Japanese language

Not to be confused with Javanese language.

Japanese ( Nihongo, [nihoo] ( )) is an EastAsian language spoken by about 125 million speakers,primarily in Japan, where it is the national language. Itis a member of the Japonic language family, whose rela-tion to other language groups, particularly to Korean andthe suggested Altaic language family, is debated.Little is known of the language's prehistory, or when itfirst appeared in Japan. Chinese documents from the 3rdcentury record a few Japanese words, but substantial textsdid not appear until the 8th century. During the Heian pe-riod (7941185), Chinese had a considerable influence onthe vocabulary and the phonology of Old Japanese. LateMiddle Japanese (11851600) saw changes that broughtit closer to the modern language and the first appear-ance of European loanwords. The standard dialect movedfrom that of the Kansai region to that of the Edo (modernTokyo) region in the EarlyModern Japanese period (17th 19th centuries). Following the end in 1853 of Japan'sself-imposed isolation, the flow of loanwords from Eu-ropean languages increased significantly. English loan-words in particular have become frequent, and Japanesewords from English roots have proliferated.Japanese is an agglutinative, mora-timed language withsimple phonotactics, a pure vowel system, phonemicvowel and consonant length, and a lexically significantpitch accent. Sentence structure is topiccomment andword order is normally subjectobjectverb. Particlesmark the grammatical function of words, and sentence-final particles are used to add emotional or emphatic im-pact, or to make questions. Nouns have no grammaticalnumber or gender, and there are no articles (such as En-glish a or the). Verbs are conjugated, primarily for tenseand voice, but not person. Japanese equivalents of adjec-tives are also conjugated. Japanese has a complex systemof honorifics with verb forms and vocabulary to indicatethe relative status of speaker, listener, and persons men-tioned.Japanese has no genetic relationship with Chinese, but itmakes extensive use of Chinese characters, or kanji, inits writing system, and a large portion of its vocabulary isborrowed from Chinese. Along with kanji, the Japanesewriting system primarily uses two syllabic (or moraic)scripts, hiragana and katakana. Latin script is used ina limited way, such as for imported acronyms, and thenumeral system uses mostly Arabic numerals, alongsidetraditional Chinese numerals. Latin script is used in typ-

ing Japanese: for example, by typinghasoftware willprovide the hiragana, katakana and kanji options.

1 History

1.1 Prehistory

A common ancestor of Japanese and Ryukyuan lan-guages or dialects is thought to have come to Japan withsettlers from continental Asia or nearby Pacific islandssometime in the early- to mid-2nd century (the Yayoiperiod), replacing the languages of the original Jmoninhabitants,*[3] including the ancestor of modern Ainu.Very little is known about the Japanese of this periodthere is no direct evidence, as writing had yet to be in-troduced from China so what can be discerned must bebased on the reconstructions of Old Japanese.

1.2 Old Japanese

A page fromNihon Shoki (The Chronicles of Japan), the secondoldest book of classical Japanese history

Main article: Old Japanese

Old Japanese is the oldest attested stage of the Japaneselanguage. Through the spread of Buddhism, the Chi-nese writing system was imported to Japan. The earli-est texts found in Japan are written in Classical Chinese,but they may have been meant to be read as Japanese bythe kanbun method. Some of these texts show the influ-ence of Japanese grammar, such as word order. In thesehybridtexts, Chinese characters are occasionally usedto phonetically represent Japanese particles. The earli-est text, the Kojiki, dates to the early 8th century, andwas written entirely in Chinese characters. The end ofOld Japanese coincides with the end of the Nara periodin 794. Old Japanese uses the Man'ygana system of

1

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Javanese_languagehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Asian_languagehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Asian_languagehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_languagehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japonic_languageshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_Japonichttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_Japonichttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_languagehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altaic_languageshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heian_periodhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heian_periodhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_languagehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sino-Japanese_vocabularyhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_phonologyhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Japanesehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Late_Middle_Japanesehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Late_Middle_Japanesehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gairaigohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kansaihttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokyohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_Modern_Japanesehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sakokuhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sakokuhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wasei-eigohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wasei-eigohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agglutinative_languagehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mora_(linguistics)#Japanesehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonotacticshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monophthonghttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vowel_length#Phonemic_vowel_lengthhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geminationhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_pitch_accenthttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topic%E2%80%93commenthttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subject%E2%80%93object%E2%80%93verbhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_particleshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sentence-final_particlehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sentence-final_particlehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Article_(grammar)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_verb_conjugationhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammatical_tensehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voice_(grammar)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammatical_personhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_equivalents_of_adjectiveshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_equivalents_of_adjectiveshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honorific_speech_in_Japanesehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetic_relationship_(linguistics)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_languagehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_charactershttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanjihttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sino-Japanese_vocabularyhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_writing_systemhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_writing_systemhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syllabaryhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mora_(linguistics)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiraganahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katakanahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin_scripthttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_numeralshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabic_numeralshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_numeralshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yayoi_periodhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yayoi_periodhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C5%8Dmonhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ainu_languagehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Japanesehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nihon_Shokihttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_historyhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Japanesehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhismhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_Chinesehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanbunhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_charactershttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_particleshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kojikihttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nara_periodhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man%2527y%C5%8Dgana

2 1 HISTORY

writing, which uses kanji for both phonetic and seman-tic values. From the Man'ygana system, Old Japanesehas been reconstructed as having had 88 syllables. Textswritten with Man'ygana use two different kanji for eachof the syllables now pronounced ki, hi, mi,ke, he, me, ko, so, to, no, mo, yo and ro.*[4] The set of syllables shrank to 67 inEarly Middle Japanese, though some were added throughChinese influence.Due to these extra syllables, it has been hypothesized thatOld Japanese's vowel system was larger than that of Mod-ern Japanese and perhaps had up to eight vowels. Ac-cording to Shinkichi Hashimoto, the extra syllables inMan'ygana derive from differences between the vowelsof the syllables in question.*[5] The vowel system wouldhave to have shrunk sometime between these texts and theinvention of the kana syllabaries (hiragana and katakana)in the early 9th century. According to this view, the eight-vowel system of ancient Japanese would resemble that ofthe Uralic and Altaic language families.*[6] However, itis not fully certain that the alternation between syllablesnecessarily reflects a difference in the vowels rather thanthe consonantsthe only undisputed fact is that they aredifferent syllables.Old Japanese does not have /h/, but rather // (preservedin modern fu, //), which has been reconstructed to anearlier */p/. Man'ygana also has a symbol for /je/, whichmerges with /e/ before the end of the period.Several fossilizations of Old Japanese grammatical ele-ments remain in the modern languagethe genitive par-ticle tsu (superseded by modern no) is preserved in wordssuch asmatsuge (eyelash, lit.hair of the eye); mod-ernmieru (to be visible) and kikoeru (to be audible)retain what may have been a mediopassive suffix -yu(ru)(kikoyu kikoyuru (the attributive form, which slowlyreplaced the plain form starting in the late Heian period)> kikoeru (as all shimo-nidan verbs in modern Japanesedid)); and the genitive particle ga remains in intentionallyarchaic speech.

1.3 Early Middle Japanese

Two pages from a 12th-century emaki scroll ofThe Tale ofGenjifrom the 11th century

Main article: Early Middle Japanese

Early Middle Japanese is the Japanese of the Heian pe-riod, from 794 to 1185. Early Middle Japanese seesa significant amount of Chinese influence on the lan-guage's phonology length distinctions become phone-mic for both consonants and vowels, and series of bothlabialised (e.g. kwa) and palatalised (kya) consonantsare added. Intervocalic // merges with /w/ by the 11thcentury. The end of Early Middle Japanese sees the be-ginning of a shift where the attributive form (Japaneserentaikei) slowly replaces the uninflected form (shshikei)for those verb classes where the two were distinct.

1.4 Late Middle Japanese

Main article: Late Middle Japanese

Late Middle Japanese covers the years from 1185 to1600, and is normally divided into two sections, roughlyequivalent to the Kamakura period and the Muromachiperiod, respectively. The later forms of Late Mid-dle Japanese are the first to be described by non-nativesources, in this case the Jesuit and Franciscan missionar-ies; and thus there is better documentation of Late Mid-dle Japanese phonology than for previous forms (for in-stance, the Arte da Lingoa de Iapam). Among othersound changes, the sequence /au/ merges to //, in con-trast with /o/; /p/ is reintroduced from Chinese; and /we/merges with /je/. Some forms rather more familiar toModern Japanese speakers begin to appear the con-tinuative ending -te begins to reduce onto the verb (e.g.yonde for earlier yomite), the -k- in the final syllable ofadjectives drops out (shiroi for earlier shiroki); and someforms exist where modern standard Japanese has retainedthe earlier form (e.g. hayaku > hayau > hay, wheremodern Japanese just has hayaku, though the alternativeform is preserved in the standard greeting o-hay goza-imasu good morning"; this ending is also seen in o-medetcongratulations, from medetaku).Late Middle Japanese has the first loanwords from Eu-ropean languagesnow-common words borrowed intoJapanese in this period include panbreadand tabakotobaccofrom Portuguese,*[7] andponpupumpandpurachinaplatinumfrom Dutch.*[8]

1.5 Modern Japanese

See also: Early Modern Japanese

Modern Japanese traces to the beginning of the Edoperiod around 1600. Until then the de facto standardJapanese had been the Kansai dialectespecially thatof Kyoto. During the Edo period, the military govern-ment established an administrative capital in Edo (mod-ern Tokyo). Edo soon developed into the largest city inJapan, and the Edo-area dialect became standard. Since

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_Middle_Japanesehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinkichi_Hashimotohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiraganahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katakanahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altaic_languagehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediopassive_voicehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emakihttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tale_of_Genjihttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_Middle_Japanesehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heian_periodhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heian_periodhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Late_Middle_Japanesehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamakura_periodhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muromachi_periodhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muromachi_periodhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesuitshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franciscanshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arte_da_Lingoa_de_Iapamhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portuguese_languagehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_languagehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_Modern_Japanesehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edo_periodhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edo_periodhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shogunhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shogunhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokyo

2.1 Official status 3

the end of Japan's self-imposed isolation in 1853, the flowof loanwords from European languages has increased sig-nificantly. The period since 1945 has seen a large numberof words borrowed from English,*[9] especially relatingto technologykameracamera, intnettointernet,roketto,rocket, and many others. Due to the quantityof English loanwords, modern Japanese has developed adistinction between /ti/ and /ti/, and between /di/ and/di/, the latter in each pair found only in loanwords suchas remon t lemon teaand disukudisk.

