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Japanese language
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Japanese Language)
Not to be confused with Javanese language.
"Nihongo" redirects here. It is not to be confused with Nihonga.
Japanese
Nihongo
Nihongo.svg
"Nihongo" ("Japanese")
in Japanese script
Pronunciation /nihoo/: [niho], [niho]
Native to
Japan
Ethnicity
Japanese (Yamato)
Native speakers
125 million (2010)[1]
Language family
Japonic
Early forms
Old Japanese
Early Middle Japanese
Late Middle Japanese
Early Modern Japanese
Japanese
Writing system
Chinese characters (kanji)
Kana (hiragana katakana)
Japanese Braille
Signed forms
Signed Japanese
Official status
Official language in
No Countries

National Language in:

Japan
Recognised minority
language in
1 Associated State
Palau
Language codes
ISO 639-1
ja
ISO 639-2
jpn
ISO 639-3
jpn
Glottolog
nucl1643 (excluding Hachijo)[2]
Linguasphere
45-CAA-a
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, yo
u may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters.
This article contains Japanese text. Without proper rendering support, y
ou may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of kanji and kana.
Japanese ( Nihongo?, [niho] or [niho] ( listen)) is an East Asian language spoken
t 125 million speakers, primarily in Japan, where it is the national language. I
t is a member of the Japonic (or Japanese-Ryukyuan) language family, whose relat

ion to other language groups, particularly to Korean and the suggested Altaic la
nguage family, is debated.
Little is known of the language's prehistory, or when it first appeared in Japan
. Chinese documents from the 3rd century recorded a few Japanese words, but subs
tantial texts did not appear until the 8th century. During the Heian period (7941
185), Chinese had considerable influence on the vocabulary and phonology of Old
Japanese. Late Middle Japanese (11851600) saw changes in features that brought it
closer to the modern language, as well as the first appearance of European loan
words. The standard dialect moved from the Kansai region to the Edo (modern Toky
o) region in the Early Modern Japanese period (early 17th centurymid-19th century
). Following the end in 1853 of Japan's self-imposed isolation, the flow of loan
words from European languages increased significantly. English loanwords in part
icular have become frequent, and Japanese words from English roots have prolifer
ated.
Japanese is an agglutinative, mora-timed language with simple phonotactics, a pu
re vowel system, phonemic vowel and consonant length, and a lexically significan
t pitch-accent. Word order is normally subjectobjectverb with particles marking th
e grammatical function of words, and sentence structure is topiccomment. Sentence
-final particles are used to add emotional or emphatic impact, or make questions
. Nouns have no grammatical number or gender, and there are no articles. Verbs a
re conjugated, primarily for tense and voice, but not person. Japanese equivalen
ts of adjectives are also conjugated. Japanese has a complex system of honorific
s with verb forms and vocabulary to indicate the relative status of the speaker,
the listener, and persons mentioned.

Japanese has no genetic relationship with Chinese,[3] but it makes extensive use
of Chinese characters, or kanji (?), in its writing system, and a large portion o
f its vocabulary is borrowed from Chinese. Along with kanji, the Japanese writin
g system primarily uses two syllabic (or moraic) scripts, hiragana ( or ?) and
( or ?). Latin script is used in a limited fashion, such as for imported acron
the numeral system uses mostly Arabic numerals alongside traditional Chinese nu
merals.
Contents [hide]
1
History
1.1
Prehistory
1.2
Old Japanese
1.3
Early Middle Japanese
1.4
Late Middle Japanese
1.5
Modern Japanese
2
Geographic distribution
2.1
Official status
2.2
Dialects
3
Classification
3.1
Korean hypothesis
3.2
Altaic hypothesis
4
Phonology
5
Grammar
5.1
Sentence structure
5.2
Inflection and conjugation
5.3
Politeness
6
Vocabulary
7
Writing system
8
Study by non-native speakers
9
See also
10
Notes
11
References
12
Works cited

13
Further reading
14
External links
History
Prehistory
A common ancestor of Japanese and Ryukyuan languages or dialects is thought to h
ave been brought to Japan by settlers coming from either continental Asia or nea
rby Pacific islands (or both) sometime in the early- to mid-2nd century BC (the
Yayoi period), replacing the languages of the original Jmon inhabitants,[4] inclu
ding the ancestor of the modern Ainu language. Very little is known about the Ja
panese of this period. Because writing had yet to be introduced from China, ther
e is no direct evidence, and anything that can be discerned about this period of
Japanese must be based on the reconstructions of Old Japanese.

