The 186th Asian Forum, "Ryukyuan Picture Book Project: Folklore Documentation in the Ryukyuan Languages of Okinoerabu, Tarama, Taketomi and Yonaguni Islands"

We are delighted to announce the 186th Asian Forum, ”Ryukyuan Picture Book Project: Folklore Documentation in the Ryukyuan Languages of Okinoerabu, Tarama, Taketomi and Yonaguni Islands”

Date: 2020 October 27, 10:00-11:10
Lecturer: YAMADA, Masahiro (National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics)

Ryukyuan Languages are the local languages traditionally spoken in Ryukyu Islands where are the present Kagoshima and Okinawa prefectures. The number of the people who use local Ryukyuan languages in daily life is decreasing. These languages are reported as "endangered languages." What can researchers do for language revitalization? I have been documenting local folk stories and have published them into picture books, because they are easily accessible to children, the next generation of the islands as well as their parents. The picture books are also attractive to the wider audience. Thus, I made an attempt to publish Ryukyuan picture books in Japanese and English as well as the original local language. The picture books are written in Ryukyuan languages, Japanese and English, in order to raise the awareness of such languages in the whole society.

Poster

Venue: Zoom, please pre-register via the link below.
https://forms.gle/HpwL9CmYV1orGs2CA

*Lecture in Japanese.