2 Geographic distribution

Din Tai Fung at South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa, Californiaon its opening day (August 18, 2014). The parking garage nextto the restaurant has Din Tai Fung signs and markings in threelanguages (traditional Chinese, English and Japanese).

Japanese is spoken almost exclusively in Japan, thoughthere has been use outside the country. Before andduring World War II, through Japanese annexation ofTaiwan and Korea, and occupation of parts of China,the Philippines, and various Pacific islands,*[10] localsin those countries learned Japanese as the language of theempire. As a result, many elderly people in these coun-tries could still speak Japanese into the 21st century.Japanese emigrant communities, the largest of which arefound in Brazil,*[11] with up to 1.5 million Japanese im-migrants and descendants, according to Brazilian IBGEdata, and more than the 1.2 million of the UnitedStates,*[12] sometimes employ Japanese as their pri-mary language. Approximately 12% of Hawaii residentsspeak Japanese,*[13] with an estimated 12.6% of thepopulation of Japanese ancestry in 2008. Japanese em-igrants can also be found in Peru, Argentina, Australia(especially in the eastern states), Canada (especially inVancouver where 1.4% of the population has Japaneseancestry),*[14] the United States (notably California,where 1.2% of the population has Japanese ancestry, andHawaii), and the Philippines (particularly in Davao andLaguna).*[15]

2.1 Official status

Multilingual subway sign in Roppongi Hills, Roppongi, Minato,Japan. Languages consist of Japanese, Chinese, English and Ko-rean.

Japanese has no official status,*[16] but is the de factonational language of Japan. There is a form consid-ered standard: hyjungo (), meaning standardJapanese, or kytsgo (),common language.The meanings of the two terms are almost the same. Thestandard language is a counterpart to the dialects. Thisnormative language was born after the Meiji Restorationof 1868 from the language spoken in the higher-class ar-eas of Tokyo. The standard language is taught in schoolsand used on television and in official communications,and is the version discussed in this article.Formerly, standard Japanese in writing ( bungo,lit-erary language) was different from colloquial language( kgo). The two systems have different rules ofgrammar and some variance in vocabulary. Bungo wasthe main method of writing Japanese until about 1900;since then the use of kgo grew; both used in writing un-til the 1940s. Aside from historians and literary schol-ars, bungo still has some relevance for lawyers as manylaws from before World War II are still written in bungo,although there are ongoing efforts to modernize them.Kgo has otherwise replaced bungo in spoken and writ-ten Japanese.

2.2 Dialects

Main article: Japanese dialectsSee also: Japanese ArchipelagoMany dialects are spoken in Japan. This is due tomany factors, including the length of time the archipelagohas been inhabited, its mountainous island terrain, andJapan's long history of both external and internal iso-lation. Dialects typically differ in terms of pitch ac-cent, inflectional morphology, vocabulary, and particleusage. Though uncommon, some even differ in voweland consonant inventories.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sakokuhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_IIhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiwanhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koreahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippineshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_East_Asia_Co-Prosperity_Spherehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazilhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazilian_Institute_of_Geography_and_Statisticshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Stateshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Stateshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawaiihttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peruhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argentinahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australiahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vancouverhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Stateshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Californiahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawaiihttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippineshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davao_Regionhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laguna_(province)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multilingualhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Official_languagehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_factohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_languagehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meiji_Restorationhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bungo_(Japanese_language)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kogo_(Japanese_language)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_dialectshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_Archipelagohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_pitch_accenthttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_pitch_accenthttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morphology_(linguistics)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vocabularyhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vowelhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consonant

4 3 CLASSIFICATION

Map of Japanese dialects and Japonic languages

The main distinction in Japanese accents is betweenTokyo-type ( Tky-shiki) and Kyoto-Osaka-type( Keihan-shiki). Within each type are several sub-divisions. Kyoto-Osaka-type dialects are in the centralregion, roughly formed by Kansai, Shikoku, and westernHokuriku regions.Dialects from peripheral regions, such as Thoku orKagoshima, may be unintelligible to speakers from theother parts of the country. There are some languageislands in mountain villages or isolated islands such asHachij-jima island whose dialects descend from theEastern dialect of Old Japanese. Dialects of the Kansairegion are spoken or known by many Japanese, and theOsaka dialect in particular is associated with comedy (seeKansai dialect). Dialects of Thoku and North Kant areassociated with typical farmers.The Rykyan languages, spoken in Okinawa and theAmami Islands in Kagoshima Prefecture are considereda separate branch of the Japonic family; not only is eachlanguage unintelligible to Japanese speakers, but most areunintelligible to those who speak other Rykyan lan-guages. Nevertheless, many ordinary Japanese peopleconsider the Rykyan languages dialects of Japanese,resulting from the official language policy of the Japanesegovernment, which has declared those languages dialectsand prohibited their use in schools.Education, mass media, increased mobility within Japan,and economic integration has made Standard Japaneseprevalent nationwide, including on the Ryky islands.

3 Classification

See also: Classification of Japonic

Japanese is a member of the Japonic family of lan-

guages, which includes the languages spoken throughoutthe Ryky Islands. As these closely related languagesare commonly treated as dialects of the same language,Japanese is often called a language isolate.According to Martine Irma Robbeets, Japanese has beensubject to more attempts to show its relation to other lan-guages than any other language in the world.*[17] SinceJapanese first gained the consideration of linguists in thelate 19th century, attempts have been made to show itsgenealogical relation to languages or language familiessuch as Ainu, Korean, Chinese, Tibeto-Burman, UralAltaic, Altaic, Uralian, MonKhmer, Malayo-Polynesianand Ryukyuan. At the fringe, some linguists have sug-gested a link to Indo-European languages such as Greek,and to Lepcha. As it stands, only the link to Ryukyuan haswide support, though linguist Kurakichi Shiratori main-tained that Japanese was a language isolate.*[18]

3.1 Korean hypothesis

Similarities between Korean and Japanese were noted byArai Hakuseki in 1717,*[19] and the idea that the twomight be related was first proposed in 1781 by Japanesescholar Teikan Fujii.*[20] The idea received little at-tention until William George Aston proposed it againin 1879. Japanese scholar Shsabur Kanazawa took itup in 1910, as did Shinpei Ogura in 1934. Shir Hat-tori was nearly alone when he criticised these theoriesin 1959.*[21] Samuel Martin furthered the idea in 1966with hisLexical evidence relating Korean to Japanese,as did John Whitman with his dissertation on the subjectin 1985.*[20] Despite this, definitive proof of the rela-tion has yet to be provided. Historical linguists study-ing Japanese and Korean tend to accept the genealog-ical relation, while general linguists and historical lin-guists in Japan and Korea have remained skeptical.*[21]Alexander Vovin suggests that, while typologically mod-ern Korean and Japanese share similarities that some-times allow word-to-word translations, studies of the pre-modern languages show greater differences. Accordingto Vovin, this suggests linguistic convergence rather thandivergence, which he believes is amongst the evidence ofthe languages not having a genealogical connection.*[22]

3.2 Altaic hypothesis

The proposedAltaic family of languages, whichwould in-clude languages from far eastern Europe to northeasternAsia, has had its supporters and detractors over its history.The most controversial aspect of the hypothesis is theproposed inclusion of Korean and Japanese, which evensome proponents of Altaic have rejected.*[23] PhilippFranz von Siebold suggested the connection in 1832,*[17]but the inclusion first attracted significant attention in theearly 1970s.*[24] Roy AndrewMiller published Japaneseand the Other Altaic Languages, and dedicated much of

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kansai_regionhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shikokuhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hokuriku_regionhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%C5%8Dhoku_Regionhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kagoshima_Prefecturehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_islandhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_islandhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hachij%C5%8Djimahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Japanesehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kansai_regionhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kansai_regionhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osakahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kansai_dialecthttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kant%C5%8D_regionhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ry%C5%ABky%C5%ABan_languageshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okinawa_Prefecturehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amami_Islandshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kagoshima_Prefecturehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japonic_languageshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Educationhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_mediahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classification_of_Japonichttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japonic_languageshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryukyuan_languageshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ry%C5%ABky%C5%AB_Islandshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_isolatehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tibeto-Burman_languageshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ural%E2%80%93Altaic_languageshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ural%E2%80%93Altaic_languageshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uralic_languageshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mon%E2%80%93Khmer_languageshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malayo-Polynesian_languageshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryukyuan_languageshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-European_languageshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_languagehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lepcha_languagehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_languagehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arai_Hakusekihttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_George_Astonhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Martin_(linguist)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Vovinhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistic_typologyhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_convergencehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_divergencehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altaic_languageshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philipp_Franz_von_Sieboldhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philipp_Franz_von_Sieboldhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Andrew_Miller

