| 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). |