Okinoerabu dialects are classified into two groups:
Eastern Okinoerabu
Western Okinoerabu
The linguistic boundary between Eastern and Western Okinoerabu roughly corresponds to the administrative boundary between Wadomari and China. In addition, the eastern community of Kunigami is known for sporadically retaining a centralized vowel, which is a characteristic of Northern Amami. For example, is contrasted with . The northwestern community of Tamina has a distinctive accentual system.
Folk terminology
Takahashi Takayo, a cultural anthropologist from the island, stated that the language of each community or the island as a whole was called shimamuni. Each language variety within the island had distinctive characteristics. The language of the community of Kunigami on the island, for example, was referred to as Kunigami-bushi. It retained mutually intelligibility with the languages of the island's other communities. It is said that Okinoerabu was mutually unintelligible with neighboring Yoron and Tokunoshima.
Phonology
Eastern Okinoerabu
The following is the phonology of the Wadomari dialect, which is based on Hirayama et al.. As with most Ryukyuan languages to the north of Central Okinawan, stops are described as "plain" C’ and "glottalized" C‘. Phonetically, the two series are lightly aspirated and tenuis, respectively.
Consonants
Notes
The zero onset /'/ may be added. It contrasts with glottal and. A minimal pair is , and .
"Tense", and are in process of merging into "plain", and, respectively.
Eastern Okinoerabu and are of secondary origin and mostly correspond to Standard Japanese diphthongs.
Standard Japanese, and correspond to , and .
Standard Japanese corresponds to by default. Japanese and are usually in Eastern Okinoerabu, but some words have for Standard Japanese. Reflexes in is occasionally found as well.
Historical is dropped when it appears between any vowel and.
and palatalized before. Standard Japanese and correspond to Eastern Okinoerabu and.
Standard Japanese corresponds to in the word-initial position and to elsewhere.
The fusion of consecutive morae resulted in the glottalized and 'tense' consonants in Eastern Okinoerabu.
Western Okinoerabu
The following is the phonology of the China dialect, which is based on Hirayama et al..
Consonants
Notes
The zero onset /'/ may be added. It contrasts with glottal and.
is before and, and before and.
is new and infrequent.
and are realized as and, respectively.
is before and, and elsewhere.
,, and are phonemically analyzed as,, and, respectively.
, and are phonemically analyzed as, and, respectively.
Vowels
Western Okinoerabu has,,, and, long and short.
Differences between Eastern and Western Okinoerabu
Standard Japanese and are merged into in Western Okinoerabu while they correspond to and in Eastern Okinoerabu.
Similarly, Western Okinoerabu has not undergone palatalization.
