English

Proper noun

Kikai

1. An island of the Amami archipelago, Japan.
2. A Ryukyuan language spoken in Kikai island.
   • 2000, Barbara F. Grimes, Joseph Evans Grimes, Summer Institute of Linguistics, Ethnologue: Languages of the World, volume 1, SIL International, page 539:

     Those over 50 use Kikai at home among themselves but can understand and use Japanese.

   • 2003, Robert B. Kaplan, Richard B. Baldauf Jr., Language and Language-in-Education Planning in the Pacific Basin, Kluwer Academic Publishers, page 18:

     […] , including the Ryûkyûan dialects (11 dialects: Southern, Amami-Oshima Northern, Kikai, Kunigami, Miyako, Okinawan Central, Oki-no-Erabu, Toku-no-Shima, Taeyama, Yonaguni, and Yoron) […]

   • 2012, Nicolas Tranter, The Languages of Japan and Korea, Routledge, page 3:

     […] , (iii) the Amami group (Kikai, Ōshima, Tokunoshima, Okierabu, Yoron), […]

Synonyms

• (island): Kikaijima

See also

• Kikai language

Japanese

Romanization

kikai

1. rōmaji reading of きかい