Japanese 日本語 Nihongo
Nihongo (Japanese) in Japanese script:
Pronunciation:	[ɲihoŋɡo]
Spoken in:	Majority: Japan Brazil, Singapore, United States (esp. The modern Japanese writing system uses three main scripts Kanji, characters of Chinese origin, Hiragana For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Japan topics. |utc_offset = -2 to -4 |time_zone_DST = BRST |utc_offset_DST = -2 to -5 |cctld Singapore The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Hawaii), Peru, Australia, Taiwan, Philippines, Guam, Papua New Guinea, South Korea, Guadalcanal, Palau. The State of Hawaii ( or həˈwaɪʔiː Hawaiian: Mokuāina o Hawaii) is a state in the United States located on an Archipelago in the Peru (Perú Piruw Piruw officially the Republic of Peru ( reˈpuβlika del peˈɾu is a country in western South America. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Australia topics. Taiwan ( Taiwanese: Tâi-oân/Tāi-oân (historically 大灣/台員/大員/台圓/大圓/台窩灣 is an Island in East Asia. The Philippines ( Filipino: Pilipinas, officially known as the Republic of the Philippines (fil ''Republika ng Pilipinas'' RP Guam ( Chamorro: cha Guåhån) officially the Territory of Guam, is an island in the western Pacific Ocean and is an organized unincorporated Papua New Guinea (or ˈpæpjuːə in Tok Pisin: Papua Niugini) officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is a country in Oceania South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea and often referred to as Korea ( Korean: 대한민국 tɛː Guadalcanal (local name Isatabu) is a 2510- Square mile (6500- km²) Island in the Pacific Ocean and a province of the Solomon Palau, officially the Republic of Palau (Beluu er a Belau is an island nation in the Pacific Ocean, some 500 miles (800  km) east [1]
Total speakers:	130 million[2]
Ranking:	9
Language family:	Japonic  Japanese
Writing system:	Japanese logographs and syllabaries
Official status
Official language in:	Japan
Regulated by:	None Japanese government plays major role
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	ja
ISO 639-2:	jpn
ISO 639-3:	jpn
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. This is a list of languages, ordered by the number of native-language speakers, with some data for second-language use List of language familiesA language family is a group of Languages related by descent from a common ancestor called the Proto-language of that family The Japonic languages or Japanese-Ryukyuan languages is a Language family that descended from a common ancestral language known as Proto-Japonic or A writing system is a type of Symbolic system used to represent elements or statements expressible in Language. The modern Japanese writing system uses three main scripts Kanji, characters of Chinese origin, Hiragana For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Japan topics. This is a list of bodies that regulate Standard languages Natural languages Auxiliary languages Interlingua The auxiliary language Japan no longer officially has the traditional Federal system, and its 47 prefectures, and prefectural and municipal assembly members are popularly elected for ISO 639-1 is the first part of the ISO 639 international-standard language-code family ISO 639-2 is the second part of the ISO 639 standard, which lists codes for the representation of the names of languages ISO 639 -3 (ISO 639-32007 is an international standard for Language codes The standard describes three‐letter codes for identifying languages In Computing, Unicode is an Industry standard allowing Computers to consistently represent and manipulate text expressed in most of the world's

Japanese (日本語 / にほんご , Nihongo (help·info)^?) is a language spoken by over 140 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities around the world. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Japan topics. It is related to the Ryukyuan languages, but there is no widely accepted evidence of a relationship with any other languages. The Ryukyuan languages are spoken in the Ryukyu Islands, and make up a subfamily of the Japonic Language family. The immediate classification of the Japanese language is clear it is a Japonic language along with the Ryukyuan languages. It is an agglutinative language and is distinguished by a complex system of honorifics reflecting the hierarchical  nature of Japanese society, with verb forms and particular vocabulary to indicate the relative status of speaker and listener. An agglutinative language is a Language that uses Agglutination extensively most Words are formed by joining Morphemes together The Japanese language has many Honorifics parts of speech which show Respect, and their use is mandatory in many social situations The sound inventory of Japanese is relatively small, and has a lexically distinct pitch-accent system. Japanese Pitch accent is a feature of the Japanese language. It distinguishes words in most Japanese dialects though the nature and location of the accent for

The Japanese language is written with a combination of three different types of scripts: Chinese characters called kanji (漢字 / かんじ), and two syllabic scripts made up of modified Chinese characters, hiragana (平仮名 / ひらがな) and katakana (片仮名 / カタカナ). A Chinese character, also known as a Han character ( is a Logogram used in writing Chinese (hanzi Japanese ( are the Chinese characters that are used in the modern Japanese logographic writing system along with Hiragana (ひらがな 平仮名 Katakana A syllabary is a set of written symbols that represent (or approximate Syllables which make up Words A symbol in a syllabary typically represents an optional A Chinese character, also known as a Han character ( is a Logogram used in writing Chinese (hanzi Japanese ( is a Japanese Syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system, along with Katakana and Kanji; the Latin alphabet is a Japanese Syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system along with Hiragana, Kanji, and in some cases the Latin alphabet The Latin alphabet, rōmaji (ローマ字), is also often used in modern Japanese, especially for company names and logos, advertising, and when entering Japanese text into a computer. The romanization of Japanese or ( is the use of the Latin alphabet to write the Japanese language. Western style Arabic numerals are generally used for numbers, but traditional Sino-Japanese numerals are also commonplace. The arabic numerals (often capitalized are the ten Digits (0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 which—along with the system Sino-Japanese or Kango (ja [[wikt漢語 漢語]] in Japanese, refers to that portion of the Japanese vocabulary that originated in the