5

Distribution of the proposed Altaic languages across Eurasia, ten-tatively including Japanese and Korean.

his later career to the subject. Sergei Starostin pub-lished a 1991 monograph which was another significantstepping stone in JapaneseAltaic research. A team ofscholars made a database of Altaic etymologies availableover the internet, from which the three-volume Etymo-logical Dictionary of the Altaic Languages was publishedin 2003.*[25] Scholars such as Yevgeny Polivanov andYoshizo Itabashi, on the other hand, have proposed a hy-brid origin of Japanese, in which Austronesian and Altaicelements became mixed.*[26]Skepticism over the Japanese relation to Altaic iswidespread amongst both amateurs and professionals, inpart because of the large number of unsuccessful attemptsto genealogical relationships with Japanese and other lan-guages.*[17] Opinions are polarized, with many stronglyconvinced of the Altaic relation, and others strongly con-vinced of the lack of one. While some sources are un-decided, often strong proponents of either view will noteven acknowledge the claims of the other side.*[27]

4 Phonology

Main article: Japanese phonology

Japanese has five vowels, all of which are monophthongsthere are no diphthongs. Vowel length is phonemic,and each can be short or long. Long vowels can be de-noted in Roman script with a line called a macron overthe vowel.Some consonants have several allophones, which maygive the impression of a larger inventory of sounds. Someof these allophones have since become phonemic. Forexample, in the Japanese language up to and includingthe first half of the 20th century, the phonemic sequence/ti/ was palatalized and realized phonetically as [ti], ap-proximately chi listen ; however, now /ti/ and /ti/ aredistinct, as evidenced by words like t [ti]Western styleteaand chii [tii]social status.Therof Japanese is a lateral apical postalveolar flap,sounding to most English speakers like something be-tween an land a retroflex r. The gis alsonotable; unless it starts a sentence, it is pronounced //,

like the ng insing,in the Kanto prestige dialect andin other eastern dialects.The syllabic structure and the phonotactics are simple:the only consonant clusters allowed within a syllable con-sist of one of a subset of the consonants plus /j/. This typeof cluster only occurs in onsets. Consonant clusters acrosssyllables are allowed as long as the two consonants are anasal followed by a homorganic consonant. Consonantlength (gemination) is also phonemic.

5 Grammar

Main article: Japanese grammar

5.1 Sentence structure

Japanese word order is classified as subjectobjectverb.Unlike many Indo-European languages, the only strictrule of word order is that the verb must be placed atthe end of a sentence (possibly followed by sentence-endparticles). This is because Japanese sentence elementsare marked with particles that identify their grammaticalfunctions.The basic sentence structure is topiccomment. For ex-ample, Kochira wa Tanaka-san desu (). kochira (this) is the topic of the sen-tence, indicated by the particle wa. The verb de aru(desu is a contraction of its polite form de arimasu) is acopula, commonly translated asto beorit is(thoughthere are other verbs that can be translated asto be),though technically it holds no meaning and is used to givea sentence 'politeness'. As a phrase, Tanaka-san desu isthe comment. This sentence literally translates to Asfor this person, (it) is Mr./Ms. Tanaka.Thus Japanese,like many other Asian languages, is often called a topic-prominent language, whichmeans it has a strong tendencyto indicate the topic separately from the subject, and thatthe two do not always coincide. The sentence Z wa hanaga nagai () literally means,As for ele-phant(s), (the) nose(s) (is/are) long. The topic is zelephant, and the subject is hananose.In Japanese, the subject or object of a sentence need notbe stated if it is obvious from context. As a result ofthis grammatical permissiveness, there is a tendency togravitate towards brevity; Japanese speakers tend to omitpronouns on the theory they are inferred from the previ-ous sentence, and are therefore understood. In the con-text 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 sen-tence: Yatta! (!)"[I / we / they / etc] did [it]!".In addition, since adjectives can form the predicate ina Japanese sentence (below), a single adjective can be

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altaic_languageshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurasiahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_languagehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergei_Anatolyevich_Starostinhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yevgeny_Polivanovhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austronesian_languageshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_phonologyhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monophthonghttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diphthonghttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vowel_lengthhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonemehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanization_of_Japanesehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macronhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allophonehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palatalizationhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media:Chi_(Japanese).ogghttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lateral_consonanthttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apical_consonanthttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retroflex_consonanthttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonotacticshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consonant_clusterhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homorganichttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geminationhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geminationhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_grammarhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subject%E2%80%93object%E2%80%93verbhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-European_languageshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_particleshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topic%E2%80%93commenthttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copula_(linguistics)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topic-prominent_languagehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topic-prominent_languagehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pronoun

6 5 GRAMMAR

a complete sentence: Urayamashii! (!)"[I'm]jealous [of it]!".While the language has some words that are typicallytranslated as pronouns, these are not used as frequentlyas pronouns in some Indo-European languages, and func-tion differently. In some cases Japanese relies on specialverb forms and auxiliary verbs to indicate the direction ofbenefit of an action: downto indicate the out-groupgives a benefit to the in-group; andupto indicate thein-group gives a benefit to the out-group. Here, the in-group includes the speaker and the out-group does not,and their boundary depends on context. For example, os-hiete moratta () (literally,explainedwith a benefit from the out-group to the in-group) means"[he/she/they] explained [it] to [me/us]". Similarly, oshi-ete ageta () (literally,explainedwith abenefit from the in-group to the out-group) means "[I/we]explained [it] to [him/her/them]". Such beneficiary aux-iliary verbs thus serve a function comparable to that ofpronouns and prepositions in Indo-European languages toindicate the actor and the recipient of an action.Japanesepronounsalso function differently frommostmodern Indo-European pronouns (and more like nouns)in that they can takemodifiers as any other nounmay. Forinstance, one does not say in English:

*The amazed he ran down the street. (gram-matically incorrect insertion of a pronoun)

But one can grammatically say essentially the same thingin Japanese:

Odoroita kare wa michi o hashitte itta. (gram-matically correct)

This is partly because these words evolved from regularnouns, such as kimiyou(lord), anatayou(that side, yonder), and bokuI(servant). This is why some linguists do not classify Japanesepronounsas pronouns, but rather as referential nouns,much like Spanish usted (contracted from vuestra merced,your [(flattering majestic) plural] grace) or Portugueseo senhor. Japanese personal pronouns are generally usedonly in situations requiring special emphasis as to who isdoing what to whom.The choice of words used as pronouns is correlated withthe sex of the speaker and the social situation in whichthey are spoken: men and women alike in a formal situa-tion generally refer to themselves aswatashi (private) orwatakushi (also), while men in rougher or intimateconversation are muchmore likely to use the word ore (oneself,myself) or boku. Similarly, different wordssuch as anata, kimi, and omae (, more formallythe one before me) may be used to refer to a lis-tener depending on the listener's relative social position

and the degree of familiarity between the speaker and thelistener. When used in different social relationships, thesame word may have positive (intimate or respectful) ornegative (distant or disrespectful) connotations.Japanese often use titles of the person referred to wherepronouns would be used in English. For example, whenspeaking to one's teacher, it is appropriate to use sensei(, teacher), but inappropriate to use anata. This isbecause anata is used to refer to people of equal or lowerstatus, and one's teacher has higher status.

5.2 Inflection and conjugation

Japanese nouns have no grammatical number, gender orarticle aspect. The noun hon () may refer to a sin-gle book or several books; hito () can meanpersonor people"; and ki () can be treeor trees.Where number is important, it can be indicated by pro-viding a quantity often with a counter word. In rare cases,a suffix (e.g. the suffix tachi in kodomo-tachi indicateschildrenas opposed to kodomochild/children)*[28] or duplication (e.g. , hito-bito, usually written with an iteration mark as) maybe used to indicate a plural. Words for people are usuallyunderstood as singular. Thus Tanaka-san usually meansMr./Ms. Tanaka. Words that refer to people and animalscan be made to indicate a group of individuals throughthe addition of a collective suffix (a noun suffix that in-dicates a group), such as -tachi, but this is not a true plu-ral: the meaning is closer to the English phrase andcompany. A group described as Tanaka-san-tachimayinclude people not named Tanaka. Some Japanese nounsare effectively plural, such as hitobitopeopleandware-warewe/us, while the word tomodachifriendisconsidered singular, although plural in form.Verbs are conjugated to show tenses, of which there aretwo: past and present (or non-past) which is used for thepresent and the future. For verbs that represent an on-going process, the -te iru form indicates a continuous (orprogressive) aspect, similar to the suffix ing in English.For others that represent a change of state, the -te iru formindicates a perfect aspect. For example, kite iru meansHe has come (and is still here)", but tabete iru meansHe is eating.Questions (both with an interrogative pronoun and yes/noquestions) have the same structure as affirmative sen-tences, but with intonation rising at the end. In the formalregister, the question particle -ka is added. For exam-ple, ii desu () It is OKbecomes ii desu-ka () Is it OK?". In a more informaltone sometimes the particle -no () is added instead toshow a personal interest of the speaker: Dshite konai-no? Why aren't (you) coming?". Some simple queriesare formed simply by mentioning the topic with an inter-rogative intonation to call for the hearer's attention: Korewa? "(What about) this?"; O-namae wa? ()

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_pronounshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Majestic_pluralhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Majestic_pluralhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_counter_wordhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_verb_conjugationshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammatical_aspect