Old Japanese
Page from the Man'ysh
A page from the Man'ysh, the oldest anthology of classical Japanese poetry.
Main article: Old Japanese
Old Japanese is the oldest attested stage of the Japanese language. Through the
spread of Buddhism, the Chinese writing system was imported to Japan. The earlie
st texts found in Japan are written in Classical Chinese, but they may have been
meant to be read as Japanese by the kanbun method. Some of these Chinese texts
show the influences of Japanese grammar, such as the word order (for example, pl
acing the verb after the object). In these hybrid texts, Chinese characters are
also occasionally used phonetically to represent Japanese particles. The earlies
t text, the Kojiki, dates to the early 8th century, and was written entirely in
Chinese characters. The end of Old Japanese coincides with the end of the Nara p
eriod in 794. Old Japanese uses the Man'ygana system of writing, which uses kanji
for their phonetic as well as semantic values. Based on the Man'ygana system, Ol
d Japanese can be reconstructed as having 88 distinct syllables. Texts written w
ith Man'ygana use two different kanji for each of the syllables now pronounced ki
, hi, mi, ke, he, me, ko, so, to, no, mo, yo and ro.[5] (
all later texts have 87. The distinction between mo1 and mo2 apparently was lost
immediately following its composition.) This set of syllables shrank to 67 in E
arly Middle Japanese, though some were added through Chinese influence.
Due to these extra syllables, it has been hypothesized that Old Japanese's vowel
system was larger than that of Modern Japanese it perhaps contained up to eight
vowels. According to Shinkichi Hashimoto, the extra syllables in Man'ygana deriv
e from differences between the vowels of the syllables in question.[6] These dif
ferences would indicate that Old Japanese had an eight-vowel system,[7] in contr
ast to the five vowels of later Japanese. The vowel system would have to have sh
runk some time between these texts and the invention of the kana (hiragana and k
atakana) in the early 9th century. According to this view, the eight-vowel syste
m of ancient Japanese would resemble that of the Uralic and Altaic language fami
lies.[8] However, it is not fully certain that the alternation between syllables
necessarily reflects a difference in the vowels rather than the consonants at t
he moment, the only undisputed fact is that they are different syllables.
Old Japanese does not have /h/, but rather // (preserved in modern fu, //), which h
as been reconstructed to an earlier */p/. Man'ygana also has a symbol for /je/, w
hich 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 wo
rds such as matsuge ("eyelash", lit. "hair of the eye"); modern mieru ("to be vi
sible") and kikoeru ("to be audible") retain what may have been a mediopassive s
uffix -yu(ru) (kikoyu kikoyuru (the attributive form, which slowly replaced the
plain form starting in the late Heian period) > kikoeru (as all shimo-nidan verb
s in modern Japanese did)); and the genitive particle ga remains in intentionall
y archaic speech.

Early Middle Japanese

Two pages from Genji Monogatari emaki scroll
Two pages from a 12th-century emaki scroll of The Tale of Genji from the 11th ce
ntury.
Main article: Early Middle Japanese
Early Middle Japanese is the Japanese of the Heian period, from 794 to 1185. Ear
ly Middle Japanese sees a significant amount of Chinese influence on the languag
e's phonology length distinctions become phonemic for both consonants and vowels
, and series of both labialised (e.g. kwa) and palatalised (kya) consonants are
added.[citation needed] Intervocalic // merges with /w/ by the 11th century. The
end of Early Middle Japanese sees the beginning of a shift where the attributive
form (Japanese rentaikei) slowly replaces the uninflected form (shshikei) for th
ose verb classes where the two were distinct.
Late Middle Japanese
Main article: 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 b
e described by non-native sources, in this case the Jesuit and Franciscan missio
naries; and thus there is better documentation of Late Middle Japanese phonology
than for previous forms (for instance, the Arte da Lingoa de Iapam). Among othe
r sound changes, the sequence /au/ merges to //, in contrast with /o/; /p/ is reint
roduced 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 sy
llable of adjectives drops out (shiroi for earlier shiroki); and some forms exis
t where modern standard Japanese has retained the earlier form (e.g. hayaku > ha
yau > hay, where modern Japanese just has hayaku, though the alternative form is p
reserved 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 ("t
obacco", now "cigarette"), both from Portuguese.
Modern Japanese
See also: Early Modern Japanese
Modern Japanese is considered to begin with the Edo period in 1600. Since Old Ja
panese, the de facto standard Japanese had been the Kansai dialect, especially t
hat 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 E
uropean languages has increased significantly. The period since 1945 has seen a
large number of words borrowed from English,[9] especially relating to technolog
yfor example, pasokon (short for "personal computer"); intnetto ("internet"), and
kamera ("camera"). Due to the large quantity of English loanwords, modern Japane
se has developed a distinction between /ti/ and /ti/, and /di/ and /di/, with the
latter in each pair only found in loanwords.[citation needed]
Geographic distribution
Although Japanese is spoken almost exclusively in Japan, it has been spoken outs
ide. Before and during World War II, through Japanese annexation of Taiwan and K
orea, as well as partial occupation of China, the Philippines, and various Pacif
ic islands,[10] locals in those countries learned Japanese as the language of th
e empire. As a result, many elderly people in these countries can still speak Ja
panese.
Japanese emigrant communities (the largest of which are to be found in Brazil,[1

