Okinawan scripts

<a href="/facts/Okinawan_language/bvbI6K0S">Okinawan</a>, spoken in <a href="/facts/Okinawa_Island/b5V1XXmd">Okinawa Island</a>, was once the official language of the <a href="/facts/Ryukyu_Kingdom/fKFl8pj2">Ryukyu Kingdom</a>. At the time, documents were written in <a href="/facts/Kanji/E1IN7hVL">kanji</a> and <a href="/facts/Hiragana/RTn1gxfS">hiragana</a>, derived from <a href="/facts/Japan/U5mz0SRT">Japan</a>. 
Although generally agreed among <a href="/facts/Linguistics/oQuamvf2">linguists</a> to be a distinct language, most Japanese, as well as some Okinawans, tend to think of Okinawan as merely a regional dialect of <a href="/facts/Japanese_language/EEv485a5">Japanese</a>, even though it is not <a href="/facts/Mutual_intelligibility/h1SbX0wN">intelligible</a> to monolingual Japanese speakers. Modern Okinawan is not written frequently. <a href="/facts/Japanese_writing_system/0Jt6VooH">The Japanese writing system</a> is used in Okinawan scripts. There is no standard <a href="/facts/Orthography/sJPhCpsU">orthography</a> for the modern language. Nonetheless, there are a few systems used by scholars and laypeople alike. None of them are widely used by native speakers, but represent the language with less ambiguity than the ad hoc conventions. The Roman alphabet in some form or another is used in some publications, especially those of an academic nature.

Okinawan scripts open-in-new

Okinawan scripts