5.2 Inflection and conjugation 7

"(What's your) name?".Negatives are formed by inflecting the verb. For example,Pan o taberu ()I will eat breadorI eat breadbecomes Pan o tabenai ()I will not eat breadorI do not eat bread. Plainnegative forms are actually i-adjectives (see below) andinflect as such, e.g. Pan o tabenakatta ()I did not eat bread.The so-called -te verb form is used for a variety of pur-poses: either progressive or perfect aspect (see above);combining verbs in a temporal sequence (Asagohan otabete sugu dekakeruI'll eat breakfast and leave at once), simple commands, conditional statements and permis-sions (Dekakete-mo ii? May I go out?"), etc.The word da (plain), desu (polite) is the copula verb. Itcorresponds approximately to the English be, but oftentakes on other roles, including a marker for tense, whenthe verb is conjugated into its past form datta (plain),deshita (polite). This comes into use because only i-adjectives and verbs can carry tense in Japanese. Twoadditional common verbs are used to indicate existence (there is) or, in some contexts, property: aru (negativenai) and iru (negative inai), for inanimate and animatethings, respectively. For example, Neko ga iruThere'sa cat, Ii kangae-ga nai "[I] haven't got a good idea.The verb to do(suru, polite form shimasu) is oftenused to make verbs from nouns (ryri suruto cook,benky suruto study, etc.) and has been productivein creating modern slang words. Japanese also has a hugenumber of compound verbs to express concepts that aredescribed in English using a verb and an adverbial particle(e.g. tobidasuto fly out, to flee,from tobuto fly, tojump+ dasuto put out, to emit).There are three types of adjective (see Japanese adjec-tives):

1. keiyshi, or i adjectives, which have aconjugating ending i () (such as atsuito behot) which can become past ( atsukattait was hot), or negative ( atsuku naiit is not hot). Note that nai is also an i adjec-tive, which can become past ( atsukunakattait was not hot).

atsui hia hot day.

2. keiydshi, or na adjectives, which arefollowed by a form of the copula, usually na. Forexample hen (strange)

hen na hitoa strange person.

3. rentaishi, also called true adjectives, such asanothat

ano yamathat mountain.

Both keiyshi and keiydshi may predicate sentences.For example,

Gohan ga atsui. The rice ishot.Kare wa hen da.He's strange.

Both inflect, though they do not show the full range ofconjugation found in true verbs. The rentaishi in ModernJapanese are few in number, and unlike the other words,are limited to directly modifying nouns. They never pred-icate sentences. Examples include ookinabig, konothis, iwayuruso-calledand taishitaamazing.Both keiydshi and keiyshi form adverbs, by followingwith ni in the case of keiydshi:

hen ni narubecome strange,

and by changing i to ku in the case of keiyshi:

atsuku narubecome hot.

The grammatical function of nouns is indicated bypostpositions, also called particles. These include for ex-ample:

ga is a type of topic-marker.

Kare ga yatta. He did it.

ni indicates the receiver of something.

Tanaka-sanni agete kudasai Please give it to Mrs./Mr.Tanaka.

It is also used to indicate a motion to a location.

Nihon ni ikitaiI want togo to Japan. pt e ikanai ka?Won't you go to the party?"

nomarks possession and can be used when nom-inalizing phrases.

watashi no kameramy cameraSuk-ni iku noga suki desu "(I) like going skiing.

o is used as a type object marker.

Nani o tabemasu ka?What will (you) eat?"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copula_(linguistics)#Japanesehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_adjectiveshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_adjectiveshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_verb_conjugationshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copula_(linguistics)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predicate_(grammar)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adverbhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postpositionhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_particles

8 6 VOCABULARY

wa for the topic. It can co-exist with the casemarkers listed above, and it overrides ga and (inmost cases) o.

Watashi wa sushi gaii desu.I like sushi.(literally)As for me,sushi is good.

Note: The subtle difference between wa and ga inJapanese cannot be derived from the English language assuch, because the distinction between sentence topic andsubject is not made there. While wa indicates the topic,which the rest of the sentence describes or acts upon, itcarries the implication that the subject indicated by wa isnot unique, or may be part of a larger group.

Ikeda-san wa yonj-ni sai da. As for Mr.Ikeda, he is forty-two years old.Others in thegroup may also be of that age.

Absence of wa often means the subject is the focus of thesentence.

Ikeda-san ga yonj-ni sai da.It is Mr. Ikedawho is forty-two years old.This is a reply toan implicit or explicit question, such aswhoin this group is forty-two years old?"

5.3 Politeness

Main article: Honorific speech in Japanese

Japanese has an extensive grammatical system to expresspoliteness and formality.The Japanese language can express differing levels in so-cial status. The differences in social position are deter-mined by a variety of factors including job, age, expe-rience, or even psychological state (e.g., a person ask-ing a favour tends to do so politely). The person inthe lower position is expected to use a polite form ofspeech, whereas the other person might use a plainerform. Strangers will also speak to each other politely.Japanese children rarely use polite speech until they areteens, at which point they are expected to begin speakingin a more adult manner. See uchi-soto.Whereas teineigo () (polite language) is com-monly an inflectional system, sonkeigo () (respect-ful language) and kenjgo () (humble language)often employ many special honorific and humble alter-nate verbs: iku gobecomes ikimasu in polite form,but is replaced by irassharu in honorific speech and uka-gau or mairu in humble speech.The difference between honorific and humble speech isparticularly pronounced in the Japanese language. Hum-ble language is used to talk about oneself or one's own

group (company, family) whilst honorific language ismostly used when describing the interlocutor and theirgroup. For example, the -san suffix (MrMrs.orMiss) is an example of honorific language. It is notused to talk about oneself or when talking about someonefrom one's company to an external person, since the com-pany is the speaker'sgroup. When speaking directlyto one's superior in one's company or when speaking withother employees within one's company about a superior,a Japanese person will use vocabulary and inflections ofthe honorific register to refer to the in-group superior andtheir speech and actions. When speaking to a person fromanother company (i.e., a member of an out-group), how-ever, a Japanese person will use the plain or the humbleregister to refer to the speech and actions of their own in-group superiors. In short, the register used in Japaneseto refer to the person, speech, or actions of any particu-lar individual varies depending on the relationship (eitherin-group or out-group) between the speaker and listener,as well as depending on the relative status of the speaker,listener, and third-person referents.Most nouns in the Japanese language may be made politeby the addition of o- or go- as a prefix. o- is generally usedfor words of native Japanese origin, whereas go- is affixedto words of Chinese derivation. In some cases, the pre-fix has become a fixed part of the word, and is includedeven in regular speech, such as gohan 'cooked rice; meal.'Such a construction often indicates deference to eitherthe item's owner or to the object itself. For example,the word tomodachi 'friend,' would become o-tomodachiwhen referring to the friend of someone of higher status(though mothers often use this form to refer to their chil-dren's friends). On the other hand, a polite speaker maysometimes refer tomizu 'water' as o-mizu in order to showpoliteness.Most Japanese people employ politeness to indicate alack of familiarity. That is, they use polite forms for newacquaintances, but if a relationship becomes more inti-mate, they no longer use them. This occurs regardless ofage, social class, or gender.

6 Vocabulary

Further information: Yamato kotoba and Gairaigo

The original language of Japan, or at least the originallanguage of a certain population that was ancestral to asignificant portion of the historical and present Japanesenation, was the so-called yamato kotoba ( orinfrequently , i.e. "Yamato words), which inscholarly contexts is sometimes referred to as wago ( or rarely, i.e. the "Wa words). In addition towords from this original language, present-day Japaneseincludes a number of words that were either borrowedfrom Chinese or constructed from Chinese roots follow-

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Focus_(linguistics)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honorific_speech_in_Japanesehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uchi-sotohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inflectionhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nounhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yamato_kotobahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gairaigohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yamato_kotobahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yamato_peoplehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wa_(Japan)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_language

9

ing Chinese patterns. These words, known as kango (), entered the language from the 5th century onwardsvia contact with Chinese culture. According to the Shin-sen Kokugo Jiten () Japanese dictionary,kangomake up 49.1% of the total vocabulary,wagomakeup 33.8%, other foreign words or gairaigo () ac-count for 8.8%, and the remaining 8.3% constitute hy-bridized words or konshugo () that draw elementsfrom more than one language.*[29]There are also a great number of words of mimeticorigin in Japanese, with Japanese having a rich collec-tion of sound symbolism, both onomatopoeia for phys-ical sounds, and more abstract words. A small num-ber of words have come into Japanese from the Ainulanguage. Tonakai (reindeer), rakko (sea otter) andshishamo (smelt, a type of fish) are well-known examplesof words of Ainu origin.Words of different origins occupy different registers inJapanese. Like Latin-derived words in English, kangowords are typically perceived as somewhat formal or aca-demic compared to equivalent Yamato words. Indeed,it is generally fair to say that an English word derivedfrom 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 equiv-alent.Incorporating vocabulary from European languages be-gan with borrowings from Portuguese in the 16th century,followed by words from Dutch during Japan's long isola-tion of the Edo period. With the Meiji Restoration andthe reopening of Japan in the 19th century, borrowing oc-curred from German, French, and English. Today mostborrowings are from English.In the Meiji era, the Japanese also coined many neol-ogisms using Chinese roots and morphology to trans-late European concepts; these are known as wasei kango(Japanese-made Chinese words). Many of these werethen imported into Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese viatheir kanji in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Forexample, seiji (politics), and kagaku (chemistry) are words derived from Chinese roots thatwere first created and used by the Japanese, and only laterborrowed into Chinese and other East Asian languages.As a result, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, and Vietnameseshare a large common corpus of vocabulary in the sameway a large number of Greek- and Latin-derived words both inherited or borrowed into European languages, ormodern coinages from Greek or Latin roots are sharedamong modern European languages see classical com-pound.In the past few decades, wasei-eigo (made-in-Japan En-glish) has become a prominent phenomenon. Wordssuch as wanpatn (< one + pattern,tobe in a rut,to have a one-trackmind) and sukinshippu (< skin + -ship, physical contact),although coined by compounding English roots, are non-

sensical in most non-Japanese contexts; exceptions existin nearby languages such as Korean however, which oftenuse words such as skinship and rimokon (remote control)in the same way as in Japanese.The popularity of many Japanese cultural exports hasmade some native Japanese words familiar in English,including futon, haiku, judo, kamikaze, karaoke, karate,ninja, origami, rickshaw (from jinrikisha),samurai, sayonara, sudoku, sumo, sushi, tsunami, tycoon.See list of English words of Japanese origin for more.

