Japanese language

Not to be confused with Javanese language.

ing Japanese: for example, by typinghasoftware will

provide the hiragana, katakana and kanji options.

Japanese ( Nihongo, [nihoo] ( )) is an East

Asian language spoken by about 125 million speakers,
primarily in Japan, where it is the national language. It 1
is a member of the Japonic language family, whose relation to other language groups, particularly to Korean and
1.1
the suggested Altaic language family, is debated.
Little is known of the language's prehistory, or when it
rst appeared in Japan. Chinese documents from the 3rd
century record a few Japanese words, but substantial texts
did not appear until the 8th century. During the Heian period (7941185), Chinese had a considerable inuence on
the vocabulary and the phonology of Old Japanese. Late
Middle Japanese (11851600) saw changes that brought
it closer to the modern language and the rst appearance of European loanwords. The standard dialect moved
from that of the Kansai region to that of the Edo (modern
Tokyo) region in the Early Modern Japanese period (17th
19th centuries). Following the end in 1853 of Japan's
self-imposed isolation, the ow of loanwords from European languages increased signicantly. English loanwords in particular have become frequent, and Japanese
words from English roots have proliferated.
Japanese is an agglutinative, mora-timed language with
simple phonotactics, a pure vowel system, phonemic
vowel and consonant length, and a lexically signicant
pitch accent. Sentence structure is topiccomment and
word order is normally subjectobjectverb. Particles
mark the grammatical function of words, and sentencenal particles are used to add emotional or emphatic impact, or to make questions. Nouns have no grammatical
number or gender, and there are no articles (such as English a or the). Verbs are conjugated, primarily for tense
and voice, but not person. Japanese equivalents of adjectives are also conjugated. Japanese has a complex system
of honorics with verb forms and vocabulary to indicate
the relative status of speaker, listener, and persons mentioned.
Japanese has no genetic relationship with Chinese, but it
makes extensive use of Chinese characters, or kanji, in
its writing system, and a large portion of its vocabulary is
borrowed from Chinese. Along with kanji, the Japanese
writing system primarily uses two syllabic (or moraic)
scripts, hiragana and katakana. Latin script is used in
a limited way, such as for imported acronyms, and the
numeral system uses mostly Arabic numerals, alongside
traditional Chinese numerals. Latin script is used in typ-

History
Prehistory

A common ancestor of Japanese and Ryukyuan languages or dialects is thought to have come to Japan with
settlers from continental Asia or nearby Pacic islands
sometime in the early- to mid-2nd century (the Yayoi
period), replacing the languages of the original Jmon
inhabitants,* [3] including the ancestor of modern Ainu.
Very little is known about the Japanese of this period
there is no direct evidence, as writing had yet to be introduced from China so what can be discerned must be
based on the reconstructions of Old Japanese.

1.2 Old Japanese

A page from Nihon Shoki (The Chronicles of Japan), the second

oldest book of classical Japanese history

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 earliest 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 texts show the inuence of Japanese grammar, such as word order. In these
hybridtexts, Chinese characters are occasionally used
to phonetically represent Japanese particles. The earliest 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 period
in 794. Old Japanese uses the Man'ygana system of
1

HISTORY

writing, which uses kanji for both phonetic and semantic values. From the Man'ygana system, Old Japanese
has been reconstructed as having had 88 syllables. Texts
written with Man'ygana use two dierent kanji for each
of the syllables now pronounced ki, hi, mi,
ke, he, me, ko, so, to, no, mo,
yo and ro.* [4] The set of syllables shrank to 67 in
Early Middle Japanese, though some were added through
Chinese inuence.

Early Middle Japanese is the Japanese of the Heian period, from 794 to 1185. Early Middle Japanese sees
a signicant amount of Chinese inuence on the language'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. 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
Due to these extra syllables, it has been hypothesized that rentaikei) slowly replaces the uninected form (shshikei)
for those verb classes where the two were distinct.
Old Japanese's vowel system was larger than that of Modern Japanese and perhaps had up to eight vowels. According to Shinkichi Hashimoto, the extra syllables in
Man'ygana derive from dierences between the vowels 1.4 Late Middle Japanese
of the syllables in question.* [5] The vowel system would
have to have shrunk sometime between these texts and the Main article: Late Middle Japanese
invention of the kana syllabaries (hiragana and katakana)
in the early 9th century. According to this view, the eight- Late Middle Japanese covers the years from 1185 to
vowel system of ancient Japanese would resemble that of 1600, and is normally divided into two sections, roughly
the Uralic and Altaic language families.* [6] However, it equivalent to the Kamakura period and the Muromachi
is not fully certain that the alternation between syllables period, respectively. The later forms of Late Midnecessarily reects a dierence in the vowels rather than dle Japanese are the rst to be described by non-native
the consonantsthe only undisputed fact is that they are sources, in this case the Jesuit and Franciscan missionardierent syllables.
ies; and thus there is better documentation of Late MidOld Japanese does not have /h/, but rather // (preserved dle Japanese phonology than for previous forms (for inin modern fu, //), which has been reconstructed to an stance, the Arte da Lingoa de Iapam). Among other
earlier */p/. Man'ygana also has a symbol for /je/, which sound changes, the sequence /au/ merges to //, in contrast with /o/; /p/ is reintroduced from Chinese; and /we/
merges with /e/ before the end of the period.
merges with /je/. Some forms rather more familiar to
Several fossilizations of Old Japanese grammatical ele- Modern Japanese speakers begin to appear the conments remain in the modern languagethe genitive par- tinuative ending -te begins to reduce onto the verb (e.g.
ticle tsu (superseded by modern no) is preserved in words yonde for earlier yomite), the -k- in the nal syllable of
such as matsuge
( eyelash, lit.hair of the eye); mod- adjectives drops out (shiroi for earlier shiroki); and some
ern mieru
( to be visible) and kikoeru
( to be audible) forms exist where modern standard Japanese has retained
retain what may have been a mediopassive sux -yu(ru) the earlier form (e.g. hayaku > hayau > hay, where
(kikoyu kikoyuru (the attributive form, which slowly modern Japanese just has hayaku, though the alternative
replaced the plain form starting in the late Heian period) form is preserved in the standard greeting o-hay goza> kikoeru (as all shimo-nidan verbs in modern Japanese imasu good morning"; this ending is also seen in odid)); and the genitive particle ga remains in intentionally medet congratulations, from medetaku).
archaic speech.
Late Middle Japanese has the rst loanwords from European languages now-common words borrowed into
Japanese in this period include pan breadand tabako
1.3 Early Middle Japanese
tobaccofrom Portuguese,* [7] andponpupumpand
purachina platinumfrom Dutch.* [8]

