The Okinawan language, casually spoken | Gijs and Takako speaking Uchinaaguchi | Wikitongues

[@Wikitongues]

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[@ryanchon8702]

lovely to hear Uchināguchi spoken fluently! I hope younger Okinawans see the value of this language

[@nathanmerritt1581]

Unfortunately, the young generation don't value the language. It's in decline.

[@dennythedavinchi3832]

It's funny to hope all the language exist to survive nowaday. In reality, it just separate people from the community and make self isolation. Many languages and dialects had to perish cause government agents cannot understand what provincial local people speaks. That's the bitter truth.

[@Prodigi50]

@@dennythedavinchi3832 Y’know, the government could promote both languages.

[@sinoroman]

it's about centralization. it's simple and convenient to travel anywhere within the country and converse with anyone but it makes the world more dark and dull.

[@lalahana111]

@@nathanmerritt1581 I mean as an Okinawan born outside the island it’s understandable if you know the history behind immigrants from Okinawa to South America. In my country unfortunately our elders were not allowed to talk in public in Okinawan and Japanese, they felt obligated to educate their children in Spanish or Portuguese because their children had a different nationality and they wanted to avoid alienation. My grandparents spoke Uchinaaguchi so good but they didn’t want to teach it to my parents. Now, I had to learn Japanese and English to be able to study Uchinaaguchi as most of the books where I can learn the language are just in Japanese and some in English. I want my children also learn our language because it will be really sad that it completely disappears.

[@matthewtopping2061]

Hey it's my friends Gijs and Takako. I actually introduced them! I had no idea they produced this for WikiTongues!

[@shygorilla8082]

I'm Uchinanchu. I understand Japanese and can speak a little. But, when we go to Okinawa and visit family, my mom starts rapping in Uchinaguchi and I'm completely lost. I understand like 20% of what they're saying. With this lady I understand only about 10%.

[@flyordieful]

私もです

[@SakiMcGee]

Ahh, I found a song a long time ago that I've never been able to get the lyrics to because it turned out it was in Uchinaaguchi. I asked one of my Japanese friends if he could help me with it and he told me I was on my own. 😂

[@valentindaria9225]

Please, i need to hear that song, if you remember the name

[@SakiMcGee]

@@valentindaria9225 Yeah, of course! It's Koza Renka by Takashi Hirayasu, I still jam to it to this day lol

[@VajiraPholvamsa]

@@SakiMcGee thank you for not leaving a cliffhanger

[@user-te5po4bu8o]

I love that style of music, shima uta

[@Mureirsa]

that is a bop@@SakiMcGee

[@xavieroconnor5602]

As an American English speaker, it sounds like she's speaking Japanese with a heavy Korean flow

[@that39warguy6]

You're right. I hear it now. Weird how some dying east Asian tongues sound very Korean. For instance, Manchu, to me, sounds like a combination of Korean and Mandarian.

[@kurtstergar1042]

The Shanghai dialect is another one. One may think the ppl from Shanghai may not be Chinese.

[@00droo00]

素晴らしいですよ。この素敵な言語を守るべきなんじゃないでしょうかね。

[@correa1963]

Com certeza proteger essa e outras línguas ameaçadas. Lindo a pronuncia sem entender nada

[@isaac4273]

@@correa1963 vc tem razão mas, mano foi a coisa mais estranha que já vi hoje, o cara falando japonês e vc respondendo em português 🤣 vc fala dela?

[@correa1963]

@@isaac4273 e ai compatriota.... Na verdade tudo que entendi foi com a ajuda do Google tradutor

[@syro33]

@@correa1963 Thanks google! It's so cool we can all communicate despite the language barriers, even if Google translate gets confused sometimes.

