Resources

Japanese-Ryukyuan

• Origins of the Verbalizer Affixes in the Japonic Languages, by Tyler Lau
• Reevaluating the Diphthong Mergers in Japono-Ryukyuan, by Tyler Lau
• A reconstruction of the accentual history of the Japanese and Ryukyuan languages, by Moriyo Shimabukuro
• Long vowels in Proto-Japanese, by Alexander Vovin
• Endangered Languages of Japan: Lexical database, by the National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics
• The Dialect Study Room - illustrative maps of dialectal words and expressions, by the National Institute for Japanese Language
• On the Geminate Consonants of the Antoh Dialect in Fukui Prefecture, by Tetsuo Nitta

Japanese

• An Extensive List of Japanese Learning Resources, by Flaminius
• Jim Breen's List of Resources
• Japanese Dialect Ideology from Meiji to the Present, by Nao Okumura

Old Japanese

• Oxford NINJAL Corpus of Old Japanese (ONCOJ), by the University of Oxford and the National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics
• A descriptive and comparative grammar of Western Old Japanese (Part 2), by Alexander Vovin

Middle Japanese and Early Modern Japanese

• Vocabulario da Lingoa de Iapam (1603), aka Nippo Jisho (日葡辞書)
• Arte da Lingoa de Iapam (1604), by João Rodrigues (Alternative version)
• Élémens de la grammaire japonaise [abridged from Arte da lingoa de Iapam] (1835), by M.C. Landresse
• Ars grammaticae Iaponicae linguae (1632), by Diego Collado
• Diego Collado's Grammar of the Japanese Language, translated and edited by Richard L. Spear
• An English and Japanese and Japanese and English Vocabulary (1830), by Walter Henry Medhurst (Alternative version)
• Dictionnaire Japonais-Français (Translation of the 1603 Nippo Jisho), 1868, by Léon Pagés (Alternative version)
• Wayaku Ei jisho = English-Japanese dictionary (1869), published by the Shanghai : American Presbyterian Mission Press
• A Japanese-English and English-Japanese Dictionary (1872), by James Curtis Hepburn
• Japanese-English Dictionary by the Late Prof. Dr. J. J. Hoffmann, Volumes 1-3 (1881), by Johann Joseph Hoffmann (alternative version)
• A Japanese-English and English-Japanese Dictionary (1886), by James Curtis Hepburn
• A New and Practical Vocabulary and Conversations of the English, French, German and Japanese Languages (1889), by Sho Nemoto
• An Unabridged Japanese-English Dictionary (1896), by Frank Brinkley, Bunyiu Nanjio, Y. Iwasaki, Kakichi Mitsukuri and Jinzō Matsumura
• A dictionary of diplomatic and commercial terms: with new treaty between Japan and Great Britain, general statutory tariff and conventional tariffs (1900)
• English-Japanese conversation dictionary, preceded by a few elementary notions of Japanese grammar (1900), by Arthur Rose-Innes

General Dialects

• Ibaraki Database
• The Dialect Study Room - illustrative maps of dialectal words and expressions, by the National Institute for Japanese Language
• Linguistic Atlas of Japan, by the National Institute for Japanese Language
• The languages of Japan, by Masayoshi Shibatani
• A reference grammar of Japanese, by Samuel Elmo Martin
• List of Wikipedia articles on Japanese dialects (English)
• The phonetics of Japanese maid voice I: A preliminary study, by Shigeto Kawahara
• Prosodic structures of different Japanese dialects and the universality of the syllable, by Wan-Lung David Li
• Body parts and other expressions in the dialects of northern Japan

Aichi Dialect

• Coalescence in Japanese Dialects is Diachronic [Status of coalescence in the Owari dialect of Japanese], by Connor Youngberg

Hiroshima Dialect

• Hiatus Resolution in Hiroshima Japanese (PPT version), by Shigeto Kawahara and Yurie Hara

Ibaraki Dialect

• Valency Classes in Japanese II: Dialects (Mitsukaido dialect) (Alternative version), by Kan Sasaki
• What can the Mitsukaido dialect case system tell about syntactic theory?, by Kan Sasaki
• Hardening Alternation in the Mitsukaido Dialect of Japanese, by Kan Sasaki

