An Introduction to The National Language Research Institute: A Sketch of its Achievements
Third Edition(1988)/ HTML Version(1997)

[contens]| [previous]| [next]

II.1.6 A Dictionary of the Ryu~kyu~an Language

(Source 5, 1963. 854 pages)
This dictionary lists approximately 15,000 words of the dialect of Syuri, the old capital of Okinawa (now incorporated into Naha City). This dialect is the leading mode of speech of the Ryu~kyu~ Archipelago. The dictionary gives a phonological transcription, with tone marks, of all the words, and adds the traditional Ryu~kyu~an transcription in kana for words found in poems and plays written in the Syuri dialect. The work has also the following appendices: a) Linguistic introduction, with an exposition of the features of the Syuri dialect, especially of the phonology and the morphology of verbs and adjectives, b) A list of place-names of the Ryu~kyu~s, with maps. This work is based on a manuscript submitted to the Institute by SIMABUKURO Seibin, a specialist in Ryu~kyu~an literature who was born in Syuri. A further survey was carried out by the Institute in cooperation with the writer and with HIKA Syuntyo~, a well-known historian from Syuri. The appendices were added and the work was completely revised, however, by UEMURA Yukio of the Institute.

[contens]| [previous]| [next]