[@kaz5807]

@@isaac4273 yeah dude that’s how it works on the internet, you speak whatever language you want and then you can just translate it to your language so there’s no more barriers… that’s the beauty of it

[@jitaru3707]

As a Japanese speaker it sounds definitely similar to Japanese but I can't understand it if I don't focus. There's lots I don't understand but I think a good amount of the more basic grammar particles, plus some words here and there are similar, and I can kinda tell where any given sentence is by the inflection. Can't really understand most of it though. Edit: i think she is speaking about the American occupation when she was a girl because I hear her mention her father and "Americans" or "english-speakers" several times

[@LGVRhin-Rhone]

It sounded like she was talking about the Battle of Okinawa? I wonder how much was "pure" うちなーぐち and how much was borrowed from japanese

[@Arstifartsi]

I wish I could find a uninaaguchi teacher. I’d love to reconnect with my heritage

[@elderlyoogway]

In São Paulo there is the first school of Uchinaguuchi!! Made in 2008 by the efforts of a handful of volunteers. There's a grammar book (knowing basic Japanese hleps) and dictionary too (this one theres both Portuguese and English versions). And they need students!! It's free, by the way, since it's a cultural voluntary effort.

[@WilsonShiroma]

If possible i world like a volume of these books. Thanks a Lot.

[@julianoyoshiro9008]

​@@elderlyoogwayE onde fica essa parada aí? Tô interessado em saber!

[@elderlyoogway]

@@julianoyoshiro9008 it's called Colégio Exatus, in Tatuapé, São Paulo!! It's been some years since I've visited, so make sure to call there and check if they're still around that area. I think there were two other locations in the city too, but I'm not sure..

[@dematapyro7317]

There's also Fija Byron, he teaches online Uchinaaguchi classes. He's been teaching Uchinaaguchi for over 20 years now and is also very active in the revitalization and cultural reclamation movement. He's probably one of the most charismatic and well-known public figures in the Uchinaa cultural sphere. I've been learning with him for 5 months now and he's really an amazing teacher.

[@brandon3872]

As someone who knows a little bit of Japanese and Korean, I could recognise a few Japanese words, but the intonation sounded across between Korean and Japanese to me. Very interesting.

[@lemonred2544]

I think Japanese and Korean are related, even with turkish (ok that's too much)

[@YouCallThataKnife253]

I don't speak Korean, but grew up with a lot of Korean speakers, and that's what it reminded me of as well

[@MarcHarder]

@@lemonred2544 Altaic has been debunked numerous times

[@KertPerteson]

@@MarcHarder Even if Altaic is just a farce, Japanese and Korean are most definitely related.

[@MarcHarder]

@@KertPerteson Then explain how they become less similar the further back in time you go, rather than more similar. Just like Altaic, Japanese' & Korean's similarities are much more likely to be a result of a sprachbund than genetic relation.

[@AlexanderYamada]

I wish I had been allowed more exposure to Okinawan language and culture as a child. My father was from Okinawa, my mother from way up north in Aomori from an old samurai family that heavily looked down on and discouraged the pairing. Growing up, my maternal grandmother did everything in her power to limit any Okinawan influence on my upbringing.

[@Drevo-1219]

as a japanese guy,i was able to pick up numbers and some words like satsumaimo, ikusa (kinda archaic word for war), watashi, doko de etc but even if i focus i understand like 10 percent of whats spoken. it feels like im trying to understand a language i recently started learning lol

[@catapretafernando]

I’m a 3rd gen Japanese Brazilian, but my grandparents were both from Uruma in Okinawa. My grandparents still speak Uchinaguchi but they haven’t spoken it much because they never thought they’d need to use it at all, instead favor of Portuguese and Japanese. I now want them to teach me Okinawan, and I want to be more in touch with my Okinawan heritage. I am proud to have Okinawan blood in my veins.

[@きゅきゅきゅ]

地元ちかっ！

[@LucasYukkio]

Eu também man, só que sou Yonsei.

[@zvya3da]

Please make more records of the Amami language, which is northeast of the Okinawa Islands.

[@OhiChicken]

For some reason, this is what my grandmother sounded like when I was falling asleep in the other room. I'd be sat up trying to understand her but still half asleep. She'd be straight up just speaking english with a french canadian accent and this is what it would sound like.

