JAPANESE LANGUAGE

(NIHONGO)
Foreign Language 2
BRIEF OVERVIEW OF JAPANESE
LANGUAGE
 UNIQUE LANGUAGE CONSISTS OF
IDEOGRAM AND PHONOGRAM
Japanese is a national language of Japan spoken by more than 124 million people, which is the
6th largest speaking population in the world. Other than Japan, some states in Republic of
Palau speak Japanese as common language, and people in some part of Brazil uses Japanese
due to the migration from Japan.
Phonology of Japanese have a strong personality of open syllable language that ends with a
vowel, also many dialects, including the common language has a mora. Accent is pitch accent.
Japanese consists of word order of "subject-modifier-predicate". Modifier is located in front of
modifiee. Moreover, in order to show the case of noun is not alter the word order and ending,
to add function words representing a grammatical function (particle) behind. Therefore, on the
language typology, Japanese is the language of the SOV type in terms of word order, and in
terms of form is classified as agglutinative language.
HISTORY OF JAPANESE LANGUAGE
 EVOLVING LANGUAGE WITH
ALMOST 2,000 YEARS HISTORY
Not much is recorded about the Japanese language’s prehistory or
origin. In the 3rd century, some Chinese history books recorded a
few Japanese words, but the description is not enough to
understand well about the Japanese language of the day. Before
Chinese characters were imported, Japanese language seems not to
have a script, but it is said that during the Kofun period (3rd to 4th
century), Chinese characters (hereinafter “Kanji”) were started to
flow in along with the vocabulary and phonology. In Heian Period
(794 - 1185), Japanese invented their own syllabic scripts called
Hiragana and Katakana, and started to develop Japanese original
literacy.
 During the mid of Samurai period (1185 –
1600), Japanese language evolved into closer to
the modern Japanese, and experienced the first
appearance of European loanwords. The
standard dialect moved from the Kyoto region to
the Tokyo region in the early 17th century–mid-
19th century. Following the end in 1853 of
Japan's self-imposed isolation, the flow of
loanwords from Western languages increased.
English loanwords in particular have become
frequent, and Japanese words from English roots
have proliferated.
HEIAN-KYO
WRITING SYSTEM OF JAPANESE
LANGUAGE
 CHINESE WRITING SYSTEM WAS
INTRODUCED TO ANCIENT JAPAN
Chinese writing system was first
introduced to Japan in the 5th century. It is
said that this is the start of Japanese
literacy. Japanese emperors at that time
invited famous Chinese scholars to Japan
in order to learn Chinese writing system
from them.
 THE BEGINNING OF JAPANESE
WRITTEN LANGUAGE
• After the introduction of Chinese characters (Kanji), Japanese started to use Kanji with
Japanese terms represented by characters used for their meanings and not their sound.
During the 7th century, the Chinese-sounding phoneme principle was started to be used to
write pure Japanese poetry and prose. However, some Japanese words were still written with
characters for their meaning and not the original Chinese sound. This is when the history of
Japanese as a written language begins.
• This distinctive mixed style of writing can be found in the oldest history book of Japan,
“Kojiki”, which was written in 7th century. Then, Japanese people started to use some Kanji
to write Japanese as a syllabic script, for their sounds in order to transcribe the words of
Japanese speech syllable by syllable. This style of writing is called “Manyogana”.
 THE BIRTH OF FIRST SYLLABIC
SCRIPTS: HIRAGANA
• “Hiragana”, the first original syllabic script of Japan was invented from Manyogana. Instead
of using Kanji to represent the pronunciation of Japanese, they developed Hiragana script
originated from the cursive calligraphic style of Chinese.
• Hiragana was not accepted by everyone when it was first developed. The elites or high
ranked persons preferred to use only Kanji. Historically, the regular script (kaisho) form of
Kanji was used by men, while the cursive script (sosho) form was used by women. Cursive
Hiragana script became popular first among women, who were generally not allowed access
to the same levels of education as men.
And thus Hiragana was first widely used among
women in palace for the writing of personal
communications and literature. This is the
reason why Hiragana some times called
"women's writing". For example, The Tale of
Genji and other early novels by female authors
used only Hiragana. Later, male authors started
to use Hiragana for literature, and then used for
unofficial writing such as personal letters, while
Kanji was used for official documents.
In contemporary Japanese language, Hiragana is used for words without Kanji representation,
for words no longer written in Kanji, and also following Kanji to show conjugational endings.
Because of the way verbs (and adjectives) in Japanese language 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 can also be written in a superscript called
“Furigana” above or beside a Kanji to show the proper pronunciation of the Kanji.
 THE BIRTH OF THE SECOND
SYLLABIC SCRIPTS: KATAKANA
Katakana was developed in the 9th century
(during the early Heian period) by Buddhist
monks originated from shorthand of Kanji.
Unlike Hiragana, only men were using
Katakana for official documents and documents
imported from China.
In contemporary Japanese, Katakana is
primarily used to write foreign words, plant and
animal names, and for emphasis.
 FUSION OF THE THREE DIFFERENT
LETTER SYSTEMS
Contemporary Japanese language is written in a mixture
of three main systems: Kanji, and two syllabic scripts:
Hiragana and Katakana. The Latin script is also
sometimes used, mostly in acronyms and other
abbreviations. Arabic numerals are also common as the
Kanji numerals for counting the numbers.
 JAPANESE WRITING SYSTEM IN
EDUCATION
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 Kyoiku Kanji ("education Kanji"),
specifies the 1,006 simple Kanji characters a child is to learn by
the end of sixth grade. Children continue to study another 1,130
Kanji characters in junior high school, covering in total 2,136
Joyo Kanji ("common use Kanji").
HIRAGANA TOP, KATAKANA IN THE CENTER AND
ROMANIZED EQUIVALENTS AT THE BOTTOM
VOCABULARY OF JAPANESE
LANGUAGE
 INCREDIBLE OPENNESS TO OTHER
LANGUAGES
The original language of Japan was the so-called Yamato Kotoba
(or "Yamato words"). Other than this Yamato Kotoba,
contemporary Japanese language includes a number of words
that were either borrowed from Chinese or constructed from
Chinese roots. These words are known as Kango, they blend into
Japanese language from the 5th century onwards through the
contact with Chinese culture. According to the Dictionary of
Japanese language, 49% of the vocabulary in Japan is originated
from Kango, while 30% is from Yamato Kotoba, and other 16%
is from Western language and mixture of several languages.
Japanese words of different origins are used in different registers in the language. Kanji is
typically used comparatively for formal or academic words, while Yamato Kotoba is used
more in the daily words. It is very similar to that of the English language, where Latin-derived
words are used in formal or academic way, and simpler Anglo-Saxon words are used in daily
conversation.
In the 16th century, Japanese words originated from Western language especially Portuguese
arose, followed by words from Dutch during Japan's long isolation of the Samurai period.
After the Meiji Restoration with the reopening of Japan in the 19th century, many words from
German, French and English blended into Japanese.
 THE JAPANESE INVENTED WORDS
BECAME WIDESPREAD IN THE WORLD
In the 19th century to early 20th century, Japanese coined many neologisms to translate
western ideas and concepts; these are known as Wasei Kango (Japanese-made Kanji). Many of
these words were then imported into Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese via their Kanji. For
example, 政治 ("politics"), and 化学 ("chemistry") are words 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 – both inherited or borrowed into
European languages, or modern coinages from Greek or Latin roots – are shared among
modern European languages.
In the past few decades, the popularity of many Japanese cultural exports has made some
native Japanese words familiar in English, including Haiku, Judo, Kamikaze, Tsunami,
Karaoke, Karate, Ninja, Origami, Samurai, Sayonara, Sudoku, Sumo, Sushi and so on.