1] with 1.4 million to 1.5 million Japanese immigrants and descendants, accordin
g to Brazilian IBGE data, more than the 1.2 million of the United States[12]) so
metimes employ Japanese as their primary language. Approximately 12% of Hawaii r
esidents speak Japanese,[13] with an estimated 12.6% of the population of Japane
se ancestry in 2008. Japanese emigrants can also be found in Peru, Argentina, Au
stralia (especially in the eastern states), Canada (especially in Vancouver wher
e 1.4% of the population has Japanese ancestry[14]), the United States (notably
California, where 1.2% of the population has Japanese ancestry,[citation needed]
and Hawaii), and the Philippines (particularly in Davao and Laguna).[15][16][17
]
Official status
Japanese has no official status,[18] but is the de facto national language. Ther
e is a form of the language considered standard: hyjungo (?), meaning "standard Japa
nese", or kytsgo (?), "common language". The meaning of the two terms are almost the
same. Hyjungo or kytsgo is a conception that forms the counterpart of dialect. This
normative language was born after the Meiji Restoration ( meiji ishin?, 1868) from
the language spoken in the higher-class areas of Tokyo (see Yamanote). Hyjungo is
taught in schools and used on television and even in official communications. I
t is the version of Japanese discussed in this article.
Formerly, standard Japanese in writing ( bungo?, "literary language") was differen
t from colloquial language ( kgo?). 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 kgo gradually extended its influence and the two met
hods were both used in writing until the 1940s. Bungo still has some relevance f
or historians, literary scholars, and lawyers (many Japanese laws that survived
World War II are still written in bungo, although there are ongoing efforts to m
odernize their language). Kgo is the dominant method of both speaking and writing
Japanese today, although bungo grammar and vocabulary are occasionally used in
modern Japanese for effect.
Dialects
Main article: Japanese dialects
Map of Japanese dialects and Japonic languages
Dozens of dialects are spoken in Japan. The profusion is due to many factors, in
cluding the length of time the Japanese Archipelago has been inhabited, its moun
tainous island terrain, and Japan's long history of both external and internal i
solation. Dialects typically differ in terms of pitch accent, inflectional morph
ology, vocabulary, and particle usage. Some even differ in vowel and consonant i
nventories, although this is uncommon.

The main distinction in Japanese accents is between Tokyo-type ( Tky-shiki?) and Kyot
o-Osaka-type ( Keihan-shiki?). Within each type are several subdivisions. Kyoto-Osa
ka-type dialects are in the central region, roughly formed by Kansai, Shikoku, a
nd western Hokuriku regions.
Dialects from peripheral regions, such as Thoku or Kagoshima, may be unintelligib
le to speakers from the other parts of the country. There are some language isla
nds in mountain villages or isolated islands such as Hachij-jima island whose dia
lects are descended from the Eastern dialect of Old Japanese. Dialects of the Ka
nsai region are spoken or known by many Japanese, and Osaka dialect in particula
r is associated with comedy (see Kansai dialect). Dialects of Thoku and North Kan
t are associated with typical farmers.
The Rykyan languages, spoken in Okinawa and the Amami Islands (politically part of
Kagoshima), are distinct enough to be considered a separate branch of the Japon
ic family; not only is each language unintelligible to Japanese speakers, but mo
st are unintelligible to those who speak other Rykyan languages. However, in contr

ast to linguists, many ordinary Japanese people tend to consider the Rykyan langua
ges as dialects of Japanese. This is the result of the official language policy
of the Japanese government, which has declared these languages to be dialects an
d prohibited their use in schools.
The imperial court also seems to have spoken an unusual variant of the Japanese
of the time.[19]
Standard Japanese has become prevalent nationwide (including the Ryky islands) due
to education, mass media, and an increase of mobility within Japan, as well as
economic integration.
Classification
See also: Classification of Japonic
Japanese is a member of the Japonic languages family, which also includes the la
nguages spoken throughout the Ryky Islands. As these closely related languages are
commonly treated as dialects of the same language, Japanese is often called a l
anguage isolate.
According to Martine Irma Robbeets, Japanese has been subject to more attempts t
o show its relation to other languages than any other language in the world.[20]
Since Japanese first gained the consideration of linguists in the late 19th cen
tury, attempts have been made to show its genealogical relation to languages or
language families such as Ainu, Korean, Chinese, Tibeto-Burman, Ural-Altaic, Alt
aic, Uralic, MonKhmer, Malayo-Polynesian and Ryukyuan. At the fringe, some lingui
sts have suggested a link to Indo-European languages, including Greek, and to Le
pcha. As it stands, only the link to Ryukyuan has wide support, though linguist
Kurakichi Shiratori maintained that Japanese was a language isolate.[21]
Korean hypothesis
Similarities between Korean and Japanese were noted by Arai Hakuseki in 1717,[22
] and the idea that the two might be related was first proposed in 1781 by Japan
ese scholar Teikan Fujii.[23] The idea received little attention until William G
eorge Aston proposed it again in 1879. Japanese scholar Shsabur Kanazawa took it u
p in 1910, as did Shinpei Ogura in 1934. Shir Hattori was nearly alone when he cr
iticised these theories in 1959.[24] Samuel Martin furthered the idea in 1966 wi
th his "Lexical evidence relating Korean to Japanese", as did John Whitman with
his dissertation on the subject in 1985.[23] Despite this, definitive proof of t
he relation has yet to be provided. Historical linguists studying Japanese and K
orean tend to accept the genealogical relation, while general linguists and hist
orical linguists in Japan and Korea have remained skeptical.[24] Alexander Vovin
suggests that, while typologically modern Korean and Japanese share similaritie
s that sometimes allow word-to-word translations, studies of the pre-modern lang
uages show greater differences. According to Vovin, this suggests linguistic con
vergence rather than divergence, which he believes is amongst the evidence of th
e languages not having a genealogical connection.[25]
Altaic hypothesis
Map of distribution of proposed Altaic languages
Distribution of the proposed Altaic languages across Eurasia, tentatively includ
ing Japanese and Korean.
The proposed Altaic family of languages, which would include languages from far
eastern Europe to northeastern Asia, has had its supporters and detractors over
its history. The most controversial aspect of the hypothesis is the proposed inc
lusion of Korean and Japanese, which even some proponents of Altaic have rejecte
d.[26] Philipp Franz von Siebold suggested the connection in 1832,[20] but the i
nclusion first attracted significant attention in the early 1970s.[27] Roy Andre
w Miller published Japanese and the Other Altaic Languages, and dedicated much o
f his later career to the subject. Sergei Starostin published a 1991 monograph w
hich was another significant stepping stone in JapaneseAltaic research. A team of