Kagoshima Dialect

• Kagoshima Dialect (+phonology, morphology) & Dictionary
• Overview of the Kagoshima Dialects
• Dictionary of the Kagoshima Dialect
• Basic phonology and grammar overview of the dialect
• Kagoshima dialect (Satsugu dialect), Wikipedia
• The Accent of Koshikijima Japanese, by Haruo Kubozono
• Tearu and Teoru as Seen in Russian Materials Reflecting the Early 18th Century Kagoshima Dialect, by Ai Kubozono
• The Vowel e in Satsugu Dialect in the Eighteenth Century : Based on Ronichi tangoshu, by Shoji Komabashiri
• Descriptive grammar of the Koshikijima dialects, by Haruo Kubozono
• Moraic TBU's and Intonation in Izumi (Kagoshima) Dialect, by Kodama Nozomi
• Kagoshima dialect recording materials (1965), published by the National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics
• Velar and Alveolar Consonants in Kagoshima and Tōhoku Dialects
• Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan (1881)
• A Study of Greeting Expressions in the Tanegashima Dialect (Part 2), by Osamu Setoguchi
• The Kagoshima City dialect of Kagoshima Prefecture
• The Higashimorokata dialect of Miyazaki Prefecture

Kansai Dialects

• Wikipedia - Kansai dialect

Kumamoto Dialect

• Amakusa (Kumamoto) word dictionary
• Dictionary of the Fukami Bay dialect of Kumamoto

Miyazaki Dialect

• The Boundaries of the Miyazaki Dialects, by Shinsuke Kishie

Oita Dialect

• The dialect of southern Oita (Taketa city) – body parts

Shikoku Dialects

• Kōchi dialect 1st, 2nd, and 3rd meter noun accent data, by Rintaro Takayama

Uchinaa-Yamatoguchi Dialect

• Uchinaa-Yamatoguchi: Yet another endangered variety on Okinawa?, by Josef Holmér

Hachijo-Daito

• Sample Clip and Transcription of Hachijo
• Brief Summary of the Hachijo Dialect
• Comprehensive study on the state of extinction and preservation of the Hachijo Dialects (alternate version)
• Phonology of the Hachijo Dialects, by Toshio Matsuura
• Old forms and recent changes in the Hachijo language, by Akihiro Kaneda (alternate version)
• Hachijo dictionary

Ryukyuan

• An introduction to Ryukyuan languages, by Michinori Shimoji & Thomas Pellard
• Ryūkyuan: Past, present, and future, by Akiko Matsumori
• Handbook of the Ryukyuan Languages: History, Structure, and Use (book preview), by Patrick Heinrich, Shinsho Miyara and Michinori Shimoji
• Comparison of a few expressions used in Kyushu and Ryukyu, by Mitsuyoshi Nohara
• When and from where did the Japonic language enter the Ryukyus?, by Leon A. Serafim
• Shimakutuba Handbook (example phrases for beginners)

Old Okinawan

• The Language of the Old-Okinawan Omoro Sōshi: Reference Grammar, with Textual Selections, by Leon A. Serafim and Rumiko Shinzato

Amami

• Shodon: A Dialect of the Northern Ryukyus, by Samuel E. Martin
• The Phonemes of the Shodon dialect in Amami-Oshima (Part 1)
• The Phonemes of the Shodon dialect in Amami-Oshima (Part 2)
• How Do We Describe Demonstratives in Yuwan Ryukyuan?, by Yuto Niinaga
• Phonological characteristics of Northern Amami dialects, by Masao Ono
• Phonological characteristics of Kikaijima, by Nobuko Kibe
• Kikai Island Pitch Accent
• Kikai Island Dialect Survey Report, by Zendou Uwano
• The nominalizer su and sentence-final soo in Kikaijima Ryukyuan: Comparison with Japanese no(da) and (no)dewanaika, by Lukas Rieser and Rihito Shirata
• Verb morphology of the Ura dialect of Amami Ōshima, in northern Ryukyu, by Hiromi Shigeno
• Amami dialects: Kana transcription, by Takahiro Okamura
• Lexical Characteristics of Onomatopoeia in the Kikai Dialect of Kagoshima Prefecture, by Kouko Takeda
• Some problems in the phonology of Old Japanese reconsidered in the light of comparative evidence from the Amami dialects, by Junnosuke Urakami
• A Grammar of Yuwan, a Northern Ryukyuan Language, by Yuto Niinaga
• Case markers in the Naze dialect, by Chiaki Tabata
• On embedded interrogative sentences in the Imazato dialect of Amami Oshima, by Rihito Shirata
• North Ryukyu Amami Oshima Yamato Village Imazato Dialect Honorific Method, by Hiromi Shigeno

