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Ethnologue > Web version > Country index > Asia > Japan > Amami-Oshima, Northern

Amami-Oshima, Northern

A language of Japan

ISO 639-3ryn

Population  10,000 (2004).
Region  Northwest Okinawa; north Amami-oshima Island.
Language map  Japan
Alternate names   Northern Amami-Osima, Oosima, Oshima, Osima
Dialects  Naze, Sani. 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  Adults only. 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).