A Reinvestigation of the Accusative Case Marker in Yoronese Ryukyuan

This study examines the distribution of the accusative marker =NcjaN in Yoronese Ryukyuan through corpus analysis of 314 pages of folktales. Previous accounts claimed that =NcjaN is optional when objects are adjacent to verbs but obligatory elsewhere. However, analysis of transitive clauses reveals that while adjacency correlates with marking frequency (67% adjacent vs. 86% nonadjacent objects marked), some nonadjacent objects remain unmarked. The data show differential object marking patterns: animate and definite objects are more frequently marked than inanimate and indefinite ones, regardless of adjacency. Cross-dialectal comparison reveals cognate forms functioning as limitative particles (‘only’) in neighboring varieties of the Northern Ryukyuan languages, suggesting a grammaticalization path from limitative to accusative. I propose that contact-induced borrowing of Japanese =dake ‘only’ (=daki in Yoronese) triggered functional redistribution, with the indigenous =NcjaN shifting from limitative to accusative functions. These findings demonstrate how small endangered languages can develop unique case-marking strategies through internal reorganization catalyzed by language contact.