Okinawan scripts

Okinawan, spoken in Okinawa Island. Documents in Ryukyu Kingdom 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. The Japanese writing system is used in Okinawan scripts.

Tana family documents (田名家文書), which are letters of rank appointment issued by the Shuri Royal Government, are written in Japanese Epistolary style (候文) with Hentaigana. However, after the Satsuma invasion, Japanese culture was banned as part of the policy of exoticizing Ryukyu, and under the policy of Haneji Ōji Chōshū, documents within Ryukyu also began to be written in classical Chinese.^[2]

Comparison of official documents of Tana family documents.

Traditional scripts in Okinawa is called 古文書. Before Satsuma Invasion in 1609, Man'yōgana(万葉仮名) was used in Japanese Epistolary style (候文). Unlike modern writing system あ ( a )can be written in 安・阿・愛・亜・悪 with Cursive script(崩し字)^[3].

The modern conventional ad hoc spellings found in Okinawa.

The system devised by the Council for the Dissemination of Okinawan Dialect (沖縄方言普及協議会). [1]

This system was devised by Okinawa Center of Language Study, a section of University of the Ryukyus. Unlike others, this method is intended purely as a phonetic guidance, and basically only uses katakana. For the sake of an easier comparison, corresponding hiragana are used in this article.

新沖縄文字 (Shin Okinawa-moji), devised by Yoshiaki Funazu (船津好明, Funazu Yoshiaki), in his textbook Utsukushii Okinawa no Hōgen (美しい沖縄の方言; "The beautiful Okinawan Dialect"; ISBN 4-905784-19-0). The rule applies to hiragana only. Katakana is used as in Japanese; just like in the conventional usage of Okinawan.

		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　 いぃ	う うぅ　 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.

	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

	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.)

• 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.