Southern Amami Ōshima language

Southern Amami Ōshima
Native to	Japan
Region	Setouchi, Kagoshima
Ethnicity	Ryukyuan
Native speakers	1,800 (2004)[1]
Language family	Japonic Ryukyuan Northern Ryukyuan Amami Amami Ōshima Southern Amami Ōshima
Writing system	Japanese
Language codes
ISO 639-3	ams
Glottolog	sout2954

The Southern Amami Ōshima language is a Ryukyuan language spoken in Setouchi, Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan.^[1][2] It is generally considered to be the southern variety of the Amami Ōshima language, whereas a separate northern variety exists.^[1][2][3]

According to Ethnologue, there are 1,800 speakers of Southern Amami Ōshima.^[1] The northern variety has 10,000 speakers.^[3] Both of these languages are endangered, as younger generations either speak Japanese or a local variety of Japanese known as Ton-futsūgo.^[4][5]

See also

• Amami Ōshima language
• Ryukyuan languages
• Amami Ōshima

References

1. Southern Amami Ōshima at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
2. "ams | ISO 639-3". iso639-3.sil.org. Retrieved 2020-02-25.
3. "ryn | ISO 639-3". iso639-3.sil.org. Retrieved 2020-02-25.
4. Heinrich, Patrick (2014-08-25). "Use them or lose them: There's more at stake than language in reviving Ryukyuan tongues". The Japan Times. Retrieved 2020-09-15.
5. Anderson, Mark (January 2019). "Studies of Ryukyu-substrate Japanese". Routledge Handbook of Japanese Sociolinguistics. Routledge: 441–457. doi:10.4324/9781315213378-28. ISBN 9781315213378. S2CID 196922667.