1.5 Modern Japanese

See also: Early Modern Japanese

Two pages from a 12th-century emaki scroll of The Tale of Genji

from the 11th century

Main article: Early Middle Japanese

Modern Japanese traces to the beginning of the Edo

period around 1600. Until then the de facto standard
Japanese had been the Kansai dialect especially that
of Kyoto. During the Edo period, the military government established an administrative capital in Edo (modern Tokyo). Edo soon developed into the largest city in
Japan, and the Edo-area dialect became standard. Since

2.1

Ocial status

the end of Japan's self-imposed isolation in 1853, the ow 2.1

of loanwords from European languages has increased signicantly. The period since 1945 has seen a large number
of words borrowed from English,* [9] especially relating
to technologykameracamera, intnettointernet,
roketto,rocket, and many others. Due to the quantity
of English loanwords, modern Japanese has developed a
distinction between /ti/ and /ti/, and between /di/ and
/di/, the latter in each pair found only in loanwords such
as remon t lemon teaand disuku disk.

Ocial status

Geographic distribution
Multilingual subway sign in Roppongi Hills, Roppongi, Minato,
Japan. Languages consist of Japanese, Chinese, English and Korean.

Din Tai Fung at South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa, California

on its opening day (August 18, 2014). The parking garage next
to the restaurant has Din Tai Fung signs and markings in three
languages (traditional Chinese, English and Japanese).

Japanese is spoken almost exclusively in Japan, though

there has been use outside the country. Before and
during World War II, through Japanese annexation of
Taiwan and Korea, and occupation of parts of China,
the Philippines, and various Pacic islands,* [10] locals
in those countries learned Japanese as the language of the
empire. As a result, many elderly people in these countries could still speak Japanese into the 21st century.
Japanese emigrant communities, the largest of which are
found in Brazil,* [11] with up to 1.5 million Japanese immigrants and descendants, according to Brazilian IBGE
data, and more than the 1.2 million of the United
States,* [12] sometimes employ Japanese as their primary language. Approximately 12% of Hawaii residents
speak Japanese,* [13] with an estimated 12.6% of the
population of Japanese ancestry in 2008. Japanese emigrants can also be found in Peru, Argentina, Australia
(especially in the eastern states), Canada (especially in
Vancouver where 1.4% of the population has Japanese
ancestry),* [14] the United States (notably California,
where 1.2% of the population has Japanese ancestry, and
Hawaii), and the Philippines (particularly in Davao and
Laguna).* [15]

Japanese has no ocial status,* [16] but is the de facto

national language of Japan. There is a form considered standard: hyjungo (), meaning standard
Japanese, or kytsgo (),common language.
The meanings of the two terms are almost the same. The
standard language is a counterpart to the dialects. This
normative language was born after the Meiji Restoration
of 1868 from the language spoken in the higher-class areas of Tokyo. The standard language is taught in schools
and used on television and in ocial communications,
and is the version discussed in this article.
Formerly, standard Japanese in writing ( bungo,literary language) was dierent from colloquial language
( kgo). The two systems have dierent rules of
grammar and some variance in vocabulary. Bungo was
the main method of writing Japanese until about 1900;
since then the use of kgo grew; both used in writing until the 1940s. Aside from historians and literary scholars, bungo still has some relevance for lawyers as many
laws from before World War II are still written in bungo,
although there are ongoing eorts to modernize them.
Kgo has otherwise replaced bungo in spoken and written Japanese.

2.2 Dialects
Main article: Japanese dialects
See also: Japanese Archipelago
Many dialects are spoken in Japan. This 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. Dialects typically dier in terms of pitch accent, inectional morphology, vocabulary, and particle
usage. Though uncommon, some even dier in vowel
and consonant inventories.