[@JaeCole1]

Wow! I’m Korean and this sounds a bit like the Korean language in some places.

[@gustavovillegas5909]

今沖縄口勉強そーん！なま うちなーぐち びんちょー そーん！ I’m studying Okinawan now! It’s a really beautiful language, I want to help keep it alive as someone studying to become a linguist

[@ToMAHAWKS-p7g]

じょーとーやんどー！

[@yukimidaifuku_DLsite-d3o]

@gustavovillegas5909 調子はどう？

[@japanese1527]

It sounds a lot like if japanese and Korean were mixed together. When I heard this ,it sounded a lot like as if it was influenced by the korean language itself.

[@Spoogebro]

Japonic and koreanic languages used to be grouped with Turkic languages under one family called the Altaic languages, but in recent years linguists have separated them into thre distinct families. I can see wanting to separate Turkic from that family but you can clearly hear the similarities between Korean and Japanese here.

[@shwabb1]

@@Spoogebro that's because it's often hard to tell what is a borrowing and what is a common word

[@Adhjie]

​@@SpoogebroI'm on the side of Japonic instead of Altaic, Tungusic is real and other yes but I still know how to joke I go with flow of Borean too sometimes for laughs

[@joshuab738]

My wife is Korean. To me it sounds a lot like what her very old grandmother (90+ years old) use to speak when we would go back and visit her. A very old, slower dialect with Japanese thrown in. I use to love speaking to her because I knew more Japanese than Korean at that time (now it is flipped) and it was slower so I could pick out the words. I could almost feel my way through the conversation which was so nice! I remember talking with her and my wife parents were shocked how we could communicate for hours in the garden but I couldn't understand anything with them at the dinner table.

[@Mureirsa]

very interesting, thanks for sharing your expierence @@joshuab738

[@khust2993]

The intonation sounds more like Korean to me than Japanese, interesting.

[@matthewtopping2061]

I find it interesting how lots of people say the same thing when they hear Ryukyuan languages. It's sort of like hearing something that's similar to Japanese but yet unintelligible to you automatically equals "Korean" 😂

[@Pickchea]

I dont really hear the "korean sound" either, it sounds like japanese but with a different accent ​@@matthewtopping2061

[@Arissef]

@@matthewtopping2061 I speak a European language natively but I've studied Japanese for two years. I also listened to a lot of traditiinal Korean music but I know nothing about the Korean language other than getting used to the sound and rhythm of Korean. The language in this video is like 100% Korean-sounding to me.

[@matthewtopping2061]

@@Arissef 🤣🤣🤣

[@prestonjones1653]

I'm currently studying Japanese and I love how I got an ad in Japanese for this video. I understood maybe one sentence from the ad and a few words from the video itself.

[@Wikitongues]

That's exciting. Good luck on your language-learning journey!

[@Bellarej350]

What motivated you to learn Japanese?

[@prestonjones1653]

@@Bellarej350 It was there. 😂 But also because Asia in general is fascinating to me and Japanese seems a bit easier to grasp than Mandarin or Cantonese, but maybe I'll try my hand at those too some day.

[@prestonjones1653]

@@Wikitongues Arigato! (No Japanese keyboard, haha)

[@mansendwish]

幸運、グッドラック

[@alexconde9784]

美しい言語

[@konumusic]

Thank you for this 🙏🏽🤙🏽

[@nashorngamingtm7711]

The language sound japanese but somewhat korean at the same time

[@1.4142]

It would be cool to listen to some languages from papua new guinea, given the insane linguistic diversity there.

[@costenabacana2424]

I was in Indonesia for two years, i heard it tribes in Papua New Guinea that probably don't even know the modern world exists.

[@Adhjie]

​@@costenabacana2424Nativlang comment section is great, iirc Tom Scott and numberphile i think nativlang actually covered counting there very diff not base 10.

[@unexpected2475]

You could probably make a whole channel just for New Guinea. That said, you could probably do that anywhere.