Japanese vocabulary has been heavily influenced by loanwords from other languages. The vocabulary of a person is defined either as the set of all Words that are understood by that person or the set of all words likely to be used by that person when constructing A loanword (or loan word) is a word directly taken into one Language from another with little or no translation A vast number of words were borrowed from Chinese, or created from Chinese models, over a period of at least 1,500 years. Since the late 19th century, Japanese has borrowed a considerable number of words from Indo-European languages, primarily English. The 19th century of the Common Era began on January 1, 1801 and ended on December 31, 1900, according to the Gregorian calendar English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States Because of the special trade relationship between Japan and first Portugal in the 16th century, and then mainly the Netherlands in the 17th century, Portuguese, German and Dutch have also been influential. Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic (República Portuguesa is a country on the Iberian Peninsula. The Netherlands ( Dutch:, ˈnedərlɑnt is the European part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, which consists of the Netherlands the Netherlands Portuguese ( or língua portuguesa) is a Romance language that originated in what is now Galicia (Spain and northern Portugal. The German language (de ''Deutsch'') is a West Germanic language and one of the world's major languages. Dutch ( is a West Germanic language spoken by around 24 million people 22 million of which are from the Netherlands, Belgium and Suriname

Contents 1 Geographic distribution 1.1 Official status 1.2 Dialects 2 Sounds 3 Grammar 3.1 Sentence structures 3.2 Inflection and conjugation 3.3 Politeness 4 Vocabulary 5 Writing system 6 Study by non-native speakers 7 See also 8 References 9 Bibliography 10 External links 10.1 Dictionaries 10.2 Learning

Geographic distribution

Although Japanese is spoken almost exclusively in Japan, it has been and sometimes still is spoken elsewhere. When Japan occupied Korea, Taiwan, parts of the Chinese mainland, and various Pacific islands before and during World War II,^[3] locals in those countries were forced to learn Japanese in empire-building programs. The Empire of Japan ( {{unicode|Kyūjitai}}: ja 大日本帝國 Shinjitai: ja 大日本帝国 pronounced Dai Nippon Teikoku Korea is a geographic area composed of two sovereign countries a civilization and a former state situated on the Korean Peninsula in East Asia. Taiwan ( Taiwanese: Tâi-oân/Tāi-oân (historically 大灣/台員/大員/台圓/大圓/台窩灣 is an Island in East Asia. Mainland China, Continental China, the Chinese mainland or simply the mainland, is a geopolitical term synonymous with the area that is under the jurisdiction World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere ( Kyūjitai: 大東亞共榮圈 Shinjitai: ja 大東亜共栄圏 Dai-tō-a Kyōeiken) was a concept As a result, there are many people in these countries who can speak Japanese in addition to the local languages. Japanese emigrant communities (the largest of which are to be found in Brazil) sometimes employ Japanese as their primary language. |utc_offset = -2 to -4 |time_zone_DST = BRST |utc_offset_DST = -2 to -5 |cctld Approximately 5% of Hawaii residents speak Japanese, with Japanese ancestry the largest single ancestry in the state (over 24% of the population). Japanese emigrants can also be found in Peru, Argentina, Australia (especially Sydney, Brisbane, and Melbourne), the United States (notably California, where 1. Peru (Perú Piruw Piruw officially the Republic of Peru ( reˈpuβlika del peˈɾu is a country in western South America. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Argentina topics. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Australia topics. Sydney (ˈsɪdniː is the most populous city in Australia, with a Metropolitan area population of approximately 4 Brisbane ( is the state capital of Queensland. Brisbane is the third most populous city in Australia and the most populous city of Queensland Melbourne ( is the second most populous city in Australia, with a Metropolitan area population of approximately 3 The United States of America —commonly referred to as the California ( is a US state on the West Coast of the United States, along the Pacific Ocean. 2% of the population has Japanese ancestry, and Hawaii), and the Philippines (particularly in Davao and Laguna). The State of Hawaii ( or həˈwaɪʔiː Hawaiian: Mokuāina o Hawaii) is a state in the United States located on an Archipelago in the The Philippines ( Filipino: Pilipinas, officially known as the Republic of the Philippines (fil ''Republika ng Pilipinas'' RP Davao Region, designated as Region XI, is one of the regions of the Philippines, located on the southeastern portion of Mindanao. Laguna is a province of the Philippines found in the CALABARZON region in Luzón. Their descendants, who are known as nikkei (日系, literally Japanese descendants), however, rarely speak Japanese fluently after the second generation. There are estimated to be several million non-Japanese studying the language as well; many schools, both primary and secondary, offer courses.

Official status

Japanese is the de facto official language of Japan. There is a form of the language considered standard: hyōjungo (標準語, hyōjungo^?) Standard Japanese, or kyōtsūgo (共通語, kyōtsūgo^?) the common language. The meanings of the two terms are almost the same. Hyōjungo or kyōtsūgo 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 uptown Tokyo for communicating necessity. The, also known as the Meiji Ishin, Revolution, or Renewal, was a chain of events that led to enormous changes in Japan 's political and social structure officially, is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan and located on the eastern side of the main island Honshū. Hyōjungo is taught in schools and used on television and in official communications, and 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, kōgo^?). The Classical Japanese language (文語 bungo) is the literary form of the Japanese language that was the standard until the early Shōwa period. 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 kōgo 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). World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including Kōgo is the predominant 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

Dozens of dialects are spoken in Japan. The profusion is due to many factors, including the length of time the archipelago has been inhabited, its mountainous island terrain, and Japan's long history of both external and internal isolation. The, which forms the Country of Japan, extends roughly from northeast to southwest along the northeastern coast of the Eurasia mainland washing upon the northwestern Dialects typically differ in terms of pitch accent, inflectional morphology, vocabulary, and particle usage. Japanese Pitch accent is a feature of the Japanese language. It distinguishes words in most Japanese dialects though the nature and location of the accent for Morphology is the field of Linguistics that studies the internal structure of words The vocabulary of a person is defined either as the set of all Words that are understood by that person or the set of all words likely to be used by that person when constructing Some even differ in vowel and consonant inventories, although this is uncommon. In Phonetics, a vowel is a Sound in spoken Language, such as English ah! or oh!, pronounced with an open Vocal tract In Articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a Speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the upper Vocal tract, the upper vocal