CLASSIFICATION

guages, which includes the languages spoken throughout

the Ryky Islands. As these closely related languages
are commonly treated as dialects of the same language,
Japanese is often called a language isolate.
According to Martine Irma Robbeets, Japanese has been
subject to more attempts to show its relation to other languages than any other language in the world.* [17] Since
Japanese rst gained the consideration of linguists in the
late 19th century, attempts have been made to show its
genealogical relation to languages or language families
such as Ainu, Korean, Chinese, Tibeto-Burman, Ural
Altaic, Altaic, Uralian, MonKhmer, Malayo-Polynesian
and Ryukyuan. At the fringe, some linguists have suggested a link to Indo-European languages such as Greek,
and to Lepcha. As it stands, only the link to Ryukyuan has
wide support, though linguist Kurakichi Shiratori maintained that Japanese was a language isolate.* [18]
Map of Japanese dialects and Japonic languages

The main distinction in Japanese accents is between

Tokyo-type ( Tky-shiki) and Kyoto-Osaka-type
( Keihan-shiki). Within each type are several subdivisions. Kyoto-Osaka-type dialects are in the central
region, roughly formed by Kansai, Shikoku, and western
Hokuriku regions.
Dialects from peripheral regions, such as Thoku or
Kagoshima, may be unintelligible to speakers from the
other parts of the country. There are some language
islands in mountain villages or isolated islands such as
Hachij-jima island whose dialects descend from the
Eastern dialect of Old Japanese. Dialects of the Kansai
region are spoken or known by many Japanese, and the
Osaka dialect in particular is associated with comedy (see
Kansai dialect). Dialects of Thoku and North Kant are
associated with typical farmers.
The Rykyan languages, spoken in Okinawa and the
Amami Islands in Kagoshima Prefecture are considered
a separate branch of the Japonic family; not only is each
language unintelligible to Japanese speakers, but most are
unintelligible to those who speak other Rykyan languages. Nevertheless, many ordinary Japanese people
consider the Rykyan languages dialects of Japanese,
resulting from the ocial language policy of the Japanese
government, which has declared those languages dialects
and prohibited their use in schools.

3.1 Korean hypothesis

Similarities between Korean and Japanese were noted by
Arai Hakuseki in 1717,* [19] and the idea that the two
might be related was rst proposed in 1781 by Japanese
scholar Teikan Fujii.* [20] The idea received little attention until William George Aston proposed it again
in 1879. Japanese scholar Shsabur Kanazawa took it
up in 1910, as did Shinpei Ogura in 1934. Shir Hattori was nearly alone when he criticised these theories
in 1959.* [21] Samuel Martin furthered the idea in 1966
with hisLexical evidence relating Korean to Japanese,
as did John Whitman with his dissertation on the subject
in 1985.* [20] Despite this, denitive proof of the relation has yet to be provided. Historical linguists studying Japanese and Korean tend to accept the genealogical relation, while general linguists and historical linguists in Japan and Korea have remained skeptical.* [21]
Alexander Vovin suggests that, while typologically modern Korean and Japanese share similarities that sometimes allow word-to-word translations, studies of the premodern languages show greater dierences. According
to Vovin, this suggests linguistic convergence rather than
divergence, which he believes is amongst the evidence of
the languages not having a genealogical connection.* [22]

3.2 Altaic hypothesis

Education, mass media, increased mobility within Japan,

and economic integration has made Standard Japanese The proposed Altaic family of languages, which would inprevalent nationwide, including on the Ryky islands.
clude 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 inclusion of Korean and Japanese, which even
3 Classication
some proponents of Altaic have rejected.* [23] Philipp
Franz von Siebold suggested the connection in 1832,* [17]
See also: Classication of Japonic
but the inclusion rst attracted signicant attention in the
early 1970s.* [24] Roy Andrew Miller published Japanese
Japanese is a member of the Japonic family of lan- and the Other Altaic Languages, and dedicated much of

5
like the ng in sing,in the Kanto prestige dialect and
in other eastern dialects.
The syllabic structure and the phonotactics are 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. Consonant clusters across
syllables are allowed as long as the two consonants are a
nasal followed by a homorganic consonant. Consonant
length (gemination) is also phonemic.
Distribution of the proposed Altaic languages across Eurasia, tentatively including Japanese and Korean.

5 Grammar
his later career to the subject. Sergei Starostin published a 1991 monograph which was another signicant
stepping stone in JapaneseAltaic research. A team of
scholars made a database of Altaic etymologies available
over the internet, from which the three-volume Etymological Dictionary of the Altaic Languages was published
in 2003.* [25] 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.* [26]
Skepticism over the Japanese relation to Altaic is
widespread amongst both amateurs and professionals, in
part because of the large number of unsuccessful attempts
to genealogical relationships with Japanese and other languages.* [17] Opinions are polarized, with many strongly
convinced of the Altaic relation, and others strongly convinced of the lack of one. While some sources are undecided, often strong proponents of either view will not
even acknowledge the claims of the other side.* [27]

Phonology

Main article: Japanese phonology

Japanese has ve vowels, all of which are monophthongs
there are no diphthongs. Vowel length is phonemic,
and each can be short or long. Long vowels can be denoted in Roman script with a line called a macron over
the vowel.
Some consonants have several allophones, which may
give the impression of a larger inventory of sounds. Some
of these allophones have since become phonemic. For
example, in the Japanese language up to and including
the rst half of the 20th century, the phonemic sequence
/ti/ was palatalized and realized phonetically as [ti], approximately chi listen ; however, now /ti/ and /ti/ are
distinct, as evidenced by words like t [ti]Western style
teaand chii [tii] social status.
The rof Japanese is a lateral apical postalveolar ap,
sounding to most English speakers like something between an land a retroex r. The gis also
notable; unless it starts a sentence, it is pronounced //,

