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The Okinawan word for "Okinawa" is ウチナー, for "person" is チュ, and for
"Okinawan" (person) is ウチナーンチュ.

I'd like to know where this ン comes from between the part for "Okinawa" and
the part for "person". Japanese 日本人{にほんじん} doesn't seem to have an equivalent.

  * Could it be a reduced form of Okinawan ヌ, the equivalant of standard Japanese の?
  * Could it be an "epenthetic" sound added in certain kinds of compound words?
  * Or something else entirely?
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2014-03-12T13:43:00.657
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grammar particles ryukyuan-languages
In Okinawan, what is the ン in ウチナーンチュ?
I conjecture it is from ぬ <- の. Why?

Okinawan actually has a regular sound change ぬ -> ん. For example, 犬{いぬ} -> いん.
So I presume that somehow the regular sound changes got applied twice, and you
get ん <- ぬ <- の.
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> In Okinawan, what is the ン in ウチナーンチュ?

User ithisa conjectured that this ン is from ぬ, from の. Let's explore.

> Japanese 日本人【にほんじん】 doesn't seem to have an equivalent [to Okinawan ン].

You're correct, but note that the Japanese _on'yomi_ term 日本人【にほんじん】 follows
**Chinese** grammar, where "a person from XYZ place" can be expressed as
`[PLACE]` + `person`. For a proper **Japanese** construction, you'd have to
compare a _wago_ phrase like 大和【やまと】の人【ひと】, where we do indeed find an
equivalent with that の.

> Could it be a reduced form of Okinawan ヌ, the equivalent of standard
> Japanese の?

Yes, it is!

The Shuri-Naha Dialect Dictionary is one very useful online source for readers
of Japanese who are interested in "standard" Okinawan.

  * <http://ryukyu-lang.lib.u-ryukyu.ac.jp/srnh/index.html>

The site has easy lookup starting from either a Japanese word (click on the
appropriate starting hiragana) or an Okinawan word (click on the appropriate
starting katakana).

For instance, we find that this site has [an entry for ンチュ](http://ryukyu-
lang.lib.u-ryukyu.ac.jp/srnh/details.php?ID=SN48074), which explains that this
means の人, and is a shift or abbreviation from fuller form ヌッチュ. We can also
peruse their entries [for possessive particle ヌ](http://ryukyu-
lang.lib.u-ryukyu.ac.jp/srnh/details.php?ID=SN40744), equivalent to Japanese
の, and [for noun ッチュ](http://ryukyu-
lang.lib.u-ryukyu.ac.jp/srnh/details.php?ID=SN25001), equivalent to Japanese
人【ひと】.

_(FWIW, there's also[JLect.com](https://www.jlect.com/). I've found their
coverage to be a bit spottier for some things, and the site is not as user-
friendly. That said, they do include resources for Okinawan, as well as other
varieties of Ryūkyūan like Amami or Miyako, which can be super useful.)_

* * *

Please comment if the above does not fully address your question.
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