The main distinction in Japanese accents is between Tokyo-type (東京式, Tōkyō-shiki^?) and Kyoto-Osaka-type (京阪式, Keihan-shiki^?), though Kyūshū-type dialects form a third, smaller group. Within each type are several subdivisions. The Western-type dialects are actually in the central region, with borders roughly formed by Toyama, Kyōto, Hyōgo, and Mie Prefectures; most Shikoku dialects are also Western-type. WikipediaWikiProject Japanese prefectures for guidelines --> is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region on Honshū WikipediaWikiProject Japanese prefectures for guidelines --> is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kinki region of the island of Honshū WikipediaWikiProject Japanese prefectures for guidelines --> is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kinki region on Honshū Island WikipediaWikiProject Japanese prefectures for guidelines --> is a prefecture of Japan which is part of the Kinki and Chūbu regions is the smallest (225 km long and between 50 and 150 km wide and least populous (4141955 as of 2005 of the four main islands of Japan, located south of Honshū Dialects farther west are actually of the Tokyo type. The final category of dialects are those that are descended from the Eastern dialect of Old Japanese; these dialects are spoken in Hachijojima, Kōchi Prefecture, and very few other locations. Old Japanese is the old stage of the Japanese language. The stage in and before Nara period is called. is a Japanese island in the Pacific Ocean, administered by Tokyo and located 300 kilometers south of the Special Wards of Tokyo. WikipediaWikiProject Japanese prefectures for guidelines --> is a prefecture of Japan located on the south Coast of Shikoku.

Dialects from peripheral regions, such as Tōhoku or Tsushima, may be unintelligible to speakers from other parts of the country. The is a geographical area of Japan. Tōhoku is Japanese for "northeast" and the Tōhoku region occupies the northeastern portion of Honshū Tsushima (対馬 Tsushima) are islands of the Japanese Archipelago situated in the middle of Korea Strait at 34°25'N and 129°20'E The several dialects used in Kagoshima in southern Kyūshū are famous for being unintelligible not only to speakers of standard Japanese but to speakers of nearby dialects elsewhere in Kyūshū as well. WikipediaWikiProject Japanese prefectures for guidelines --> is a prefecture of Japan located on Kyūshū Island. or Kyushu is the third-largest Island of Japan and most southwesterly of its four main islands. This is probably due in part to the Kagoshima dialects' peculiarities of pronunciation, which include the existence of closed syllables (i. e. , syllables that end in a consonant, such as /kob/ or /koʔ/ for Standard Japanese /kumo/ "spider"). The vocabulary of Kagoshima dialect is 84% cognate with standard Tokyo dialect. Kansai-ben, a group of dialects from west-central Japan, is spoken by many Japanese; the Osaka dialect in particular is associated with comedy. The is a distinct group of related Japanese dialects found in the Kansai region of Japan

The Ryūkyūan languages, while closely related to Japanese, are distinct enough to be considered a separate branch of the Japonic family, and are not dialects of Japanese. The Ryukyuan languages are spoken in the Ryukyu Islands, and make up a subfamily of the Japonic Language family. The Japonic languages or Japanese-Ryukyuan languages is a Language family that descended from a common ancestral language known as Proto-Japonic or They are spoken in the Ryukyu Islands and in some islands that are politically part of Kagoshima Prefecture. The Ryukyu Islands, in Japanese called the (literally Southwest Islands are a chain of Japanese islands in the western Pacific Ocean at the eastern limit WikipediaWikiProject Japanese prefectures for guidelines --> is a prefecture of Japan located on Kyūshū Island. Not only is each language unintelligible to Japanese speakers, but most are unintelligible to those who speak other Ryūkyūan languages. See Classification of the Japanese language. The immediate classification of the Japanese language is clear it is a Japonic language along with the Ryukyuan languages.

Recently, Standard Japanese has become prevalent nationwide (including portions of the Ryūkyū islands like Okinawa) due not only to television and radio, but also to increased mobility within Japan due to its system of roads, railways, and airports, as well as economic integration. Television ( TV) is a widely used Telecommunication medium for sending ( Broadcasting) and receiving moving Images, either monochromatic Radio is the transmission of signals by Modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible Light. Young people usually speak their local dialect and the standard language, though in most cases, the local dialect is influenced by the standard, and regional versions of "standard" Japanese have local-dialect influence.

Sounds

Main article: Japanese phonology

Japanese vowels are "pure" sounds. This article deals with the Phonology (ie the sound system of the Japanese language. The only unusual vowel is the high back vowel /ɯ/ listen (help·info), which is like /u/, but compressed instead of rounded. In Phonetics, vowel roundedness refers to the amount of rounding in the Lips during the articulation of a Vowel. Japanese has five vowels, and vowel length is phonemic, so each one has both a short and a long version. In Linguistics, vowel length is the perceived duration of a Vowel sound

Some Japanese consonants have several allophones, which may give the impression of a larger inventory of sounds. In Phonetics, an allophone is one of several similar speech sounds ( Phones that belong to the same Phoneme. However, some of these allophones have since become phonemic. For example, in the Japanese language up to and including the first half of the twentieth century, the phonemic sequence /ti/ was palatalized and realized phonetically as [tɕi], approximately chi listen (help·info); however, now /ti/ and /tɕi/ are distinct, as evidenced by words like tī [tiː] "Western style tea" and chii [tɕii] "social status. Palatalization or palatalisation (ˌpælətəlɨˈzeɪʃən generally refers to two phenomena As a process or the result of a process "

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. Laterals are "L"-like Consonants pronounced with an occlusion made somewhere along the axis of the tongue while air from the lungs escapes at one side or both In Phonetics, retroflex consonants are Consonant sounds used in some Languages (They are sometimes referred to as cerebral consonants

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/. Phonotactics (in Greek phone = voice and tactic = course is a branch of Phonology that deals with restrictions in a Language on the In Linguistics, a consonant cluster (or consonant blend) is a group of Consonants which have no intervening Vowel. These type of clusters only occur in onsets. However, consonant clusters across syllables are allowed as long as the two consonants are a nasal followed by a homo-organic consonant. Consonant length (gemination) is also phonemic. In Phonetics, gemination happens when a spoken Consonant is pronounced for an audibly longer period of time than a short Consonant.