Main article: Japanese grammar

5.1 Sentence structure

Japanese word order is classied 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 because Japanese sentence elements
are marked with particles that identify their grammatical
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 particle wa. The verb de aru
(desu is a contraction of its polite form de arimasu) is a
copula, commonly translated asto beorit 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 topicprominent language, which means it has a strong tendency
to indicate the topic separately from the subject, and that
the two do not always coincide. The sentence Z wa hana
ga nagai () literally means, As for elephant(s), (the) nose(s) (is/are) long. The 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 obvious from context. As a result of
this grammatical permissiveness, there is a tendency to
gravitate towards brevity; Japanese speakers tend to omit
pronouns on the theory they are inferred from the previous sentence, and are therefore understood. 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

5 GRAMMAR

a complete sentence: Urayamashii! (!)"[I'm] and the degree of familiarity between the speaker and the
jealous [of it]!".
listener. When used in dierent social relationships, the
While the language has some words that are typically same word may have positive (intimate or respectful) or
translated as pronouns, these are not used as frequently negative (distant or disrespectful) connotations.
as pronouns in some Indo-European languages, and function dierently. In some cases Japanese relies on special
verb forms and auxiliary verbs to indicate the direction of
benet of an action: downto indicate the out-group
gives a benet to the in-group; and upto indicate the
in-group gives a benet to the out-group. Here, the ingroup includes the speaker and the out-group does not,
and their boundary depends on context. For example, oshiete moratta () (literally, explained
with a benet from the out-group to the in-group) means
"[he/she/they] explained [it] to [me/us]". Similarly, oshiete ageta () (literally, explainedwith a
benet from the in-group to the out-group) means "[I/we]
explained [it] to [him/her/them]". Such beneciary 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.
Japanesepronounsalso function dierently from most
modern Indo-European pronouns (and more like nouns)
in that they can take modiers as any other noun may. For
instance, one does not say in English:
*The amazed he ran down the street. (grammatically incorrect insertion of a pronoun)
But one can grammatically say essentially the same thing
in Japanese:

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

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
(, 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 higher status.

5.2 Inection and conjugation

Japanese nouns have no grammatical number, gender or

article aspect. The noun hon () may refer to a single book or several books; hito () can mean person
or people"; and ki () can be treeor trees.
Where number is important, it can be indicated by providing a quantity often with a counter word. In rare cases,
a sux (e.g. the sux tachi in kodomotachi indicates childrenas opposed to kodomo
child/children)* [28] or duplication (e.g. , hitobito, usually written with an iteration mark as ) may
be used to indicate a plural. Words for people are usually
understood as singular. Thus Tanaka-san usually means
Mr./Ms. Tanaka. Words that refer to people and animals
can be made to indicate a group of individuals through
the addition of a collective sux (a noun sux 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 eectively plural, such as hitobitopeopleand wareware we/us, while the word tomodachi friendis
considered singular, although plural in form.

Verbs are conjugated to show tenses, of which there are

This is partly because these words evolved from regular two: past and present (or non-past) which is used for the
nouns, such as kimiyou(lord), anatayou( present and the future. For verbs that represent an onthat side, yonder), and bokuI(servant going process, the -te iru form indicates a continuous (or
). This is why some linguists do not classify Japanese progressive) aspect, similar to the sux ing in English.
pronounsas pronouns, but rather as referential nouns, For others that represent a change of state, the -te iru form
much like Spanish usted (contracted from vuestra merced, indicates a perfect aspect. For example, kite iru means
your [(attering majestic) plural] grace) or Portuguese He has come (and is still here)", but tabete iru means
o senhor. Japanese personal pronouns are generally used He is eating.
only in situations requiring special emphasis as to who is Questions (both with an interrogative pronoun and yes/no
doing what to whom.
questions) have the same structure as armative senThe 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 (private
) or watakushi (also ), while men in rougher or intimate
conversation are much more likely to use the word ore (
oneself,myself) or boku. Similarly, dierent words
such as anata, 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

tences, but with intonation rising at the end. In the formal

register, the question particle -ka is added. For example, ii desu () It is OKbecomes ii desuka () Is it OK?". In a more informal
tone sometimes the particle -no () is added instead to
show a personal interest of the speaker: Dshite konaino? 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?"; O-namae wa? ()

5.2

Inection and conjugation

"(What's your) name?".

Both keiyshi and keiydshi may predicate sentences.

Negatives are formed by inecting the verb. For example, For example,
Pan o taberu () I will eat breador
Gohan ga atsui. The rice is
I eat breadbecomes Pan o tabenai (
hot.
) I will not eat breador I do not eat bread. Plain
negative forms are actually i-adjectives (see below) and
Kare wa hen da. He's strange.
inect as such, e.g. Pan o tabenakatta (
) I did not eat bread.
Both inect, though they do not show the full range of
The so-called -te verb form is used for a variety of pur- conjugation found in true verbs. The rentaishi in Modern
poses: either progressive or perfect aspect (see above); Japanese are few in number, and unlike the other words,
combining verbs in a temporal sequence (Asagohan o are limited to directly modifying nouns. They never predtabete sugu dekakeruI'll eat breakfast and leave at once icate sentences. Examples include ookina big, kono
), simple commands, conditional statements and permis- this, iwayuru so-calledand taishita amazing.
sions (Dekakete-mo ii? May I go out?"), etc.
Both keiydshi and keiyshi form adverbs, by following
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 iadjectives 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 (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 to express concepts that are
described in English using a verb and an adverbial particle
(e.g. tobidasu to y out, to ee,from tobu to y, to
jump+ dasu to put out, to emit).
There are three types of adjective (see Japanese adjectives):

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 particles. These include for example:
ga is a type of topic-marker.
Kare ga yatta. He did it.
ni indicates the receiver of something.
Tanaka-san
ni agete kudasai Please give it to Mrs./Mr.
Tanaka.

