Dialects: Irabu-Jima, Miyako-Jima (Hirara, Ogami), Tarama-Minna. Not intelligible of Ryukyuan languages and Japanese ,. Dialects listed have noticeable differences, but communication is not impossible.
Genealogy:
Demographics: Ethnic population: 67,700 (2000).
Language Use: Mainly older adults. The younger the generation, the more fluently they speak Japanese [jpn] (Wurm and Hattori 1981). Those under 20 are mainly monolingual in Japanese (1989 T. Fukuda).
Language Development: Dictionary. Grammar.
Nation of Origin: Japan