Miyako

• Ogami — Éléments de description d'un parler du Sud des Ryukyu (English), by Thomas Pellard
• Converbs and their desubordination in Ōgami Ryukyuan, by Thomas Pellard (mirror)
• Irabu Ryukyuan (Sketch), by Michinori Shimoji
• Foot and Rhythmic Structure in Irabu Ryukyuan, by Michinori Shimoji
• Epistemic Modality in Irabu Ryukyuan, by Michinori Shimoji
• Copula sentence structure in Irabu Ryukyuan
• Property concepts in Irabu Ryukyuan, by Michinori Shimoji
• An instrumental analysis of the two tone system in Ikema Ryukyuan, by Yuka Hayashi, Yosuke Igarashi, Yukinori Takubo and Tomoyuki Kubo
• Tonal Alternation and Rhythmic Structure in Irabu Ryukyuan, by Michinori Shimoji and Hayashi Yuka
• Descriptive units and categories in Irabu, by Michinori Shimoji
• On the Obstruentization of Old Japanese /w/ : Focusing on the Miyako and Yaeyama Dialects, by Chokujin Uchima
• Some verbal paradigms in Miyako, by Nakama Mitsunari
• Pragmatic factors in the development of a switch-adjective language: A case study of the Miyako-Hirara dialect of Ryukyuan, by Yulia Koloskova and Toshio Ohori
• Standard Japanese and the Hirara Dialect: A Case of Linguistic Convergence, by John J. Chew
• On origin of the 'predicative verb form' in Miyako dialects, by Shigehisa Karimata
• A Grammar of Irabu, a Southern Ryukyuan Language, by Michinori Shimoji
• Accent neutralization and merging in the Southern Ryukyuan Ikema dialect of Miyako, by Yosuke Igarashi and Takubo Yukinori
• Phonemic structure of the Miyako dialect of Southern Ryukyu, by Hayato Aoi
• Miyako-Ryukyuan and its contribution to linguistic diversity, by Aleksandra Jarosz
• General Study for Research and Conservation of Endangered Dialects in Japan – Research Report on Miyako Ryukyuan, by Nobuko Kibe
• Nikolay Nevskiy's Miyakoan Dictionary: reconstruction from the manuscript and its ethnolinguistic analysis, by Aleksandra Jarosz
• Contrastive topic =gyaa in Ikema-Nishihara Miyakoan of Southern Ryukyus, by Natsuko Nakagawa and Yuka Hayashi
• Miyako-Ikema Online Dictionary (2018) (online)
• OLAC resources in and about the Miyako language (links to other resources)
• The weight and representation of Ryukyuan Miyako onsets: Initial geminate moraicity, markedness, and sonority, by Matias Myhre
• Verb Conjugation in the Miyako Language: Perfective, Negative, Past, and Continuative Forms, by Shigehisa Karimata
• History of the Southern Ryukyu Miyako language, by Kenan Celik

Okinawan

• Introductory works for beginners:
  • Shimakutuba guidebooks (multiple student-friendly visual pdfs), by Okinawabon
  • Memrise: (Okinawan) Learn Basic Uchinaaguchi (learning app)
  • Aloha Uchinaaguchi (lessons and tests)
  • Useful Okinawan phrases, Omniglot
  • How to learn the Okinawan language, Uchinaguchi (YouTube video series)
  • Introduction To The Okinawan Language: Uchina Guchi (2002)
  • Byron Fija on Ryukyuan Languages in Uchinaaguchi (2012) (YouTube video)
  • Let's speak Uchinaaguchi! (2022) (YouTube video series)
  • Uchinaguchi Study Group (Okinawan language) (2021-2022) (YouTube video series)
    