1. keiyshi, or i adjectives, which have a

It is also used to indicate a motion to a location.
conjugating ending i () (such as atsuito be
hot) which can become past ( atsukatta
Nihon ni ikitai I want to
it was hot), or negative ( atsuku nai
go to Japan.
it is not hot). Note that nai is also an i adjec pt e ikanai ka?
tive, which can become past ( atsuku
Won't you go to the party?"
nakatta it was not hot).
atsui hi a hot day.
2. keiydshi, or na adjectives, which are
followed by a form of the copula, usually na. For
example hen (strange)
hen na hitoa strange person
.
3. rentaishi, also called true adjectives, such as
ano that
ano yama that mountain.

no marks possession and can be used when nominalizing phrases.

watashi no kameramy camera
Suk-ni iku no
ga suki desu "(I) like going skiing.
o is used as a type object marker.
Nani o tabemasu ka?
What will (you) eat?"

6 VOCABULARY

wa for the topic. It can co-exist with the case group (company, family) whilst honoric language is
markers listed above, and it overrides ga and (in mostly used when describing the interlocutor and their
most cases) o.
group. For example, the -san sux (MrMrs.or
Miss) is an example of honoric language. It is not
used to talk about oneself or when talking about someone
Watashi wa sushi ga
from one's company to an external person, since the comii desu. I like sushi.(literally) As for me,
pany is the speaker's group. When speaking directly
sushi is good.
to one's superior in one's company or when speaking with
other employees within one's company about a superior,
Note: The subtle dierence between wa and ga in
a Japanese person will use vocabulary and inections of
Japanese cannot be derived from the English language as
the honoric register to refer to the in-group superior and
such, because the distinction between sentence topic and
their speech and actions. When speaking to a person from
subject is not made there. While wa indicates the topic,
another company (i.e., a member of an out-group), howwhich the rest of the sentence describes or acts upon, it
ever, a Japanese person will use the plain or the humble
carries the implication that the subject indicated by wa is
register to refer to the speech and actions of their own innot unique, or may be part of a larger group.
group superiors. In short, the register used in Japanese
to refer to the person, speech, or actions of any particuIkeda-san wa yonj-ni sai da. As for Mr.
lar individual varies depending on the relationship (either
Ikeda, he is forty-two years old.Others in the
in-group or out-group) between the speaker and listener,
group may also be of that age.
as well as depending on the relative status of the speaker,
listener, and third-person referents.
Absence of wa often means the subject is the focus of the
Most nouns in the Japanese language may be made polite
sentence.
by the addition of o- or go- as a prex. o- is generally used
for words of native Japanese origin, whereas go- is axed
Ikeda-san ga yonj-ni sai da. It is Mr. Ikeda
to words of Chinese derivation. In some cases, the prewho is forty-two years old.This is a reply to
x has become a xed part of the word, and is included
an implicit or explicit question, such as who
even in regular speech, such as gohan 'cooked rice; meal.'
in this group is forty-two years old?"
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
5.3 Politeness
when referring to the friend of someone of higher status
(though mothers often use this form to refer to their chilMain article: Honoric speech in Japanese
dren's friends). On the other hand, a polite speaker may
sometimes refer to mizu 'water' as o-mizu in order to show
Japanese has an extensive grammatical system to express politeness.
politeness and formality.
Most Japanese people employ politeness to indicate a
The Japanese language can express diering levels in so- lack of familiarity. That is, they use polite forms for new
cial status. The dierences in social position are deter- acquaintances, but if a relationship becomes more intimined by a variety of factors including job, age, expe- mate, they no longer use them. This occurs regardless of
rience, or even psychological state (e.g., a person ask- age, social class, or gender.
ing 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 person might use a plainer
form. Strangers will also speak to each other politely. 6 Vocabulary
Japanese children rarely use polite speech until they are
teens, at which point they are expected to begin speaking Further information: Yamato kotoba and Gairaigo
in a more adult manner. See uchi-soto.
Whereas teineigo ( ) (polite language) is commonly an inectional system, sonkeigo () (respectful language) and kenjgo () (humble language)
often employ many special honoric and humble alternate verbs: iku gobecomes ikimasu in polite form,
but is replaced by irassharu in honoric speech and ukagau or mairu in humble speech.

The original language of Japan, or at least the original

language of a certain population that was ancestral to a
signicant portion of the historical and present Japanese
nation, was the so-called yamato kotoba ( or
infrequently , i.e. "Yamato words), which in
scholarly contexts is sometimes referred to as wago (
or rarely , i.e. the "Wa words). In addition to
The dierence between honoric and humble speech is words from this original language, present-day Japanese
particularly pronounced in the Japanese language. Hum- includes a number of words that were either borrowed
ble language is used to talk about oneself or one's own from Chinese or constructed from Chinese roots follow-

9
ing Chinese patterns. These words, known as kango (
), entered the language from the 5th century onwards
via contact with Chinese culture. According to the Shinsen Kokugo Jiten () Japanese dictionary,
kango make up 49.1% of the total vocabulary, wago make
up 33.8%, other foreign words or gairaigo () account for 8.8%, and the remaining 8.3% constitute hybridized words or konshugo () that draw elements
from more than one language.* [29]

sensical 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.

