Dictionary of Meaning
<<Back
Please select a letter:
A |
B |
C |
D |
E |
F |
G |
H |
I |
J |
K |
L |
M |
N |
O |
P |
Q |
R |
S |
T |
U |
V |
W |
X |
Y |
Z |
0-9
Click here for Shopping
Japanese language
*** Shopping-Tip: Japanese language
{{Infobox Language
|name=Japanese
|nativename=日本語 ''Nihongo''
|familycolor=Isolate
|states=
Japan,
Hawaii,
Brazil,
Guam,
Marshall Islands,
Palau,
Taiwan
|speakers=127 million
|rank=9
|fam1=
Altaic languages Altaic (disputed)
|fam2=
Japonic languages Japonic
|nation=
Angaur (
Palau)
''De facto'' in
Japan
|agency=None
Government of Japan Japanese government plays major role
|iso1=ja|iso2=jpn|iso3=jpn}}
'''Japanese''' (日本語, {{Audio|ja-nihongo.ogg|''Nihongo''}}) is a language spoken by over 127 million people, mainly in
Japan, but also by Japanese emigrant communities around the world. It is considered an
agglutinative language and is distinguished by a complex system of
Japanese honorifics honorifics reflecting the hierarchical nature of Japanese society, with verb forms and particular vocabulary which indicate the relative status of speaker and listener. The sound inventory of Japanese is relatively small, and it has a lexically-distinctive
Japanese pitch accent pitch accent system.
Japanese vocabulary has been heavily influenced by
Chinese language Chinese over a period of at least 1,500 years. Japanese is written primarily with a mix of
Chinese characters (
kanji) and
kana, a pair of
syllabary syllabaries originally derived from Chinese characters. Much vocabulary has been imported from Chinese, or created on Chinese models.
Classification
{{main|Japanese language classification}}
Historical linguistics Historical linguists who specialize in Japanese agree that it is one of the two members of the
Japonic language Japonic language family, the other member being
Ryukyuan languages Ryukyuan. However, the origins and relation of Japonic itself is unknown at this point. (An older view, still held by many non-specialists, is that Japanese is a
language isolate.)
As for its relation to other languages, there are several theories, presented here in descending order of probability:
* Japanese is a relative of
extinct languages spoken by historic cultures of
Korea and
Manchuria.
* Japanese is a relative of
Korean language Korean.
* Japanese is a member of the
Altaic languages Altaic language family. Other languages in this group include
Mongolian language Mongolian,
Tungusic languages Tungusic,
Turkish language Turkish, and (according to most proponents)
Korean language Korean.
* Japanese is a
creole language, possibily with an
Austronesian languages Austronesian component.
* Japanese is a ''purely'' Austronesian language. This theory is not supported by any mainstream Austronesianist or specialist on Japanese.
* Japanese is related to
Tamil language Tamil and possibly other
Dravidian languages. Outside of its proposer and a few others, this theory also has no mainstream support.
It should be noted that linguistic studies, like all fields, can be strongly affected by national politics and other non-academic factors. For example, most linguists would say that
Romanian language Romanian and
Moldovan language Moldovan are essentially the same language, yet they are known as two different languages for political reasons. Japan's long-standing rivalries and enmities with virtually all of its neighbours make the study of linguistic connection particularly fraught with such political tensions. However, these tensions are nearly absent among Western researchers.
Geographic distribution
Although Japanese is spoken almost exclusively in Japan, it has been and is still sometimes spoken elsewhere. When Japan occupied
Korea,
Taiwan, parts of
China, and various Pacific islands, locals in
Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere those countries were forced to learn Japanese in empire-building programmes. As a result, there are still many people in these countries who speak Japanese instead of or in addition to the local languages. Japanese emigrant communities (the largest of which are to be found in
Brazil) frequently employ Japanese as their primary language. In addition to Brazil, Japanese emigrants are also to be found in large numbers in
Australia (especially
Sydney,
Brisbane, and
Melbourne), and the
United States (notably
California and
Hawaii). There is also a small emigrant community in
Davao,
Philippines. Their descendants (known as ''nikkei'' 日系, literally Japanese descendants), however, rarely speak Japanese fluently. There are estimated to be several million non-Japanese studying the language as well.
