Okinawan scripts

File:Letter of Kanamaru.jpg

An example of traditional Okinawan writing circa 1471

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. Modern Okinawan is not written frequently. The Japanese writing system is used in Okinawan scripts.

File:スクリーンショット 2025-02-19 113245.png

Chinese translation of Okinawan Script in 1721 (Hiragana and Katakana)

Systems

Conventional usages

The modern conventional ad hoc spellings found in Okinawa.

Council system

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

University of the Ryukyus system

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.

New Okinawan letters

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

Basic syllables and kai-yōon (palatalized syllables)

		i	u	e	o	ya	yu	yo
(Initial) 1
(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	File:Okinawan kana u.png	え゙
'	'a a	'i i	'u u	'e e	'o o	'ya	'yu	'yo
(Initial) 1
(Elsewhere)
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		File:Okinawan kana 'ya.png	File:Okinawan kana 'yu.png	File:Okinawan kana 'yo.png
k	ka	ki	ku	ke	ko	kya
	か	き	く	け	こ	きゃ
g	ga	gi	gu	ge	go	gya
	が	ぎ	ぐ	げ	ご	ぎゃ
s	sa	si (s-i)	su	(sye) se	so	sya	syu
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
Others	た	てぃ	とぅ	て	と
New Okinawan		File:Okinawan kana ti.png	File:Okinawan kana tu.png
d	da	di	du	de	do
Others	だ	でぃ	どぅ	で	ど
New Okinawan		File:Okinawan kana di.png	File:Okinawan kana du.png
ts		tsi	tsu
Ryukyu Univ.		つぃ	つ
z	za	zi (dzi)	zu (dzu)	ze	zo
Others	ざ	じ	ず	ぜ	ぞ
Ryukyu Univ.		づぃ	ず づ
ty c	tya ca	tyi ci	tyu cu	tye ce	tyo co
	ちゃ	ち	ちゅ	ちぇ	ちょ
zy dy	zya dya	zyi dyi	zyu dyu	zye dye	zyo dyo
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
	な	に	ぬ	ね	の	にゃ	にゅ
h	ha	hi	hu hwu	he	ho	hya	hyu	hyo
	は	ひ	ふ	へ	ほ	ひゃ	ひゅ	ひょ
b	ba	bi	bu	be	bo	bya	byu	byo
	ば	び	ぶ	べ	ぼ	びゃ	びゅ	びょ
p	pa	pi	pu	pe	po	pya	pyu
	ぱ	ぴ	ぷ	ぺ	ぽ	ぴゃ	ぴゅ
m	ma	mi	mu	me	mo	mya	myu	myo
	ま	み	む	め	も	みゃ	みゅ	みょ
r	ra	ri	ru	re	ro
	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 , , , , and い, う, いぇ, お (イ, ウ, イェ, オ) for , , , , respectively.

Gō-yōon (labialised syllables)

	wa	wi	we
Conventional	わ	うぃ	うぇ
Council
Ryukyu Univ.		ゑぃ	ゑ
New Okinawan		ゐ
'	'wa	'wi	'we
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	File:Okinawan kana 'wa.png	File:Okinawan kana 'wi.png	File:Okinawan kana 'we.png
k	kwa qua	kwi qui	kwe que
Conventional	くぁ くゎ	くぃ	くぇ
Council	くゎ
Ryukyu Univ.		くゐ
New Okinawan	File:Okinawan kana kwa.png	File:Okinawan kana kwi.png	File:Okinawan kana kwe.png
g	gwa	gwi	gwe
Conventional	ぐぁ ぐゎ	ぐぃ	ぐぇ
Council	ぐゎ
Ryukyu Univ.		ぐゐ
New Okinawan	File:Okinawan kana gwa.png	File:Okinawan kana gwi.png	File:Okinawan kana gwe.png
h	fa hwa	fi hwi	fe hwe
Conventional	ふぁ	ふぃ	ふぇ
Council
Ryukyu Univ.	ふゎ
New Okinawan	File:Okinawan kana hwa.png	File:Okinawan kana hwi.png	File:Okinawan kana hwe.png

Others

	n 3	4	5
	ん	っ	ー
'	'n
Conventional	ん
Council	っん
Ryukyu Univ.
New Okinawan	File:Okinawan kana 'n.png

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.)

External links

• 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.