The popularity of many Japanese cultural exports has

made some native Japanese words familiar in English,
including futon, haiku, judo, kamikaze, karaoke, karate,
ninja, origami, rickshaw (from jinrikisha),
samurai, sayonara, sudoku, sumo, sushi, tsunami, tycoon.
There are also a great number of words of mimetic See list of English words of Japanese origin for more.
origin in Japanese, with Japanese having a rich collection of sound symbolism, both onomatopoeia for physical sounds, and more abstract words. A small num7 Writing system
ber of words have come into Japanese from the Ainu
language. Tonakai (reindeer), rakko (sea otter) and
shishamo (smelt, a type of sh) are well-known examples Main articles: Japanese writing system and Japanese
braille
of words of Ainu origin.
Words of dierent origins occupy dierent registers in
Japanese. Like Latin-derived words in English, kango
words are typically perceived as somewhat formal or academic compared to equivalent Yamato words. Indeed,
it is generally fair to say that an English word derived
from Latin/French roots typically corresponds to a SinoJapanese word in Japanese, whereas a simpler AngloSaxon word would best be translated by a Yamato equivalent.

Literacy was introduced to Japan in the form of the

Chinese writing system, by way of Baekje before the 5th
century.* [30] Using this language, the Japanese king Bu
presented a petition to Emperor Shun of Liu Song in
AD 478.* [lower-alpha 1] After the ruin of Baekje, Japan
invited scholars from China to learn more of the Chinese writing system. Japanese emperors gave an ocial
rank to Chinese scholars (//* [lower-alpha
2]* [lower-alpha 3] * [lower-alpha 4]) and spread
Incorporating vocabulary from European languages bethe use of Chinese characters from the 7th century to the
gan with borrowings from Portuguese in the 16th century,
8th century.
followed by words from Dutch during Japan's long isolation of the Edo period. With the Meiji Restoration and
the reopening of Japan in the 19th century, borrowing occurred from German, French, and English. Today most
borrowings are from English.
In the Meiji era, the Japanese also coined many neologisms using Chinese roots and morphology to translate European concepts; these are known as wasei kango
(Japanese-made Chinese words). Many of these were
then imported into Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese via
their kanji in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. For
example, seiji (politics), and kagaku (
chemistry) are words derived from Chinese roots that
were rst 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 see classical compound.
In the past few decades, wasei-eigo (made-in-Japan English) has become a prominent phenomenon. Words
such as wanpatn (< one + pattern, to
be in a rut,to have a one-track mind) and sukinshippu
(< skin + -ship, physical contact),
although coined by compounding English roots, are non-

Table of Kana: Hiragana top, Katakana in the center and Romanized equivalents at the bottom

At rst, the Japanese wrote in Classical Chinese, with

Japanese names represented by characters used for their
meanings and not their sounds. Later, during the 7th century AD, the Chinese-sounding phoneme principle was

10
used to write pure Japanese poetry and prose, but 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 in its
own right. By this time, the Japanese language was already very distinct from the Ryukyuan languages.* [31]
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 write either words borrowed
from Chinese, or Japanese words with the same or similar meanings. Chinese characters were also used to write
grammatical elements, were simplied, and eventually
became two syllabic scripts: hiragana and katakana which
were developed based on Manyogana from Baekje.* [32]
However this hypothesis Manyogana from Baekjeis
denied by other scholars.* [33]* [34]
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 is also sometimes used, mostly in acronyms and other abbreviations.
Arabic numerals are much more common than the kanji
when used in counting, but kanji numerals are still used
in compounds, such as titsu (unication).

8 STUDY BY NON-NATIVE SPEAKERS

sidered. The jy kanji (common use kanji, originally
called ty kanji [kanji for general use]) scheme arose as
a compromise solution.
Japanese students begin to learn kanji from their rst year
at elementary school. A guideline created by the Japanese
Ministry of Education, the list of kyiku kanji education
(
kanji, a subset of jy kanji), species the 1,006 simple
characters a child is to learn by the end of sixth grade.
Children continue to study another 1,130 characters in
junior high school, covering in total 2,136 jy kanji. The
ocial list of jy kanji was revised several times, but the
total number of ocially sanctioned characters remained
largely unchanged.
As for kanji for personal names, the circumstances are
somewhat complicated. Jy kanji and jinmeiy kanji
(an appendix of additional characters for names) are approved for registering personal names. Names containing unapproved characters are denied registration. However, as with the list of jy kanji, criteria for inclusion
were often arbitrary and led to many common and popular characters being disapproved for use. Under popular
pressure and following a court decision holding the exclusion of common characters unlawful, the list of jinmeiy
kanji was substantially extended from 92 in 1951 (the year
it was rst decreed) to 983 in 2004. Furthermore, families whose names are not on these lists were permitted to
continue using the older forms.

8 Study by non-native speakers

Hiragana are 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 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 suxed
to the ends of kanji to show verb and adjective conjugations. Hiragana used in this way are called okurigana. Hiragana can also be written in a superscript called furigana
above or beside a kanji to show the proper reading. 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. For example Australiahas
been adapted as sutoraria (), andsupermarkethas been adapted and shortened into sp
().

