Okinawan Japanese
History. The Ryukyuan languages were once widely spoken throughout the Ryukyu Islands, but saw a decline in speakers as a result of assimilation policies during much of pre-WW2 Japan. This event caused the Ryukyuan people to experience a language shift towards Japanese. In the Okinawa Islands specifically, many learners of Japanese spoke it with a substrate from the Okinawan languages, causing a distinct variety of Standard Japanese to form, known as Okinawan Japanese. Differences from Standard Japanese. There are a number of aspects of Okinawan Japanese that are borrowed from Standard Japanese, but have different uses or  meanings. For example, a number of verb inflections and words indicating aspect and mood are the same in Standard Japanese and Okinawan Japanese, but have different uses in both. "Hazu" means "due, scheduled, or supposed to occur", which indicates a high degree of probability in Standard Japanese. Yet in Okinawan Japanese it indicates a much lower degree of probability, more like "probably" or "may occur". In Standard Japanese, the auxiliaries "mashou", "you", and "ou" are combined with the particle "ne" after a verb and used to make a suggestion. An example is "ikimashou ne" (Let's go). In Okinawan Japanese , this would express a speaker's will. It would mean "I will go" instead. Particles and demonstratives are another aspect of Okinawan Japanese grammar that differ from Japanese. The particle "kara" which means "from" or "since" in Japanese, means "as" or "because" in Okinawan Japanese. So, "kara" is used in Okinawan Japanese where "wo" or "de" is used in Japanese. Some words have different meanings in Standard Japanese. For example, "aruku" means "go around" or "work" in Okinawan Japanese, but means "walk" in Standard. "Korosu" means "hit" in Okinawan Japanese and "kill" in Standard. Many Okinawan youth use words borrowed  from Japanese slang, such as "mecchaa" (very) and "dasadasa" (country bumpkin). English borrowings. Okinawan Japanese contains some English loan words. Examples are "paaraa" (parlor), "biichii paatii" (beach party), and "takoraisu" (taco rice). One word combines the English word 'rich' with the Okinawan suffix "-aa" to create "ricchaa" (a rich person).