Grammar

Main article: Japanese grammar

Sentence structures

Japanese word order is classified as Subject Object Verb. The Japanese language has a highly regular Agglutinative verb morphology with both productive and fixed elements In Linguistic typology, Subject Object Verb (SOV is the type of languages in which the subject, object, and Verb of a sentence appear or usually However, unlike many Indo-European languages, Japanese sentences only require that verbs come last for intelligibility. ^[4] This is because the Japanese sentence elements are marked with particles that identify their grammatical functioning. Sentence elements are the groups of words that combine together to comprise the ‘building units’ of a well-formed sentence Japanese particles, or, are suffixes or short words in Japanese grammar that immediately follow the modified noun verb adjective or sentence

The basic sentence structure is topic-comment. In Linguistics, the topic (or theme) is informally what is being talked about and the comment ( rheme or focus) is what is being 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 is desu, a copula, commonly translated as "to be" or "it is" (though there are other verbs that can be translated as "to be"). As a phrase, Tanaka-san desu is the comment. This sentence loosely translates to "As for this person, (it) is Mr. /Mrs. /Miss Tanaka. " Thus Japanese, like Chinese, Korean, and 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 the two do not always coincide. This article is mainly about the spoken Korean language See Hangul for details on the native Korean writing system A topic-prominent language is a language that organizes its Syntax so that sentences have a topic–comment (or theme–rheme structure in which the The sentence Zō-wa hana-ga nagai (desu)　(象は鼻が長いです) literally means, "As for elephants, (their) noses are long". The topic is zō "elephant", and the subject is hana "nose".

Japanese is a pro-drop language, meaning that the subject or object of a sentence need not be stated if it is obvious from context. A pro-drop language (from "pronoun-dropping" is a Language in which certain classes of Pronouns may be omitted when they are in some sense pragmatically In addition, it is commonly felt, particularly in spoken Japanese, that the shorter a sentence is, the better. As a result of this grammatical permissiveness and tendency towards brevity, Japanese speakers tend naturally to omit words from sentences, rather than refer to them with pronouns. In Linguistics and Grammar, a pronoun is a Pro-form that substitutes for a (including a noun phrase consisting of a single Noun) with or In the context of the above example, hana-ga nagai would mean "[their] noses are long," while nagai by itself would mean "[they] are long. " A single verb can be a complete sentence: Yatta! "[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! "[I'm] jealous [of 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. Instead, Japanese typically 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 doesn't, and their boundary depends on context. For example, oshiete moratta (literally, "explained" with a benefit from the out-group to the in-group) means "[he/she/they] explained it to [me/us]". Similarly, oshiete ageta (literally, "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 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 cannot say in English:

*The amazed he ran down the street. (grammatically incorrect)

But one can grammatically say essentially the same thing in Japanese:

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

This is partly due to the fact that 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. 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 "private") or watakushi (also 私), 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 be used to 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 highest status.

For English speaking learners of Japanese, a frequent beginners mistake is to include watashi-wa or anata-wa at the beginning of sentences as one would with I or you in English. Though these sentences are not grammatically incorrect, even in formal settings it would be considered unnatural and would equate in English to repeatedly using a noun where a pronoun would suffice: "John is coming over, so make sure you make John a sandwich, because John loves sandwiches. I hope John likes the dress I'm wearing. . . "

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. In Japanese, counter words or counters' ( josūshi 助数詞) are used along with numbers to count things actions and Words for people are usually understood as singular. Thus Tanaka-san usually means Mr. /Mrs. /Miss. 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) tense. For others that represent a weird change of state, the -te iru form indicates a perfect tense. For example, kite iru means "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 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: Dōshite 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?"; Namae-wa? (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".

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 keiyōshi 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 (ryōri suru "to cook", benkyō 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 a preposition (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 also Japanese adjectives):

1. 形容詞 keiyōshi, or i adjectives, which have a conjugating ending i (い) (such as あつい atsui "to be hot") which can become past (あつかった atsukatta "it was hot"), or negative (あつくない atsuku nai "it is not hot"). According to many analyses the Japanese language does not have words that function as Adjectives in a syntactic sense i According to many analyses the Japanese language does not have words that function as Adjectives in a syntactic sense i Note that nai is also an i adjective, which can become past (あつくなかった atsuku nakatta "it was not hot").

   暑い日 atsui hi "a hot day".

2. 形容動詞 keiyōdōshi, or na adjectives, which are followed by a form of the copula, usually na. For example hen (strange)

   変なひと hen na hito "a strange person".

3. 連体詞 rentaishi, also called true adjectives, such as ano "that"

   あの山 ano yama "that mountain".

Both keiyōshi and keiyōdōshi may predicate sentences. In traditional Grammar, a predicate is one of the two main parts of a sentence (the other being the subject, which the predicate modifies For example,

ご飯が熱い。 Gohan-ga atsui. "The rice is hot. "

彼は変だ。 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 keiyōdōshi and keiyōshi form adverbs, by following with ni in the case of keiyōdōshi:

変になる hen ni naru "become strange",

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

熱くなる atsuku naru "become hot".