Official status
Japanese is the official language of Japan, and Japan is the only country to have Japanese as an official working language. There are two forms of the language considered standard: {{nihongo|''hyÅ?jungo''|標準語|}} or standard Japanese, and {{nihongo|''kyÅ?tsÅ«go''|共通語|}} or the common language. As government policy has modernized Japanese, many of the distinctions between the two have blurred. ''HyÅ?jungo'' is taught in schools and used on television and in official communications, and is the version of Japanese discussed in this article.
Standard Japanese can also be divided into {{nihongo|''bungo''|文語|}} or "literary language," and {{nihongo|''kÅ?go''|å?£èªž|}} or "oral language", which have different rules of grammar and some variance in vocabulary. ''Bungo'' was the main method of writing Japanese until the late 1940s, and still has relevance for historians, literary scholars, and lawyers (many Japanese laws that survived World War II are still written in ''bungo'', although there are ongoing efforts to modernize their language). ''KÅ?go'' is the predominant method of speaking and writing Japanese today, although ''bungo'' grammar and vocabulary are occasionally used in modern Japanese for poetic effect.
Dialects
{{main|Japanese dialects}}
Dozens of dialects are spoken in Japan. The profusion is due to the mountainous island terrain and Japan's long history of both external and internal isolation. Dialects typically differ in terms of pitch accent, inflectional
morphology (linguistics) morphology,
vocabulary, particle usage, and pronunciation. Some even differ in vowel and consonant inventories, although this is uncommon.
Dialects from less central regions, such as the
TÅ?hoku Region TÅ?hoku or
Tsushima dialect may be unintelligible to speakers from other parts of the country. The dialect used in
Kagoshima in southern
Kyūshū is famous for being unintelligible not only to speakers of standard Japanese but to speakers of nearby dialects elsewhere in Kyūshū as well. Kagoshima dialect is 84% cognate with standard Tokyo dialect.
Kansai-ben, a group of dialects from west-central Japan, is spoken by many Japanese; the Osaka dialect in particular is associated with comedy.
The
Ryukyuan languages are spoken in the
Ryukyu Islands. Not only is each language unintelligible to Japanese speakers, but most are unintelligible to those who speak other Ryukyuan languages. Due to the close relationship of Ryukyuan and Japanese, they are still sometimes said to be only dialects of one language, but modern scholars consider them to be separate languages.
Recently, Standard Japanese has become prevalent nationwide, due not only to
television and
radio, but also to increased mobility within Japan due to its system of roads, railways, and airports. Young people usually speak their local dialect and the standard language, though in most cases, the local dialect is influenced by the standard, and regional versions of "standard" Japanese have local-dialect influence.
Sounds
{{main|Japanese phonology}}
{{IPA notice}}
Japanese vowels are "pure" sounds, similar to their Italian or Spanish counterparts. The only unusual vowel is the high back vowel {{IPA|/ɯ/}}, which is like {{IPA|/u/}}, but unrounded. Japanese has five vowels, and
vowel length is phonemic, so each one has both a short and a long version.
Some Japanese consonants have several
allophones, which may give the impression of a larger inventory of sounds. However, some of these allophones have since become phonemic. For example, in the Japanese up to and including the first half of the twentieth century, the phonemic sequence {{IPA.html">palatalization
palatalized and realized phonetically as {{IPA|[tɕi]}}, approximately ''chi''; however, now {{IPA|/ti/}} and {{IPA|/tɕi/}} are distinct, as evidenced by words like ''paatii'' {{IPA|[paatii]}} "party" and ''chi'' {{IPA|[chi]}} "ground."
The syllabic structure and the
phonotactics are very simple: the only
consonant clusters allowed within a syllable consist of one of a subset of the consonants plus /j/. However, consonant clusters across syllables are common, though limited in type.
Grammar
{{main|Japanese grammar}}
Sentence structure
The basic Japanese word order is
Subject Object Verb. Subject and object are usually marked by
Japanese particles particles which come after the word.
