Yamamotogutxi

A creole of Japanese, and the local language of Admiral Yamamoto Land. Yamamotogutxi is romanized similarly to Japanese *there*. Yamamotogutxi is rarely written down, but when it is, it usually uses an orthography based on Catacana or one that imitates standard Japanese by mixing Candji, Hiragana, and Catacana. Because AYL has seen large amounts of immigration from the Chinas, Corea, and India, there are influences of all of these languages on the Yamamotogutxi. Yamamotogutxi is sometimes referred to as 山本方言(yamamoto-hògen) in Standard Japanese.

As with many creoles, Yamamotogutxi exists on a spectrum with Standard Japanese.

Vocabulary

Yamamotogutxi draws much of its vocabulary from Japanese, but in many cases there is some semantic shift from the original Japanese meaning.

Yamamotogutxi	English	Meaning in Standard Japanese	Standard Japanese Equivalent
アタマ　クサ 頭草 atama cusa	hair	"head grass"	髪の毛 cami no que
オオ　サカナ 大魚 ò sacana	whale	"great fish"	鯨 cudjira
マツリ 祭り maçuli	birthday	"festival"	誕生日 tañjòbi
フタリ 二人 futali	married couple	"two" (when counting people)	夫婦 fùfu
マツ 待つ maçu	to loiter, to mill about	"to wait"	彷徨く uroçucu
ドオワ 童話 dòwa	nonsense story, cock-and-bull story	"fairy tale"	眉唾 maiuçuba

Yamamotogutxi also draws loanwords from Chinese dialects, Corean, and Indian languages. Note that these words are always written in Catacana even in a Candji-centric orthography.

Yamamotogutxi	English	Etymology	Standard Japanese
ママ mama	mother	Mandarin Chinese 妈妈, "mother"	お母さん、母 ocàsañ, haha
ババ baba	father	Mandarin Chinese 爸爸, "father"	お父さん、父 otòsañ, txitxi
シェシェ xexe	Thank you	Mandarin Chinese 谢谢, "thank you"	ありがとお arigatò
ハウチイ hautxì	nice, cool	Mandarin Chinese 好吃, "delicious"	かっこいい caccoì
ドンム doñmu	boyfriend/girlfriend	Corean 동무, "friend"	恋人 coibito
メクジュ mecudju	beer	Corean 맥주(麥酒), "beer"	麦酒, セルベツァ bakuxu, serubeça (from Montreiano cerveça)
ヨボ yobo	term of address for a significant other	Corean 여보, "sweetheart"	あなた、あんた anata, anta
ヌナ nuna	term of address for a woman around the speaker's age	Corean 누나, "older sister"
バクチ bakutxi	idiot, dumbass	Cantonese Chinese 白痴, "idiot"	馬鹿 baca
ラウシイ rauxì	term for older Chinese men; colloquially, something like "sugar daddy" *here*	Mandarin Chinese 老师, "teacher"
ダアク　ナマエ dàku namae	nickname, code name, alias	Ban̊glá ডাক নাম, meaning "pet name" or "nickname". The Japanese word 名前 namae (name) was related to the Ban̊glá word নাম nám, meaning the same.	あだ名、異名 adana, imiò
マツァ maça	term for an Indian man or boy	Ðamiŗ மச்சான், "brother-in-law" or a term of endearment
ハナニム hananimu	God (Chiefly Christian usage)	Corean 하나님, "God"	神様 cami-sama
イェスニム iesunimu	Jesus	Corean 예수님, "Jesus"	イエス íesu

Grammar

Yamamotogutxi has a much stricter word order than Standard Japanese, owing to the fact that many Standard Japanese particles have been dropped from the language. It follows an SVO order due to native Papuan language and Chinese language influence.

Verbs inflect only for positive and negative forms. To form the negative, the particle "-heñ" is appended to the end of the root verb.

クウ	クウヘン
食う	食うへん
eat	do not eat

Verbs do not inflect for tense, this is left up to context or clarified via either a temporal adverb.

キノオ　タカヒロサン　ノム　オサケ	アシタ　タカヒロ　サン　ノム　オサケ
昨日孝宏さん飲むお酒	明日孝宏さん飲むお酒
Quinò Tacahiro-sañ nomu osace.	Axita Tacahiro-sañ nomu osace.
Yesterday Takahiro-san drank sake.	Tomorrow Takahiro-san will drink sake.

Whereas Standard Japanese has an expansive system of politeness levels and honorifics, Yamamotogutxi is fairly casual in contrast. The only honorific used in the language is "-sañ".

Yamamotogutxi also has a greater tendency to use pronouns compared to Standard Japanese, as well as repeat subjects when Standard Japanese would leave them unspecified when contextually clear.

Literature

While Yamamotogutxi is a chiefly spoken language, it still boasts a modest literary tradition. Many local authors have written poems in it, developing a style known as 島の詩/シマ　ノ　シ xima no xi, or "island poetry." As with spoken Yamamotogutxi, code-switching between Standard Japanese styles of poetry and xima no xi is common.

Corean missionaries from various sects of Christianity have written translations of the Bible in both Catacana based scripts and Candji based scripts. A sample translation of John 3:16 is given below:

Yamamoto-gutxi	Standard Japanese	English translation
ハナニム　ソノホド　アイスル　セカイ　カラ、アゲル　ヒトツ　ムスコ。 ハナニムそのほど愛する世界から、上げる一つ息子。 Hananimu sono hodo aisuru secai cara, ageru hitoçu musuco.	神はそのひとり子を賜わったほどに、この世を愛して下さった。 Cami wa sono hitoli co wo tamawatta hodo ni, cono secai wo ai xite kudasatta.	For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son.