    
• Dictionaries, wordlists and grammars:
  • Konkoukenshuu – Words of the Royal Palace (Oldest Okinawan dictionary, 1711) (alternate web version)
  • Vocabulary of the language spoken at the Great Loo-Choo island in the Japan Sea (1818), by Herbert John Clifford
  • Voyage of His Majesty's Ship Alceste: Along the Coast of Corea, to the Island of Lewchew, with an Account of Her Subsequent Shipwreck (1818), by John M'Leod
  • English-Loochooan Dictionary (1846-1851), by Bernard Jean Bettelheim
  • 4. B. J. Bettelheim 1849: The first grammar of Ryukyuan (2015), by Christopher Griesenhofer
  • Essay in Aid of a Grammmar and Dictionary of the Luchuan Language (1895), by Basil Hall Chamberlain
  • Okinawan language dictionary (1896), by Masayo Nakamoto
  • Okinawan language dictionary (1963), published by the National Institute for Japanese Language (mirror)
  • Excel spreadsheets of the 9th edition of Okinawan language dictionary (2001), published by the National Institute for Japanese Language
  • Okinawan-English Wordbook: a short lexicon of the Okinawan language with English definitions and Japanese cognates (2006), by Mitsugu Sakihara et al.
  • Ajimaa: Dictionary of Okinawan (online)
  • Waryu jiten: Japanese-Ryukyuan Dictionary (2018) (online)
  • Kozaweb dictionary of Okinawan (online)
  • Dictionary of the Kudaka Island dialect, by Tomokuni Fukuji and Shin'ichi Kajiku
  • Dictionary of Okinawan Collocations (aka Dictionary of the Practical Use of Okinawan), by Shinsho Miyara (text database)
  • Haisai - Okinawan words, published by Churaneko
    
    
• Aspect and Modality in Luchuan: In The Case of The Shuri dialect, by Tomoko Arakaki (PostScript file)
• The Dative Particles "-Nkai" "-nakai" "-ni" "-ga" and "-kai" of the Shuri Dialect of Okinawan : In Contrast with the Particles "-ni" and "-e" of Standard Japanese, by Satoshi Nishioka
• A number of resources on Okinawan, Haisai.co.jp
• Small Linguistics: Phonological history and lexical loans in Nakijin dialect Okinawan, by Stewart A. Curry
• On the relation between the particles 'ga' and 'nu' in Urasoe, by Satoshi Uchima
• Particles in the Maejima dialect of Southern Okinawa, by Kumiko Arakaki
• Descriptive study of Maejima dialect phonology, by Kumiko Arakaki
• Clausal Focus Structure in Okinawan, by Shinsho Miyara
• Wh-Concord in Okinawan = Syntactic Movement + Morphological Merger, by Kunio Kinjo
• Nominalization in Okinawan: From a diachronic and comparative perspective, by Rumiko Shinzato
• The case markers -ga and -no in Old Okinawan, by Thomas Dougherty
• Iha Fuyū's collection of Okinawan books (alternate version)
• Accentuation of One and Two Syllables in Southern Okinawa, by Masachie Nakamoto
• Accent Classification for Nouns in the Kin Dialect of Mainland Okinawa Island, by Akiko Matsumori
• Pitch accent system of the Kin dialect of Okinawan, by Akiko Matsumori
• Indicative Accent Patterns and Their Sequences in the Kin Dialect of Okinawa Main Island, by Akiko Matsumori
• Evidentials in Ryukyuan: the Shuri Variety of Luchuan: A Typological and Theoretical Study of Grammatical Evidentiality, by Tomoko Arakaki
• Examining the Grammatical Functions of the Auxiliary Verb Rijun in the Shuri Dialect of Ryukyuan Languages, by Yan Kit Kwong
• A Prosodic Analysis of Two Speech Recordings of Nago Dialect, by Nozomi Kodama
• The Expression of Possibility and Ability in the Koki Dialect of Nago, Northern Ryukyuan, by Shigehisa Karimata
• Onomatopoeic words in the Nago dialect of Okinawa, by Shigehisa Karimata
• Onomatopoeic words in the Nago dialect of Okinawa (Nago>Japanese dictionary), by Shigehisa Karimata
• Onomatopoeic words in the Nago dialect of Okinawa (Japanese>Nago dictionary), by Shigehisa Karimata
• True adjectives in the Nago dialect of Okinawa, by Shigehisa Karimata
• Particles in the Sesoko dialect of Motobu city, Okinawa, by Chokujin Uchima
• Pitch accent system of Takazato dialect, located in the town of Ōgimi, Kunigami District, by Wayne Lawrence
• The perfective use of -ti in Shuri Ryukyuan (abstract), by Griesenho
• A reconstruction of Old Okinawan: A corpus-based approach, by Chihkai Lin (requires library access)
• Honorific verbs in the Shuri dialect, by Satoshi Nishioka
• Pronouns of the Northern Ryukyu Torishima dialect, by Gijs van der Lubbe
• Pronouns, Demonstratives and Interrogatives in the Soukei Dialect of Ginoza, Okinawa, by Gijs van der Lubbe
• The Past Form of Stative Verbs in South-Central Okinawan, by Gijs van der Lubbe
• Verb Morphology of Northern Okinawa Kin Dialect, by Koji Tamamoto