The grammatical function of nouns is indicated by postpositions, also called particles. In Grammar, a preposition is a Part of speech that introduces a prepositional phrase. Japanese particles, or, are suffixes or short words in Japanese grammar that immediately follow the modified noun verb adjective or sentence These include for example:

• が ga for the nominative case. The nominative case is a Grammatical case for a Noun, which generally marks the subject of a Verb, as opposed to its object or other Not necessarily a subject.

彼がやった。Kare ga yatta. "He did it. "

• に ni for the dative case. The dative case is a Grammatical case generally used to indicate the Noun to whom something is given

田中さんにあげて下さい。 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. Lative is a case which indicates motion to a location It corresponds to the English prepositions "to" and "into"

日本 に行きたい。 Nihon ni ikitai "I want to go to Japan. "

• の no for the genitive case, or nominalizing phrases. In Grammar, the genitive case or possessive case (also called the second case) is the case that marks a Noun as modifying another

私のカメラ。 watashi no kamera "my camera"

スキーに行くのが好きです。 Sukī-ni iku no ga suki desu "(I) like going skiing. "

• を o for the accusative case. The accusative case ( abbreviated ACC) of a Noun is the Grammatical case used to mark the Direct object of a Transitive Not necessarily an object.

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 case markers above except no, and it overrides ga and o.

私はタイ料理がいいです。 Watashi wa tai-ryōri ga ii desu. "As for me, Thai food is good. " The nominative marker ga after watashi is hidden under wa. (Note that English generally makes no distinction between sentence topic and subject. )

Note: The difference between wa and ga goes beyond the English distinction between sentence topic and subject. 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 yonjū-ni sai da. "As for Mr. Ikeda, he is 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. Focus is a concept in linguistic theory that deals with how information in one phrase relates to information that has come before

Ikeda-san ga yonjū-ni sai da. "It is Mr. Ikeda who is forty-two years old. " This is a reply to an implicit or explicit question who in this group is forty-two years old.

Politeness

Main article: Honorific speech in Japanese

Unlike most western languages, Japanese has an extensive grammatical system to express politeness and formality. The Japanese language has many Honorifics parts of speech which show Respect, and their use is mandatory in many social situations

Most relationships are not equal in Japanese society. A society is a Population of Humans characterized by patterns of relationships between individuals that share a distinctive Culture and Institutions 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 might use a more plain 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. Uchi-soto in the Japanese language is the distinction between in-groups ( uchi, 内 "inside" and out-groups ( soto, 外 "outside"

Whereas teineigo (丁寧語) (polite language) is commonly an inflectional system, sonkeigo (尊敬語) (respectful language) and kenjōgo (謙譲語) (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. In Grammar, inflection or inflexion is the way language handles grammatical relations and relational categories such as tense, mood, voice

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 his/her group. For example, the -san suffix ("Mr" "Mrs. " or "Miss") 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 "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 his or her 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 his or her own 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. For this reason, the Japanese system for explicit indication of social register is known as a system of "relative honorifics. " This stands in stark contrast to the Korean system of "absolute honorifics," in which the same register is used to refer to a particular individual (e. This article is mainly about the spoken Korean language See Hangul for details on the native Korean writing system g. one's father, one's company president, etc. ) in any context regardless of the relationship between the speaker and interlocutor. Thus, polite Korean speech can sound very presumptuous when translated verbatim into Japanese, as in Korean it is acceptable and normal to say things like "Our Mr. Company-President. . . " when communicating with a member of an out-group, which would be very inappropriate in a Japanese social context.

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 in order to show politeness.

Most Japanese people employ politeness to indicate a lack of familiarity. That is, they use polite forms for new acquaintances, but if a relationship becomes more intimate, they no longer use them. This occurs regardless of age, social class, or gender.

Vocabulary

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 wa-go (和語 or rarely 倭語, i. The are the dominant native Ethnic group of Japan. It is a term that came to be used around the late 19th century to distinguish the residents of the Mainland e. the "Wa words"). Japanese, is the oldest recorded name of Japan. Chinese Korean and Japanese scribes regularly wrote Wa or Yamato "Japan" with the In addition to words from this original language, present-day Japanese includes a great 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 fifth century onwards via contact with Chinese culture. Sino-Japanese or Kango (ja [[wikt漢語 漢語]] in Japanese, refers to that portion of the Japanese vocabulary that originated in the According to a Japanese dictionary Shinsen-kokugojiten (新選国語辞典), Chinese-based words comprise 49. Japanese dictionaries have a history that began over 1300 years ago when Japanese Buddhist priests who wanted to understand Chinese Sutras adapted Chinese character Sino-Japanese or Kango (ja [[wikt漢語 漢語]] in Japanese, refers to that portion of the Japanese vocabulary that originated in the 1% of the total vocabulary, Wago is 33. 8% and other foreign words are 8. 8%. ^[5]

Like Latin-derived words in English, kango words typically are perceived as somewhat formal or academic compared to equivalent Yamato words. Sino-Japanese or Kango (ja [[wikt漢語 漢語]] in Japanese, refers to that portion of the Japanese vocabulary that originated in the 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 a simpler Anglo-Saxon word would best be translated by a Yamato equivalent.

