Language spoken in Japan
"Nihongo" redirects here. Not to be confused with
Nihonga
.
Japanese
(
日本語
,
Nihongo
,
[?ihoŋ?o]
ⓘ
)
is the principal language of the
Japonic language family
spoken by the
Japanese people
. It has around 120 million speakers, primarily in
Japan
, the only country where it is the
national language
, and within the
Japanese diaspora
worldwide.
The Japonic family also includes the
Ryukyuan languages
and the variously classified
Hachij? language
. There have been many
attempts to group the Japonic languages
with other families such as the
Ainu
,
Austroasiatic
,
Koreanic
, and the now-discredited
Altaic
, but none of these proposals have gained any widespread acceptance.
Little is known of the language's prehistory, or when it first appeared in Japan. Chinese documents from the 3rd century AD recorded a few Japanese words, but substantial
Old Japanese
texts did not appear until the 8th century. From the
Heian period
(794?1185), extensive waves of
Sino-Japanese vocabulary
entered the language, affecting the
phonology
of
Early Middle Japanese
.
Late Middle Japanese
(1185?1600) saw extensive grammatical changes and the first appearance of
European loanwords
. The basis of the
standard dialect
moved from the
Kansai
region to the
Edo
region (modern
Tokyo
) in the
Early Modern Japanese
period (early 17th century?mid 19th century). Following the end of
Japan's self-imposed isolation
in 1853, the flow of
loanwords
from European languages increased significantly, and
words from English roots
have proliferated.
Japanese is an
agglutinative
,
mora
-timed language with relatively simple
phonotactics
, a
pure vowel
system,
phonemic vowel
and
consonant
length, and a lexically significant
pitch-accent
. Word order is normally
subject?object?verb
with
particles
marking the
grammatical function
of words, and sentence structure is
topic?comment
.
Sentence-final particles
are used to add emotional or emphatic impact, or form questions. Nouns have no
grammatical number
or
gender
, and there are no
articles
. Verbs are
conjugated
, primarily for
tense
and
voice
, but not
person
.
Japanese adjectives
are also conjugated. Japanese has
a complex system of honorifics
, with verb forms and vocabulary to indicate the relative status of the speaker, the listener, and persons mentioned.
The
Japanese writing system
combines
Chinese characters
, known as
kanji
(
漢字
, '
Han
characters')
, with two unique
syllabaries
(or
moraic
scripts) derived by the Japanese from the more complex Chinese characters:
hiragana
(
ひらがな
or
平?名
, 'simple characters') and
katakana
(
カタカナ
or
片?名
, 'partial characters').
Latin script
(
r?maji
ロ?マ字
) is also used in a limited fashion (such as for imported acronyms) in Japanese writing. The
numeral system
uses mostly
Arabic numerals
, but also traditional
Chinese numerals
.
History
Prehistory
Proto-Japonic
, the common ancestor of the Japanese and
Ryukyuan languages
, is thought to have been brought to Japan by settlers coming from the Korean peninsula sometime in the early- to mid-4th century BC (the
Yayoi period
), replacing the languages of the original
J?mon
inhabitants,
[2]
including the ancestor of the modern
Ainu language
. Because writing had yet to be introduced from China, there is no direct evidence, and anything that can be discerned about this period must be based on internal reconstruction from
Old Japanese
, or
comparison
with the Ryukyuan languages and
Japanese dialects
.
Old Japanese
The
Chinese writing system
was imported to Japan from
Baekje
around the start of the fifth century, alongside Buddhism.
The earliest texts were written in
Classical Chinese
, although some of these were likely intended to be read as Japanese using the
kanbun
method, and show influences of Japanese grammar such as Japanese word order.
The earliest text, the
Kojiki
, dates to the early eighth century, and was written entirely in Chinese characters, which are used to represent, at different times, Chinese,
kanbun
, and Old Japanese.
As in other texts from this period, the Old Japanese sections are written in
Man'y?gana
, which uses
kanji
for their phonetic as well as semantic values.
Based on the Man'y?gana system, Old Japanese can be reconstructed as having 88 distinct syllables. Texts written with Man'y?gana use two different sets of
kanji
for each of the syllables now pronounced
き
(ki),
ひ
(hi),
み
(mi),
け
(ke),
へ
(he),
め
(me),
こ
(ko),
そ
(so),
と
(to),
の
(no),
も
(mo),
よ
(yo) and
ろ
(ro).
[7]
(The
Kojiki
has 88, but all later texts have 87. The distinction between mo
1
and mo
2
apparently was lost immediately following its composition.) This set of syllables shrank to 67 in
Early Middle Japanese
, though some were added through Chinese influence. Man'y?gana also has a symbol for
/je/
, which merges with
/e/
before the end of the period.
Several fossilizations of Old Japanese grammatical elements remain in the modern language ? the genitive particle
tsu
(superseded by modern
no
) is preserved in words such as
matsuge
("eyelash", lit. "hair of the eye"); modern
mieru
("to be visible") and
kikoeru
("to be audible") retain a
mediopassive
suffix -
yu(ru)
(
kikoyu
→
kikoyuru
(the attributive form, which slowly replaced the plain form starting in the late Heian period) →
kikoeru
(all verbs with the
shimo-nidan
conjugation pattern underwent this same shift in
Early Modern Japanese
)); and the genitive particle
ga
remains in intentionally archaic speech.