[@1.4142]

@@Adhjie A great book recommendation: The language lover's puzzle book

[@baileyryan488]

I love the sounds

[@ZadenZane]

I heard ano, ichiban and -kara but that's it! Oh, and watashi wa!

[@RitosM]

Interesting how some parts sound a bit like the Hokkien my grandma speaks.

[@__-uy7nh]

do you speak hokkien? doesnt sound the least bit hokkien to me

[@김이박-u8t]

오키나와어 신기하네요

[@TheSpectacledOwl]

There used to be a lot of Okinawans on Saipan. Sadly, with the weakening economy on Saipan they all moved away. Only the elderly Okinawans decided to stay.

[@crispybits3765]

I don't speak a word of Japanese, and have only really been exposed to the language from the countless Japanese movies I have watched, but even to my untrained ear, this sounds completely different. Maybe not the words as such, but certainly the way they are accentuated.

[@koi8363]

As an Indian (foreigner), I think it sounds different than Japanese and the tone of it is similar to Mongolian or Korean.

[@Appachoppa112]

Okinawa was pretty connected with other asian countries

[@Adhjie]

Coincidence prolly but Hindi and Japanese word order is the same going with Quora, langfocus has cover Arabic\semitic? Celtic but not yet that

[@mahrinui18]

I would be really interested in a recording of Ogasawara/Bonin creole

[@ellaspring1933]

As a foreinger, it sounds like dominant Japanese with some Korean and Chinese.

[@saigonpunkid]

Sounds like Japanese with some Austronesian touch, very Pacific.

[@princeedward5518]

Stop it

[@neggit2063]

I'm Portuguese, and I can definitely tell she's not speaking japanese, but some words are similar.

[@tatankahanska120]

UCHINANCHU

[@raceace]

As an Australian Japanese speaker I can still understand her Japanese but I hear it with a Korean tempo or rhythmic measure and stacatto enunciation.

[@d.b2370]

Beautifullll

[@shaunharn1998]

I thought it'll be very different from Japanese and maybe closer to the Austronesian language since it's so close to Taiwan but it sounds pretty similar

[@matthewtopping2061]

Okinawan is one of the endangered Ryukyuan languages, which form a branch of Japonic. It isn't Austronesian or Korean, but related to Japanese.

[@Brillemeister]

Very interesting sound. It's similar to Japanese, but I can't make out the sentence structure.

[@nathanmerritt1581]

Of course it's similar Japanese, it's the same language.

[@hai965]

@@nathanmerritt1581 no they're not

[@nathanmerritt1581]

@@hai965 I meant it's the same language family.

[@PiroKUSS]

@@nathanmerritt1581 That's not what you said.

[@Muzikman127]

@@nathanmerritt1581 that's completely different, and it wouldn't your original comment make sense. Plenty of languages within the same family sound completely different phonetically. Spanish, European Portuguese, Brazilian Portuguese, Romanian, Italian and French are all in the same family, and yet the sound is very different. (And, incidentally, they are much closer to each other than Japanese is to Okinawan). How a language "sounds" and how actually related it is to another language is a _very_ loose association, there's no "of course" about it. In this case phonetic similarity is more due to contact than genetic relationship. Often languages that are in close contact with each othe end up sounding very similar phonetically. This happens even with languages with NO genetic (i.e. familial) relationship (like Spanish and Basque, for instance)

[@isono-tetsuo]

2割くらい分かるな。

[@WickerOSeer]

As a Japanese learner and native English speaker, to me this kinda feels like listening to someone speak Dutch. It has a familiar sound and I can pick out certain words that I recognize, but I can't really understand the bulk of what's being said.

[@吉本レイモンド]

she's speak with mix of okinawan and japanese.

[@ClubisteM]

Japanese chauvinsm will also make this one extinct, similar fate as the Ainu language...

[@saitamapose]

Can you post a video of Hachijo language? thanks.