The basic sentence structure is
topic-comment. For example, ''Kochira wa Tanaka san desu.'' ''Kochira'' ("this") is the topic of the sentence, indicated by the particle ''wa''. The verb is ''desu'' ("is"). As a phrase, ''Tanaka san desu'' is the comment. This sentence loosely translates to "As for this person, (it) is Mr./Mrs./Ms. Tanaka". Thus Japanese, like
Chinese language Chinese and
Korean language Korean, is often called a
topic-prominent language, which means it indicates the topic separately from the subject, and the two do not always coincide. The sentence ''ZÅ? wa hana ga nagai''. literally means, "As for elephants, their noses are long". The topic is ''zÅ?'' "elephant", and the subject is ''hana'' "nose".
Japanese is a
pro-drop language, meaning that the subject or object of a sentence need not be stated if it is obvious from context. As a result, Japanese speakers tend to omit words from sentences, rather than refer to them with
pronouns. In the context of the above example, ''hana ga nagai'' would mean "[their] noses are long," while ''nagai'' by itself would mean "[they] are long." A single verb can be a complete sentence: ''Yatta!'' "[I / we / they / etc] did [it]!". Another well-known example of omission is the sentence ''Watashi wa supagetti desu''—which initially appears to mean "I am spaghetti," but in the context of a restaurant could also be an order: "For me, [it'll] be spaghetti."
While the language has some "pronouns," such as personal pronouns, these are not used as frequently as pronouns in
Indo-European languages, and function somewhat differently. Instead, Japanese typically relies on auxiliary verbs to indicate the "direction" of an action "down" to the speaker or persons related to the speaker, or "up" to the listener or other person. For example, ''setsumei shite moratta'' (literally, "[I] obtained explaining") means "[he/she] explained it to [me/us]". Similarly, ''oshiete ageta'' (literally, "taught-handed up") is commonly used to mean "[I/we] told [him/her]". Such "directional" auxiliary verbs thus serve a function comparable to that of pronouns and prepositions in Indo-European languages.
Japanese "pronouns" also function differently than Indo-European pronouns in that they can take modifiers as any other nouns may. For instance, you cannot say in English:
: The big he ran down the street. (Bad grammar)
But you ''can'' grammatically say essentially the same thing in Japanese:
: 大ã??ã?„å½¼ã?¯é?“ã‚’èµ°ã?£ã?¦ã?„ã?£ã?Ÿã€‚ (Correct grammar)
This is partly due to the fact that Japanese pronouns evolved from regular nouns as indirect references, such as ''kimi'' "you" (� "emperor"), ''anata'' "you" (貴方 "that side, yonder"), and ''boku'' "I" (僕 "servant").
This is why some linguists do not classify Japanese "pronouns" as pure pronouns, but rather as referential nouns.
Japanese personal pronouns are generally used only in situations implying some emphasis. The choice of pronouns used is correlated with the gender of the speaker and the social situation in which they are spoken: women in a formal situation generally refer to themselves as ''watashi'', while men in rougher conversation are much more likely to use the word ''ore''. Similarly, different pronouns such as ''anata'', ''kimi'', and ''omae'' may be used to refer to a listener depending on the listener's relative social position and the degree of familiarity with the listener. However, it is impolite to use pronouns to refer to listeners who are strangers or social superiors.
Inflection and conjugation
Japanese nouns have neither number nor gender. Thus ''hon'' may mean "book" or "books". It is possible to explicitly indicate more than one, either by providing a quantity (often with a
Japanese counter word counter word) or by adding a suffix (which is rare). Words for people are usually understood as singular. Thus ''Tanaka san'' usually means ''Mr/Ms Tanaka''. Words that refer to people and animals can be made to indicate a group of individuals with noun suffixes that indicate groups, such as ''-tachi''. Though some words, like ''hitobito'' "people", always refer to more than one, Japanese nouns without such additions are neither singular nor plural. ''Hito'' could mean "person" or "persons", ''ki'' could be "tree" or "trees" without any implied preference for singular or plural.
Verbs are
Japanese verb conjugations conjugated to show tenses, of which there are two: past and present, or non-past, which is used for the present and the future. For verbs that represent an ongoing process, the ''-te iru'' form indicates a continuous (or progressive) tense. For others that represent a change of state, the ''-te iru'' form indicates a perfect tense. For example, ''kite iru'' means "He has come (and is still here)", but ''tabete iru'' means "He is eating".