Early Middle Japanese
Early Middle Japanese is the Japanese of the
Heian period
, from 794 to 1185. It formed the basis for the
literary standard
of
Classical Japanese
, which remained in common use until the early 20th century.
During this time, Japanese underwent numerous
phonological
developments, in many cases instigated by an influx of
Chinese loanwords
. These included phonemic length distinction for both
consonants
and
vowels
, palatal consonants (e.g.
kya
) and labial consonant clusters (e.g.
kwa
), and
closed syllables
.
[8]
[9]
This had the effect of changing Japanese into a
mora-timed
language.
[8]
Late Middle Japanese
Late Middle Japanese covers the years from 1185 to 1600, and is normally divided into two sections, roughly equivalent to the
Kamakura period
and the
Muromachi period
, respectively. The later forms of Late Middle Japanese are the first to be described by non-native sources, in this case the
Jesuit
and
Franciscan
missionaries; and thus there is better documentation of Late Middle Japanese phonology than for previous forms (for instance, the
Arte da Lingoa de Iapam
). Among other sound changes, the sequence
/au/
merges to
/?ː/
, in contrast with
/oː/
;
/p/
is reintroduced from Chinese; and
/we/
merges with
/je/
. Some forms rather more familiar to Modern Japanese speakers begin to appear ? the continuative ending -
te
begins to reduce onto the verb (e.g.
yonde
for earlier
yomite
), the -k- in the final syllable of adjectives drops out (
shiroi
for earlier
shiroki
); and some forms exist where modern standard Japanese has retained the earlier form (e.g.
hayaku
>
hayau
>
hay??
, where modern Japanese just has
hayaku
, though the alternative form is preserved in the standard greeting
o-hay? gozaimasu
"good morning"; this ending is also seen in
o-medet?
"congratulations", from
medetaku
).
Late Middle Japanese has the first loanwords from European languages ? now-common words borrowed into Japanese in this period include
pan
("bread") and
tabako
("tobacco", now "cigarette"), both from
Portuguese
.
Modern Japanese
Modern Japanese is considered to begin with the
Edo period
(which spanned from 1603 to 1867). Since Old Japanese, the
de facto
standard Japanese had been the
Kansai dialect
, especially that of
Kyoto
. However, during the Edo period, Edo (now Tokyo) developed into the largest city in Japan, and the Edo-area dialect became standard Japanese. Since the end of
Japan's self-imposed isolation
in 1853, the flow of loanwords from European languages has increased significantly. The period since 1945 has seen many words borrowed from other languages?such as German, Portuguese and English.
[10]
Many English loan words especially relate to technology?for example,
pasokon
(short for "personal computer"),
int?netto
("internet"), and
kamera
("camera"). Due to the large quantity of English loanwords, modern Japanese has developed a distinction between
[t?i]
and
[ti]
, and
[d?i]
and
[di]
, with the latter in each pair only found in loanwords.
[11]
Geographic distribution
Although Japanese is spoken almost exclusively in Japan, it has also been spoken outside of the country. Before and during
World War II
, through Japanese annexation of
Taiwan
and
Korea
, as well as partial occupation of
China
, the
Philippines
, and various Pacific islands,
[12]
locals in
those countries
learned Japanese as the language of the empire. As a result, many elderly people in these countries can still speak Japanese.
Japanese emigrant communities
(the largest of which are to be found in
Brazil
,
[13]
with 1.4 million to 1.5 million Japanese immigrants and descendants, according to Brazilian
IBGE
data, more than the 1.2 million of the
United States
)
[14]
sometimes employ Japanese as their primary language. Approximately 12% of
Hawaii
residents speak Japanese,
[15]
with an estimated 12.6% of the population of Japanese ancestry in 2008. Japanese emigrants can also be found in
Peru
,
Argentina
,
Australia
(especially in the eastern states),
Canada
(especially in
Vancouver
, where 1.4% of the population has Japanese ancestry),
[16]
the
United States
(notably in
Hawaii
, where 16.7% of the population has Japanese ancestry,
[17]
[
clarification needed
]
and
California
), and the
Philippines
(particularly in
Davao Region
and the
Province of Laguna
).
[18]
[19]
[20]
Official status
Japanese has no
official status
in Japan,
[21]
but is the
de facto
national language
of the country. There is a form of the language considered
standard
:
hy?jungo
(
標準語
)
, meaning "standard Japanese", or
ky?ts?go
(
共通語
)
, "common language", or even "Tokyo dialect" at times.
[22]
The meanings of the two terms (''hy?jungo'' and ''ky?ts?go'') are almost the same.
Hy?jungo
or
ky?ts?go
is a conception that forms the counterpart of dialect. This normative language was born after the
Meiji Restoration
(
明治維新
,
meiji ishin
, 1868)
from the language spoken in the higher-class areas of Tokyo (see
Yamanote
).
Hy?jungo
is taught in schools and used on television and in official communications.
[23]
It is the version of Japanese discussed in this article.
Formerly, standard Japanese in writing
(
文語
,
bungo
, "literary language")
was different from colloquial language
(
口語
,
k?go
)
. The two systems have different rules of grammar and some variance in vocabulary.
Bungo
was the main method of writing Japanese until about 1900; since then
k?go
gradually extended its influence and the two methods were both used in writing until the 1940s.
Bungo
still has some 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).
K?go
is the dominant method of both speaking and writing Japanese today, although
bungo
grammar and vocabulary are occasionally used in modern Japanese for effect.