scholars made a database of Altaic etymologies available over the internet, fro
m which the three-volume Etymological Dictionary of the Altaic Languages was pub
lished in 2003.[28] Scholars such as Yevgeny Polivanov and Yoshizo Itabashi, on
the other hand, have proposed a hybrid origin of Japanese, in which Austronesian
and Altaic elements became mixed.[29]
Skepticism over the Japanese relation to Altaic is widespread amongst both amate
urs and professionals, in part because of the large number of unsuccessful attem
pts to establish genealogical relationships with Japanese and other languages.[2
0] Opinions are polarized, with many strongly convinced of the Altaic relation,
and others strongly convinced of the lack of one. While some sources are undecid
ed, often strong proponents of either view will not even acknowledge the claims
of the other side.[30]
Phonology
Main article: Japanese phonology
[]
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering sup
port, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode cha
racters.
All Japanese vowels are purethat is, there are no diphthongs, only monophthongs.
The only unusual vowel is the high back vowel // About this sound listen (helpinfo
), which is like /u/, but compressed instead of rounded. Japanese has five vowel
s, and vowel length is phonemic, with each having both a short and a long versio
n. Elongated vowels are usually denoted with a line over the vowel (a macron) in
rmaji, a repeated vowel character in hiragana, or a chonpu succeeding the vowel i
n katakana.
Some Japanese consonants have several allophones, which may give the impression
of a larger inventory of sounds. However, some of these allophones have since be
come phonemic. For example, in the Japanese language up to and including the fir
st half of the 20th century, the phonemic sequence /ti/ was palatalized and real
ized phonetically as [ti], approximately chi About this sound listen (helpinfo); h
owever, now /ti/ and /ti/ are distinct, as evidenced by words like t [ti] "Western
style tea" and chii [tii] "social status".
The "r" of the Japanese language (technically a lateral apical postalveolar flap
), is of particular interest, sounding to most English speakers to be something
between an "l" and a retroflex "r" depending on its position in a word. The "g"
is also notable; unless it starts a sentence, it is pronounced //, like the ng in
"sing," in the Kanto prestige dialect and in other eastern dialects.
The syllabic structure and the phonotactics are very simple: the only consonant
clusters allowed within a syllable consist of one of a subset of the consonants
plus /j/. This type of cluster only occurs in onsets. However, consonant cluster
s across syllables are allowed as long as the two consonants are a nasal followe
d by a homorganic consonant. Consonant length (gemination) is also phonemic.
The phonology of Japanese also includes a pitch accent system.
Grammar
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Main article: Japanese grammar
Sentence structure
Japanese word order is classified as subjectobjectverb. 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 be

cause Japanese sentence elements are marked with particles that identify their g
rammatical functions.

The basic sentence structure is topiccomment. For example, Kochira wa Tanaka-san

desu (). kochira ("this") is the topic of the sentence, indicated by the
verb de aru (desu is a contraction of its polite form de arimasu) is a copula, c
ommonly 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 Mr./Ms. Tanaka."
Thus Japanese, like many other Asian languages, is often called a topic-prominen
t language, which means it has a strong tendency to indicate the topic separatel
y from the subject, and that the two do not always coincide. The sentence Z wa ha
na ga nagai () literally means, "As for elephant(s), (the) nose(s) (is/are) long"
topic is z "elephant", and the subject is hana "nose".
In Japanese, the subject or object of a sentence need not be stated if it is obv
ious from context. As a result of this grammatical permissiveness, there is a te
ndency to gravitate towards brevity; Japanese speakers tend to omit pronouns on
the theory they are inferred from the previous sentence, and are therefore under
stood. In the context of the above example, hana-ga nagai would mean "[their] no
ses are long," while nagai by itself would mean "[they] are long." A single verb
can be a complete sentence: Yatta! (!)"[I / we / they / etc] did [it]!". In additi
on, since adjectives can form the predicate in a Japanese sentence (below), a si
ngle adjective can be a complete sentence: Urayamashii! (!)"[I'm] jealous [of it]!".