Questions (both with an interrogative pronoun and yes/no questions) have the same structure as affirmative sentences, but with intonation rising at the end. In the formal register, the question particle ''ka'' is added. For example, ''Ii desu'' "It is OK" becomes ''Ii desu ka'' "Is it OK?". In a more informal tone sometimes the particle ''no'' is added instead to show a personal interest of the speaker: ''DÅ?shite konai no?'' "Why aren't (you) coming?". Some simple queries are formed simply by mentioning the topic with an interrogative intonation to call for the hearer's attention: ''Kore wa?'' "(What about) this?"; ''Namae wa?'' "(What's your) name?".
Negatives are formed by inflecting the verb. For example, ''Pan o taberu'' "I will eat bread" or "I eat bread" becomes ''Pan o tabenai'' "I will not eat bread" or "I do not eat bread".
The so-called ''-te'' verb form is used for a variety of purposes: either progressive or perfect aspect (see above); combining verbs in a temporal sequence (''Asagohan o tabete sugu dekakeru'' "I'll eat breakfast and leave at once"), simple commands, conditional statements and permissions (''Dekakete mo ii?'' "May I go out?"), etc.
The word ''da'' (plain), ''desu'' (polite) is the
copula verb. It corresponds approximately to the English ''be'', but often takes on other roles. Two additional common verbs are used to indicate existence ("there is") or, in some contexts, property: ''aru'' (negative ''nai'') and ''iru'' (negative ''inai''), for inanimate and animate things, respectively. For example, ''Neko ga iru'' "There's a cat", ''Ii kangae ga nai'' "[I] haven't got a good idea".
The verb "to do" (''suru'', polite form ''shimasu'') is often used to make verbs from nouns (''ai suru'' "to love", ''benkyÅ? suru'' "to study", etc.). Japanese also has a huge number of compound verbs to express concepts that are described in English using a verb and a preposition (e.g. ''tobidasu'' "to fly out, to flee," from ''tobu'' "to fly, to jump" + ''dasu'' "to go out").
There are three types of
Japanese adjectives adjective:
#''keiyÅ?shi'', or ''i'' adjectives, which have a
Japanese verb conjugations conjugating ending ''i'' (such as ''atsui'', "to be hot") which can become past (''atsukatta'' - "it was hot"), or negative (''atsuku nai'' - "it is not hot"). Note that ''nai'' is also an ''i'' adjective, which can become past (''atsuku nakatta'' - it was not hot).
#:''atsui hi'' "a hot day".
#''keiyÅ?dÅ?shi'', or ''na'' adjectives, which are followed by a form of the
copula, usually ''na''. For example ''hen'' (strange)
#:''hen na hito'' "a strange person".
#''rentaishi'', also called true adjectives, such as ''onaji'' "the same"
#:''onaji hi'' "the same day".
Both ''keiyÅ?shi'' and ''keiyÅ?dÅ?shi'' may
predicate sentences. For example,
:''Gohan ga atsui.'' "The rice is hot."
:''Kare wa hen da.'' "He's strange."
Both inflect, though they do not show the full range of conjugation found in true verbs.
The ''rentaishi'' are few in number, and unlike the other words, are limited to modifying nouns. They never predicate sentences. Examples include ''ookina'' "big" and ''onaji'' "the same" (although there is a noun ''onaji'' that can be followed by ''da'', as in ''onaji da'').
Both ''keiyÅ?dÅ?shi'' and ''keiyÅ?shi'' form
adverbs, by following with ''ni'' in the case of ''keiyÅ?dÅ?shi'':
:''hen ni naru'' "become strange",
and by changing ''i'' to ''ku'' in the case of ''keiyÅ?shi'':
:''atsuku naru'' "become hot".
The grammatical function of nouns is indicated by
postpositions, also called
Japanese particles particles. These include for example:
*'''''no''''' for possession, or nominalizing phrases.
:''Watashi '''no''' kamera'' "My camera" / ''Sukii ni iku '''no''' ga suki desu'' "(I) like going skiing."
*'''''ga''''' for subject.
:''Kare '''ga''' yatta.'' "He did it."
*'''''o''''' for direct object
:''Nani '''o''' tabemasu ka?'' "What will (you) eat?"
*'''''ni''''' for indirect object.
:''Tanaka san '''ni''' kiite kudasai'' "Please ask Mr./Ms. Tanaka".
*'''''wa''''' for the topic.
