National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics (National Institutes for the Humanities) - Modal Expressions in Yaeyaman

This project aims to document and analyse how the endangered language Yaeyaman, a Ryukyuan language spoken on the Yaeyama Islands, forms expressions of "necessity" and "possibility" (modality). Although these expressions are a crucial aspect of natural language that are commonly used in daily communication, there is little to no documentation of modality in Ryukyuan languages. In collaboration with researchers from the National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics (NINJAL) in Tokyo, The University of the Ryukyus in Okinawa, and University College London, this project involves preparing questionnaires and conducting fieldwork with native speakers of Yaeyaman, recording their speech as language data. Upon processing and annotating the data, theories to formalise the modal system of Yaeyaman will be formed and the data will be publicly archived to be used in educational materials aimed at revitalising the language. The data and analysis will not only contribute to the linguistic heritage and identity of Yaeyaman speaking communities, but also enrich formal semantic accounts of modality from a cross-linguistic perspective, allowing us to compare Yaeyaman to other Ryukyuan languages and Japanese and language around the globe. Despite the observable diversity in languages, we expect linguistic universals to arise from the architecture of the common language faculty of the human mind.