Ryukyu language and writing on Ryukyu Island

The indigenous languages of the North Ryukyu Circle (including Okinawa) are derived from the Hayato language of Kyushu, which is the same as the etymology of Yamato. At present, the archaeological community has confirmed that "Okinawa language" originated from an older language "rope language", and "old Japanese" and "falcon language" all belong to the branch of rope language.

The indigenous languages of South Ryukyu Circle (including that country) mainly come from Austronesian language family, which is very different from old Japanese. However, this difference is still smaller than that between "Chinese" and "Tibetan" and "Chinese" and "Uygur", and the grammatical structure and cognates of "Nagano" are still consistent with those of ancient Japanese. However, experts, including Japan, don't think "Hena Mandarin" belongs to the Japanese language family because they prefer Austronesian language family in pronunciation and cognates. It is necessary to distinguish between "Ryukyu language" and "Mandarin" used in Ryukyu diplomacy. "Mandarin" is only used in diplomacy with the Ming Dynasty, and the post of "General Affairs" is responsible for its use. Just as we need to bring "English translators" when visiting Europe, America and other countries, "General Affairs" is "Chinese translators" in Ryukyu diplomacy.

China's earliest record of Ryukyu language and writing is "Making Ryukyu Record Foreign Languages". See: It can be seen that the original characters of Ryukyu and Hiragana are recorded. Although Ryukyu native characters are the same as Japanese pseudonyms, their languages are different. Like other countries in East Asia, Chinese characters are the official language of Ryukyu diplomacy except the mother tongue, and Chinese can also be regarded as the "common foreign language" of Ryukyu in a certain period of time, which is used in diplomatic exchanges with China, North Korea and Viet Nam. There are also Chinese characters in the inscriptions on the stone tablets of Ryukyu people and the genealogy of the gentry. Communication with Ming and Qing Dynasties and Japan is often very important. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Ryukyu sent overseas students to imperial academy in Nanjing and Beijing and Ryukyu Pavilion in Fuzhou to learn Chinese. According to the research on the preserved textbooks of Chinese Mandarin used by Ryukyu people, it shows that the Mandarin learned by Ryukyu people is influenced by Fujian dialect, especially Fuzhou dialect, which is strictly called "Fuzhou Mandarin". In the early Ryukyu countries, Chinese was used in diplomatic occasions, but in official documents, the Ryukyu writing system mixed with Chinese characters and pseudonyms was used, and sometimes the China writing system was also used. In addition to Chinese characters, Ryukyu has its own characters, the so-called "ball characters" (including self-made characters and pseudonym symbols).

Generally speaking, ordinary people in Ryukyu don't need to learn the foreign language "Chinese", so traditional Ryukyu songs are written in hieroglyphics or Hiragana. Ryukyu also has different dialects, and the differences between dialects are probably equivalent to the differences between French and Italian. In the past, Ryukyu used Chinese characters and pseudonyms to describe dynasty history, while the lower classes used hiragana and hieroglyphics.