Japanese Language Training at CASA

Many major universities throughout the world provide

Japanese language courses, and a number of secondary
and even primary schools worldwide oer courses in
the language. This is much changed from before World
Historically, attempts to limit the number of kanji in use War II; in 1940, only 65 Americans not of Japanese deable to read, write and understand the lancommenced in the mid-19th century, but did not become scent were
*
guage.
[35]
a matter of government intervention until after Japan's
defeat in the Second World War. During the period of International interest in the Japanese language dates from
post-war occupation (and inuenced by the views of some the 19th century but has become more prevalent followU.S. ocials), various schemes including the complete ing Japan's economic bubble of the 1980s and the global
abolition of kanji and exclusive use of rmaji were con- popularity of Japanese popular culture (such as anime

11
Japanese dictionaries
Japanese language and computers
Japanese literature
Japanese name
Japanese orthography issues
Japanese High school Language Lab

and video games) since the 1990s. Near of 4 million

people studied the language worldwide in 2012: more
than 1 million Chinese, 872,000 Indonesians and 840,000
South Koreans studied Japanese in lower and higher educational institutions. In the last three years the number
of students studying Japanese in China increased by 26.5
percent/three years, and by 21.8 percent Indonesia, but
dropped 12.8 percent in South Korea.* [36]
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 foreigners
married to Japanese nationals. In the United Kingdom,
study of the Japanese language is supported by the British
Association for Japanese Studies. In Ireland, Japanese is
oered as a language in the Leaving Certicate in some
schools.
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 Prociency Test (JLPT), which features ve levels of exams (changed from four levels in
2010), ranging from elementary (N5) to advanced (N1).
The JLPT is oered twice a year. The Japanese External Trade Organization JETRO organizes the Business
Japanese Prociency 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 August 2010
that the test would be discontinued in 2011 due to nancial pressures on the Foundation. However, it has since
issued a statement to the eect that the test will continue
to be available as a result of support from the Japanese
government.* [37]* [38]

See also
Aizuchi
Culture of Japan
Henohenomoheji

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

10 Notes
[1] Book of Song

[2] Nihon shoki Chapter 30:

[3] Nihon shoki Chapter 30:

[4] Shoku Nihongi

12

11

12 WORKS CITED

References

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largest languages in 2010]. Nationalencyklopedin (in
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[2] Nordho, Sebastian; Hammarstrm, Harald; Forkel,
Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). Nuclear
Japanese. Glottolog 2.2. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute
for Evolutionary Anthropology.
[3] Wade, Nicholas (May 4, 2011). Finding on Dialects
Casts New Light on the Origins of the Japanese People.
The New York Times. Retrieved May 7, 2011.
[4] Shinkichi Hashimoto (February 3, 1918)

2611(1949)
( 3 )()
[5] (1953)()p.126
[6] (1931)
4 (1957
()
[7] Irwin 2011, pp. 32, 34.
[8] Irwin 2011, pp. 3940.
[9] Miura, Akira, English in Japanese, Weatherhill, 1998.
[10] Japanese is listed as one of the ocial languages of
Angaur state, Palau (Ethnologe, CIA World Factbook).
However, very few Japanese speakers were recorded in
the 2005 census.
[11] IBGE traa perl dos imigrantes Imigrao Made
in Japan. Madeinjapan.uol.com.br. 2008-06-21. Retrieved 2012-11-20.
[12] American FactFinder. Factnder.census.gov. Retrieved 2013-02-01.
[13] Japanese Source Census 2000, Summary File 3, STP
258. Mla.org. Retrieved 2012-11-20.
[14] Ethnocultural Portrait of Canada Data table. 2.statcan.ca. 2010-06-10. Retrieved 2012-11-20.
[15] The Japanese in Colonial Southeast Asia - Google Books.
Books.google.com. Retrieved on 2014-06-07.
[16] (in
Japanese). Legislative Bureau of the House of Councillors. Retrieved 9 November 2012.
[17] Robbeets 2005, p. 20.
[18] Kindaichi & Hirano 1978, pp. 3031.
[19] Robbeets 2005, p. 25.
[20] Robbeets 2005, p. 25; Vovin 2010, p. 3.
[21] Vovin 2010, p. 3.
[22] Vovin 2010, p. 6.
[23] Robbeets 2005, p. 18.

[24] Robbeets 2005, p. 19.

[25] Robbeets 2005, p. 22.
[26] Robbeets 2005, pp. 21, 23.
[27] Robbeets 2005, pp. 2627.
[28] [Tachi] (in Japanese). Sanseido. Retrieved
2014-08-18.
[29] , , , 2001, ISBN 409-501407-5
[30] "Buddhist Art of Korea & Japan,Asia Society Museum; "Kanji,JapanGuide.com; "Pottery,MSN Encarta; "History of Japan,JapanVisitor.com. Archived
2009-10-31.
[31] Heinrich, Patrick. What leaves a mark should no
longer stain: Progressive erasure and reversing language
shift activities in the Ryukyu Islands,First International
Small Island Cultures Conference at Kagoshima University, Centre for the Pacic Islands, February 710, 2005;
citing Shiro Hattori. (1954) Gengo nendaigaku sunawachi
goi tokeigaku no hoho ni tsuite (Concerning the Method
of Glottochronology and Lexicostatistics), Gengo kenkyu
(Journal of the Linguistic Society of Japan), Vols. 26/27.
[32] John R. Bentley. ""The origin of Manyogana, Bulletin
of the School of Oriental and African Studies (2001), 64:
5973. Cambridge University Press. Retrieved 201211-20.
[33] Shunpei Mizuno, ed. (2002).
! (in Japanese). Shogakukan. ISBN
4-09-402716-5.
[34] Shunpei Mizuno, ed. (2007). vs
(in Japanese). Shogakukan. ISBN 4-09-387703-3.

