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Tarama
Tarama
Native to	Japan
Region	Tarama, Okinawa
Native speakers	(undated figure of mostly over age 60?[citation needed])
Language family	Japonic Ryukyuan Southern Ryukyuan Miyakoan Tarama; ; ; ;
Dialects	Tarama Island;
Writing system	Japanese
Language codes
ISO 639-3	None (mis)
Glottolog	tara1319

The Tarama language is a Japonic language spoken on the islands of Tarama and nearly depopulated Minna, two of the Miyako Islands of Japan. It is closely related to Miyakoan, but intelligibility is low. Currently, is only spoken natively by elderly people.

Phonology

Vowels

Tarama has four main vowels, and three marginal vowels /e, ə, o/ found in a restricted set of words.

Tarama vowels
	Front	Central	Back
Close	(i)	ɨ	u
Mid	(e)	(ə)	(o)
Open		a

/ɨ/ is [s̩] between voiceless consonants, otherwise [ˢɨ] after plosives, and [ɨ] elsewhere:

[ps̩tu] 'person', [kˢɨːlu] 'yellow', [mɨːɡɨ] 'right'

See also Miyakoan language#Vowels, for information on the close central vowel.

The sequences /*tɨ/, /*dɨ/, /*nɨ/, /*lɨ/ do not occur. They have changed to /tsɨ/, /zɨ/, /n̩/ and /l/ ([ɭ̆]).

Consonants

Tarama does have voiced stops:

Tarama consonants
	Labial	Alveolar	Velar
Nasal	m	n
Plosive	p b	t d	k ɡ
Affricate		ts
Fricative	f v	s z
Rhotic		𝼈 ⟨l⟩
Approximant	w~ʋ	j

The 'l' is a retroflex lateral flap, also found in the Irabu language (Jarosz p. 43). /m n f v s z l/ occur as syllable codas, as in pail 'to grow' (Japanese haeru), psks 'to pull' (Japanese hiku).

The two nasals may be syllabic, as in mm 'potato' and nna 'rope'. 'Onsets' include geminate consonants, as in ssam 'loose' and ffa 'child'. Otherwise, the only consonant clusters are /Cj/, as in kjuu 'today', sjata 'sugar'. Sonorants can end syllables and words, as in kan 'crab', mim 'ear', and tul 'bird'. Vowel sequences include long vowels Vː and the 'diphthongs' Vi, and Vɨ. This structure has been analyzed as a syllable, but initial geminate consonants, long vowels and diphthongs are all bimoraic, and codas are moraic as well, so that e.g. ssam is three moras ([s̩sam̩]. A phonological word must be at least two moras long.