:''Watashi '''wa''' tai ryÅ?ri ga ii desu.'' "As for me, Thai food is good."
(Note that English generally makes no distinction between sentence topic and subject.)
Politeness
{{main|Japanese honorifics}}
{{main|Japanese titles}}
Unlike most western languages, Japanese has an extensive grammatical system to express politeness and formality.
Broadly speaking, there are three main politeness levels in spoken Japanese: the '''plain form''' (''kudaketa'' ç •ã?‘ã?Ÿ or ''futsuu'' 普通), the '''simple polite form''' (''teineigo'' ä¸?寧語) and the '''advanced polite form''' (''
keigo'' 敬語).
Since most relationships are not equal in Japanese
society, one person typically has a higher position. This position is determined by a variety of factors including job, age, experience, or even psychological state (e.g., a person asking a favour tends to do so politely). The person in the lower position is expected to use a polite form of speech, whereas the other might use a more plain form. Strangers will also speak to each other politely. Japanese children rarely use polite speech until they are teens, at which point they are expected to begin speaking in a more adult manner. ''See
uchi-soto''
The '''plain form''' in Japanese is recognized by the shorter, dictionary form of verbs, and the ''da'' form of the
copula. At the '''''teinei''''' level,
verbs end with the helping verb ''-masu'', and the copula ''desu'' is used. The advanced polite form, '''''
keigo''''', actually consists of two kinds of politeness: '''honorific''' language (''sonkeigo'') and '''humble''' (''kenjÅ?go'') language. Whereas ''teineigo'' is an
inflection inflectional system, ''keigo'' often employs many special (often
irregular verb irregular) honorific and humble verb forms: ''iku'' "to go" becomes ''ikimasu'' in polite form, but is replaced by ''mairimasu'' in humble form and ''irrashaimasu'' in honorific form.
The difference between honorific and humble speech is particularly pronounced in the Japanese language. Humble language is used to talk about oneself or one's own group (company, family) whilst honorific language is mostly used when describing the interlocutor and his group. For example, the ''-san'' suffix ("Mr", "Mrs" or "Ms") is an example of honorific language. It is not used to talk about oneself or when talking about someone from one's company to an external person, since the company is the speaker's "group".
Most
nouns in the Japanese language may be made polite by the addition of ''o-'' or ''go-''; as a prefix. ''o-'' is generally used for words of native Japanese origin, whereas ''go-'' is affixed to words of Chinese derivation. In some cases, the prefix has become a fixed part of the word, and is included even in regular speech, such as ''gohan'' 'cooked rice; meal.' Such a construction often indicates deference to either the item's owner or to the object itself. For example, the word ''tomodachi'' 'friend,' would become ''o-tomodachi'' when referring to the friend of someone of higher status (though mothers often use this form to refer to their children's friends). On the other hand, a female speaker may sometimes refer to ''mizu'' 'water' as ''o-mizu'' merely to show politeness; this contrasts with the more abrupt speech of men (though men may also use very polite forms when speaking to superiors). ''See
Gender differences in spoken Japanese''.
Most Japanese people employ politeness to indicate a lack of familiarity. That is, they use polite forms for new acquaintances, but if a relationship becomes more intimate, they no longer use them. This occurs regardless of age, social class, or gender.
Many researchers report that since the
1990s, the use of polite forms has become rarer. Needless to say, many older people disapprove of this trend. Young people usually receive extensive training in the "proper" use of polite language when they start to work for a company.
Vocabulary
The original language of Japan was the so-called ''yamato kotoba''. In addition to words from this original language, present-day Japanese includes a great number of words that were either borrowed from
Chinese language Chinese or constructed from Chinese roots following Chinese patterns. These words, known as
Sino-Japanese kango, entered the language from the fifth century onwards via contact with Chinese culture, both directly and through Korea. Chinese-based words comprise as much as seventy percent of the total vocabulary of the Japanese language and form as much as thirty to forty percent of words used in speech.
Like Latin-derived words in English, kango words typically are perceived as somewhat formal/academic compared to equivalent Yamato words. Indeed, it is generally fair to say that an English word derived from Latin/French roots typically corresponds to a Sino-Japanese word in Japanese, whereas a simpler Anglo-Saxon word would best be translated by a Yamato equivalent.