The 1982 state constitution of
Angaur
,
Palau
, names Japanese along with
Palauan
and English as an official language of the state
[24]
as at the time the constitution was written, many of the elders participating in the process had been educated in Japanese during the
South Seas Mandate
over the island
[25]
shown by the 1958 census of the Trust Territory of the Pacific that found that 89% of Palauans born between 1914 and 1933 could speak and read Japanese,
[26]
but as of the 2005 Palau census there were no residents of Angaur that spoke Japanese at home.
[27]
Dialects and mutual intelligibility
Japanese dialects typically differ in terms of
pitch accent
, inflectional
morphology
,
vocabulary
, and particle usage. Some even differ in
vowel
and
consonant
inventories, although this is less common.
In terms of
mutual intelligibility
, a survey in 1967 found that the four most unintelligible dialects (excluding
Ry?ky?an languages
and
T?hoku dialects
) to students from Greater Tokyo were the
Kiso
dialect (in the deep mountains of
Nagano Prefecture
), the
Himi
dialect (in
Toyama Prefecture
), the
Kagoshima dialect
and the
Maniwa
dialect (in
Okayama Prefecture
).
[28]
The survey was based on 12- to 20-second-long recordings of 135 to 244
phonemes
, which 42 students listened to and translated word-for-word. The listeners were all
Keio University
students who grew up in the
Kanto region
.
[28]
There are some
language islands
in mountain villages or isolated islands
[
clarification needed
]
such as
Hachij?-jima island
, whose dialects are descended from
Eastern Old Japanese
. Dialects of the
Kansai region
are spoken or known by many Japanese, and
Osaka
dialect in particular is associated with comedy (see
Kansai dialect
). Dialects of T?hoku and North
Kant?
are associated with typical farmers.
The Ry?ky?an languages, spoken in
Okinawa
and the
Amami Islands
(administratively part of
Kagoshima
), are distinct enough to be considered a separate branch of the
Japonic
family; not only is each language unintelligible to Japanese speakers, but most are unintelligible to those who speak other Ry?ky?an languages. However, in contrast to linguists, many ordinary Japanese people tend to consider the Ry?ky?an languages as dialects of Japanese.
The imperial court also seems to have spoken an unusual variant of the Japanese of the time,
[29]
most likely the spoken form of
Classical Japanese
, a writing style that was prevalent during the
Heian period
, but began to decline during the late
Meiji period
.
[30]
The Ry?ky?an languages are classified by
UNESCO
as 'endangered', as young people mostly use Japanese and cannot understand the languages.
Okinawan Japanese
is a variant of Standard Japanese influenced by the Ry?ky?an languages, and is the primary dialect spoken among young people in the
Ryukyu Islands
.
[31]
Modern Japanese has become prevalent nationwide (including the Ry?ky? islands) due to
education
,
mass media
, and an increase in mobility within Japan, as well as economic integration.
Classification
Japanese is a member of the
Japonic language
family, which also includes the
Ryukyuan languages
spoken in the
Ryukyu Islands
. As these closely related languages are commonly treated as dialects of the same language, Japanese is sometimes called a
language isolate
.
[32]
According to
Martine Irma Robbeets
, Japanese has been subject to more attempts to show its relation to other languages than any other language in the world.
Since Japanese first gained the consideration of linguists in the late 19th century, attempts have been made to show its genealogical relation to languages or language families such as
Ainu
,
Korean
,
Chinese
,
Tibeto-Burman
,
Uralic
,
Altaic
(or
Ural-Altaic
),
Mon?Khmer
and
Malayo-Polynesian
. At the fringe, some linguists have suggested a link to
Indo-European languages
, including
Greek
, and to
Lepcha
. Main modern theories try to link Japanese either to northern Asian languages, like Korean or the proposed larger Altaic family, or to various
Southeast Asian languages
, especially
Austronesian
. None of these proposals have gained wide acceptance (and the Altaic family itself is now considered controversial).
[35]
As it stands, only the link to Ryukyuan has wide support.
Other theories view the Japanese language as an early
creole language
formed through inputs from at least two distinct language groups, or as a distinct language of its own that has absorbed various aspects from neighbouring languages.
[39]
[40]
Phonology
Vowels
Japanese has five vowels, and
vowel length
is phonemic, with each having both a short and a long version. Elongated vowels are usually denoted with a line over the vowel (a
macron
) in
r?maji
, a repeated vowel character in
hiragana
, or a
ch?onpu
succeeding the vowel in
katakana
.
/u/
(
listen
ⓘ
)
is
compressed rather than protruded
, or simply unrounded.
Consonants
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 language up to and including the first half of the 20th century, the phonemic sequence
/ti/
was
palatalized
and realized phonetically as
[t?i]
, approximately
chi
(
listen
ⓘ
)
; however, now
[ti]
and
[t?i]
are distinct, as evidenced by words like
t?
[tiː]
"Western-style tea" and
chii
[t?ii]
"social status".
The "r" of the Japanese language is of particular interest, ranging between an
apical
central
tap
and a
lateral approximant
. The "g" is also notable; unless it starts a sentence, it may be pronounced
[
ŋ
]
, in the Kanto prestige dialect and in other eastern dialects.
The
phonotactics
of Japanese are relatively simple. The syllable structure is (C)(G)V(C),
[41]
that is, a core vowel surrounded by an optional onset consonant, a glide
/j/
and either the first part of a
geminate consonant
(
っ
/
ッ
, represented as Q) or a
moraic nasal
in the coda (
ん
/
ン
, represented as N).