Orthography

Tarama Orthography^[1]
	/a/	/i/	/ɿ/	/u/	/e/	/o/	/ə/	/ja/	/ju/	/jo/
/Ø/	あ /a/ [a]	い /i/ [i]	イ゚ /ɿ/ [^zɨ]	う /u/ [u]	え /e/ [e]	お /o/ [o]	エ /ə/ [ə]	や /ya/ [ja]	ゆ /yu/ [ju]	よ /yo/ [jo]
/k/	か /ka/ [ka]	き /ki/ [ki]	キ゚ /kɿ/ [k^sɨ]	く /ku/ [ku]	け /ke/ [ke]	こ /ko/ [ko]	キ゚ェ /kə/ [kə]	きゃ /kya/ [kja]	きゅ /kyu/ [kju]	きょ /kyo/ [kjo]
/g/	が /ga/ [ga]	ぎ /gi/ [gi]	ギ /gɿ/ [g^zɨ]	ぐ /gu/ [gu]	げ /ge/ [ge]	ご /go/ [go]	ギェ /gə/ [gə]	ぎゃ /gya/ [gja]	ぎゅ /gyu/ [gju]	ぎょ /gyo/ [gjo]
/s/	さ /sa/ [sa]	すぃ /si/ [si]	す /sɿ/ [sɨ]	すぅ /su/ [su]	せ /se/ [se]	そ /so/ [so]	すェ /sə/ [sə]
/dz/	ざ /dza/ [dza]		ず /dzɿ/ [dzɨ]	ずぅ /dzu/ [dzu]	ぜ /dze/ [dze]	ぞ /dzo/ [dzo]	ずェ /dzə/ [dzə]
/sh/	しゃ /sha/ [ɕa]	し /shi/ [ɕi]		しゅ /shu/ [ɕu]	しぇ /she/ [ɕe]	しょ /sho/ [ɕo]
/j/	じゃ /ja/ [dʑa]	じ /ji/ [dʑi]		じゅ /ju/ [dʑu]	じぇ /je/ [dʑe]	じょ /jo/ [dʑo]
/z/	ズぁ /za/ [za]	ズぃ /zi/ [zi]		ズぅ /ju/ [zu]	ズぇ /ze/ [ze]	ズぉ /zo/ [zo]
/t/	た /ta/ [ta]	てぃ /ti/ [ti]		とぅ /tu/ [tu]	て /te/ [te]	と /to/ [to]
/d/	だ /da/ [da]	でぃ /di/ [di]		どぅ /du/ [du]	で /de/ [de]	ど /do/ [do]
/ch/	ちゃ /cha/ [tɕa]	ち /chi/ [tɕi]	つ /chɿ/ [tɕɨ]	ちゅ /chu/ [tɕu]	ちぇ /che/ [tɕe]	ちょ /cho/ [tɕo]	つェ /chə/ [tsə]
/n/	な /na/ [na]	に /ni/ [ni]		ぬ /nu/ [nu]	ね /ne/ [ne]	の /no/ [no]		にゃ /nya/ [nja]	にゅ /nyu/ [nju]	にょ /nyo/ [njo]
/h/	は /ha/ [ha]	ひ /hi/ [hi]		ほぅ /hu/ [hu]	へ /he/ [he]	ほ /ho/ [ho]		ひゃ /hya/ [hja]	ひゅ /hyu/ [hju]	ひょ /hyo/ [hjo]
/p/	ぱ /pa/ [pa]	ぴ /pi/ [pi]	ピ /pɿ/ [p^sɨ]	ぷ /pu/ [pu]	ぺ /pe/ [pe]	ぽ /po/ [po]	ピェ /pə/ [pə]	ぴゃ /pya/ [pja]	ぴゅ /pyu/ [pju]	ぴょ /pyo/ [pjo]
/b/	ば /ba/ [ba]	び /bi/ [bi]	ビ /bɿ/ [b^zɨ]	ぶ /bu/ [bu]	べ /be/ [be]	ぼ /bo/ [bo]	ビェ /bə/ [bə]	びゃ /bya/ [bja]	びゅ /byu/ [bju]	びょ /byo/ [bjo]
/m/	ま /ma/ [ma]	み /mi/ [mi]	ミ゚ /mɿ/ [mɨ]	む /mu/ [mu]	め /me/ [me]	も /mo/ [mo]	ミ゚ェ /mə/ [mə]	みゃ /mya/ [mja]	みゅ /myu/ [mju]	みょ /myo/ [mjo]
/f/	ふぁ /fa/ [fa]	ふぃ /fi/ [fi]	ふィ゚ /fɿ/ [fɨ]	ふ /fu/ [fu]	ふぇ /fe/ [fe]	ふぉ /fo/ [fo]	ふェ /fə/ [fə]
/v/	ヴぁ /va/ [va]	ヴぃ /vi/ [vi]	ヴィ゚ /vɿ/ [vɨ]	ヴぅ /vu/ [vu]	ヴぇ /ve/ [ve]	ヴぉ /vo/ [vo]	ヴェ /və/ [və]
/ʋ/	わ /ʋa/ [ʋa]					を /ʋo/ [ʋo]
/r/*	ら /ra/ [ɾa]	り /ri/ [ɾi]		る /ru/ [ɾu]	れ /re/ [ɾe]	ろ /ro/ [ɾo]		りゃ /rya/ [ɾja]	りゅ /ryu/ [ɾju]	りょ /ryo/ [ɾjo]
	ん /N/ [n, ŋ]	ム /M/ [m]	ヴ /V/ [v]	リ゚ /ɭ/ [ɭ]	ー /ː/ [ː]	っ (final) /ʔ/ [ʔ]		っ /Q/ [k, g, s, dz, ɕ, dʑ, t, d, tɕ, b, p, f]

* Geminates as /ɭɭ/ [ɭɭ].

References

^ 渡久山, 春英; セリック, ケナン; Shunei, Tokuyama; Kenan, Celik (2020). "南琉球宮古語多良間方言辞典". 国立国語研究所言語変異研究領域: 1–555. doi:10.15084/00003108. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)