LANDING OF U.S. COMMODORE PERRY

AT YOKOHAMA, 8 MARCH 1854
POLITENESS IN JAPANESE
LANGUAGE
“POLITENESS”, THE HEART OF
JAPANESE LANGUAGE
As Japanese people give weight to the politeness and
formality, Japanese language has an comprehensive
grammatical system to express them. In Japanese language,
there are three forms to express politeness and formality.
While Teineigo (polite form) is commonly an inflectional
system, Sonkeigo (respectful form) and Kenjogo (humble
form) often employ many special honorific and humble
alternate verbs: “Iu” (“say”) becomes “Iimasu” in polite
form, but is replaced by “Ossyaru" in respectful form and
“Mousu” or “Moushimasu” in humble form.
It is depends on the differing levels of social status to use each
form. The social status are determined by a variety of factors
including job, age, experience, or 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, while
the other person might use a plainer form. Strangers will also use
polite form of the language when they speak to each other.
Japanese children rarely use polite speech until they are teens, at
which point they are expected to begin speaking in a more adult
manner.
The difference between respectful and humble form is particularly pronounced in the Japanese
language. Humble form is used to talk about oneself or one's own group (company, family)
while respectful form is mostly used when describing the interlocutor and their group. For
example, the -san suffix ("Mr" "Mrs." or "Miss") is an example of respectful form. 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 respectful register to
refer to the in-group superior and their speech and actions. When speaking to a person from
another company (i.e., a member of an out-group), however, a Japanese person will use the
plain or the humble register to refer to the speech and actions of their 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.
 EVERY NOUNS CAN BE MADE
POLITE IN JAPANESE LANGUAGE
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 Yamato Kotoba, while go- is affixed to words of
Kango. 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.

HOSPITALITY OF “OMOTENASHI” IN JAPANESE RYOKAN INN