7 Writing system

Main articles: Japanese writing system and Japanesebraille

Literacy was introduced to Japan in the form of theChinese writing system, by way of Baekje before the 5thcentury.*[30] Using this language, the Japanese king Bupresented a petition to Emperor Shun of Liu Song inAD 478.*[lower-alpha 1] After the ruin of Baekje, Japaninvited scholars from China to learn more of the Chi-nese writing system. Japanese emperors gave an officialrank to Chinese scholars (//*[lower-alpha2]*[lower-alpha 3] *[lower-alpha 4]) and spreadthe use of Chinese characters from the 7th century to the8th century.

Table of Kana: Hiragana top, Katakana in the center and Ro-manized equivalents at the bottom

At first, the Japanese wrote in Classical Chinese, withJapanese names represented by characters used for theirmeanings and not their sounds. Later, during the 7th cen-tury AD, the Chinese-sounding phoneme principle was

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sino-Japanese_vocabularyhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_dictionaryhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gairaigohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_sound_symbolismhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ainu_languagehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ainu_languagehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reindeerhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_otterhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shishamohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smeltshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Register_(sociolinguistics)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_Europehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_words_of_Portuguese_originhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_languagehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sakokuhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sakokuhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edo_periodhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meiji_Restorationhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_languagehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_languagehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_languagehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wasei_kangohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_compoundhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_compoundhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wasei-eigohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Futonhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haikuhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamikazehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karaokehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karatehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninjahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origamihttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulled_rickshawhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuraihttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sayonara_(disambiguation)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudokuhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sushihttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsunamihttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tycoonhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_English_words_of_Japanese_originhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_writing_systemhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_braillehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_braillehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_writing_systemhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baekjehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_kings_of_Wahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emperor_Shun_of_Liu_Songhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiraganahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katakanahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_Chinese

10 8 STUDY BY NON-NATIVE SPEAKERS

used to write pure Japanese poetry and prose, but someJapanese words were still written with characters for theirmeaning and not the original Chinese sound. This is whenthe history of Japanese as a written language begins in itsown right. By this time, the Japanese language was al-ready very distinct from the Ryukyuan languages.*[31]An example of this mixed style is the Kojiki, whichwas written in AD 712. They then started to use Chi-nese characters to write Japanese in a style known asman'ygana, a syllabic script which used Chinese char-acters for their sounds in order to transcribe the words ofJapanese speech syllable by syllable.Over time, a writing system evolved. Chinese charac-ters (kanji) were used to write either words borrowedfrom Chinese, or Japanese words with the same or simi-lar meanings. Chinese characters were also used to writegrammatical elements, were simplified, and eventuallybecame two syllabic scripts: hiragana and katakana whichwere developed based on Manyogana from Baekje.*[32]However this hypothesisManyogana from Baekjeisdenied by other scholars.*[33]*[34]Modern Japanese is written in a mixture of three mainsystems: kanji, characters of Chinese origin used to rep-resent both Chinese loanwords into Japanese and a num-ber of native Japanese morphemes; and two syllabaries:hiragana and katakana. The Latin script is also some-times used, mostly in acronyms and other abbreviations.Arabic numerals are much more common than the kanjiwhen used in counting, but kanji numerals are still usedin compounds, such as titsu (unification).Hiragana are used for words without kanji representation,for words no longer written in kanji, and also followingkanji to show conjugational endings. Because of the wayverbs (and adjectives) in Japanese are conjugated, kanjialone cannot fully convey Japanese tense and mood, askanji cannot be subject to variation when written withoutlosing its meaning. For this reason, hiragana are suffixedto the ends of kanji to show verb and adjective conjuga-tions. Hiragana used in this way are called okurigana. Hi-ragana can also be written in a superscript called furiganaabove or beside a kanji to show the proper reading. Thisis done to facilitate learning, as well as to clarify particu-larly old or obscure (or sometimes invented) readings.Katakana, like hiragana, are a syllabary; katakana areprimarily used to write foreign words, plant and animalnames, and for emphasis. For exampleAustraliahasbeen adapted assutoraria (), andsu-permarkethas been adapted and shortened into sp().Historically, attempts to limit the number of kanji in usecommenced in the mid-19th century, but did not becomea matter of government intervention until after Japan'sdefeat in the Second World War. During the period ofpost-war occupation (and influenced by the views of someU.S. officials), various schemes including the completeabolition of kanji and exclusive use of rmaji were con-

sidered. The jy kanji (common use kanji, originallycalled ty kanji [kanji for general use]) scheme arose asa compromise solution.Japanese students begin to learn kanji from their first yearat elementary school. A guideline created by the JapaneseMinistry of Education, the list of kyiku kanji (educationkanji, a subset of jy kanji), specifies the 1,006 simplecharacters a child is to learn by the end of sixth grade.Children continue to study another 1,130 characters injunior high school, covering in total 2,136 jy kanji. Theofficial list of jy kanji was revised several times, but thetotal number of officially sanctioned characters remainedlargely unchanged.As for kanji for personal names, the circumstances aresomewhat complicated. Jy kanji and jinmeiy kanji(an appendix of additional characters for names) are ap-proved for registering personal names. Names contain-ing unapproved characters are denied registration. How-ever, as with the list of jy kanji, criteria for inclusionwere often arbitrary and led to many common and popu-lar characters being disapproved for use. Under popularpressure and following a court decision holding the exclu-sion of common characters unlawful, the list of jinmeiykanjiwas substantially extended from 92 in 1951 (the yearit was first decreed) to 983 in 2004. Furthermore, fami-lies whose names are not on these lists were permitted tocontinue using the older forms.

8 Study by non-native speakers

Japanese Language Training at CASA

Many major universities throughout the world provideJapanese language courses, and a number of secondaryand even primary schools worldwide offer courses inthe language. This is much changed from before WorldWar II; in 1940, only 65 Americans not of Japanese de-scent were able to read, write and understand the lan-guage.*[35]International interest in the Japanese language dates fromthe 19th century but has become more prevalent follow-ing Japan's economic bubble of the 1980s and the globalpopularity of Japanese popular culture (such as anime

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryukyuan_languageshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kojikihttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_charactershttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_charactershttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanjihttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiraganahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katakanahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manyoganahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanjihttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loanwordhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morphemehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syllabaryhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiraganahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katakanahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin_scripthttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiraganahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_verb_conjugationshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okuriganahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Furiganahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katakanahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C5%8Dy%C5%8D_kanjihttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%C5%8Dy%C5%8D_kanjihttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ky%C5%8Diku_kanjihttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C5%8Dy%C5%8D_kanjihttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C5%8Dy%C5%8D_kanjihttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C5%8Dy%C5%8D_kanjihttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C5%8Dy%C5%8D_kanjihttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jinmeiy%C5%8D_kanjihttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C5%8Dy%C5%8D_kanjihttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jinmeiy%C5%8D_kanjihttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jinmeiy%C5%8D_kanjihttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_IIhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_IIhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_Americanhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_Americanhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_popular_culturehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anime

11

Japanese High school Language Lab

and video games) since the 1990s. Near of 4 millionpeople studied the language worldwide in 2012: morethan 1million Chinese, 872,000 Indonesians and 840,000South Koreans studied Japanese in lower and higher ed-ucational institutions. In the last three years the numberof students studying Japanese in China increased by 26.5percent/three years, and by 21.8 percent Indonesia, butdropped 12.8 percent in South Korea.*[36]In Japan, more than 90,000 foreign students studied atJapanese universities and Japanese language schools, in-cluding 77,000 Chinese and 15,000 South Koreans in2003. In addition, local governments and some NPOgroups provide free Japanese language classes for foreignresidents, including Japanese Brazilians and foreignersmarried to Japanese nationals. In the United Kingdom,study of the Japanese language is supported by the BritishAssociation for Japanese Studies. In Ireland, Japanese isoffered as a language in the Leaving Certificate in someschools.The Japanese government provides standardized tests tomeasure spoken and written comprehension of Japanesefor second language learners; the most prominent is theJapanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT), which fea-tures five levels of exams (changed from four levels in2010), ranging from elementary (N5) to advanced (N1).The JLPT is offered twice a year. The Japanese Ex-ternal Trade Organization JETRO organizes the BusinessJapanese Proficiency Test which tests the learner's abilityto understand Japanese in a business setting. The JapanKanji Aptitude Testing Foundation, which took over theBJT from JETRO in 2009, announced in August 2010that the test would be discontinued in 2011 due to finan-cial pressures on the Foundation. However, it has sinceissued a statement to the effect that the test will continueto be available as a result of support from the Japanesegovernment.*[37]*[38]

9 See also Aizuchi

Culture of Japan

Henohenomoheji

Japanese dictionaries

Japanese language and computers

Japanese literature

Japanese name

Japanese orthography issues

Japanese Sign Language family

Japanese words and words derived from Japanese inother languages at Wiktionary, Wikipedia's siblingproject

Rendaku

Romanization of Japanese

Hepburn romanization

Shogakukan Progressive JapaneseEnglish Dictio-nary (book)

Yojijukugo

10 Notes

[1] Book of Song

[2] Nihon shoki Chapter 30:

[3] Nihon shoki Chapter 30:

[4] Shoku Nihongi

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_gamehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indonesiahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Koreahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_universities_in_Japanhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_schoolhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-profit_organisationhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_Brazilianhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Association_for_Japanese_Studieshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Association_for_Japanese_Studieshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_Irelandhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_Leaving_Certificatehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_Language_Proficiency_Testhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JETROhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aizuchihttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_of_Japanhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henohenomohejihttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_dictionarieshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_language_and_computershttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_literaturehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_namehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_orthography_issueshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_Sign_Language_familyhttps://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Category:Japanese%2520languagehttps://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Category:Japanese%2520derivationshttps://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Category:Japanese%2520derivationshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiktionaryhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rendakuhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanization_of_Japanesehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hepburn_romanizationhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shogakukan_Progressive_Japanese-English_Dictionaryhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shogakukan_Progressive_Japanese-English_Dictionaryhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yojijukugohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Songhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nihon_shokihttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nihon_shokihttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoku_Nihongi

12 12 WORKS CITED

11 References[1] Vrldens 100 strsta sprk 2010[The world's 100

largest languages in 2010]. Nationalencyklopedin (inSwedish). 2010. Retrieved 12 February 2014.

