“Words That Open Your Heart”—Overcoming Social Barriers to Heritage Language Reclamation in Ishigaki City

Abstract

Ishigaki Yaeyaman, a heavily minoritized Southern Ryukyuan language, is not a language of commerce, education, media, or government validated by the socioeconomic center. Nevertheless, it holds a certain value for a group of people in Ishigaki City that is intangible and deeply personal. In keeping with the goal of this special issue—to step out of the established dichotomies that impede the vision and practice of Ryukyuan language learning—this work sheds light on the ideologies and practices of new speakers of Ishigaki Yaeyaman, who traverse a ‘third space’ in their use of the language between public-and-private, polite-and-rude, spoken-and-written, and Japanese-and-Ryukyuan. It builds on the author’s findings, including field observations made during doctoral research at University of the Ryukyus. A participatory action research methodology is employed, drawing upon qualitative data from semi-structured personal interviews and the in-person observation of Master–Apprentice language learning sessions within a local grassroots initiative begun in December 2019. The analysis suggests a need to break away from the dichotomies dictating the environment and situations in which new speakers may interact with traditional speakers and among themselves. This is recommended to take the form of Master–Apprentice training in a context that encourages the transformation of language attitudes and awareness, creating a ‘safe space’ that is dialogic, collaborative, and transdisciplinary.