A much smaller number of words has been borrowed from Korean and Ainu. This article is mainly about the spoken Korean language See Hangul for details on the native Korean writing system The Ainu language (Ainu ain アイヌ イタク aynu itak; Japanese: ja アイヌ語 ainu-go) is spoken by the Ainu Japan has also borrowed a number of words from other languages, particularly ones of European extraction, which are called gairaigo. Gairaigo (外来語 is Japanese for " loan word " or "borrowed word" and indicates a Transliteration (or "transvocalization" This began with borrowings from Portuguese in the 16th century, followed by borrowing from Dutch during Japan's long isolation of the Edo period. Many Japanese words of Portuguese origin entered the Japanese language when Portuguese Jesuit priests introduced Christian ideas Western science and technology Dutch ( is a West Germanic language spoken by around 24 million people 22 million of which are from the Netherlands, Belgium and Suriname Sakoku ( Japanese: 鎖国 literally "country in chains" or "lock up of country" was the Foreign relations policy of Japan under which The, also referred to as the Tokugawa period (徳川時代 Tokugawa-jidai) is a division of Japanese history running from 1603 to 1868 With the Meiji Restoration and the reopening of Japan in the 19th century, borrowing occurred from German, French and English. The, also known as the Meiji Ishin, Revolution, or Renewal, was a chain of events that led to enormous changes in Japan 's political and social structure The 19th century of the Common Era began on January 1, 1801 and ended on December 31, 1900, according to the Gregorian calendar The German language (de ''Deutsch'') is a West Germanic language and one of the world's major languages. French ( français,) is a Romance language spoken around the world by 118 million people as a native language and by about 180 to 260 million people English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States Currently, words of English origin are the most commonly borrowed.

In the Meiji era, the Japanese also coined many neologisms using Chinese roots and morphology to translate Western concepts. The Chinese and Koreans imported many of these pseudo-Chinese words into Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese via their kanji in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This article is mainly about the spoken Korean language See Hangul for details on the native Korean writing system Vietnamese ( tiếng Việt, or less commonly Việt ngữ) formerly known under French colonization as Annamese ( see Annam) are the Chinese characters that are used in the modern Japanese logographic writing system along with Hiragana (ひらがな 平仮名 Katakana For example, 政治 seiji ("politics"), and 化学 kagaku ("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 a large number of Greek- and Latin-derived words are shared among modern European languages, although many academic words formed from such roots were certainly coined by native speakers of other languages, such as English.

In the past few decades, wasei-eigo (made-in-Japan English) has become a prominent phenomenon. are Japanese Pseudo-Anglicisms English constructions not in use in Anglophone countries nor by English native speakers but which appear in Japanese. Words such as wanpatān ワンパターン (< 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.

Additionally, many native Japanese words have become commonplace in English, due to the popularity of many Japanese cultural exports. Words such as futon, haiku, judo, kamikaze, karaoke, karate, ninja, origami, rickshaw (from 人力車 jinrikisha), samurai, sayonara, sumo, sushi, tsunami, tycoon and many others have become part of the English language. A is a flat about thick Mattress with a fabric exterior stuffed with Cotton or synthetic batting that makes up a Japanese bed. is a form of Japanese poetry. Previously called meaning "gentle way" is a modern Japanese martial art ( Gendai budō) and Combat sport, that originated in Japan in the late ( is a word of Japanese origin which in English usually refers to the Suicide attacks by military aviators from the Empire of Japan against (kɑːrɑːˌoʊkɛ in Japanese karaoke) is a form of Entertainment in which Amateur Singers sing along with recorded Music (and/or a ( or is a martial art developed in the Ryukyu Islands from indigenous fighting methods and Chinese Kenpō. (from oru meaning "folding" and kami meaning "paper" is the ancient Japanese Art of Paper folding. Rickshaws (or rickshas) are a mode of Human-powered transport: a runner draws a two-wheeled Cart which seats one or two persons is the term for the military nobility of Pre-industrial Japan. Sayonara ( 1957) is a Film which tells the story of an American Air Force flier who was a fighter "Ace" during the is a competitive Contact sport where two Wrestlers ( rikishi) attempt to force one another out of a circular ring ( Dohyo) or to touch the ground In Japanese cuisine, is Vinegared Rice, usually topped with other ingredients including fish various meats and vegetables A tsunami ((tsuːˈnɑːmi is a series of waves created when A business magnate, sometimes referred to as a mogul, tycoon, baron, or industrialist, is a person who has reached a prominent place in See list of English words of Japanese origin for more. Words of Japanese origin have entered many languages Some words are simple Transliterations of Japanese language words for concepts inherent to Japanese culture

Writing system

Main article: Japanese writing system

Chinese writing system was introduced to Japan by way of Baekje before the 5th century. The modern Japanese writing system uses three main scripts Kanji, characters of Chinese origin, Hiragana Written Chinese comprises the written symbols used to represent Spoken Chinese and the rules about how they are arranged and punctuated Baekje (18 BCE – 660 CE or Paekche, was a kingdom located in southwest Korea A Japanese emperor Yūryaku sent a letter to a Chinese emperor Liu Song in 478. (c 418 - Seventh Day of the Eight Month of 479 ( Kibi) was the 21st emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession Background Liu Zhun was born in 467 and ostensibly his parents were Emperor Ming and Emperor Ming's concubine Consort Chen Farong -- but history does not provide ^[6] This is supposed to be the first historical documentation of Japan. After the ruin of Baekje, Japan invited scholars from China and studied Chinese writing system. Japanese Emperors gave an official rank to the Chinese scholar (続守言/薩弘格/^[7][8]袁晋卿^[9]) and spread the use of Chinese characters from the 7th century to the 8th century.

At first, the Japanese wrote in Classical Chinese, with Japanese names represented by characters used for their meanings and not their sounds. Classical Chinese or Literary Chinese is a traditional style of Written Chinese based on the Grammar and Vocabulary of ancient Chinese Later, this latter principle was used to write pure Japanese poetry and prose; however, some Japanese words were written with characters for their meaning and not the original Chinese sound.