The nasal is sensitive to its phonetic environment and
assimilates
to the following phoneme, with pronunciations including
[?,
m,
n,
?,
ŋ,
??]
. Onset-glide clusters only occur at the start of syllables but clusters across syllables are allowed as long as the two consonants are the moraic nasal followed by a
homorganic
consonant.
Japanese also includes a
pitch accent
, which is not represented in syllabic writing; for example
[ha?.?i]
("chopsticks") and
[ha.?i?]
("bridge") are both spelled
はし
(
hashi
)
, and are only differentiated by the tone contour.
[22]
Grammar
Sentence structure
Japanese word order is classified as
subject?object?verb
. Unlike many
Indo-European languages
, the only strict rule of word order is that the verb must be placed at the end of a sentence (possibly followed by sentence-end particles). This is because Japanese sentence elements are marked with
particles
that identify their grammatical functions.
The basic sentence structure is
topic?comment
. For example,
Kochira wa Tanaka-san desu
(
こちらは田中さんです
).
kochira
("this") is the topic of the sentence, indicated by the particle
wa
. The verb
desu
is a
copula
, commonly translated as "to be" or "it is" (though there are other verbs that can be translated as "to be"), though technically it holds no meaning and is used to give a sentence 'politeness'. As a phrase,
Tanaka-san desu
is the comment. This sentence literally translates to "As for this person, (it) is Mx Tanaka." Thus Japanese, like many other Asian languages, is often called a
topic-prominent language
, which means it has a strong tendency to indicate the topic separately from the subject, and that the two do not always coincide. The sentence
Z? wa hana ga nagai
(
象は鼻が長い
) literally means, "As for elephant(s), (the) nose(s) (is/are) long". The topic is
z?
"elephant", and the subject is
hana
"nose".
Japanese grammar tends toward brevity; the subject or object of a sentence need not be stated and
pronouns
may be omitted if they can be inferred from context. In the example above,
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!
(
やった!
) "[I / we / they / etc] did [it]!". In addition, since adjectives can form the predicate in a Japanese sentence (below), a single adjective can be a complete sentence:
Urayamashii!
(
羨ましい!
) "[I'm] jealous [about it]!".
While the language has some words that are typically translated as pronouns, these are not used as frequently as pronouns in some Indo-European languages, and function differently. In some cases, Japanese relies on special verb forms and auxiliary verbs to indicate the direction of benefit of an action: "down" to indicate the out-group gives a benefit to the in-group, and "up" to indicate the in-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,
oshiete moratta
(
?えてもらった
) (literally, "explaining got" with a benefit from the out-group to the in-group) means "[he/she/they] explained [it] to [me/us]". Similarly,
oshiete ageta
(
?えてあげた
) (literally, "explaining gave" with a benefit from the in-group to the out-group) means "[I/we] explained [it] to [him/her/them]". Such beneficiary auxiliary verbs thus serve a function comparable to that of pronouns and prepositions in Indo-European languages to indicate the actor and the recipient of an action.
Japanese "pronouns"
also function differently from most modern Indo-European pronouns (and more like nouns) in that they can take modifiers as any other noun may. For instance, one does not say in English:
The amazed he ran down the street. (grammatically incorrect insertion of a pronoun)
But one
can
grammatically say essentially the same thing in Japanese:
驚いた彼は道を走っていった。
Transliteration:
Odoroita kare wa michi o hashitte itta.
(grammatically correct)
This is partly because these words evolved from regular nouns, such as
kimi
"you" (
君
"lord"),
anata
"you" (
あなた
"that side, yonder"), and
boku
"I" (
僕
"servant"). This is why some linguists do not classify Japanese "pronouns" as pronouns, but rather as referential nouns, much like Spanish
usted
(contracted from
vuestra merced
, "your [(flattering
majestic
)
plural
] grace") or Portuguese
o senhor
. Japanese personal pronouns are generally used only in situations requiring special emphasis as to who is doing what to whom.
The choice of words used as pronouns is correlated with the sex of the speaker and the social situation in which they are spoken: men and women alike in a formal situation generally refer to themselves as
watashi
(
私
, literally "private") or
watakushi
(also
私
, hyper-polite form), while men in rougher or intimate conversation are much more likely to use the word
ore
(
俺
"oneself", "myself") or
boku
. Similarly, different words such as
anata
,
kimi
, and
omae
(
お前
, more formally
御前
"the one before me") may refer to a listener depending on the listener's relative social position and the degree of familiarity between the speaker and the listener. When used in different social relationships, the same word may have positive (intimate or respectful) or negative (distant or disrespectful) connotations.
Japanese often use titles of the person referred to where pronouns would be used in English. For example, when speaking to one's teacher, it is appropriate to use
sensei
(
先生
, "teacher"), but inappropriate to use
anata
. This is because
anata
is used to refer to people of equal or lower status, and one's teacher has higher status.
Inflection and conjugation
Japanese nouns have no grammatical number, gender or article aspect. The noun
hon
(
本
) may refer to a single book or several books;
hito
(
人
) can mean "person" or "people", and
ki
(
木
) can be "tree" or "trees". Where number is important, it can be indicated by providing a quantity (often with a
counter word
) or (rarely) by adding a suffix, or sometimes by duplication (e.g.
人人
,
hitobito
, usually written with an iteration mark as
人?