[@Jojikiba]

少しだけわわかった（15%かな）。食料、鉄砲、アメリカ人、英語、農民

[@unknownunknown7393]

I don't speak japanese but if you hear it often you can tell that oba chan's japanese is different

[@solarflare623]

I’m half Japanese and half American. This sounds a lot like half Japanese and Vietnamese

[@kompetop]

à toute la monde une bonne année nouvelle

[@yifuyang6188]

I can understand standard Japanese and this definitely sounds more intelligible than I expected. Could pick up some familiar words here and there.

[@i.a.1475]

I can understand standard Japanese also, but this is not intelligible at all. The familiar words I think were introduced by the Japanese Imperial government in the standard educational system.

[@juanjuan5698]

I’m Japanese and this is definitely not intelligible

[@EliteWheatProdctionZ]

wow, like the perfect blend between korean and japanese!

[@gwho]

eh? i'm not hearing any koreanish

[@nathanmerritt1581]

@@gwho WTF is Koreanish?

[@クレオパトラ-m3k]

I am sure people who say this do not understand Uchinaguchi at all

[@curiouswanderer7187]

It is saddening that the Okinawan language is endangered, it should be revived. Okinawans are not Japanese but Okinawan. It is like saying an English is German when they are not.

[@MrStaybrown]

Thank you

[@elderlyoogway]

There is the first school of Uchinaguuchi in Sao Paulo! Made in 2008 with the efforts of a handful of volunteers, they're attempting to keep it alive, but they need students!! It's all free since it's a cultural voluntary effort, but sadly not a lot of people know about it.

[@artinhjollder4779]

In which dialect is the lady speaking? Shuri or Naha? Thank you.

[@jaif7327]

such a tough sounding counterpart to tokyo japanese reminds me of south arabian - a shame those tongues arent covered here

[@Garbaz]

Goes back and forth between comprehensible and not sounding Japanese at all to me. Very interesting.

[@PiroKUSS]

She switches between Japanese and Okinawan, according to the description.

[@Wingnut353]

@@PiroKUSS It is extremely common among people that speak english and a 2nd language at home to code swtich for instance between spanish and english mid sentence, I find it super annoying personally but people just do it lol

[@PiroKUSS]

@@Wingnut353 It definitely is fucking annoying.

[@mrmartin7131]

Man I always wanted to learn different cultural languages

[@santoslildino321]

Free love ❣️❣️❣️💯🙏🏼💯

[@fabien4530]

沖縄語は日本語方言ではない

[@agtx567osu]

this sounds like japanese with polynesian decent, spoken with a korran accent

[@lrosas_sp]

Was this the first language of Japanese immigrants to Peru and Brazil? I understand most of them came from Okinawa

[@Floppyoneactual]

Definitely different from Japanese.

[@paulnakamura8103]

Okinawa ben, definitely cool, but yeah you can only pick out so many words and then you're lost but it's awasome!

[@misriaharmory4452]

I caught "ichiban" and "ni, san, shi"

[@kompetop]

je crois l'ensemble superbe

[@吉本レイモンド]

面白いのはこれでも沖縄方言の中でも聞き取りやすい方って事だよね 訛りがキツい人は、本当に何を言ってるのかわからない…

[@Rickandmorty_com]

Why do japanese always want to get rid of a language? Including korean language..

[@aidavyasa23]

I thought she spoke indonesian. Like, Itu saja.

[@annnee6409]

Sounds like Japanese was influenced by this language along with Ainu.

[@zatannavolkoff]

Came here from Idolish7

[@MarkNJ20]

It sounds like Korean to me!

[@PiroKUSS]

She does have Korean intonation.

[@vintageb8]

is the language related to Austronesian languages?

[@rando5869]

fukashima dialect

[@hectorjovetic8048]

Nama?

[@saitamapose]

She doesn't look very Jomon despite being Okinawan.