While the language has some words that are typically translated as pronouns, the
se are not used as frequently as pronouns in some Indo-European languages, and f
unction differently. In some cases Japanese relies on special verb forms and aux
iliary verbs to indicate the direction of benefit of an action: "down" to indica
te the out-group gives a benefit to the in-group; and "up" to indicate the in-gr
oup gives a benefit to the out-group. Here, the in-group includes the speaker an
d the out-group does not, and their boundary depends on context. For example, os
hiete moratta () (literally, "explained" with a benefit from the out-group to t
oup) means "[he/she/they] explained [it] to [me/us]". Similarly, oshiete ageta ()
erally, "explained" 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 se
rve 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 pro
nouns (and more like nouns) in that they can take modifiers as any other noun ma
y. For instance, one does not say in English:
*The amazed he ran down the street. (grammatically incorrect insertion of a pron
oun)
But one can grammatically say essentially the same thing in Japanese:

Odoroita kare wa michi o hashitte itta. (grammatically correct)

This is partly because these words evolved from regular nouns, such as kimi "you
" ( "lord"), anata "you" ( "that side, yonder"), and boku "I" ( "servant"). This is
hy some linguists do not classify Japanese "pronouns" as pronouns, but rather as
referential nouns, much like Spanish usted (contracted from vuestra merced, "yo
ur [(flattering majestic) plural] grace") or Portuguese o senhor. Japanese perso
nal 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 a
nd the social situation in which they are spoken: men and women alike in a forma

l situation generally refer to themselves as watashi ( "private") or watakushi (a

lso ), while men in rougher or intimate conversation are much more likely to use
the word ore ( "oneself", "myself") or boku. Similarly, different words such as a
nata, kimi, and omae (, more formally "the one before me") may be used to refer to
a listener depending on the listener's relative social position and the degree o
f familiarity between the speaker and the listener. When used in different socia
l relationships, the same word may have positive (intimate or respectful) or neg
ative (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 u
se sensei (, teacher), but inappropriate to use anata. This is because anata is us
ed to refer to people of equal or lower status, and one's teacher has higher sta
tus.
Inflection and conjugation
Japanese nouns have no grammatical number, gender or article aspect. The noun ho
n () may refer to a single book or several books; hito () can mean "person" or "pe
ople"; and ki () can be "tree" or "trees". Where number is important, it can be i
ndicated by providing a quantity (often with a counter word) or (rarely) by addi
ng a suffix, or sometimes by duplication (e.g. , hitobito, usually written with an
iteration mark as ). Words for people are usually understood as singular. Thus Ta
naka-san usually means Mr./Ms. Tanaka. Words that refer to people and animals ca
n be made to indicate a group of individuals through the addition of a collectiv
e 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 gro
up described as Tanaka-san-tachi may include people not named Tanaka. Some Japan
ese nouns are effectively plural, such as hitobito "people" and wareware "we/us"
, while the word tomodachi "friend" is considered singular, although plural in f
orm.
Verbs are conjugated to show tenses, of which there are two: past and present (o
r non-past) which is used for the present and the future. For verbs that represe
nt 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 me
ans "He has come (and is still here)", but tabete iru means "He is eating".
Questions (both with an interrogative pronoun and yes/no questions) have the sam
e structure as affirmative sentences, but with intonation rising at the end. In
the formal register, the question particle -ka is added. For example, ii desu () "It
is OK" becomes ii desu-ka () "Is it OK?". In a more informal tone sometimes the
cle -no () is added instead to show a personal interest of the speaker: Dshite kon
ai-no? "Why aren't (you) coming?". Some simple queries are formed simply by ment
ioning the topic with an interrogative intonation to call for the hearer's atten
tion: Kore wa? "(What about) this?"; O-namae wa? () "(What's your) name?".

Negatives are formed by inflecting the verb. For example, Pan o taberu () "I wi
read" or "I eat bread" becomes Pan o tabenai () "I will not eat bread" or "I
bread". Plain negative forms are actually i-adjectives (see below) and inflect a
s such, e.g. Pan o tabenakatta () "I did not eat bread".
The so-called -te verb form is used for a variety of purposes: either progressiv
e or perfect aspect (see above); combining verbs in a temporal sequence (Asagoha
n o tabete sugu dekakeru "I'll eat breakfast and leave at once"), simple command
s, conditional statements and permissions (Dekakete-mo ii? "May I go out?"), etc
.
The word da (plain), desu (polite) is the copula verb. It corresponds approximat
ely to the English be, but often takes on other roles, including a marker for te

nse, when the verb is conjugated into its past form datta (plain), deshita (poli
te). 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), fo
r 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 no
uns (ryri 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 t
o express concepts that are described in English using a verb and an adverbial p
article (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 adjective (see Japanese adjectives):

keiyshi, or i adjectives, which have a conjugating ending i () (such as atsui

hot") which can become past ( atsukatta "it was hot"), or negative ( atsuku n
ot hot"). Note that nai is also an i adjective, which can become past ( atsuku na
"it was not hot").
atsui hi "a hot day".
keiydshi, or na adjectives, which are followed by a form of the copula, usually na
or example, hen (strange)
hen na hito "a strange person".
rentaishi, also called true adjectives, such as ano "that"
ano yama "that mountain".
Both keiyshi and keiydshi may predicate sentences. For example,
Gohan ga atsui. "The rice is hot."
Kare wa hen da. "He's strange."
Both inflect, though they do not show the full range of conjugation found in tru
e verbs. The rentaishi in Modern Japanese are few in number, and unlike the othe
r words, are limited to directly modifying nouns. They never predicate sentences
. Examples include ookina "big", kono "this", iwayuru "so-called" and taishita "
amazing".
Both keiydshi and keiyshi form adverbs, by following with ni in the case of keiydshi:
hen ni naru "become strange",
and by changing i to ku in the case of keiyshi:
atsuku naru "become hot".
The grammatical function of nouns is indicated by postpositions, also called par
ticles. These include for example:
ga for the nominative case.
Kare ga yatta. "He did it."
ni for the dative case.
Tanaka-san ni agete kudasai "Please give it to Mr. Tanaka."
It is also used for the lative case, indicating a motion to a location.
Nihon ni ikitai "I want to go to Japan."
However, e is more commonly used for the lative case.
pt e ikanai ka? "Won't you go to the party?"
no for the genitive case, or nominalizing phrases.
watashi no kamera "my camera"
Suk-ni iku no ga suki desu "(I) like going skiing."
o for the accusative case.
Nani o tabemasu ka? "What will (you) eat?"
wa for the topic. It can co-exist with the case markers listed above, and it ove