). Words for people are usually understood as singular. Thus
Tanaka-san
usually means
Mx Tanaka
. Words that refer to people and animals can be made to indicate a group of individuals through the addition of a collective suffix (a noun suffix that indicates a group), such as
-tachi
, but this is not a true plural: the meaning is closer to the English phrase "and company". A group described as
Tanaka-san-tachi
may include people not named Tanaka. Some Japanese nouns are effectively plural, such as
hitobito
"people" and
wareware
"we/us", while the word
tomodachi
"friend" is considered singular, although plural in form.
Verbs are
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)
aspect
, similar to the suffix
ing
in English. For others that represent a change of state, the
-te iru
form indicates a perfect aspect. For example,
kite iru
means "They have come (and are still here)", but
tabete iru
means "They are 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
(
いいです
) "It is OK" becomes
ii desu-ka
(
いいですか。
) "Is it OK?". In a more informal tone sometimes the particle
-no
(
の
) is added instead to show a personal interest of the speaker:
D?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?";
O-namae wa?
(
お名前は?
) "(What's your) name?".
Negatives are formed by inflecting the verb. For example,
Pan o taberu
(
パンを食べる。
) "I will eat bread" or "I eat bread" becomes
Pan o tabenai
(
パンを食べない。
) "I will not eat bread" or "I do not eat bread". Plain negative forms are
i
-adjectives (see below) and inflect as such, e.g.
Pan o tabenakatta
(
パンを食べなかった。
) "I did 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, including a marker for tense, when the 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. 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 (
ry?ri suru
"to cook",
benky? suru
"to study", etc.) and has been productive in creating modern slang words. Japanese also has a huge number of compound verbs to express concepts that are described in English using a verb and an adverbial particle (e.g.
tobidasu
"to fly out, to flee", from
tobu
"to fly, to jump" +
dasu
"to put out, to emit").
There are three types of adjectives (see
Japanese adjectives
):
- 形容詞
keiy?shi
, or
i
adjectives, which have a
conjugating
ending
i
(
い
) (such as
暑い
atsui
"to be hot") which can become past (
暑かった
atsukatta
"it was hot"), or negative (
暑くない
atsuku nai
"it is not hot").
nai
is also an
i
adjective, which can become past (
暑くなかった
atsuku nakatta
"it was not hot").
- 暑い日
atsui hi
"a hot day".
- 形容動詞
keiy?d?shi
, or
na
adjectives, which are followed by a form of the
copula
, usually
na
. For example,
hen
(strange)
- ?な人
hen na hito
"a strange person".
- 連?詞
rentaishi
, also called true adjectives, such as
ano
"that"
- あの山
ano yama
"that mountain".
Both
keiy?shi
and
keiy?d?shi
may
predicate
sentences. For example,
ご飯が熱い。
Gohan ga atsui.
"The rice is hot."
彼は?だ。
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
in Modern Japanese are few in number, and unlike the other words, are limited to directly modifying nouns. They never predicate sentences. Examples include
ookina
"big",
kono
"this",
iwayuru
"so-called" and
taishita
"amazing".
Both
keiy?d?shi
and
keiy?shi
form
adverbs
, by following with
ni
in the case of
keiy?d?shi
:
?になる
hen ni naru
"become strange",
and by changing
i
to
ku
in the case of
keiy?shi
:
熱くなる
atsuku naru
"become hot".
The grammatical function of nouns is indicated by
postpositions
, also called
particles
. These include for example:
- 彼が
やった。
Kare ga
yatta.
"He did it."
- 田中さんに
あげて下さい。
Tanaka-san ni
agete kudasai
"Please give it
to Mx Tanaka
."
It is also used for the
lative
case, indicating a motion to a location.
- 日本に
行きたい。
Nihon ni
ikitai
"I want to go
to Japan
."
- However,
へ
e
is more commonly used for the lative case.
- パ?ティ?へ
行かないか。
p?t? e
ikanai ka?
"Won't you go
to the party
?"
- 私の
カメラ。
watashi no
kamera "
my
camera"
- スキ?に行く
の
が好きです。
Suk?-ni iku
no
ga suki desu
"(I) like go
ing
skiing."
- 何を
食べますか。
Nani o
tabemasu ka?
"
What
will (you) eat?"
- は
wa
for the topic. It can co-exist with the case markers listed above, and it overrides
ga
and (in most cases)
o
.
- 私は
?司がいいです。
Watashi wa
sushi ga ii desu.
(literally) "
As for me
, sushi is good." The nominative marker
ga
after
watashi
is hidden under
wa
.
Note: The subtle difference between
wa
and
ga
in Japanese cannot be derived from the English language as such, because the distinction between sentence topic and subject is not made there. While
wa
indicates the topic, which the rest of the sentence describes or acts upon, it carries the implication that the subject indicated by
wa
is not unique, or may be part of a larger group.
Ikeda-san
wa
yonj?-ni sai da.
"As for Mx Ikeda, they are forty-two years old." Others in the group may also be of that age.
Absence of
wa
often means the subject is the
focus
of the sentence.
Ikeda-san
ga
yonj?-ni sai da.
"It is Mx Ikeda who is forty-two years old." This is a reply to an implicit or explicit question, such as "who in this group is forty-two years old?"
Politeness
Japanese has an extensive grammatical system to express politeness and formality. This reflects the hierarchical nature of Japanese society.
[43]
The Japanese language can express differing levels of social status. The differences in social position are 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 person might use a plainer 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
.
