#uchinaaguchi

life is the very thing we treasure

ブクブク茶 Bukubuku-cha

Bukubuku tea is a a type of furicha, a traditional Ryukyuan (Okinawan) tea. The tea was almost forced into extinction during-after the Battle of Okinawa. There were revival efforts in the 1950's and it was officially restored in the 1980's. The roots and origin of this tea are assumed to have begun around 1587 during the Ryukyu Kingdom.

My friend and I went to the Namin Matsuri at 波上宮 (Naminoue in JP/Nanmin meaning "Above the Waves" in Uchinaaguchi) and the Bukubuku Tea Preservation Society was there offering tea with chinsuko.

うちなーぐちぐゆみ3月26日（やまとぅぐゆみ2024年4月23日）

くんどぅん　しーみー　うわいびたん。うさんみ（御三味）　しきやーに、やーにんじゅ、てぃーひさ　がんじゅー　ないるよー　うにげーさびたん。

―

Which means “Have a happy New Year” in Uchinaaguchi/Okinawan. Kind of. Like most translations, there’s a trade off between functional equivalency and literal meanings. In this case, I went with the functional version.

Here’s the literal one:

ii or yii: good*

soogwachi: first month (and by extension, the new year)

deebiru: is/will be**

So, “This is/will be a good new year” is a more literal translation.

* It’s very likely that both pronunciations being valid is related to why the word for “good” in Modern Japanese is ii or yoi, depending on context. I’ve done absolutely no research into this hypothesis, so take it with a grain of salt. I am a linguist, but I’m not a Japanese-Ryukyuan languages linguist; my specialization is second language acquisition and English language education.

** Kind of. Deebiru is 1 of at least 3 Uchinaaguchi copular verbs. A full explanation is probably beyond my ability at this point. If you’re familiar with Modern Japanese, this is similar to and a cognate with でございます. If you’re not familiar with Japanese, 🤷🏻‍♀️. Wish I could help, but I can’t at this time.

tl;dr Deebiru means “is” or “will be” here, but not necessarily elsewhere.

Bonus

Earlier today, a friend asked me why I use Latin characters to write in Uchinaaguchi instead of hiragana. Part of the reason is because it makes what I write accessible to Uchinaanchu/Okinawans who don’t read Japanese. The rest of the answer is because neither hiragana nor Latin characters are native to Okinawa; there is unfortunately no native writing system, and if I have to pick a colonizer writing system, I’m going to pick the one that doesn’t require weird hacks to make work with Uchinaaguchi phonology. There are a bunch of sounds that Okinawan has that Japanese doesn’t***, and there’s just no good way to write them in hiragana.

Example 1: “gwachi” (month) from the above “soogwachi” isn’t a possible word in Modern Japanese****. I’d need to write ぐゎち to get there, which is kind of goofy. If you don’t read Japanese, that’s like, “Say gu, but drop the u and add a wa, then say chi.” It’s silly, but not super complicated, which is why it’s only Example 1.

Example 2: ‘kwa (child) is pretty understandable for most folks used to reading Latin characters, aside from the apostrophe, which represents a glottal stop, which is the consonant in the middle of “uh oh” and between the Is of Hawai’i. Written in hiragana, it’s っくゎ, which will just straight up baffle most Japanese speakers, because っ is not an OK way to start a word.

Example 3: ‘nma (horse) is one step further, with an upsetting hiragana transliteration of っんま. Neither っ norん are supposed to go before a full syllable in Japanese, and here both of them are.

Example 4: But, wait. We can go one step beyond that! Nnna means “everyone,” and yes, all of those Ns are important; nna, ‘nna, and na are different words. Nnna could be written as んんな or っんな, neither of which will make anyone happy.

So, yeah. I write Uchinaaguchi using Latin characters because using hiragana just seems messy. And I like making what I know accessible to my fellow diasporic Shimanchu.

*** Modern Japanese has the sounds, but can’t use them the same way, because Japanese has a bunch of sound shifts (allophones). Like, はひふへほ are the H morae (syllables-ish), and are theoretically pronounced ha hi hu he ho, except hi and hu don’t actually exist, because the ‘h’ inふ is a bilabial fricative, which is kind of an F sound, but not, and the ‘h’ in ひ is kind of like a cat hissing at you. The S and T morae have similar things going on, with si, ti, and tu being illegal in Modern Japanese, and shi, chi, and tsu replacing them. Uchinaaguchi, on the other hand, is fine with si & shi, ti & chi, and tu & tsu. Still no actual hi or hu in either language, though. Kind of a bummer for me, but at least I get to hiss like a cat when I introduce myself.

**** It was in Old Japanese, though. Maybe Early Middle Japanese, too. I don’t know. I told you I wasn’t a Japanese-Ryukyuan languages linguist. I do know that /gwa/ was actually the Old Japanese pronunciation of ぐわ, making it interesting that /gwa/ is fine in Modern Okinawan, but not Modern Japanese.

One cool thing I found out today is that Mongolian has topic markers! You guys don't even know how much I love topic markers!

🧾SHOPPING BREAK🏣

Some Okinawan phrases! I already knew these but am breaking them down to anazyse the words in them.

🌺今日やすば屋（やー）にいびたてぃぬ沖縄（うんな）ぬ言葉し話きたん。

🌹I spoke some Uchinaaguchi at a そば restaurant today.

🌸今天我在一家沖繩そば屋裡講了一些沖繩語。

Haisai, gusuuyoo. I hope everyone is safe and doing well. I teamed up with Nami Oshiro, a fantastic Shimanchu American artist based in Virginia, to create the first three items in an ongoing effort to raise funds for independent Shimakutuba practitioners and projects.

Many Shimanchu creators and educators are doing the work on their own time and out of their own pockets, so I'm hoping that this (and future fundraisers) can be a small show of support and gratitude.

This 3" sticker, 2.25" button, and 1.25" acrylic pin set features a Ramones logo-inspired design with an open-mouth shiisaa symbolizing the sharing of good things, i.e. our indigenous languages. There are several distinct languages throughout the Ryūkyū Islands (all of which are endangered), so we decided to go with the six regions recognized by UNESCO: Amami, Kunjan (Kunigami), Uchinaa (Okinawa), Myaaku (Miyako), Yaima (Yaeyama), Dunan (Yonaguni).

Please visit the Ko‑fi shop today! All proceeds (minus item production costs and shipping fees) will be donated to individuals/groups and I'll post receipts once the donations are made.

P.S. I'm still selling items through the Shimanchu Dushi-nu-chaa Online Sale, if you're interested in combining shipping.

Shiisaa illustration by Nami Oshiro

Happy Belated Shimakutuba Day which was on September 18th.

On September 18th, we celebrate the amazingly diverse languages across the Ryukyu Islands. Even within the same “language” or “town”, you’ll find different words, accents, and ways of speaking being used. Sometimes they aren’t mutually intelligible! While we included three language varieties in our post, there are many more!

A big ippee nifee deebiru to Sherry @haisai_Uchinaaguchi on IG for Uchinaaguchi, Martha @lingfieldnotes on IG for Amami Setouchi Shimaguchi and other inclusive language, Micah @mizumicah for Tokunoshima Shimaguchi, and Madoka @ooritaboori on IG for Ishigaki Shika-aza Shikamuni translations, Erica @ekunihisa for the absolutely beautiful illustration!

Side Note: Amami Island celebrates their Shimakutuba Day on February 18th! ❤️