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The YaeyamaLanguage is a SakishimaLanguage of Japan. SIL code: RYS. ISO 639-2: mis. Population: No estimate available. Region: Southern Okinawa, Ishigaki, Iriomote, Hatoma, Kohama, Taketomi, Kuroshima, Hateruma, Aregusuku islands. Alternate names: YAYEYAMA. Dialects: ISHIGAKI, KABIRA, SHIRAHO, TAKETOMI, KOHAMA, HATOMA, SONAI, KUROSHIMA, HATERUMA. Comments: Inherent intelligibility is generally impossible or very difficult with other Ryukyuan languages and Japanese. The younger the generation, the more fluently they speak Japanese (Hattori in Wurm and Hattori 1981). Those under 20 are monolingual in Japanese (T. Fukuda SIL 1989). Those over 50 use Yaeyama at home among themselves but can understand and use Standard Japanese. Those 20-50 can understand Yaeyama but mainly use Japanese at home and work.(extract from http://www.ethnologue.com/)
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