Okinoerabu

• Okinoerabu Dictionary
• Examples of Vocabulary of the Okinoerabu Island Dialect of Japanese with Particular Reference to Prosodemes: Part 4, by Zendo Uwano
• Geographical Distribution of Mimetics in Amami-Okinoerabu Island, by Akiko Tokunaga
• A grammar of Okinoerabu - Kunigami dialect, Ryukyuan, by Akiko Tokunaga-Yokoyama

Tarama-Minna

• On Phonemes and Phonetic Changes of the Miyako-Tarama Dialect, by Kayoko Shimoji
• Correlation between lexical meaning and form of adjectives: Ryukyu Tarama dialect
• On the -ja Construction in the Tarama Dialect of Southern Ryukyuan, by Kayoko Shimoji
• Representation of space and time in Tarama, by Kayoko Shimoji
• A Reconsideration of Case in Tarama (South-Ryukyuan): Focusing on -ni: and -Nka Forms, by Kayoko Shimoji
• The Three-Patterned Accent System in Miyako-Tarama Variety of Southern Ryukyuan: Its Properties and Accent Neutralizations, by Hayato Aoi
• Phonology and sound changes in the Tamara dialect of Miyako, by Kayoko Shimoji
• Expressions of space and time in the Tarama dialect, by Kayoko Shimoji
• Comparative Study of an Adjectives in Ryukyu Dialects: Tsuken dialect and Tarama dialect
• Prosodic Structure of the Tarama Dialect : Description and Interpretation of the Tonal Pattern of the Fused Progressive Verbal Forms, by Kenan Celik and Hayato Aoi
• Southern Ryukyu Miyako language Tarama dialect dictionary, by Kenan Celik and Shunei Tokuyama

Tokunoshima

• Tokunoshima Island Dictionary
• Standardization and Dialect Leveling in Tokunoshima, by Motoei Sawaki, Yumi Nakajima and Chitsuko Fukushima
• Accent Data from the Asama Dialect in Tokunoshima, Amami (Part 1), by Zendo Uwano
• Accent Data from the Asama Dialect in Tokunoshima, Amami (Part 4), by Zendo Uwano
• Accent Data from the Asama Dialect in Tokunoshima, Amami (Part 5), by Zendo Uwano
• Tokunoshima Language Dictionary
• Tokunoshima Kanami sayings descriptive materials, by Arin Kimu

