Introduction of Writing

The only language to which it is safe to assert that Japanese is closely related is Luchuan. Here the resemblance is so complete that Luchuan can be only a dialect of Japanese, and its vocabulary and syntax therefore provide no indication of the origin of either language. A study of Luchuan is, however, of value in building up hypotheses as to the forms of the archaic language from which the Japanese of the earliest known period and the Luchuan variations thereof are both descended.