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The
Language of Japan
Japanese
is the sixth most spoken language in the world, with over 99% percent of the
country's population using it. Amazingly, the language is spoken in
scarcely any region outside Japan.
The
origin of the Japanese language has many theories in reference to it, some believe it is
similar to the Altaic languages, namely Turkish or Mongolian. It is
recognized and acknowledged to be close in syntax to the Korean language.
In
addition, it is believed that morphology and vocabulary were
influenced Malayo-Polynesian languages to the south. The writing system of
Japanese itself comes from the Chinese, but the differences between the two languages
are immense.
Dialects
are used in areas, particularly in Kyoto and Osaka, but standard
Japanese, based on the speech of Tokyo, has become more popular through the use of television, radio and movies.
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Information
provided by the Japanese Embassy
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