#yoanguni

語彙（ぐい）/ Vocabulary / 語彙

・Yonaguni kanji (Dunan kanji)

1) Similar to both Japanese and Uchinaaguchi (Okinawan), it is possible to write Yonaguni using mixture of kanji and kana.

2) Currently there is no standardized Yonaguni orthography, and the modern Yonaguni writing system typically uses only Japanese Kana.

3) The book 與那國島圖誌 published in 1926 provides the earliest written account of Yonaguni Kanji.

• There are three types of Kanji reading existing in Yonaguni:

1) 音読み (on’yomi) - Sino-Japanese words pronounced using Yonaguni phonology. These words are associated with Chinese sounds and meanings.

道理（どぅり）, related to 道理 （dàolǐ）in Chinese.

異国 （いくく）, related to 異國 （yìguó）in Chinese.

2) 訓読み (kun’yomi) - The native reading of Yonaguni vocabulary with borrowed Kanji from Modern Japanese that represent their meanings. These are not cognates with any modern Japanese words.

一緒（まどぅん）

3) 琉訓 (ryu’kun) - Words that are cognates with Japanese. These words are also a type of kun’yomi because they are pronounced using Yonaguni phonology while they use borrowed Han characters to represent their meanings.

生ち虫（いちむし）, related to いき and  むし in Japanese.

町屋（みしや）, related to まちや in Japanese

大和（だまとぅ）, related to やまと in Japanese.

*It must be noted that since Yonaguni has no standardized writing system, sometimes a word may be written in more than one way. For example, 生ち虫 can be written as 動物 while they are both pronounced as いちむし. The latter one is, obviously, kun’yomi reading.

・Example

腹病どぅきりゃ医者ぬ家んき行てぃてぃ来たよ。