Comments on: What? Such culture exists in Okinawa

By: Aceface

Aceface — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 17:57:03 +0000

Just finish reading the interview on Japan Focus.

I decided,the very day my son graduate from college,I’m off to the U.S and settle there,buying a house and a flag and a gun.

By: Aceface

Aceface — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 16:32:13 +0000

Any of you have seen the film”Untamagiru”directed by Takamine Go?
It is sort of an irony that Takamine start making film in Okinawan when he was in Kyoto and this movie was funded by SAISON.
http://streaming.yahoo.co.jp/p/t/00026/v01409/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjA6BWMbeko

By: Matt

Matt — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 10:01:51 +0000

Don’t forget Ainu! It’s not Japonic, but it’s still Japanese.

My impression is that the initial architects of 標準語 weren’t trying to deny anything about the linguistic situation in Japan– defining and promulgating a national standard was necessary precisely because there wasn’t one. It wasn’t until after they were done, 標準語 was a generation or two deep, and Kansai-ben etc. were safely marked “+quaint variation” that people started forgetting (or “forgetting”) that 標準語 hadn’t always been around. (The fact that most ancient texts and certainly the most famous ones are written in a fairly standard Heian/capital status dialect also encourages the myth of an unbroken chain of increasingly ancient 標準語s going back to earliest antiquity, I think)

By: W. David MARX

W. David MARX — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 00:37:29 +0000

Japan is a country that originally had an astounding amount of linguistic diversity in terms of dialect, and if also considering Okinawa/Ryukyu, in terms of language. Then the government steamrolls this after the Meiji Period and has the balls to say, “We are a country of linguistic unity” as if to say, “This road was always paved.”