A much smaller number of words has been borrowed from
Korean language Korean and
Ainu language Ainu. Japan has also borrowed a number of words from other languages, ''
gairaigo''. This began with
Japanese words of Portuguese origin borrowings from Portuguese in the
16th century, followed by borrowing from Dutch during Japan's
sakoku long isolation of the
Edo period. With the Meiji restoration and the reopening of Japan in the
19th century, borrowing occurred from
German language German,
French language French and
English language English. Currently, words of English origin are the most commonly borrowed.
In the Meiji era, the Japanese also coined many neologisms using Chinese patterns to translate Western concepts. The Chinese and Koreans imported many of these pseudo-Chinese words into
Chinese language Chinese,
Korean language Korean, and
Vietnamese language Vietnamese via their kanji characters in the late 19th and early 20th century. For example, 政治 ''seiji'' ("politics"), and åŒ–å¦ ''kagaku'' ("chemistry"). As a result, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese share a large common corpus of vocabulary in the same way a large number of Greco-Roman words is shared among European languages.
In the past few decades, ''
wasei-eigo'' (made-in-Japan English) has become a prominent phenomenon. Words such as ''wanpataan'' (< ''one'' + ''pattern'', "to be in a rut", "to have a one-track mind") and ''sukinshippu'' (< ''skin'' + ''-ship'', "physical contact"), although coined from English, are nonsensical in a non-Japanese context. A small number of such words have been borrowed back into English.
Additionally, many native Japanese words have become commonplace in English, due to the popularity of many Japanese cultural exports. Words such as
sushi,
judo,
karate,
sumo,
karaoke,
origami,
samurai,
haiku,
ninja,
sayonara,
rickshaw (from 人力車 ''jinrikisha''),
futon, and many others have become part of the English language. See
list of English words of Japanese origin for more.
Writing system
{{main|Japanese writing system}}
Before the
5th century, the Japanese had no
writing system of their own. They began to adopt the Chinese writing script along with many other aspects of
Culture of China Chinese culture after their introduction by
Korean monks and scholars during the 5th and 6th centuries AD.
At first, the Japanese wrote in
Classical Chinese, or in a mixture of Chinese, used both ideographically, phonetically, and otherwise to create Japanese meanings. An example of this mixed style is the
Kojiki, which was written in 712 AD. They then started to use Chinese characters to write Japanese in a style known as man'yÅ?gana, a ten thousand syllabic script which used characters depicting their own values.
Over time, a writing system was constructed. Chinese characters (
kanji) were used to write either words borrowed from Chinese, or Japanese words with the same or similar meanings. Chinese characters were also used to write grammatical elements, were simplified, and eventually became two syllabic scripts:
hiragana and
katakana.
Modern Japanese is written in a mixture of three main syllabaries:
kanji, characters of Chinese origin used to represent both Chinese
loanwords into Japanese and a number of native Japanese
morphemes; and two
syllabary syllabaries:
hiragana and
katakana. The
Latin alphabet (
romaji) is also sometimes used. Arabic numerals are much more common than the kanji characters when used in counting, but the kanji is still used when in a compound (such as 統一 (''tÅ?itu''), "unification").
Hiragana is the base of all texts in Japan, providing correct pronunciation and spelling. It is used for words without Kanji representation and also for when the Kanji character is not known. Katakana is the character group, with the same sounds, and similar combinations of Hiragana, which is used to create representations of foreign words in the Japanese sense. Words such as "Australia" and "Supermarket" have been shortened or changed into "Oosutoraria" and "Suupaa" respectively. "Romaji" is simply the Japanese name for Latin characters. It is used increasingly in Japanese text for especially technical abbreviations such as "CD", "DVD", etc.
Japanese students begin to learn kanji characters from their first year at elementary school. A guideline created by the Japanese Ministry of Education, the list of
kyÅ?iku kanji, specifies the 1,006 simple characters a child is to learn by the end of sixth grade. Children continue to study another 939 characters in junior high school, covering in total 1,945 ''
jÅ?yÅ? kanji'' (common kanji) characters, which is generally considered sufficient for everyday life, although many kanji used in everyday life are not included in the list (like the one for chopstick, 箸). An appendix of 290 additional characters for names was decreed in 1951.