[@ikaris4085]

it sounds like japanese spoken by a drunken korean 😂, just like spanish spoken by drunken french = portuguese

[@hectorjovetic8048]

This sounds somewhere around sumatran mix Celebes mix estern Indonesia region

[@princeedward5518]

Nope

[@tgyuidlodka3850]

your royal highness

[@xxmarsguard3299]

Sounds similar to Polynesian with hints of Japanese

[@selwyngamble4585]

Trust me mate as someone who is in the periphery of Polynesian languages all the time it definitely doesn’t

[@lleciiell]

Sounds like Korean

[@kevinschreiner4179]

1:10 우리 같이 나랑 야채...

[@Səv]

Karate Kid

[@tgyuidlodka3850]

woof woof

[@JoRoBoYo]

Noice

[@Vermilion2049]

Strong Chinese influence

[@babangteo2853]

So, Ryukyuans are more related to Koreans, and the original Yamatos are more related to Austronesians, right? In other words, the Imperial Japanese Army disrupted the order of its own nation during World War 2?

[@princeedward5518]

No one Austronesian

[@tgyuidlodka3850]

yeah: i also speak japanese alot....

[@tgyuidlodka3850]

beep is lunar

[@ryneagheilim9782]

As a Filipino Speaker, I dont know what she's saying.

[@ganggang2537]

Sounds very much like any other austronesian language. Japonic and austronesian are truly related!

[@dayalasingh5853]

They really aren't though 😐

[@mikurino3936]

Okinawan has nothing to do with austronesian languages.

[@Muzikman127]

I guess Spanish and Basque must be too! And Romanian and Hungarian! (spoiler, that's not how any of this works)

[@ganggang2537]

@@Muzikman127 well Japanese and austronesian share many of the same vocabulary and phonetic similarities with each other. There are countless of theories about Japanese and austronesian having a relationship with each other as the ancient forms of both languages were very similar. Idk what two European languages have anything to do with two asiatic languages who are very close to each other

[@Muzikman127]

@@ganggang2537 do you really not understand the point I made? I can explain if you actually don't

[@tgyuidlodka3850]

woof is an eryth-tongue

[@akbarfuad3336]

Sounds like korean language🤔

[@PiroKUSS]

She does pronounce words the same way a Korean speaker does.

[@Mouse-p5s]

Sounds like altaic pronounce and accents to me.

[@徳-r8j]

The phonetics sound exactly like a roughly 50-50 Japanese Korean hybrid

[@moahammad1mohammad]

Something to add to my path to Japanese fluency then lol

[@matickon]

Japanese =/= Okinawan

[@emrafighifari2675]

Okinawan is different from japanese, like sicillian is different from italian

[@mikurino3936]

Okinawan is not Japanese. It’s a separate language.

[@tgyuidlodka3850]

but travels remarkably well lol....

[@BabuSethHembram]

Please 🙏 me

[@tgyuidlodka3850]

and martian

[@isono-tetsuo]

外国人が日本語を聞いたらこんな感じに聞こえるんだろうな。ぶっちゃけあんまり美しくない言語だ。平坦な韓国語って感じ。ゲルマン語派やスラヴ語派のあの響きには遠く及ばない。

[@dan74695]

As a Norwegian I think Japanese sounds very nice.

[@takehase9896]

何言ってんの？

[@isono-tetsuo]

@JZ マジか。 君はどの言語の響きが好き？

[@nicollelalonde]

Ah~ not really! This grandmother’s speech has more “explosive” sounds and stopped “shh” sounds than an average Japanese speaker than makes this very different. If I stop paying attention I hear sounds from Korea or Taiwan even. Only when she is slower “anno…” I hear regular Japanese. Most Japanese speakers speak more rhythmically and the sounds are more blended than this grandma :) Japanese normally sounds to me like soft “ta ta ta ta” - many soft consonant sounds which makes it sound pretty ~ Grandma’s language sounds more tropical ..

[@MbahMu9829]

As an ultra weeb edge lord that watch golden camui almost religiously I could safely says that I'm an expert of this language desu

[@PiroKUSS]

unfunny

[@Adhjie]

Hahahahahah wrong place that's Ainu this is in other anime, Linfamy and Kento bento are a great start. that's alright don't forget ur nouken

[@tgyuidlodka3850]

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