[2] Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarstrm, Harald; Forkel,Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). NuclearJapanese. Glottolog 2.2. Leipzig: Max Planck Institutefor Evolutionary Anthropology.

[3] Wade, Nicholas (May 4, 2011). Finding on DialectsCasts New Light on the Origins of the Japanese People.The New York Times. Retrieved May 7, 2011.

[4] Shinkichi Hashimoto (February 3, 1918)2611(1949) ( 3)()

[5] (1953)()p.126

[6] (1931) 4 (1957()

[7] Irwin 2011, pp. 32, 34.

[8] Irwin 2011, pp. 3940.

[9] Miura, Akira, English in Japanese, Weatherhill, 1998.

[10] Japanese is listed as one of the official languages ofAngaur state, Palau (Ethnologe, CIA World Factbook).However, very few Japanese speakers were recorded inthe 2005 census.

[11] IBGE traa perfil dos imigrantes Imigrao Madein Japan. Madeinjapan.uol.com.br. 2008-06-21. Re-trieved 2012-11-20.

[12] American FactFinder. Factfinder.census.gov. Re-trieved 2013-02-01.

[13] Japanese Source Census 2000, Summary File 3, STP258. Mla.org. Retrieved 2012-11-20.

[14] Ethnocultural Portrait of Canada Data table. 2.stat-can.ca. 2010-06-10. Retrieved 2012-11-20.

[15] The Japanese in Colonial Southeast Asia - Google Books.Books.google.com. Retrieved on 2014-06-07.

[16] (inJapanese). Legislative Bureau of the House of Council-lors. Retrieved 9 November 2012.

[17] Robbeets 2005, p. 20.

[18] Kindaichi & Hirano 1978, pp. 3031.

[19] Robbeets 2005, p. 25.

[20] Robbeets 2005, p. 25; Vovin 2010, p. 3.

[21] Vovin 2010, p. 3.

[22] Vovin 2010, p. 6.

[23] Robbeets 2005, p. 18.

[24] Robbeets 2005, p. 19.

[25] Robbeets 2005, p. 22.

[26] Robbeets 2005, pp. 21, 23.

[27] Robbeets 2005, pp. 2627.

[28] [Tachi] (in Japanese). Sanseido. Retrieved2014-08-18.

[29] , , , 2001, ISBN 4-09-501407-5

[30] "Buddhist Art of Korea & Japan,Asia Society Mu-seum; "Kanji,JapanGuide.com; "Pottery,MSN En-carta; "History of Japan,JapanVisitor.com. Archived2009-10-31.

[31] Heinrich, Patrick. What leaves a mark should nolonger stain: Progressive erasure and reversing languageshift activities in the Ryukyu Islands,First InternationalSmall Island Cultures Conference at Kagoshima Univer-sity, Centre for the Pacific Islands, February 710, 2005;citing Shiro Hattori. (1954)Gengo nendaigaku sunawachigoi tokeigaku no hoho ni tsuite (Concerning the Methodof Glottochronology and Lexicostatistics),Gengo kenkyu(Journal of the Linguistic Society of Japan), Vols. 26/27.

[32] John R. Bentley. ""The origin of Manyogana, Bulletinof the School of Oriental and African Studies (2001), 64:5973. Cambridge University Press. Retrieved 2012-11-20.

[33] Shunpei Mizuno, ed. (2002). ! (in Japanese). Shogakukan. ISBN4-09-402716-5.

[34] Shunpei Mizuno, ed. (2007). vs (in Japanese). Shogakukan. ISBN 4-09-387703-3.

[35] Beate Sirota Gordon commencement address atMills Col-lege, May 14, 2011. Sotomayor, Denzel Washington,GE CEO Speak to Graduates, C-SPAN (US). May 30,2011; retrieved 2011-05-30

[36] RI ranks No. 2 in learning Japanese language. July15, 2013.

[37]BJT Business Japanese Proficiency Test. Kanken.or.jp.Retrieved 2012-11-20.

[38]Relaunching of the Business Japanese Proficiency Test inFY 2012 and Temporary Measures in FY 2011 (pdf).Japan Kanji Aptitude Testing Foundation. 2010-11-25.Archived from the original on 2011-09-30. Retrieved2014-12-16.

12 Works cited Bloch, Bernard (1946). Studies in colloquialJapanese I: Inflection. Journal of the American Ori-ental Society, 66, pp. 97130.

Bloch, Bernard (1946). Studies in colloquialJapanese II: Syntax. Language, 22, pp. 200248.

http://www.ne.se/spr%25C3%25A5k/v%25C3%25A4rldens-100-st%25C3%25B6rsta-spr%25C3%25A5k-2010http://www.ne.se/spr%25C3%25A5k/v%25C3%25A4rldens-100-st%25C3%25B6rsta-spr%25C3%25A5k-2010https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nationalencyklopedinhttp://glottolog.org/resource/languoid/id/nucl1643http://glottolog.org/resource/languoid/id/nucl1643http://glottolog.org/http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/04/world/asia/04language.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/04/world/asia/04language.htmlhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_York_Timeshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese%2520language#CITEREFIrwin2011https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese%2520language#CITEREFIrwin2011https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angaurhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palauhttp://www.ethnologue.com/show_country.asp?name=PWhttps://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ps.htmlhttp://www.spc.int/prism/country/pw/stats/PalauStats/Publication/2005CENSUS.pdfhttp://madeinjapan.uol.com.br/2008/06/21/ibge-traca-perfil-dos-imigrantes/http://madeinjapan.uol.com.br/2008/06/21/ibge-traca-perfil-dos-imigrantes/http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/IPTable?_bm=y&-geo_id=01000US&-qr_name=ACS_2005_EST_G00_S0201&-qr_name=ACS_2005_EST_G00_S0201PR&-qr_name=ACS_2005_EST_G00_S0201T&-qr_name=ACS_2005_EST_G00_S0201TPR&-reg=ACS_2005_EST_G00_S0201:041;ACS_2005_EST_G00_S0201PR:041;ACS_2005_EST_G00_S0201T:041;ACS_2005_EST_G00_S0201TPR:041&-ds_name=ACS_2005_EST_G00_&-_lang=enhttp://www.mla.org/map_data_results&mode=lang_tops&SRVY_YEAR=2000&lang_id=723http://www.mla.org/map_data_results&mode=lang_tops&SRVY_YEAR=2000&lang_id=723http://www12.statcan.ca/census-recensement/2006/dp-pd/hlt/97-562/pages/page.cfm?Lang=E&Geo=CMA&Code=933&Data=Count&Table=2&StartRec=1&Sort=3&Display=All&CSDFilter=5000http://books.google.com/books?id=6mfCzrbOn80C&pg=PA157&lpg=PA157&dq=Japanese+immigrants+to+Davao&source=bl&ots=N7e-pwYl-X&sig=2V4hFvECX8L-l93szb6keD7nq68&hl=en&sa=X&ei=uidpUs_DEYivkAeK34Fo&ved=0CGIQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=Japanese%2520immigrants%2520to%2520Davao&f=falsehttp://houseikyoku.sangiin.go.jp/column/column068.htmhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese%2520language#CITEREFRobbeets2005https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese%2520language#CITEREFKindaichiHirano1978https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese%2520language#CITEREFRobbeets2005https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese%2520language#CITEREFRobbeets2005https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese%2520language#CITEREFVovin2010https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese%2520language#CITEREFVovin2010https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese%2520language#CITEREFVovin2010https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese%2520language#CITEREFRobbeets2005https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese%2520language#CITEREFRobbeets2005https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese%2520language#CITEREFRobbeets2005https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese%2520language#CITEREFRobbeets2005https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese%2520language#CITEREFRobbeets2005http://www.sanseido.net/User/Dic/Index.aspx?TWords=%25E3%2581%259F%25E3%2581%25A1+%25E9%2581%2594&st=0&DORDER=151617&DailyJJ=checkbox&DailyEJ=checkbox&DailyJE=checkboxhttp://www.sanseido.net/User/Dic/Index.aspx?TWords=%25E3%2581%259F%25E3%2581%25A1+%25E9%2581%2594&st=0&DORDER=151617&DailyJJ=checkbox&DailyEJ=checkbox&DailyJE=checkboxhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanseidohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/4095014075https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/4095014075http://www.asiasocietymuseum.org/buddhist_trade/koreajapan.htmlhttp://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2046.htmlhttp://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761568150_4/Pottery.htmlhttp://www.japanvisitor.com/index.php?cID=359&pID=334&cName=Japanesehttp://www.webcitation.org/5kwPni5fJhttp://www.sicri-network.org/ISIC1/j.%2520ISIC1P%2520Heinrich.pdfhttp://www.sicri-network.org/ISIC1/j.%2520ISIC1P%2520Heinrich.pdfhttp://www.sicri-network.org/ISIC1/j.%2520ISIC1P%2520Heinrich.pdfhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kagoshima_Universityhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kagoshima_Universityhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiro_Hattorihttp://journals.cambridge.org/production/action/cjoGetFulltext?fulltextid=70352http://journals.cambridge.org/production/action/cjoGetFulltext?fulltextid=70352http://journals.cambridge.org/production/action/cjoGetFulltext?fulltextid=70352https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambridge_University_Presshttp://books.google.com/?id=_MMbNwAACAAJ&dq=%25E6%2597%25A5%25E6%259C%25AC%25E5%2581%25BD%25E5%258F%25B2&cd=3http://books.google.com/?id=_MMbNwAACAAJ&dq=%25E6%2597%25A5%25E6%259C%25AC%25E5%2581%25BD%25E5%258F%25B2&cd=3https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Standard_Book_Numberhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/4-09-402716-5http://books.google.com/?id=qwBgGQAACAAJ&dq=%25E6%2597%25A5%25E6%259C%25AC%25E5%2581%25BD%25E5%258F%25B2&cd=2https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Standard_Book_Numberhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/4-09-387703-3https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beate_Sirota_Gordonhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mills_Collegehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mills_Collegehttp://www.c-span.org/Events/Sotomayor-Denzel-Washington-GE-CEO-Speak-to-Graduates/10737421758-10/http://www.c-span.org/Events/Sotomayor-Denzel-Washington-GE-CEO-Speak-to-Graduates/10737421758-10/http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2013/07/15/ri-ranks-no-2-learning-japanese-language.htmlhttp://www.kanken.or.jp/bjt/english/index.htmlhttp://web.archive.org/web/20110930024008/http://www.kanken.or.jp/bjt/pdf/statement-e.pdfhttp://web.archive.org/web/20110930024008/http://www.kanken.or.jp/bjt/pdf/statement-e.pdfhttp://www.kanken.or.jp/bjt/pdf/statement-e.pdf

