Linguistic analysis of Ryûka – a traditional short poem in the Ryukyu Islands

• Ryûka (song/poem of Ryûkyu Islands) is a traditional short poem developed in the Ryûkyu archipelago of Japan. It is written in Ryûkyuan, which is an endangered sister-language to Japanese. Ryûka corresponds to waka (song/poem of Japan), which has developed in the mainland Japan. Main grammatical difference is discussed by citing the grammatical concord called 'kakari musubi'. The grammatical concord in waka arranged in such a way to make all the five phrases to form a unified unit while that in Ryûka doesn't. It is conjectured that the difference arose because of Ryûka's musical nature.

Subject headings

HUMANIORA  -- Språk och litteratur -- Jämförande språkvetenskap och allmän lingvistik (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Languages and Literature -- General Language Studies and Linguistics (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Ryûka

waka

Ryûkyu Islands

Japan

linguistic analysis

Publication and Content Type

vet (subject category)

kon (subject category)