Whereas
teineigo
(
丁寧語
) (polite language) is commonly an
inflectional
system,
sonkeigo
(
尊敬語
) (respectful language) and
kenj?go
(
謙?語
) (humble language) often employ many special honorific and humble alternate verbs:
iku
"go" becomes
ikimasu
in polite form, but is replaced by
irassharu
in honorific speech and
ukagau
or
mairu
in humble speech.
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 their group. For example, the
-san
suffix ("Mr", "Mrs", "Miss", or "Mx") 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 in-group. When speaking directly to one's superior in one's company or when speaking with other employees within one's company about a superior, a Japanese person will use vocabulary and inflections of the honorific register to refer to the in-group superior and their speech and actions. When speaking to a person from another company (i.e., a member of an out-group), however, a Japanese person will use the plain or the humble register to refer to the speech and actions of their in-group superiors. In short, the register used in Japanese to refer to the person, speech, or actions of any particular individual varies depending on the relationship (either in-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 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 polite speaker may sometimes refer to
mizu
'water' as
o-mizu
to show politeness.
Vocabulary
There are three main sources of words in the Japanese language: the
yamato kotoba
(
大和言葉
) or
wago
(
和語
);
kango
(
漢語
); and
gairaigo
(
外?語
).
[44]
The original language of Japan, or at least the original language of a certain population that was ancestral to a significant portion of the historical and present Japanese nation, was the so-called
yamato kotoba
(
大和言葉
or infrequently
大和詞
, i.e. "
Yamato
words"), which in scholarly contexts is sometimes referred to as
wago
(
和語
or rarely
倭語
, i.e. the "
Wa
language"). In addition to words from this original language, present-day Japanese includes a number of words that were either borrowed from
Chinese
or constructed from Chinese roots following Chinese patterns. These words, known as
kango
(
漢語
), entered the language from the 5th century
[
clarification needed
]
onwards by contact with Chinese culture. According to the
Shinsen Kokugo Jiten
(
新選?語?典
)
Japanese dictionary
,
kango
comprise 49.1% of the total vocabulary,
wago
make up 33.8%, other foreign words or
gairaigo
(
外?語
) account for 8.8%, and the remaining 8.3% constitute hybridized words or
konshugo
(
混種語
) that draw elements from more than one language.
[45]
There are also a great number of words of
mimetic
origin in Japanese, with Japanese having a rich collection of
sound symbolism
, both
onomatopoeia
for physical sounds, and more
abstract
words. A small number of words have come into Japanese from the
Ainu language
.
Tonakai
(
reindeer
),
rakko
(
sea otter
) and
shishamo
(
smelt
, a type of fish) are well-known examples of words of Ainu origin.
Words of different origins occupy different
registers
in Japanese. Like Latin-derived words in English,
kango
words are typically perceived as somewhat formal or 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 an
Anglo-Saxon word
would best be translated by a Yamato equivalent.
Incorporating vocabulary from
European languages
,
gairaigo
, began with
borrowings from Portuguese
in the 16th century, followed by words from
Dutch
during Japan's
long isolation
of the
Edo period
. With the
Meiji Restoration
and the reopening of Japan in the 19th century, words were borrowed from
German
,
French
, and
English
. Today most borrowings are from English.
In the Meiji era, the Japanese also coined many neologisms using Chinese roots and morphology to translate European concepts;
[
citation needed
]
these are known as
wasei kango
(Japanese-made Chinese words). Many of these were then imported into Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese via their kanji in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
[
citation needed
]
For example,
seiji
(
政治
, "politics")
, and
kagaku
(
化?
, "chemistry")
are words derived from Chinese roots that were first created and used by the Japanese, and only later borrowed into Chinese and other East Asian languages. As a result, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese share a large common corpus of vocabulary in the same way many Greek- and Latin-derived words ? both inherited or borrowed into European languages, or modern coinages from Greek or Latin roots ? are shared among modern European languages ? see
classical compound
.
[
citation needed
]
In the past few decades,
wasei-eigo
("made-in-Japan English") has become a prominent phenomenon. Words such as
wanpat?n
ワンパタ?ン
(<
one
+
pattern
, "to be in a rut", "to have a one-track mind") and
sukinshippu
スキンシップ
(<
skin
+
-ship
, "physical contact"), although coined by compounding English roots, are nonsensical in most non-Japanese contexts; exceptions exist in nearby languages such as Korean however, which often use words such as
skinship
and
rimokon
(remote control) in the same way as in Japanese.
The popularity of many Japanese cultural exports has made some native Japanese words familiar in English, including
emoji
,
futon
,
haiku
,
judo
,
kamikaze
,
karaoke
,
karate
,
ninja
,
origami
,
rickshaw
(from
人力車
jinrikisha
),
samurai
,
sayonara
,
Sudoku
,
sumo
,
sushi
,
tofu
,
tsunami
,
tycoon
. See
list of English words of Japanese origin
for more.
Writing system
History
Literacy was introduced to Japan in the form of the
Chinese writing system
, by way of
Baekje
before the 5th century AD.
[46]
[47]
[48]
[49]
Using this script, the Japanese king
Bu
presented a petition to
Emperor Shun of Liu Song
in AD 478.
[a]
After the ruin of Baekje, Japan invited scholars from China to learn more of the Chinese writing system. Japanese emperors gave an official rank to Chinese scholars (
?守言/薩弘恪
/
[b]
[c]
袁晋卿
[d]
) and spread the use of Chinese characters during the 7th and 8th centuries.