13

Chafe, William L. (1976). Giveness, contrastive-ness, definiteness, subjects, topics, and point ofview. In C. Li (Ed.), Subject and topic (pp. 2556).New York: Academic Press. ISBN 0-12-447350-4.

Dalby, Andrew. (2004). Japanese, in Dic-tionary of Languages: the Definitive Reference toMore than 400 Languages. New York: ColumbiaUniversity Press. 10-ISBN 0231115687/13-ISBN9780231115681; 10-ISBN 0231115695/13-ISBN9780231115698; OCLC 474656178

Frellesvig, Bjarke (2010). A history of the Japaneselanguage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.ISBN 978-0-521-65320-6.

Irwin, Mark (2011). Loanwords in Japanese. JohnBenjamins Publishing. ISBN 90-272-0592-2.

Kindaichi, Haruhiko; Hirano, Umeyo (1978). TheJapanese Language. Tuttle Publishing. ISBN 978-0-8048-1579-6.

Kuno, Susumu (1973). The structure of the Japaneselanguage. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. ISBN 0-262-11049-0.

Kuno, Susumu. (1976). Subject, theme, and thespeaker's empathy: A re-examination of relativiza-tion phenomena,in Charles N. Li (Ed.), Subject andtopic (pp. 417444). New York: Academic Press.ISBN 0-12-447350-4.

Martin, Samuel E. (1975). A reference grammar ofJapanese. NewHaven: Yale University Press. ISBN0-300-01813-4.

McClain, Yoko Matsuoka. (1981). Handbook ofmodern Japanese grammar: [Kgo Nihon bump]. Tokyo: Hokuseido Press.ISBN 4-590-00570-0; ISBN 0-89346-149-0.

Miller, Roy (1967). The Japanese language.Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Miller, Roy (1980). Origins of the Japanese lan-guage: Lectures in Japan during the academic year,197778. Seattle: University of Washington Press.ISBN 0-295-95766-2.

Mizutani, Osamu; & Mizutani, Nobuko (1987).How to be polite in Japanese: [Ni-hongo no keigo]. Tokyo: The Japan Times. ISBN4-7890-0338-8.

Robbeets, Martine Irma (2005). Is Japanese Relatedto Korean, Tungusic, Mongolic and Turkic?. OttoHarrassowitz Verlag. ISBN 978-3-447-05247-4.

Shibatani, Masayoshi (1990). Japanese. In B. Com-rie (Ed.), The major languages of east and south-eastAsia. London: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-04739-0.

Shibatani, Masayoshi (1990). The languages ofJapan. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.ISBN 0-521-36070-6 (hbk); ISBN 0-521-36918-5(pbk).

Shibamoto, Janet S. (1985). Japanese women's lan-guage. New York: Academic Press. ISBN 0-12-640030-X. Graduate Level

Tsujimura, Natsuko (1996). An introduction toJapanese linguistics. Cambridge, MA: BlackwellPublishers. ISBN 0-631-19855-5 (hbk); ISBN 0-631-19856-3 (pbk). Upper Level Textbooks

Tsujimura, Natsuko (Ed.) (1999). The hand-book of Japanese linguistics. Malden, MA: Black-well Publishers. ISBN 0-631-20504-7. Read-ings/Anthologies

Vovin, Alexander (2010). Korea-Japonica: A Re-Evaluation of a Common Genetic Origin. Universityof Hawaii Press. ISBN 978-0-8248-3278-0.

13 Further reading Rudolf Lange (1907). Christopher Noss, ed. A text-book of colloquial Japanese (revised English ed.).TOKYO: Methodist publishing house. p. 588. Re-trieved 1March 2012.(All rights reserved, copyright1903 by Christopher Noss; reprinted April 1907by the Methodist Publishing House, Tokyo, Japan)(Original from the New York Public Library) (Dig-itized Apr 2, 2008)

Rudolf Lange (1907). Christopher Noss, ed. A text-book of colloquial Japanese (revised English ed.).TOKYO: Methodist publishing house. p. 588. Re-trieved 1March 2012.(All rights reserved; copyright1903 by Christopher Noss; reprinted April 1907by the Methodist Publishing House, Tokyo, Japan)(Original from Harvard University) (Digitized Oct10, 2008)

Rudolf Lange, Christopher Noss (1903). AText-book of Colloquial Japanese (English ed.).The Kaneko Press, North Japan College, Sendai:Methodist Publishing House. p. 573. Retrieved1 March 2012.(Tokyo Methodist Publishing House1903)

Rudolf Lange (1903). Christopher Noss, ed. Atext-book of colloquial Japanese: based on theLehrbuch der japanischen umgangssprache by Dr.Rudolf Lange (revised English ed.). TOKYO:Methodist publishing house. p. 588. Retrieved1 March 2012.(All rights reserved; copyright 1903by Christopher Noss; reprinted April 1907 by theMethodist Publishing House, Tokyo, Japan) (Origi-nal from the University of California) (Digitized Oct10, 2007)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0124473504http://www.credoreference.com/entry/dictlang/japanesehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0231115687https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/9780231115681https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/9780231115681https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0231115695https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/9780231115698https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/9780231115698http://www.worldcat.org/title/dictionary-of-languages-the-definitive-reference-to-more-than-400-languages/oclc/474656178https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/9780521653206http://books.google.com/books?id=iGFGIc06LE4Chttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Benjamins_Publishinghttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Benjamins_Publishinghttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Standard_Book_Numberhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/90-272-0592-2http://books.google.com/books?id=IZhFf3hlgNoChttp://books.google.com/books?id=IZhFf3hlgNoChttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuttle_Publishinghttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Standard_Book_Numberhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-8048-1579-6https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-8048-1579-6https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0262110490https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0262110490https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0124473504https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0300018134https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0300018134https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/4590005700https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0893461490https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0295957662https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Japan_Timeshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/4789003388https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/4789003388http://books.google.com/books?id=7ysws67HZegChttp://books.google.com/books?id=7ysws67HZegChttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Standard_Book_Numberhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-3-447-05247-4https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0415047390https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0521360706https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0521369185https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/012640030Xhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/012640030Xhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0631198555https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0631198563https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0631198563https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0631205047https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Vovinhttp://books.google.com/books?id=um8O1bp-86EChttp://books.google.com/books?id=um8O1bp-86EChttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Hawaii_Presshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Hawaii_Presshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Standard_Book_Numberhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-8248-3278-0http://books.google.com/?id=6SkYAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=falsehttp://books.google.com/?id=6SkYAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=falsehttp://books.google.com/?id=Q2suAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=falsehttp://books.google.com/?id=Q2suAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=falsehttp://books.google.com/?id=BmwwAQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=falsehttp://books.google.com/?id=BmwwAQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=falsehttp://books.google.com/?id=PhVCAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=falsehttp://books.google.com/?id=PhVCAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=falsehttp://books.google.com/?id=PhVCAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=falsehttp://books.google.com/?id=PhVCAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

14 14 EXTERNAL LINKS

Shibatani, Masayoshi. (1990). The languages ofJapan. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Hayakawa, Isamu. (2014). A Historical Dictionaryof Japanese Words Used in English. Revised andCorrected Edition. Amazon (Tokyo: Texnai).

Japanese Language. MIT. Retrieved 2009-05-13.

