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==History==
Though generally regarded as a language by linguists and other scholars, on account of its internal consistencies and lack of mutual intelligibility with standard Japanese, Okinawan continues to be typically referred to as a dialect (''hôgen'') by Japanese people in more general contexts.
In the early 20th century, concerted efforts were made by the Japanese government to standardize Japanese language across the country, and to suppress local dialects, including the Ryukyuan languages. A debate on this issue was a prominent issue in the field of Okinawan Studies, and created harsh divides between Okinawan Studies scholars from around 1940 through at least 1955. In this debate, today often referred to as the ''Okinawa hôgen ronsô'' ("Okinawa dialect debate"), one side argued that pressing Okinawans to learn standard Japanese was essential to ensuring their success in this new modern Japan, both in society and in employment, and that if Okinawans were allowed to maintain their local dialects, and not to more fully adopt standard Japanese, it would only invite ridicule and disparaging attitudes; not being able to speak proper standard Japanese would make someone seem less educated, less intelligent, and/or less cosmopolitan, less modern, thus hiding their true talents and abilities, and if Okinawans were to be treated poorly as a result, it would only lead to them feeling self-pity, feelings of inadequacy, and so forth.<ref name=yokoyama>Yokoyama Manabu 横山学, Ryûkyû koku shisetsu torai no kenkyû 琉球国使節渡来の研究, Tokyo: Yoshikawa kôbunkan (1987), 11-13.</ref>
[[Yanagi Soetsu|Yanagi Sôetsu]] was among those who led the opposition to the suppression of local dialects, and of the Okinawan language. He wrote that the encouragement of standard Japanese is damaging, and that it imposes a feeling of self-abasement or self-deprecation on the prefecture, that Okinawa should feel it is backwards, and inferior. Sôetsu and other members of the ''[[mingei]]'' (folk crafts) movement, along with Okinawan scholars such as [[Kishaba Eijun]] and [[Higashionna Kanjun]], wrote that Okinawa was the only place where a purer Japanese-like culture still survived, which did not in a modernized (mainland) Japan, and that the Okinawan language, further, preserved elements of the ancient Japanese language more than any dialect in (mainland) Japan. Yanagi wrote that there was much to be learned from the Ryukyuan languages, and that plotting to eliminate them was to bring uncalled-for disdain and contempt upon all regional dialects. Yanagi similarly opposed assimilation programs in [[Colonial Korea]], aimed at suppressing or eliminating Korean language and culture, and assimilating the Korean people into Japanese language, culture, and attitudes. To the Japanese officials governing Okinawa, Yanagi wrote that the most important thing at that time was an awareness of the value of Ryûkyû. Engaging in development efforts starting from this basis of a positive appreciation of Ryûkyû's value, he wrote, was the most proper course.<ref name=yokoyama/>
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