At first, the Japanese wrote in
Classical Chinese
, with Japanese names represented by characters used for their meanings and not their sounds. Later, during the 7th century AD, the Chinese-sounding phoneme principle was used to write pure Japanese poetry and prose, but some Japanese words were still written with characters for their meaning and not the original Chinese sound. This was the beginning of Japanese as a written language in its own right. By this time, the Japanese language was already very distinct from the
Ryukyuan languages
.
[50]
An example of this mixed style is the
Kojiki
, which was written in AD 712. Japanese writers then started to use Chinese characters to write Japanese in a style known as
man'y?gana
, a syllabic script which used Chinese characters for their sounds in order to transcribe the words of Japanese speech syllable by syllable.
Over time, a writing system evolved.
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; these were simplified, and eventually became two syllabic scripts:
hiragana
and
katakana
which were developed based on
Manyogana
. Some scholars claim that Manyogana originated from Baekje, but this hypothesis is denied by mainstream Japanese scholars.
[51]
[52]
Hiragana and katakana were first simplified from kanji, and hiragana, emerging somewhere around the 9th century,
[53]
was mainly used by women. Hiragana was seen as an informal language, whereas katakana and kanji were considered more formal and were typically used by men and in official settings. However, because of hiragana's accessibility, more and more people began using it. Eventually, by the 10th century, hiragana was used by everyone.
[54]
Modern Japanese is written in a mixture of three main systems: kanji, characters of Chinese origin used to represent both Chinese
loanwords
into Japanese and a number of native Japanese
morphemes
; and two
syllabaries
: hiragana and katakana. The
Latin script
(or
r?maji
in Japanese) is used to a certain extent, such as for imported acronyms and to transcribe Japanese names and in other instances where non-Japanese speakers need to know how to pronounce a word (such as "ramen" at a restaurant). Arabic numerals are much more common than the kanji numerals when used in counting, but kanji numerals are still used in compounds, such as
統一
t?itsu
("unification").
Historically, attempts to limit the number of kanji in use commenced in the mid-19th century, but government did not intervene until after Japan's defeat in the Second World War. During the post-war occupation (and influenced by the views of some U.S. officials), various schemes including the complete abolition of kanji and exclusive use of r?maji were considered. The
j?y? kanji
("common use kanji"), originally called
t?y? kanji
(kanji for general use) scheme arose as a compromise solution.
Japanese students begin to learn kanji from their first year at elementary school. A guideline created by the Japanese Ministry of Education, the list of
ky?iku kanji
("education kanji", a subset of
j?y? kanji
), specifies the 1,006 simple characters a child is to learn by the end of sixth grade. Children continue to study another 1,130 characters in junior high school, covering in total 2,136
j?y? kanji
. The official list of
j?y? kanji
has been revised several times, but the total number of officially sanctioned characters has remained largely unchanged.
As for kanji for personal names, the circumstances are somewhat complicated.
J?y? kanji
and
jinmeiy? kanji
(an appendix of additional characters for names) are approved for registering personal names. Names containing unapproved characters are denied registration. However, as with the list of
j?y? kanji
, criteria for inclusion were often arbitrary and led to many common and popular characters being disapproved for use. Under popular pressure and following a court decision holding the exclusion of common characters unlawful, the list of
jinmeiy? kanji
was substantially extended from 92 in 1951 (the year it was first decreed) to 983 in 2004. Furthermore, families whose names are not on these lists were permitted to continue using the older forms.
Hiragana
Hiragana
are used for words without kanji representation, for words no longer written in kanji, for replacement of rare kanji that may be unfamiliar to intended readers, and also following kanji to show conjugational endings. Because of the way verbs (and adjectives) in Japanese are
conjugated
, kanji alone cannot fully convey Japanese tense and mood, as kanji cannot be subject to variation when written without losing their meaning. For this reason, hiragana are appended to kanji to show verb and adjective conjugations. Hiragana used in this way are called
okurigana
. Hiragana can also be written in a superscript called
furigana
above or beside a kanji to show the proper reading. This is done to facilitate learning, as well as to clarify particularly old or obscure (or sometimes invented) readings.
Katakana
Katakana
, like hiragana, constitute a
syllabary
; katakana are primarily used to write foreign words, plant and animal names, and for emphasis. For example, "Australia" has been adapted as
?sutoraria
(
オ?ストラリア
), and "supermarket" has been adapted and shortened into
s?p?
(
ス?パ?
).
Gender in the Japanese language
Depending on the speakers’ gender, different linguistic features might be used.
[55]
The typical
lect
used by females is called
joseigo
(
女性語
)
and the one used by males is called
danseigo
(
男性語
)
.
[56]
Joseigo
and
danseigo
are different in various ways, including
first-person pronouns
(such as
watashi
or
atashi
私
for women and
boku
(
僕
)
for men) and sentence-final particles (such as
wa
(
わ
)
,
na no
(
なの
)
, or
kashira
(
かしら
)
for
joseigo
, or
zo
(
ぞ
)
,
da
(
だ
)
, or
yo
(
よ
)
for
danseigo
).
[55]
In addition to these specific differences, expressions and pitch can also be different.
[55]
For example,
joseigo
is more gentle, polite, refined, indirect, modest, and exclamatory, and often accompanied by raised pitch.
[55]
Kogal slang
In the 1990s, the traditional feminine speech patterns and stereotyped behaviors were challenged, and a popular culture of “naughty” teenage girls emerged, called
kogyaru
(
コギャル
)
, sometimes referenced in English-language materials as “kogal”.