14 External links National Institute for Japanese Language and Lin-

guistics

Japanese Language Student's Handbook

USA Foreign Service Institute Japanese course

http://web.mit.edu/jpnet/articles/JapaneseLanguage.htmlhttp://www.ninjal.ac.jp/english/http://www.ninjal.ac.jp/english/http://tangorin.com/handbook/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_Service_Institutehttps://www.livelingua.com/fsi-japanese-course.php

15

15 Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

15.1 Text Japanese language Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese%20language?oldid=643220803 Contributors: Brion VIBBER,

Archibald Fitzchesterfield, Taw, Ed Poor, Aidan Elliott-McCrea, Eob, Kowloonese, Danny, Hannes Hirzel, Zoe, Fredb, Gogaku, Heron,Vassili Nikolaev, Zimriel, Erwan, Olivier, Stevertigo, Dhilvert, Steverapaport, Frecklefoot, Lorenzarius, Patrick, AdSR, Tillwe, Paul Bar-low, Wshun, Kwertii, Euske, Laszlo, Gabbe, Chuck SMITH, Menchi, Tannin, Ixfd64, Sannse, TakuyaMurata, Davejenk1ns, Stw, Looxix,Ihcoyc, Ellywa, Cyp, Synthetik, Kricxjo, Mac, Jpatokal, Marumari, Angela, Den fjttrade ankan, Bueller 007, Bogdangiusca, Junesun,Jiang, Grin, Rawr, David Stewart, Jordi Burguet Castell, Mib, Atob, EdH, Ruhrjung, Eirik (usurped), Samuel, Tobias Conradi, Mxn,MakiAEA, Emperorbma, Adam Bishop, Timwi, Nohat, Random832, MattH, Jogloran, WhisperToMe, Invisible Friend, Rvalles, Japman,Furrykef, Morwen, Chariot, Sabbut, Mdchachi, Christopher Sundita, Topbanana, Joy, HarryHenryGebel, Jusjih, AdoNama, Nb, BenRG,Denelson83, Robbot, Araisyohei, Zandperl, Korath, Chris 73, R3m0t, Jotomicron, RedWolf, Moncrief, Romanm, Modulatum, Low-ellian, Ianb, Babbage, SchmuckyTheCat, Texture, Sekicho, Hippietrail, Jondel, Caknuck, Ghaz, Mulukhiyya, Hadal, Delpino, Wikibot,Wereon, Kzhr, Mushroom, Vikingstad, Diberri, Superm401, Lenny-au, Pablo-flores, Jsan, Jimpaz, Exploding Boy, Gwalla, DocWatson42,Paul Richter, KevinJr42, Nat Krause, Haeleth, Seabhcan, var Arnfjr Bjarmason, Netoholic, Tom harrison, Meursault2004, Lupin,Binadot, Hokanomono, Everyking, Sik0fewl, SpiceMan, Revth, Gilgamesh, Guanaco, Zhen Lin, Takatoriyama, Node ue, Eequor, Pythoneggs, AndyE, Chameleon, 47b, Golbez, Wmahan, Rheun, Neilc, James Crippen, Auximines, Andycjp, Shibboleth, Toytoy, Gdr, Van-ished user svinet8j3ogifm98wjfgoi3tjosfg, Zeimusu, Ran, Antandrus, Beland, Fredcondo, JoJan, Kusunose, Bigpeteb, Adamrice, Jossi,AlexanderWinston, Billposer, Untifler, Mzajac, Mikko Paananen, Vbs, Supadawg, RISHARTHA, Phil1988, Sam Hocevar, Histrion, Ryu-sei, NoPetrol, Neutrality, Burschik, Ropers, Trek011, Fg2, Nekokaze, Paradoxian, Picapica, Eliazar, Aponar Kestrel, Canterbury Tail,Simcop2387, Everlong, Mike Rosoft, Brianjd, Perey, CES, Poccil, Lehi, A-giau, Discospinster, Rich Farmbrough, Guanabot, Gadget,Akita, Deh, Wikiacc, HeikoEvermann, EliasAlucard, Aris Katsaris, Suiside, Gedeon, Gronky, Blade Hirato, ESkog, Kjoonlee, Mashford,Fenice, Evice, Brian0918, Marco255, Zscout370, Ben Webber, NTiOzymandias, Ascorbic, Lankiveil, Kwamikagami, Kross, Mark RJohnson, Bendono, Femto, Causa sui, Prsephone1674, Bobo192, Directorstratton, Circeus, Ypacara, Smalljim, Che fox, Cohesion, Arca-dian, Kappa, Tachitsuteto, Doozer, Apostrophe, Thefay, Jason One, Jumbuck, Zachlipton, Alansohn, RJCraig, Marnen, Tek022, Bathrobe,Riana, Bz2, Yamla, Ciceronl, Hoary, Tchalvak, Cjnm, Hu, Ksnow, Wtmitchell, KingTT, Ish ishwar, Stephan Leeds, Suruena, Garzo,Carioca, RainbowOfLight, Sciurin, Vuo, Bsadowski1, Scott Gall, BlastOButter42, Chrajohn, LordAmeth, N0thingness, Killing Vec-tor, TShilo12, Brookie, Hijiri88, JALockhart, Carrot, Angr, Velho, Imaginatorium, Ormy, Camw, MK2, Squidley, Uncle G, EnSamulili,Kelisi, Wikiklrsc, Karmosin, Shikai shaw, Male1979, Zzyzx11, Junes, , Tyrian, Tokek, Wisq, Eirikr, Palica, Gerbrant,Stevey7788, Dysepsion, Graham87, Taivo, KyuuA4, Magister Mathematicae, TAKASUGI Shinji, MC MasterChef, Island, Dpr, Can-derson7, Sjakkalle, Astronaut, Tangotango, Colin Hill, Feydey, Kajmal, Himasaram, LjL, Dar-Ape, Matt Deres, Remurmur, Sango123,Yamamoto Ichiro, Titoxd, FlaBot, LeeWilson, DannyWilde, GnuDoyng, Vsion, Nivix, Hottentot, RexNL, Gurch, ApprenticeFan, Maus-trauser, Pianoface, Alphachimp, Atitarev, Malhonen, Le Anh-Huy, Chobot, DTOx, Benlisquare, Mordicai, Justinitalia, Daduzi, YurikBot,Wavelength, Yao, Angus Lepper, Sceptre, Ste1n, Jimp, Alethiareg, Chavash, Wikky Horse, RussBot, Hede2000, Ilai, Splash, Hsugawar,Cwlq, Casey J. Morris, IanManka, Akamad, Mithridates, Hyperbole, Gaius Cornelius, Yyy, Eleassar, Kyorosuke, Heavens To Betsy,Alynna Kasmira, NawlinWiki, Wiki alf, Aeusoes1, Gangerli, RazorICE, Wonglokking, Tokyoahead, DAJF, Yzb, CaliforniaAliBaba, CarlDaniels, Denihilonihil, Fr, Tony1, Sir Edgar, Syrthiss, S. Neuman, BOT-Superzerocool, Hakeem.gadi, Rob117, Maunus, JSLR, Tonym88,Tigershrike, 21655, Zzuuzz, Lt-wiki-bot, Ninly, Bhumiya, Closedmouth, Ketsuekigata, Spacebirdy, Jecowa, Alasdair, SorryGuy, Nixer,Efigueroa, Ryoske, Katieh5584, Paul Erik, Philip Stevens, GrinBot, Asterion, DVD R W, CIreland, Tom Morris, Nodoubt9203, Yvwv,Sardanaphalus, Neier, SmackBot, Nihonjoe, Reedy, Hydrogen Iodide, Cavenba, Deiaemeth, Vald, Bomac, KocjoBot, Jagged 85, Lds, Fry-master, JJay, Kintetsubuffalo, Kargoneth, Srnec, The great kawa, Peter Isotalo, Gilliam, Finduilas 09, Ohnoitsjamie, Hmains, ERcheck,Andy M. Wang, Chris the speller, Endroit, Ciacchi, Stimpy9337, MalafayaBot, WikiFlier, Kamosuke, SchfiftyThree, Hibernian, Utsutsu,Akanemoto, Nbarth, Delta Tango, DHN-bot, Tzu7, Da Vynci, The Moose, Croquant, Seifip, Zsinj, VikSol, Can't sleep, clown will eatme, Tamfang, Mitsuhirato, TheGerm, Viperphantom, Pedroshin, Clarinetplayer, Sephiroth BCR, Glengordon01, JonHarder, Morton de-vonshire, Zvar, Addshore, RedHillian, SundarBot, Dali, Arab Hafez, Crboyer, Khoikhoi, Jmlk17, Saitentaisei, Hakozen, Cybercobra,Dream out loud, Daniel bg, Derek R Bullamore, Esb, Latebird, Vina-iwbot, Curly Turkey, Nobu Sho, Ck lostsword, Kukini, LC.Lau,Cast, SashatoBot, LtPowers, Rory096, Harryboyles, BrownHairedGirl, J. Finkelstein, Dwpaul, Marco polo, Robotichivemind, Askorahn,Chodorkovskiy, JorisvS, ExcitingBore, Sotaru, Mahoroba, IronGargoyle, Deviathan, Ckatz, A. Parrot, Bwabes, Hvn0413, Stwalkerster,Beetstra, Mr Stephen, Godfrey Daniel, Kyoko, Vaniba12, Flamerule, Michael Friedrich, Wladimir, Ryulong, Jose77, Hu12, Mackan,Norm mit, Ginkgo100, Cat's Tuxedo, Iridescent, S5100e1300, Jjok, Laurens-af, Joseph Solis in Australia, Fitzwilliam, JoeBot, Koulten,Igoldste, Exander, Sam Li, Mononohazumi, Unitedtowardgod, Roehl Sybing, Az1568, Courcelles, Bruinfan12, Scarlet Lioness, JayHenry,Tawkerbot2, Inkybutton, Momochi, Fvasconcellos, Rikker04, JForget, Camandco, Sak