rrides ga and (in most cases) o.

Watashi wa sushi ga ii desu. (literally) "As for me, sushi is good." The
r 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 an
d 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 in
dicated by wa is not 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." Other
s 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 Mr. Ikeda who is forty-two years old." This i
s a reply to an implicit or explicit question, such as "who in this group is for
ty-two years old?"
Politeness
Main article: Honorific speech in Japanese
Japanese has an extensive grammatical system to express politeness and formality
.
The Japanese language can express differing levels in social status. The differe
nces in social position are determined by a variety of factors including job, ag
e, 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 polit
e form of speech, whereas the other person might use a plainer form. Strangers w
ill also speak to each other politely. Japanese children rarely use polite speec
h until they are teens, at which point they are expected to begin speaking in a
more adult manner. See uchi-soto.

Whereas teineigo () (polite language) is commonly an inflectional system, sonkeigo

() (respectful language) and kenjgo () (humble language) often employ many speci
rific and humble alternate verbs: iku "go" becomes ikimasu in polite form, but i
s 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 o
wn group (company, family) whilst honorific language is mostly used when describ
ing the interlocutor and their group. For example, the -san suffix ("Mr" "Mrs."
or "Miss") is an example of honorific language. It is not used to talk about one
self or when talking about someone from one's company to an external person, sin
ce the company is the speaker's "group". When speaking directly to one's superio
r in one's company or when speaking with other employees within one's company ab
out a superior, a Japanese person will use vocabulary and inflections of the hon
orific 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 t
o the speech and actions of their own in-group superiors. In short, the register
used in Japanese to refer to the person, speech, or actions of any particular i
ndividual varies depending on the relationship (either in-group or out-group) be
tween the speaker and listener, as well as depending on the relative status of t
he 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, where
as 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 eit
her the item's owner or to the object itself. For example, the word tomodachi 'f

riend,' would become o-tomodachi when referring to the friend of someone of high
er status (though mothers often use this form to refer to their children's frien
ds). On the other hand, a polite speaker may sometimes refer to mizu 'water' as
o-mizu in order to show politeness.
Most Japanese people employ politeness to indicate a lack of familiarity. That i
s, they use polite forms for new acquaintances, but if a relationship becomes mo
re intimate, they no longer use them. This occurs regardless of age, social clas
s, or gender.
Vocabulary
Further information: Yamato kotoba and Gairaigo
There are three main sources of words in the Japanese language, the yamato kotob
a () or wago (), kango (), and gaigarigo ().[31]

The original language of Japan, or at least the original language of a certain p

opulation that was ancestral to a significant portion of the historical and pres
ent Japanese nation, was the so-called yamato kotoba ( or infrequently , i.e. "
ords"), which in scholarly contexts is sometimes referred to as wago ( or rarely , i
.e. the "Wa language"). In addition to words from this original language, presen
t-day Japanese includes a number of words that were either borrowed from Chinese
or constructed from Chinese roots following Chinese patterns. These words, know
n as kango (), entered the language from the 5th century onwards via contact with
Chinese culture. According to the Shinsen Kokugo Jiten () Japanese dictionary, ka
omprise 49.1% of the total vocabulary, wago make up 33.8%, other foreign words o
r gairaigo () account for 8.8%, and the remaining 8.3% constitute hybridized words
or konshugo () that draw elements from more than one language.[32]
There are also a great number of words of mimetic origin in Japanese, with Japan
ese 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 (sme
lt, a type of fish) are well-known examples of words of Ainu origin.
Words of different origins occupy different registers in Japanese. Like Latin-de
rived words in English, kango words are typically perceived as somewhat formal o
r academic compared to equivalent Yamato words. Indeed, it is generally fair to
say that an English word derived from Latin/French roots typically corresponds t
o a Sino-Japanese word in Japanese, whereas a simpler Anglo-Saxon word would bes
t be translated by a Yamato equivalent.
Incorporating vocabulary from European languages, gairaigo, began with borrowing
s 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 reopenin
g of Japan in the 19th century, borrowing occurred from German, French, and Engl
ish. Today most borrowings are from English.
In the Meiji era, the Japanese also coined many neologisms using Chinese roots a
nd morphology to translate European concepts;[citation needed] these are known a
s wasei kango (Japanese-made Chinese words). Many of these were then imported in
to Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese via their kanji in the late 19th and early 20
th centuries.[citation needed] For example, seiji ("politics"), and kagaku ("chemi
stry") 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 language
s. As a result, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese share a large common c
orpus of vocabulary in the same way a large number of Greek- and Latin-derived w
ords both inherited or borrowed into European languages, or modern coinages from
Greek or Latin roots are shared among modern European languages see classical c
ompound.[citation needed]