[57]
Their rebellious behaviors, deviant language usage, the particular make-up called
ganguro
(
ガングロ
)
, and the fashion became objects of focus in the mainstream media.
[57]
Although kogal slang was not appreciated by older generations, the
kogyaru
continued to create terms and expressions.
[57]
Kogal culture also changed Japanese norms of gender and the Japanese language.
[57]
Non-native study
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. This is a significant increase from before
World War II
; in 1940, only 65 Americans not
of Japanese descent
were able to read, write and understand the language.
[58]
International interest in the Japanese language dates from the 19th century but has become more prevalent following Japan's economic bubble of the 1980s and the global popularity of
Japanese popular culture
(such as
anime
and
video games
) since the 1990s. As of 2015, more than 3.6 million people studied the language worldwide, primarily in East and Southeast Asia.
[59]
Nearly one million Chinese, 745,000 Indonesians, 556,000 South Koreans and 357,000 Australians studied Japanese in lower and higher educational institutions.
[59]
Between 2012 and 2015, considerable growth of learners originated in
Australia
(20.5%),
Thailand
(34.1%),
Vietnam
(38.7%) and the
Philippines
(54.4%).
[59]
The Japanese government provides standardized tests to measure spoken and written comprehension of Japanese for second language learners; the most prominent is the
Japanese Language Proficiency Test
(JLPT), which features five levels of exams. The JLPT is offered twice a year.
Example text
Article 1 of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
in Japanese:
Recording of the first article of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Japanese.
すべて の 人間 は、 生まれながら に して 自由 で あり、 かつ、 尊? と ?利 と に ついて 平等 で ある。 人間 は、 理性 と 良心 と を 授けられて おり、 互い に 同胞 の 精神 を もって 行動 しなければ ならない。
Subete no ningen wa, umarenagara ni shite jiy? de ari, katsu, songen to kenri to ni tsuite by?d? de aru. Ningen wa, risei to ry?shin to o sazukerarete ori, tagai ni d?h? no seishin o motte k?d? shinakereba naranai.
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
[61]
See also
Notes
- ^
Book of Song
順帝昇明二年,倭王武遣使上表曰:封國偏遠,作藩于外,自昔祖?,躬?甲?,跋?山川,不遑寧處。東征毛人五十國,西服衆夷六十六國,渡平海北九十五國,王道融泰,廓土遐畿,累葉朝宗,不愆于?。臣雖下愚,?胤先?,驅率所統,歸崇天極,道逕百濟,裝治船舫,而句驪無道,圖欲見?,掠抄邊?,虔劉不已,?致稽滯,以失良風。雖曰進路,或通或不。臣亡考濟實忿寇?,壅塞天路,控弦百萬,義聲感激,方欲大?,奄喪父兄,使垂成之功,不獲一?。居在諒闇,不動兵甲,是以偃息未捷。至今欲練甲治兵,申父兄之志,義士虎賁,文武效功,白刃交前,亦所不顧。若以帝德覆載,?此?敵,克靖方難,無替前功。竊自假開府儀同三司,其餘咸各假授,以勸忠節。詔除武使持節督倭、新羅、任那、加羅、秦韓六國諸軍事、安東大將軍、倭國王。至齊建元中,及梁武帝時,?來朝貢。
- ^
Nihon shoki
Chapter 30:
持統五年 九月己巳朔壬申。賜音博士大唐?守言。薩弘恪。書博士百?末士善信、銀人二十?。
- ^
Nihon shoki
Chapter 30:
持統六年 十二月辛酉朔甲戌。賜音博士?守言。薩弘恪水田人四町
- ^
Shoku Nihongi
??九年 十二月庚寅。玄蕃頭?五位上袁晋卿賜姓?村宿?。晋卿唐人也。天平七年?我朝使?朝。時年十八九。?得文選爾雅音。?大?音博士。於後。?大?頭安房守。
References
Citations
- ^
Japanese
at
Ethnologue
(27th ed., 2024)
- ^
Wade, Nicholas (4 May 2011).
"Finding on Dialects Casts New Light on the Origins of the Japanese People"
.
The New York Times
. Archived from
the original
on 2022-01-03
. Retrieved
7 May
2011
.
- ^
Shinkichi Hashimoto (February 3, 1918)「?語?名遣?究史上の一?見―石塚龍?の?名遣?山路について」『帝?文?』26?11(1949)『文字及び?名遣の?究(橋本進吉博士著作集 第3冊)』(岩波書店)。
- ^
a
b
Frellesvig 2010
, p.
184
- ^
Labrune, Laurence (2012). "Consonants".
The Phonology of Japanese
. The Phonology of the World's Languages. Oxford University Press. pp. 89?91.
doi
:
10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199545834.003.0003
.
ISBN
978-0-19-954583-4
.
Archived
from the original on 2021-10-27
. Retrieved
2021-10-14
.
- ^
Miura, Akira,
English in Japanese
, Weatherhill, 1998.
- ^
Hall, Kathleen Currie (2013).
"Documenting phonological change: A comparison of two Japanese phonemic splits"
(PDF)
. In Luo, Shan (ed.).
Proceedings of the 2013 Annual Conference of the Canadian Linguistic Association
.
Archived
(PDF)
from the original on 2019-12-12
. Retrieved
2019-06-01
.
- ^
Japanese is listed as one of the official languages of
Angaur
state,
Palau
(
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Further reading
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