“Some Don’t Even Know Where South Is!”: Linguistic Strategies for Spatial Reference and Seasons in Ishigaki Yaeyaman and Their Disappearance

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The author presents an overview of how speakers of Yaeyama Ryukyuan conceptualise space, and how it connects to language use and loss against the backdrop of forced language shift through language policy. The data comes from several interviews and present not only the language in a descriptive manner, but expands on this with extensive comments from the speakers.

I personally enjoyed reading a paper written in this approach as it provides important information on the socio-cultural background in which linguistic diversity is found, and what kind of factors influence how we use language and the effects that has on our conceptualisations of the world around us. The study shows tht interactions between marginalised and majority languages alter more than just the form of a language; it alters the meanings speakers use. Therefore, I feel this study contributes to our understanding of language in the broadest sense. Language does not exist in a vacuum, but has a place and role within a community and in cases such as those presented in the paper, outside influence can force linguistic changes that affect the community.

I just have some small comments:

- Is there a specific reason why the figures explaining the close spatial conceptualisation (Figures 4, 5) are oriented the way they are? For example, do they fit with what the speakers would prefer? If not, one suggestion would to rotate them 180 degrees so that the person in the figure is looking in the same direction as the reader would be when reading the paper. This aligns the left/right of the figure with the reader's left/right as well, which might be more intuitive. For the large scale conceptualisations (e.g. the houses), it works okay because "south" is indicated in the figure, and it aligns with what is generally used in maps.

- Would it be possible to change Figure 10 so that is has the same size as the similar Figure 9?

- The references need some work; they are incomplete, sometimes only comprising a last name and year.

- Just out of personal curiosity: what are the 9 Yaeyama varieties that have been lost in the 20th century?

Author Response

Dear Reviewer 1,

Thank you very much for reading and offering me this very useful feedback. 

Here are my responses to the comments for this online journal process.

1. Regarding the close at hand figures, this is a suggestion that probably makes is more natural for the reader and one I am happy to follow. However, just as the other expressions are based on one sitting or standing and facing south. Would it be better if I added a south facing arrow and left them as is, or follow the reviewers advice and spin them to be north facing?
2. I can rebalance it so the part from figure 9 in figure 10 is the similar in size though it will probably be a little smaller.
3. Yes, I spent a lot of time putting everything into Zotero, but it is unclear which Zotero option is the most appropriate for the journal and no one I ask seems to know. Regardless, I will definitely sort the bibliography out before resubmission.
4. Great question! There are still a few varieties where 'never say never' could still be possible. So much resettlement by people from other islands after disasters also adds to the confusion. In discussions with Matthew Topping and Yuko Urabe along with the cited 2009 Takashi article it was agreed that  those lost varieties include Hoshitate on Iriomote, the diversity on Aragusuku, Kuroshima reducing to one each, and the loss of Hirakubo, Iburama, Fukai, Yasura, Nosoko, and Momosato on Ishigaki island. Should I add this as an endnote?

Thank you very much

Reviewer 2 Report

Thank you for submitting an interesting research about the Yaeyaman language and the Ryukyus.

Your manuscript provides the readers with interesting information and summary of the Yaeyaman language research. I have several comments and suggestions for the author. These are just my suggestions. 

1．In the abstract, you state that "through the words of the 14 speakers while describing their use of these systems how their minds have been colonized and how this drives an automatic behavior of language accommodation towards the Japanese."  It might be good to mention that colonization is embedded in their mind, unconcsiously. Many individuals do not seem to share the discourse of "colonization" in Yaeyama, internally. The current way of writing may indicate that they are aware of the colonization but many people are not (speaking from my experiences). 

2. In Discriptive work in Yaeyaman, I think the pronunciation for 前新 for Taketomi Dialect Dictionary is Maeara, not Maeshin. Please check it to make sure if the name is correctly cited. There is also a new article by Aso, Celik and Nakazawa (2022) on Accent in Miyara Yaeyaman. (Maybe the author only summarize articles of descriptive grammar?). 

3. I am not sure what you mean by (GD Freak!, 2022) as one of the in-texts references. Could you clarify that? 

4. When the authors start using words from interviewees, some words are written in English and some are written in Japanese (for instance, interviewee A). Did the authors use Yaeyaman when doing interviews and transltated into English, and leave those sections said in Japanese in Japanese? A little clarification about which language was used in the interview would help the readers. 

5. In the introduction section, the authors use the term, lingusitic colonization. It would be better to have a citation or references to refer to this term in endangered, minoritized langauges in general.

6. I wonder if authors should also acknowledge some previous research on social mobility and language. There are some research such as....

 _{Wang, X., Spotti, M., Juffermans, K., Cornips, L., Kroon, S. & Blommaert, J. (2014). Globalization in the margins: toward a re-evalution of language and mobility. Applied Linguistics Review, 5(1), 23-44. https://doi.org/10.1515/applirev-2014-0002}

_{7. I see that authors use ï when they refer to the vowel that exist in Yaeyaman. I think piddaru (left), u should also be the vowel ("nakajita vowel"). Although younger speakers may not use it or individual differences may exist, you may want to double check it with other resources.}

8. Speaking from my experiences, people in thier 30s still use these expressions such as manta and shinta in some places in Yaeyama. The degree of loss may have regional differences.

9. In the conclusion section, the authors wrote: the modern Yaeyaman rusty or semi speaker appears completely consumed with concerns of not appropriately accommodating to monolingual Japanese speakers. it would be better to include any referene here, to use data to support your ideas and not to make blames on pople (rusty speakers, semi-speakers of Yaeyaman) for losing thier languages and nonconformist concepts. 

10. What should younger speakers/learnes of Ryukyuan/Yaeyaman do to learn non-conformist concepts in their heritage language?  If authors could give any suggestions for them, it would be wonderful.

Author Response

Dear Reviewer 2,

Thank you so much for  your valuable feedback. I really appreciate it.

1. I added the word unconsciously colonized to emphasise the fact as you suggest that they are very unaware of how much their minds have been colonized. Perhaps that is enough?
2. Thank you for the suggestion on Madara. I also added the noun accent paper to the chart and bibliography
3. Yes sorry in the bibliography it is JD freak!. I corrected it to GD Freak! A strange name, but that is where the statistical data are available on the internet. Hopefully this is the correct citation process for a website with no author?
4. I added this sentence in the methods sections  'Interviews were primarily conducted in Japanese and cited here in English (my translation) except for elicitations and examples of orientation systems, which were conducted in Yaeyaman.'
5. I am not sure what the best citation for this term is in the indigenous context, but I bet the editor of this edition probably does. I will ask them about this when I submit the revised draft.
6. This is a very good article. Thank you very much for recommending it to me. However, I am not sure where in the paper to add this,
7. Sorry, The editor was very specific in requiring Hepburn style for Japanese and we decided to also remove the ï from words like Shïkaaza. Leaving those in is a typo on my part. I have turned them into regular 'i's.
8. I am very happy to hear this and I wonder which region? Perhaps in Miyara the situation is a lot better. It is true that a more exhaustive study of the usage of these terms in other villages would have led to a clearer picture of the where things lie. I hope to continue this research in my PhD thesis. 
9. This seems similar to the comment about the abstract. It was far from my intention to suggest that anything is the fault of the speakers. I added similar language of unconscious colonization of the mind to make that clearer.
10. Thank you very  much for encouraging me to offer suggestions. I believe the last paragraph of the conclusion is now much improved.