[35] Beate Sirota Gordon commencement address at Mills College, May 14, 2011. Sotomayor, Denzel Washington,
GE CEO Speak to Graduates, C-SPAN (US). May 30,
2011; retrieved 2011-05-30
[36] RI ranks No. 2 in learning Japanese language. July
15, 2013.
[37] BJT Business Japanese Prociency Test. Kanken.or.jp.
Retrieved 2012-11-20.
[38] Relaunching of the Business Japanese Prociency Test in
FY 2012 and Temporary Measures in FY 2011 (pdf).
Japan Kanji Aptitude Testing Foundation. 2010-11-25.
Archived from the original on 2011-09-30. Retrieved
2014-12-16.

12 Works cited
Bloch, Bernard (1946). Studies in colloquial
Japanese I: Inection. Journal of the American Oriental Society, 66, pp. 97130.
Bloch, Bernard (1946). Studies in colloquial
Japanese II: Syntax. Language, 22, pp. 200248.

13
Chafe, William L. (1976). Giveness, contrastiveness, deniteness, subjects, topics, and point of
view. In C. Li (Ed.), Subject and topic (pp. 2556).
New York: Academic Press. ISBN 0-12-447350-4.

Shibatani, Masayoshi (1990). The languages of

Japan. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
ISBN 0-521-36070-6 (hbk); ISBN 0-521-36918-5
(pbk).

Dalby, Andrew. (2004). Japanese, in Dictionary of Languages: the Denitive Reference to

More than 400 Languages. New York: Columbia
University Press. 10-ISBN 0231115687/13-ISBN
9780231115681; 10-ISBN 0231115695/13-ISBN
9780231115698; OCLC 474656178

Shibamoto, Janet S. (1985). Japanese women's language. New York: Academic Press. ISBN 0-12640030-X. Graduate Level

Frellesvig, Bjarke (2010). A history of the Japanese

language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
ISBN 978-0-521-65320-6.
Irwin, Mark (2011). Loanwords in Japanese. John
Benjamins Publishing. ISBN 90-272-0592-2.
Kindaichi, Haruhiko; Hirano, Umeyo (1978). The
Japanese Language. Tuttle Publishing. ISBN 9780-8048-1579-6.
Kuno, Susumu (1973). The structure of the Japanese
language. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. ISBN 0262-11049-0.
Kuno, Susumu. (1976). Subject, theme, and the
speaker's empathy: A re-examination of relativization phenomena,in Charles N. Li (Ed.), Subject and
topic (pp. 417444). New York: Academic Press.
ISBN 0-12-447350-4.
Martin, Samuel E. (1975). A reference grammar of
Japanese. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN
0-300-01813-4.
McClain, Yoko Matsuoka. (1981). Handbook of
modern Japanese grammar:
[Kgo Nihon bump]. Tokyo: Hokuseido Press.
ISBN 4-590-00570-0; ISBN 0-89346-149-0.
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,
197778. Seattle: University of Washington Press.
ISBN 0-295-95766-2.
Mizutani, Osamu; & Mizutani, Nobuko (1987).
How to be polite in Japanese: [Nihongo no keigo]. Tokyo: The Japan Times. ISBN
4-7890-0338-8.
Robbeets, Martine Irma (2005). Is Japanese Related
to Korean, Tungusic, Mongolic and Turkic?. Otto
Harrassowitz Verlag. ISBN 978-3-447-05247-4.
Shibatani, Masayoshi (1990). Japanese. In B. Comrie (Ed.), The major languages of east and south-east
Asia. London: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-04739-0.

Tsujimura, Natsuko (1996). An introduction to

Japanese linguistics. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell
Publishers. ISBN 0-631-19855-5 (hbk); ISBN 0631-19856-3 (pbk). Upper Level Textbooks
Tsujimura, Natsuko (Ed.) (1999). The handbook of Japanese linguistics. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers. ISBN 0-631-20504-7. Readings/Anthologies
Vovin, Alexander (2010). Korea-Japonica: A ReEvaluation of a Common Genetic Origin. University
of Hawaii Press. ISBN 978-0-8248-3278-0.

13 Further reading
Rudolf Lange (1907). Christopher Noss, ed. A textbook of colloquial Japanese (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 New York Public Library) (Digitized Apr 2, 2008)
Rudolf Lange (1907). Christopher Noss, ed. A textbook of colloquial Japanese (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 Harvard University) (Digitized Oct
10, 2008)
Rudolf Lange, Christopher Noss (1903).
A
Text-book of Colloquial Japanese (English ed.).
The Kaneko Press, North Japan College, Sendai:
Methodist Publishing House. p. 573. Retrieved
1 March 2012.(Tokyo Methodist Publishing House
1903)
Rudolf Lange (1903). Christopher Noss, ed. A
text-book of colloquial Japanese: based 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 of California) (Digitized Oct
10, 2007)

14

14

Shibatani, Masayoshi. (1990). The languages of

Japan. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Hayakawa, Isamu. (2014). A Historical Dictionary
of Japanese Words Used in English. Revised and
Corrected Edition. Amazon (Tokyo: Texnai).
Japanese Language. MIT. Retrieved 2009-0513.

14

External links

National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics

Japanese Language Student's Handbook
USA Foreign Service Institute Japanese course

EXTERNAL LINKS

15

15
15.1

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

Text

Japanese language Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese%20language?oldid=643220803 Contributors: Brion VIBBER,

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