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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Overview
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.
There
are many theories about the origin of the Japanese
language, some believe it is close to Altaic languages
like Turkish or Mongolian, it's similarity in syntax to
Korean is recognized. There is also evidence that its
morphology and vocabulary were influenced by
Malayo-Polynesian languages to the south. The
writing system itself comes from the Chinese, but the
difference in the two languages is immense.
Standard
Japanese, based on the speech of Tokyo, has been
spreading through the country by the use of television,
radio and movies.
In
addition to standard Japanese, there are many local
dialects, particularly those by the people of Kyoto and
Osaka, that continue to be popular.
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PHONOLOGY
The
short vowels in the Japanese language are spoken
similarly to those of the Spanish and Italian languages,
whereas the long vowel sounds are usually comprised of
doubling the short vowel sounds. As with many
other languages, the pronunciation of these vowel sounds
is important because each sound changes the meaning of a
word.
Comparing
Japanese and English, there is a striking difference,
Japanese gives equal stress to each syllable (therefore,
no stress accent). One similarity though is that
Japanese has a system of pitch accents varying from high
to low.
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WRITTEN
JAPANESE
Unlike
the Chinese, the Japanese use 2 distinct forms of
phonetic script, kana, to use along with Chinese
characters. Sometimes it is necessary to include
roman letters (for newer words, "Xerox", etc)
for acronyms or foreign words, thus increasing the
number of scripts used to four.
Kanji,
known as Chinese characters, symbolizes an idea or
thing. This is called an ideogram and it's not
uncommon for kanji to have more than one pronunciation
or sound. They are used in Japan to write Chinese
words or native Japanese words.
There
are two forms of kana script. One is hiragana,
used mainly by women in earlier days, and consists of 48
characters. This form is used to write native
Japanese words, particles, verb endings. Katakana,
the other kana script, is composed of 48 characters as
well. It is used mainly for emphasis, flora and
fauna scientific names as well as for writing loan
words. These forms of writing are by far easier to
write than the Chinese form they come from.
Japanese
has started printing books in the Western fashion of
horizontal lines in recent times, left to right - front
to back. It is still customary though for Japanese
books to be printed or written vertically. This
means the book is to be opened to the back and read from
top to bottom starting on the right side.
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LOAN-WORDS
Loan
words are words that are "borrowed" from
another language and incorporated into Japanese everyday
language. These words are often from the Chinese
language but may also be English or a European language.
Many Chinese character have evolved in Japanese by
taking the characters and making a new combination,
distinctly unique and used by modern Japanese. In
addition to evolution of Chinese characters, English
words have been combined to make a "new" word,
such as "nighter" for night games. The
tendency to combine or borrow words has become
increasingly evident in recent years.
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HONORIFIC
LANGUAGE
As
with other cultures, the Japanese have a different
language on that shows honor or respect and it is called
"keigo." Keigo is simply a method of
speaking that shows the speaker's respect to the person
he is speaking to. There are many different levels
and words or expressions are selected depending on how
polite the person wants or needs to be. Depending
on the status of the speaker to the recipient, a simple
sentence can be stated 20 different ways!
There
are many different factors to take into account when
determining what degree of politeness is necessary.
Some of the factors include age, social status, gender,
and even if a favor is owed or done or any combination
thereof! There is also a level of language that is
considered neutral if you don't know the status of the
person to whom you are speaking. Generally, women
speak more politely than men and use it in many more
circumstances.
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NAMES
Japan
is no different from other Asian countries when it comes
to name order. Unlike Westerners, who use first or
given name then last or family name, Japanese use their
family name first, followed by their given name.
Given names are chosen (and the Chinese character
equivalent) for their meanings in the hope of bringing
good luck to the child.
There
are titles that need to be used as well, depending on
who you are talking to. The Japanese equivalent to
"Mr.", "Mrs." is san, which
is said after the family name. If you are speaking to
someone like a teacher or doctor, there are other titles
that need to be added after the family name. If it's a
child or a close friend, then the suffix chan is
used.
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