Ryukyuan languages
The Ryukyuan languages belong to the Japonic language family, related to the Japanese language. The Ryukyuan languages are not mutually intelligible with Japanese—in fact, they are not even mutually intelligible with each other—and thus are usually considered separate languages. However, for socio-political and ideological reasons, they have often been classified within Japan as dialects of Japanese. Since the beginning of World War II, most mainland Japanese have regarded the Ryukyuan languages as a dialect or group of dialects of Japanese. During World War II, in an effort to build consciousness in people as subjects of the Japanese Empire, not only the Ryukyuan group, but also Korean, Palauan and various other languages were referred to as dialects of Japanese.