Learning Japanese
Learning Japanese involves understanding grammar, pronunciation, the writing system, and acquiring adequate vocabulary. While the sound system is simple to master compared with those of other languages, the writing system poses a challenge for those not used to Chinese characters.
Japanese can be learned without studying Chinese characters. However, the Japanese have borrowed thousands upon thousands of words from the Chinese, and for various reasons, many of these Chinese-based words are now
homophones (words pronounced identically) in Japanese. This may make it necessary to learn the characters if one wants to learn an extended vocabulary. Nevertheless, blind Japanese people who cannot read any characters are able to function in the spoken language without problems, since most words, even if not written down, can be understood by the context. For example, "Nihon" (��ん) can mean "two long, thin objects" (二本) as well as "Japan" (日本). However, these two words have different accents, and are distinct even in isolation.
Many major universities throughout the world provide Japanese language courses, and a number of secondary and even primary schools worldwide offer courses in the language. International interest in the Japanese language dates to the 1800s but has become more prevalent following Japan's economic bubble of the 1980s and the global popularity of Japanese pop culture in the 1990s and beyond. About 2.3 million people studied the language worldwide in
2003: 900,000 South Koreans, 389,000
Chinese people, 381,000 Australians, and 140,000 Americans study Japanese in lower and higher educational institutions. In Japan, more than 90,000 foreign students study at
List of universities in Japan Japanese universities and Japanese
language schools, including 77,000 Chinese and 15,000 South Koreans in 2003. Furthermore, local governments and some
NPO groups provide free Japanese language classes for foreign residents, including
Japanese Brazilians and foreigners married to Japanese nationals.
The Japanese government provides standard tests to measure spoken and written comprehension of Japanese for second language learners; the most prominent is the
Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT). The Japanese External Trade Organization
JETRO organizes the ''Business Japanese Proficiency Test'', to test ability to understand Japanese in a business setting.
See also
List of resources for learning Japanese.
See also
{{Wikibookspar||Japanese}}
*
Common phrases in different languages#Japanese Common phrases in different languages (Japanese)
*
Henohenomoheji
*
Japanese culture
*
Japanese language and computers
*
Japanese literature
*
Japanese name
* The lists of
Wiktionary:Category:Japanese language Japanese words and
Wiktionary:Category:Japanese derivations words in other languages that have been derived from Japanese at
Wiktionary, the free dictionary and 's sibling project
*
Japanese Swadesh list Swadesh list of Japanese words
*
Japanese dictionaries
*
Japanese phonology
*
Sino-Japanese
*
yojijukugo
External links
{{interwiki|code=ja}}
-
Origin of the Japanese People and Language
-
North Kyushu Creole – A hypothesis concerning the multilingual formation of Japanese
-
Learn Japanese Online Learn to speak Japanese online for free.
-
Ethnologue report for Japanese
-
Ethnologue report for language code JPN
-
A Japanese guide to Japanese grammar
-
Michelle Hashimoto's Japanese culture directory
-
Learn Japanese with a language exchange
-
Definitions of the different Japanese dialects
-
A page dealing with the Kansai dialect of Japanese
-
Kanji Haitani's Yojijukugo Dictionary with 3,300 entries
-
Japanese @ Soundless-Words.net a short guide to learning Japanese, common words found in
Anime and
Manga, and quick links to other Japanese language-related sites.
-
TheJapanesePage.com A good site for anyone who wants to learn basic japanese.
-
Sudoku YTMND Page on YTMND for Sudoku.
Bibliography
* Bloch, Bernard. (1946). Studies in colloquial Japanese I: Inflection. ''Journal of the American Oriental Society'', ''66'', 97-109.
* Bloch, Bernard. (1946). Studies in colloquial Japanese II: Syntax. ''Language'', ''22'', 200-248.
* Chafe, William L. (1976). Giveness, contrastiveness, definiteness, subjects, topics, and point of view. In C. Li (Ed.), ''Subject and topic'' (pp. 25-56). New York: Academic Press. ISBN 0-1244-7350-4.
* Kuno, Susumu. (1973). ''The structure of the Japanese language''. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. ISBN 0-2621-1049-0.
* Kuno, Susumu. (1976). Subject, theme, and the speaker's empathy: A re-examination of relativization phenomena. In Charles N. Li (Ed.), ''Subject and topic'' (pp. 417-444). New York: Academic Press. ISBN 0-1244-7350-4.