The Koreans settlers and their descendants used Kudara-on or Baekje pronunciation (百済音), which was also called Tsushima-pronunciation (対馬音) or Go-on (呉音). are one of the different readings of Japanese Kanji. They are old pronunciations of Chinese characters, believed to be taken from China to Japan

An example of this mixed style is the Kojiki, which was written in 712 AD. They then started to use Chinese characters to write Japanese in a style known as man'yōgana, 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. A Chinese character, also known as a Han character ( is a Logogram used in writing Chinese (hanzi Japanese ( are the Chinese characters that are used in the modern Japanese logographic writing system along with Hiragana (ひらがな 平仮名 Katakana Chinese characters were also used to write grammatical elements, were simplified, and eventually became two syllabic scripts: hiragana and katakana. is a Japanese Syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system, along with Katakana and Kanji; the Latin alphabet is a Japanese Syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system along with Hiragana, Kanji, and in some cases the Latin alphabet

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. are the Chinese characters that are used in the modern Japanese logographic writing system along with Hiragana (ひらがな 平仮名 Katakana A loanword (or loan word) is a word directly taken into one Language from another with little or no translation In Morpheme-based morphology, a morpheme is the smallest linguistic unit that has semantic meaning. A syllabary is a set of written symbols that represent (or approximate Syllables which make up Words A symbol in a syllabary typically represents an optional is a Japanese Syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system, along with Katakana and Kanji; the Latin alphabet is a Japanese Syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system along with Hiragana, Kanji, and in some cases the Latin alphabet The Latin alphabet is also sometimes used. Arabic numerals are much more common than the kanji when used in counting, but kanji numerals are still used in compounds, such as 統一 tōitsu ("unification").

Hiragana are used for words without kanji representation, for words no longer written in kanji, and also following kanji to show conjugational endings. is a Japanese Syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system, along with Katakana and Kanji; the Latin alphabet 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 its meaning. For this reason, hiragana are suffixed to the ends of kanji to show verb and adjective conjugations. Hiragana used in this way are called okurigana. are Kana suffixes following Kanji stems in Japanese written words Hiragana are also written in a superscript called furigana above or beside a kanji to show the proper reading. is a Japanese reading aid consisting of smaller Kana printed next to a Kanji or other character to indicate its Pronunciation. This is done to facilitate learning, as well as to clarify particularly old or obscure (or sometimes invented) readings.

Katakana, like hiragana, are a syllabary; katakana are primarily used to write foreign words, plant and animal names, and for emphasis. is a Japanese Syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system along with Hiragana, Kanji, and in some cases the Latin alphabet For example "Australia" has been adapted as Ōsutoraria (オーストラリア), and "supermarket" has been adapted and shortened into sūpā (スーパー). The Latin alphabet (in Japanese refered to as Rōmaji (ローマ字), literally "Roman letters") is used for some loan words like "CD" and "DVD", and also for some Japanese creations like "Sony". The romanization of Japanese or ( is the use of the Latin alphabet to write the Japanese language.

Historically, attempts to limit the number of kanji in use commenced in the mid-19th 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 occupation (and influenced by the views of some U. S. officials), various schemes including the complete abolition of kanji and exclusive use of rōmaji were considered. The jōyō kanji ("common use kanji", originally called tōyō kanji [kanji for general use]) scheme arose as a compromise solution. The is the Kanji characters as a guide announced officially by the Japanese Ministry of Education. The tōyō kanji, also known as the Tōyō kanjihyō (当用漢字 "kanji for general use" are the result of a reform of the Kanji characters

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 kyōiku kanji ("education kanji", a subset of jōyō kanji), specifies the 1,006 simple characters a child is to learn by the end of sixth grade. also known as is a list of 1006 Kanji and associated readings developed and maintained by the Japanese Ministry of Education that prescribes which kanji and which readings The is the Kanji characters as a guide announced officially by the Japanese Ministry of Education. Children continue to study another 939 characters in junior high school, covering in total 1,945 jōyō kanji. The is the Kanji characters as a guide announced officially by the Japanese Ministry of Education. The official list of jōyō kanji was revised several times, but the total number of officially sanctioned characters remained largely unchanged. The is the Kanji characters as a guide announced officially by the Japanese Ministry of Education.

As for kanji for personal names, the circumstances are somewhat complicated. Jōyō kanji and jinmeiyō kanji (an appendix of additional characters for names) are approved for registering personal names. The is the Kanji characters as a guide announced officially by the Japanese Ministry of Education. The jinmeiyō kanji (ja 人名用漢字 Chinese characters for use in personal names) are a set of 983 Chinese characters known as the "name kanji" in Names containing unapproved characters are denied registration. However, as with the list of jōyō kanji, criteria for inclusion were often arbitrary and led to many common and popular characters being disapproved for use. The is the Kanji characters as a guide announced officially by the Japanese Ministry of Education. Under popular pressure and following a court decision holding the exclusion of common characters unlawful, the list of jinmeiyō kanji was substantially extended from 92 in 1951 (the year it was first decreed) to 983 in 2004. The jinmeiyō kanji (ja 人名用漢字 Chinese characters for use in personal names) are a set of 983 Chinese characters known as the "name kanji" in Furthermore, families whose names are not on these lists were permitted to continue using the older forms.

