Language (1895), by Basil Hall Chamberlain, records "Yī, good, proper, nice: yī tinchi dēbiru, it is nice weather; yī kutu dēbiru yā, I beg to congratulate you,—equiv. to Jap. o medetō gozaimasu. (Jap. ii.)" and "Irregular in a way is yī, 'good,' with no other form but the Adverbial Form yū".
Notes
The form ゆか【良か】 yuka is historically attested, but is no longer used in the modern language.
Adverbial form: ゆー yuu.
Spelling
| Orthography | Form |
|---|---|
| Kanji | 良 良い |
| Kana | いぃー ゆぃー ゐー |
| New Okinawa Moji | 杖ー |
| Romanization | yii |
| Pronunciation (IPA) | [jiː] |
意味：いい・よい【良い】
良
Cite this entry: Read, Zachary. (2025, September 19). いぃー・ゆぃー・ゐー【良・良い】 : yii | define meaning. JLect: Japonic Languages and Dialects Database. Retrieved 2025, December 5, from https://www.jlect.com/entry/7638/yii/.