Changes

Reading traditional Okinawan texts is complicated by the traditional tendency to use the ''kana'' for the equivalent Japanese pronunciation, even though the Okinawan writer & reader would likely see it and pronounce it in the Okinawan manner. For example, a traditional document might use the ''kana'' おきなわ, corresponding directly to ''o-ki-na-wa'', intending it to be read ''u-chi-na-a'', and would not write うちなー, as we might today to explicitly indicate the Okinawan reading/pronunciation.

Reading traditional Okinawan texts is complicated by the traditional tendency to use the ''kana'' for the equivalent Japanese pronunciation, even though the Okinawan writer & reader would likely see it and pronounce it in the Okinawan manner. For example, a traditional document might use the ''kana'' おきなわ, corresponding directly to ''o-ki-na-wa'', intending it to be read ''u-chi-na-a'', and would not write うちなー, as we might today to explicitly indicate the Okinawan reading/pronunciation.

==History==

==History==

[[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/>

[[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/>

==References==

==References==