Many writers rely on newspaper circulation to publish their work with officially sanctioned characters. A newspaper is a written Publication containing News, information and Advertising, usually printed on low-cost paper called Newsprint. This distribution method is more efficient than traditional pen and paper publications. A pen (Latin pinna, feather is a Writing instrument used to apply Ink to a surface usually Paper. Paper is thin material mainly used for writing upon printing upon or packaging

Study by non-native speakers

See also: Japanese language education in Kazakhstan, Japanese language education in Mongolia, Japanese language education in Russia, and Japanese language education in the United States

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. History Japanese language education in Kazakhstan formally began with the 1992 establishment of a Japanese language course at Almaty 's Al-Farabi University; Japanese language education in Mongolia formally dates back to 1975 when the National University of Mongolia established an elective course in Japanese language. Japanese language education in Russia formally dates back to December 1701 or January 1702 when Dembei, a shipwrecked Japanese merchant was taken to Moscow and ordered Japanese language education in the United States began in the late 19th century aimed mainly at Japanese American children and conducted by parents and community institutions International interest in the Japanese language dates from the 1800s but has become more prevalent following Japan's economic bubble of the 1980s and the global popularity of Japanese pop culture (such as anime and video games) since the 1990s. Japanese popular culture not only reflects the attitudes and concerns of the present but also provides a link to the past (anime in Japanese, A video game is a Game that involves interaction with a User interface to generate visual feedback on a video device. About 2. 3 million people studied the language worldwide in 2003: 900,000 South Koreans, 389,000 Chinese, 381,000 Australians, and 140,000 Americans study Japanese in lower and higher educational institutions. The Korean people are an East Asian Ethnic group. Most Koreans speak the Korean language. Talk People's Republic of China) PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA ARTICLE GUIDELINES For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Australia topics. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the

In Japan, more than 90,000 foreign students study at Japanese universities and Japanese language schools, including 77,000 Chinese and 15,000 South Koreans in 2003. The following is a comprehensive list of universities in Japan, categorized by prefecture: The list contains only universities or colleges either four-year A language school is a School where one studies a Foreign language. In addition, local governments and some NPO groups provide free Japanese language classes for foreign residents, including Japanese Brazilians and foreigners married to Japanese nationals. A Japanese Brazilian' (日系ブラジル人 in Kanji and Kana Japanese writing nikkei burajiru-jin in Rōmaji Japanese In the United Kingdom, studies are supported by the British Association for Japanese Studies. The British Association for Japanese Studies, BAJS, is an association at Essex University in the United Kingdom, whose aim is to promote studies in the In Ireland, Japanese is offered as a language in the Leaving Certificate in some schools. The Leaving Certificate ( Ardteistiméireacht) commonly referred to as the Leaving Cert (Irish Ardteist) is the final course in the Irish

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). The, or JLPT, is a standardized test to evaluate and certify the language proficiency of non-native Japanese speakers 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. (ジェトロ　JETRO is an independent government agency established by Japan Export Trade Research Organization as a nonprofit corporation in Osaka on Feb

When learning Japanese in a college setting, students are usually first taught how to pronounce romaji. The romanization of Japanese or ( is the use of the Latin alphabet to write the Japanese language. From that point, they are taught the two main syllabaries, with kanji usually being introduced in the second semester. are the Chinese characters that are used in the modern Japanese logographic writing system along with Hiragana (ひらがな 平仮名 Katakana Focus is usually first on polite (distal) speech, as students that might interact with native speakers would be expected to use. Casual speech and formal speech usually follow polite speech, as well as the usage of honorifics.

See also

• Romanization of Japanese
  • Hepburn romanization
• Henohenomoheji
• Ryūkyūan languages
• Culture of Japan
• Japanese dialects
• Japanese language and computers
• Japanese literature
• Japanese name
• Late Old Japanese
• Old Japanese
• The lists of Japanese words and words in other languages that have been derived from Japanese at Wiktionary, the free dictionary and Wikipedia's sibling project
• Japanese dictionaries
• Sino-Japanese vocabulary
• Yojijukugo
• Japanese numerals
• Japanese counter word
• Rendaku
• Eurasiatic languages

References

Bibliography

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• Bloch, Bernard. (1946). Studies in colloquial Japanese II: Syntax. Language, 22, pp. 200–248.
• Chafe, William L. (1976). Giveness, contrastiveness, definiteness, subjects, topics, and point of view. In C. Li (Ed. ), Subject and topic (pp. 25–56). New York: Academic Press. ISBN 0-12-447350-4.
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• Miller, Roy. (1967). The Japanese language. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
• Miller, Roy. (1980). Origins of the Japanese language: Lectures in Japan during the academic year, 1977–78. Seattle: University of Washington Press. ISBN 0-295-95766-2.
• Mizutani, Osamu; & Mizutani, Nobuko. (1987). How to be polite in Japanese: 日本語の敬語 [Nihongo no keigo]. Tokyo: Japan Times. ISBN 4789003388 ;
• Shibatani, Masayoshi. (1990). Japanese. In B. Comrie (Ed. ), The major languages of east and south-east Asia. London: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-04739-0.
• Shibatani, Masayoshi. (1990). The languages of Japan. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-36070-6 (hbk); ISBN 0-521-36918-5 (pbk).
• Shibamoto, Janet S. (1985). Japanese women's language. New York: Academic Press. ISBN 0-12-640030-X. Graduate Level
• Tsujimura, Natsuko. (1996). An introduction to Japanese linguistics. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell Publishers. ISBN 0-631-19855-5 (hbk); ISBN 0-631-19856-3 (pbk). Upper Level Textbooks
• Tsujimura, Natsuko. (Ed. ) (1999). The handbook of Japanese linguistics. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers. ISBN 0-631-20504-7. Readings/Anthologies

External links

Dictionaries

• Jim Breen's dictionary and translation server
• JapanOD.com, Japanese-English, English-Japanese dictionary with support for browsers without Japanese fonts
• OmegaJi: Free, opensource (GNU GPL) Japanese-English dictionary program with 190'000 expressions, based on the JMdict project.
• tangorin.com, Standard Glossary, Kanji Search, Example Sentences dictionary based on JMdict.
• Denshi Jisho Find words, example sentences and kanji (through words or radicals). Kanji also contain references to various dictionaries and textbooks.
• Basic verb conjugation search

Learning

• Video lectures from York University
• Japanese phrasebook on WikiTravel

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