Yaeyama

• Phonological comparison of Yaeyama dialects, by Shigehisa Karimata
• The Disappearing /ï/ and Lenition of /p/ in the Ishigaki Dialect : Fieldwork on the "Island of Songs", by Yuko Yoshida
• Surface Position and Focus Domain of the Ryukyuan Focus Particle du: Evidence from Miyara Yaeyaman, by Christopher Davis
• Moraicity of initial geminates in the Tedumuni (Taketomi) dialect of Okinawa, by Shigeko Shinohara and Masako Fujimoto
• The Role of Focus Particles in Wh-Interrogatives: Evidence from a Southern Ryukyuan Language, by Christopher Davis
• Tense, Aspect, and Mood in Miyara Yaeyaman, by Christopher Davis and Tyler Lau
• Participles in the Hateruma dialect of Yaeyama: the additional function of the plain and cliticized forms, by Aso Reiko
• An Acoustic Phonetic Analysis of Two Varieties of Hateruma Dialect, by Giuseppe Pappalardo
• Sound correspondances and sound changes in the Hateruma dialect of Yaeyama, by Makio Oono
• Phonological Reduction and the (Re)emergence of Attributive Forms in Yaeyama Ryukyuan, by Tyler Lau and Christopher Davis
• Plurality and distributivity in Yaeyaman wh-questions, by Christopher Davis
• Phoneme inventory of the Kohama dialect of Yaeyama, by Jou Nakahara
• Shiraho Devoicing and Pitch Accent, by Tyler Lau
• About the Yaeyama dialect of Hateruma Island, by Akihiro Kaneda
• A Grammar of the Shiraho Dialect of Yaeyama, by Natsuko Nakagawa, Tyler Lau and Yukinori Takubo
• A Grammar Outline of the Southern Ryukyu Yaeyama Iriomote Island Funauki Dialect, by Yuko Urabe
• Fundamental research on comparative historical dialectology of the Ryukyu Yaeyama dialect, by Shigehisa Karimata
• Basic Vocabulary of the Taketomi Dialect: Plants, by Shin'ichi Kajiku
• A Descriptive Study of the Ishigaki Island Shiraho Dialect of the Southern Ryukyuan Yaeyama Language, by Yuko Urabe
• The Grammar of the Southern Ryukyu Yaeyama Kuroshima Dialect, by Soichiro Harada
• An Overview of the Grammar of the Southern Ryukyuan Yaeyama Iriomote Island Funauki Dialect, by Yuko Urabe

Yonaguni

• About the Yonaguni language, by Kaijiku Shinichi
• Yonaguni verb accent, by Nishioka Satoshi
• Yonaguni – Introduction and Phonology, by Atsuko Izuyama
• The phylogenetic position of the Yonaguni dialect, by Wayne Lawrence
• Simplified Grammar and Natural Discourse Materials of Dunang (Yonaguni) Language, by Masahiro Yamada, Thomas Pellard, Michinori Shimoji
• Dunan grammar (Yonaguni Ryukyuan), by Masahiro Yamada, Thomas Pellard, Michinori Shimoji
• Phonological and Morphological Changes in Yonaguni Dialect, by Kohei Nakazawa
• Verb morphology and conjugation classes in Dunan (Yonaguni), by Thomas Pellard and Masahiro Yamada

Yoron

• Nominalization in Yoron, by Machi Hiromitsu
• Let's speak Yoron (sample text with translation), by Hideshi Kiku
• Plural Forms in Yoron-Ryukyuan and Address Nouns in Ryukyuan Languages, by Nobuke Kibe, Hajime Oshima and Masahiro Yamada
• Towards a Description of the Case System of Yoron Ryukyuan: The Nominative Case Particles Ga/Nu and the Bare Case, by Nana Tohyama and Tohru Seraku
• Adverbs in the Asato dialect of Yoron-cho, Oshima-gun, Kagoshima Prefecture, by Machi Hiromitsu
• Expressions of treatment in the Asato dialect of Yoron-cho, Oshima-gun, Kagoshima Prefecture, by Machi Hiromitsu
• Classifiers of the Asato dialect of Yoron-cho, Oshima-gun, Kagoshima Prefecture, by Machi Hiromitsu
• Negative expressions in the Asato dialect of Yoron-cho, Oshima-gun, Kagoshima Prefecture, by Machi Hiromitsu
• Aspect of the Asato dialect of Yoron-cho, Oshima-gun, Kagoshima Prefecture, by Machi Hiromitsu
• Metaphors in the Asato Dialect of Yoron-cho, Oshima-gun, Kagoshima Prefecture, by Machi Hiromitsu

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