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Ethnologue: Languages of the World
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Ethnologue > Web version > Country index > Asia > Japan > Kikai

Kikai

A language of Japan

ISO 639-3kzg

Population  Ethnic population: 13,066 (2000).
Region  Northeast Okinawa; Kikai Island.
Language map  Japan
Dialects  Onotsu. Inherent intelligibility is generally impossible or very difficult with other Ryukyuan languages and Japanese [jpn].
Classification  Japonic, Ryukyuan, Amami-Okinawan, Northern Amami-Okinawan
Language use  Mainly older adults. The younger the generation, the more fluently they speak Japanese (Wurm and Hattori 1981). Those under 20 are mainly monolingual in Japanese (1989 T. Fukuda).