In the past few decades, wasei-eigo ("made-in-Japan English") has become a promi
nent phenomenon. Words such as wanpatn (< one + pattern, "to be in a rut", "to
one-track mind") and sukinshippu (< skin + -ship, "physical contact"), although
d by compounding English roots, are nonsensical in most non-Japanese contexts; e
xceptions exist in nearby languages such as Korean however, which often use word
s 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 w
ords familiar in English, including futon, haiku, judo, kamikaze, karaoke, karat
e, ninja, origami, rickshaw (from jinrikisha), samurai, sayonara, Sudoku, sumo, su
shi, tsunami, tycoon. See list of English words of Japanese origin for more.
Writing system
Main articles: Japanese writing system and Japanese braille
1798 Georgian calligraphy
Calligraphy
Arabic
Chinese
Georgian
Indian
Islamic
Japanese
Korean
Mongolian
Persian
Tibetan
Western
v t e
Literacy was introduced to Japan in the form of the Chinese writing system, by w
ay of Baekje before the 5th century.[33] Using this language, 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 writi
ng system. Japanese emperors gave an official rank to Chinese scholars (//[b][c]
spread the use of Chinese characters from the 7th century to the 8th century.
Table of Kana: Hiragana top, Katakana in the center and Romanized equivalents at
the bottom
At first, the Japanese wrote in Classical Chinese, with Japanese names represent
ed 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 J
apanese poetry and prose, but some Japanese words were still written with charac
ters for their meaning and not the original Chinese sound. This is when the hist
ory of Japanese as a written language begins in its own right. By this time, the
Japanese language was already very distinct from the Ryukyuan languages.[34]
An example of this mixed style is the Kojiki, which was written in AD 712. They
then started to use Chinese characters to write Japanese in a style known as man
'ygana, 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 wri
te either words borrowed from Chinese, or Japanese words with the same or simila
r meanings. Chinese characters were also used to write grammatical elements, wer
e simplified, and eventually became two syllabic scripts: hiragana and katakana
which were developed based on Manyogana from Baekje.[35] However this hypothesis
"Manyogana from Baekje" is denied by other scholars.[36][37]
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 romaji in Japanese) is used to a certain extent, such as f
or imported acronyms and to transcribe Japanese names and in other instances whe
re non-Japanese speakers need to know how to pronounce a word (such as "ramen" a
t a restaurant). Arabic numerals are much more common than the kanji when used i
n counting, but kanji numerals are still used in compounds, such as titsu ("unific
ation").
Hiragana are used for words without kanji representation, for words no longer wr
itten in kanji, 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 w
hen written without losing its meaning. For this reason, hiragana are suffixed t
o the ends of kanji to show verb and adjective conjugations. Hiragana used in th
is way are called okurigana. Hiragana can also be written in a superscript calle
d furigana above or beside a kanji to show the proper reading. This is done to f
acilitate learning, as well as to clarify particularly old or obscure (or someti
mes invented) readings.

Katakana, like hiragana, are a syllabary; katakana are primarily used to write f
oreign words, plant and animal names, and for emphasis. For example, "Australia"
has been adapted as sutoraria (), and "supermarket" has been adapted and shor
sp ().
Historically, attempts to limit the number of kanji in use commenced in the mid19th century, but did not become a matter of government intervention until after
Japan's defeat in the Second World War. During the period of post-war occupatio
n (and influenced by the views of some U.S. officials), various schemes includin
g the complete abolition of kanji and exclusive use of rmaji were considered. The
jy kanji ("common use kanji", originally called ty kanji [kanji for general use]) s
cheme arose as a compromise solution.
Japanese students begin to learn kanji from their first year at elementary schoo
l. A guideline created by the Japanese Ministry of Education, the list of kyiku k
anji ("education kanji", a subset of jy kanji), specifies the 1,006 simple charact
ers a child is to learn by the end of sixth grade. Children continue to study an
other 1,130 characters in junior high school, covering in total 2,136 jy kanji. Th
e official list of jy kanji was revised several times, but the total number of off
icially sanctioned characters remained largely unchanged.
As for kanji for personal names, the circumstances are somewhat complicated. Jy ka
nji and jinmeiy kanji (an appendix of additional characters for names) are approv
ed for registering personal names. Names containing unapproved characters are de
nied registration. However, as with the list of jy kanji, criteria for inclusion w
ere often arbitrary and led to many common and popular characters being disappro
ved for use. Under popular pressure and following a court decision holding the e
xclusion of common characters unlawful, the list of jinmeiy kanji was substantial
ly extended from 92 in 1951 (the year it was first decreed) to 983 in 2004. Furt
hermore, families whose names are not on these lists were permitted to continue
using the older forms.
Study by non-native speakers
Many major universities throughout the world provide Japanese language courses,
and a number of secondary and even primary schools worldwide offer courses in th
e language. This is much changed from before World War II; in 1940, only 65 Amer
icans not of Japanese descent were able to read, write and understand the langua
ge.[38]
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) s
ince the 1990s. Near of 4 million people studied the language worldwide in 2012:
more than 1 million Chinese, 872,000 Indonesian, and 840,000 South Koreans stud
ied Japanese in lower and higher educational institutions. In the three years fr
om 2009 to 2012 the number of students studying Japanese in China increased by 2
6.5 percent/three years, and by 21.8 percent in Indonesia, but dropped 12.8 perc
ent in South Korea.[39]
In Japan, more than 90,000 foreign students studied at Japanese universities and
Japanese language schools, including 77,000 Chinese and 15,000 South Koreans in
2003. In addition, local governments and some NPO groups provide free Japanese
language classes for foreign residents, including Japanese Brazilians and foreig
ners married to Japanese nationals. In the United Kingdom, study of the Japanese
language is supported by the British Association for Japanese Studies. In Irela
nd, Japanese is offered as a language in the Leaving Certificate in some schools
.[citation needed]
The Japanese government provides standardized tests to measure spoken and writte
n comprehension of Japanese for second language learners; the most prominent is
the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT), which features five levels of exa
ms (changed from four levels in 2010), ranging from elementary (N5) to advanced
(N1). The JLPT is offered twice a year. The Japanese External Trade Organization
JETRO organizes the Business Japanese Proficiency Test which tests the learner'
s ability to understand Japanese in a business setting. The Japan Kanji Aptitude
Testing Foundation, which took over the BJT from JETRO in 2009, announced in Au
gust 2010 that the test would be discontinued in 2011 due to financial pressures
on the Foundation. However, it has since issued a statement to the effect that
the test will continue to be available as a result of support from the Japanese
government.[40][41]