* Martin, Samuel E. (1975). ''A reference grammar of Japanese''. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 0-3000-1813-4.
* McClain, Yoko Matsuoka. (1981). ''Handbook of modern Japanese grammar: å?£èªžæ—¥æœ¬æ–‡æ³•ä¾¿è¦§ [KÅ?go Nihon bumpÅ?]''. Tokyo: Hokuseido Press. ISBN 4-5900-0570-0; ISBN 0-8934-6149-0.
* Miller, Roy. (1967). ''The Japanese language''. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
* Miller, Roy. (1980). ''Origins of the Japanese language: Lectures in Japan during the academic year, 1977-78''. Seattle: University of Washington Press. ISBN 0-2959-5766-2.
* Mizutani, Osamu; & Mizutani, Nobuko. (1987). ''How to be polite in Japanese: 日本語�敬語 [Nihongo no keigo]''. Tokyo: Japan Times. ISBN 4-7890-0338-8; ISBN 4-7890-0338-9.
* Shibatani, Masayoshi. (1990). Japanese. In B. Comrie (Ed.), ''The major languages of east and south-east Asia''. London: Routledge. ISBN 0-4150-4739-0.
* Shibatani, Masayoshi. (1990). ''The languages of Japan''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-5213-6070-6 (hbk); ISBN 0-5213-6918-5 (pbk).
* Shibamoto, Janet S. (1985). ''Japanese women's language''. New York: Academic Press. ISBN 0-1264-0030-X. Graduate Level
* Tsujimura, Natsuko. (1996). ''An introduction to Japanese linguistics''. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell Publishers. ISBN 0-6311-9855-5 (hbk); ISBN 0-6311-9856-3 (pbk). Upper Level Textbooks
* Tsujimura, Natsuko. (Ed.) (1999). ''The handbook of Japanese linguistics''. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers. ISBN 0-6312-0504-7. Readings/Anthologies
Category:Japanese language
Category:Altaic languages
{{Link FA|ro}}
ar:لغة يابانية
ast:Xaponés
bg:ЯпонÑ?ки език
zh-min-nan:JiÌ?t-pún-oÄ“
bs:Japanski jezik
br:Japaneg
ca:Japonès
cs:Japonština
cy:Japaneg
de:Japanische Sprache
et:Jaapani keel
es:Idioma japonés
eo:Japana lingvo
eu:Japoniera
fa:زبان ژاپنی
fr:Japonais
ga:Seapáinis
gl:Lingua xaponesa
ko:�본어
hi:जापानी à¤à¤¾à¤·à¤¾
hr:Japanski jezik
io:Japoniana linguo
id:Bahasa Jepang
ia:Lingua japonese
is:Japanska
it:Lingua giapponese
he:×™×¤× ×™×ª
ka:ი�პ�ნური ენ�
kw:Nihonek
la:Lingua Iaponica
lv:JapÄ?ņu valoda
lt:Japonų kalba
li:Japans
hu:Japán nyelv
mk:ЈапонÑ?ки јазик
ms:Bahasa Jepun
nl:Japans
ja:日本語
no:Japansk språk
nn:Japansk språk
pl:Język japoński
pt:LÃngua japonesa
ro:Limba japoneză
ru:ЯпонÑ?кий Ñ?зык
sh:Japanski jezik
simple:Japanese language
sl:JaponÅ¡Ä?ina
sr:ЈапанÑ?ки језик
fi:Japanin kieli
sv:Japanska
tt:Yapon tele
th:ภาษา�ี่ปุ่น
vi:Tiếng Nháºt Bản
tr:Japonca
zh:æ—¥è¯
zh-yue:日語
see
Japanese language
Main article:
Japanese language
Category:Japonic languages
Category:Japan Language
Category:Languages of Taiwan
Category:Language isolates
Category:Agglutinative languages
de:Kategorie:Japanische Sprache
es:CategorÃa:Idioma japonés
ko:분류:�본어
is:Flokkur:Japanska
ja:Category:日本語
pl:Kategoria:Język japoński
ru:КатегориÑ?:ЯпонÑ?кий Ñ?зык
zh:Category:æ—¥è¯
*** Shopping-Tip: Japanese language