See also
Portal icon
Japan portal
Portal icon
Language portal
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 in other languages at Wiktionary,
Wikipedia's sibling project
Rendaku
Romanization of Japanese
Hepburn romanization
Shogakukan Progressive JapaneseEnglish Dictionary (book)
Yojijukugo
Notes
Jump up ^ Book of Song
Jump up ^ Nihon shoki Chapter 30:
Jump up ^ Nihon shoki Chapter 30:
Jump up ^ Shoku Nihongi
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^ Jump up to: a b Robbeets 2005, p. 25; Vovin 2010, p. 3.
^ Jump up to: a b Vovin 2010, p. 3.
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Oriental and African Studies (2001), 64: 5973". Cambridge University Press. Retr
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Jump up ^ Shunpei Mizuno, ed. (2002). ! (in Japanese). Shoga
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he academic year, 197778. Seattle: University of Washington Press. ISBN 0-295-957
66-2.
Mizutani, Osamu; & Mizutani, Nobuko (1987). How to be polite in Japanese: [Nihon
keigo]. Tokyo: The Japan Times. ISBN 4-7890-0338-8.
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and Turkic?. Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. ISBN 978-3-447-05247-4.
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ISBN 0-12-640030-X. Graduate Level
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Further reading
Rudolf Lange (1907). Christopher Noss, ed. A text-book of colloquial Japanese (r
evised English ed.). TOKYO: Methodist publishing house. p. 588. Retrieved 1 Marc
h 2012.(All rights reserved, copyright 1903 by Christopher Noss; reprinted April
1907 by the Methodist Publishing House, Tokyo, Japan) (Original from the New Yo
rk Public Library) (Digitized Apr 2, 2008)
Rudolf Lange (1907). Christopher Noss, ed. A text-book of colloquial Japanese (r

evised English ed.). TOKYO: Methodist publishing house. p. 588. Retrieved 1 Marc
h 2012.(All rights reserved; copyright 1903 by Christopher Noss; reprinted April
1907 by the Methodist Publishing House, Tokyo, Japan) (Original from Harvard Un
iversity) (Digitized Oct 10, 2008)
Rudolf Lange, Christopher Noss (1903). A Text-book of Colloquial Japanese (Engli
sh ed.). The Kaneko Press, North Japan College, Sendai: Methodist Publishing Hou
se. p. 573. Retrieved 1 March 2012.(Tokyo Methodist Publishing House 1903)
Rudolf Lange (1903). Christopher Noss, ed. A text-book of colloquial Japanese: b
ased on the Lehrbuch der japanischen umgangssprache by Dr. Rudolf Lange (revised
English ed.). TOKYO: Methodist publishing house. p. 588. Retrieved 1 March 2012
.(All rights reserved; copyright 1903 by Christopher Noss; reprinted April 1907
by the Methodist Publishing House, Tokyo, Japan) (Original from the University o
f California) (Digitized Oct 10, 2007)
Shibatani, Masayoshi. (1990). The languages of Japan. Cambridge: Cambridge Unive
rsity Press
"Japanese Language". MIT. Retrieved 2009-05-13.
External links
For a list of words relating to Japanese language, see the Japanese lang
uage category of words in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Wikiversity has learning materials about Topic:Japanese
Japanese edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Japanese language.
Wikibooks has more on the topic of: Japanese language
Wikivoyage has a phrasebook for Japanese.
National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics
Japanese Language Student's Handbook
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LCCN: sh85069643 GND: 4114069-2 BNF: cb11932171r (data) NDL: 00568376
Categories: Japanese languageAgglutinative languagesLanguages of JapanLanguages
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