INTRODUCTION
Japanese is spoken by 126 million people mainly in Japan but also in 26 other countries including American Samoa, Argentina, Australia, Belize, Brazil, Canada, Dominican Republic, Germany, Guam, Mexico, Micronesia, Mongolia, New Zealand, Northern Mariana Islands, Palau, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines and Taiwan.
Japanese has no known linguistic relatives though is possibly distantly related to the Altaic family of languages, which includes Korean, Mongolian and Turkic languages. Japanese is not related to Chinese, though it does contain a huge number of Chinese ‘loan’ words, in fact perhaps 50% of the words used in Japanse are of Chinese origin.
Since the mid 18th century the Japanese have adopted a huge amount of gairaigo: foreign words mainly from English. These include tēburu (table), bīru (beer), gurasu(glass), aisu (ice), takushī (taxi) and hoteru (hotel).
There are also a few words from Portuguese, Dutch and Spanish, such as pan(bread), from the Portuguese pão. Such words arrived in Japan mainly during the 16th and 17th centuries, when missionaries and merchants started to visit the country.
One notable feature of Japanese is the tendency to create new words by shortening and/or combining English words. Examples include wāpuro (word processor),sarariman (“salary man” = a male corporate employee), OL, pronounced ōeru(“office lady” = a female corporate employee) and masukomi (mass communications).
Another interesting feature of Japanese is the distinction between male and female speech. This involves vocabulary, grammar and particularly pitch – women tend to speak in very high, squeaky voices, at least in public, while men prefer low, gruff voices. If a foreign man learns Japanese from his Japanese girlfriend the results can sound very funny to Japanese ears!
KANJI
Kanji, one of the three scripts used in the Japanese language, are Chinese characters, which were first introduced to Japan in the 5th century via Korea.
Kanji are ideograms, i.e. each character has its own meaning and corresponds to a word. By combining characters, more words can be created. For example, the combination of “electricity” with “car” means “train”. There are several ten thousands of characters, of which 2000 to 3000 are required to understand newspapers. A set of 2136 characters has been officially declared as the “kanji for everyday use”.
Some examples:
Before the introduction of Chinese characters, no Japanese writing system existed. When adopting the characters, the Japanese did not only introduce the characters’ original Chinese pronunciations, but also associated them with the corresponding, native Japanese words and their pronunciations. Consequently, most kanji can still be pronounced in at least two ways, a Chinese (on yomi) and a Japanese (kun yomi) way, which considerably further complicates the study of the Japanese language.
Kanji are used for writing nouns, adjectives, adverbs and verbs. But unlike the Chinese language, Japanese cannot be written entirely in kanji. For grammatical endings and words without corresponding kanji, two additional, syllable based scripts are being used, hiragana and katakana, each consisting of 46 syllables.
Calligraphy is the art of writing beautifully.
HIRAGANA
Around the 9th century, the Japanese developed their own writing system based on syllables: Hiragana and katakana (together: Kana). Of the two kana systems, hiragana is more cursive while katakana characters are more angular.
Hiragana and katakana each consist of 46 signs which originally were kanji but were simplified over the centuries. When looking at a Japanese text, one can clearly distinguish the two kinds of signs: the complicated kanji and the simpler kana signs.
Among the syllables are the five vowels (a i u e o). The rest are syllables combined by one of these vowels with a consonant (ka ki ku ke ko ra ri ru re ro…). One exception is the n.
In addition, most syllables can be slightly changed by adding two small strokes or a small circle in the top right corner next to the character. For example, ha changes to ba with the addition of two small strokes, or to pa with the addition of a small circle.
Hiragana table
Even though one can theoretically write the whole language in hiragana, it is usually used only for grammatical endings of verbs, nouns, and adjectives, as well as for particles, and several other original Japanese words (in contrast to loan words that are written in katakana) which are not written in kanji.
Hiragana is the first of all the writing systems taught to Japanese children. Many books for young children are, therefore, written in hiragana only.
KATAKANA
Around the 9th century, the Japanese developed their own writing system based on syllables: Hiraganaand katakana (together: Kana). Of the two kana systems, hiragana is more cursive while katakana characters are more angular.
Hiragana and katakana each consist of 46 signs which originally were kanji but were simplified over the centuries. When looking at a Japanese text, one can clearly distinguish the two kinds of signs: the complicated kanji and the simpler kana signs.
Among the syllables are the five vowels (a i u e o). The rest are syllables combined by one of these vowels with a consonant (ka ki ku ke ko ra ri ru re ro…). One exception is the n.
In addition, most syllables can be slightly changed by adding two small strokes or a small circle in the top right corner next to the character. For example, ha changes to ba with the addition of two small strokes, or to pa with the addition of a small circle.
Katakana table
Katakana is mainly used for writing loan words and the names of persons and geographical places that can’t be written in kanji.
GRAMMER
| The fun part of learning any language.. Grammar! The “rules” you must follow to properly speak a language. But don’t worry about how hard learning Japanese Grammar might feel at first. Learning Japanese grammar rules is one of the most effective ways to speed up your ability to speak a language. Keep in mind this is just a basic introduction to understanding how Japanese grammar works. |
| Japanese Grammar Rules: Sentence Structure |
• Japanese Sentence Structure is usually putting the Object of the Sentence ahead of the Verb/Adjective. |
| Japanese Grammar Rules: Nouns and Pronouns |
| • Japanese Nouns don’t have a masculine or feminine form to remember. • The Use of Pronouns in Japanese is very limited or almost non-exist • Japanese uses more particles and verbs to deal with the loss of pronouns.  |
| Japanese Grammar Rules: Verbs |
| • The Japanese have two tenses: The simple present and the simple past. • Verbs in Japanese grammar also do not change with number, gender or person • Verbs are the essence of Japanese Sentences. Using more verbs then any other language.  |
| Japanese Grammar Rules: Adjectives |
| • There are two types of Japanese Adjectives. They are “-i adjectives” and “-na adjectives” • “-i adjectives” are original Japanese words while -na adjectives are burrowed from other languages. • “-i adjectives” tend to blur the line between adjectives and verbs • “-na adjectives” modifies nouns but not predicates.  |
WRITTEN JAPANESE
Historically, Japanese language did NOT have any writing system. It was a sound only language. Kanji (Chinese characters) was then imported into Japan. The Japanese people learned Kanji and made Chinese sentences in Chinese grammar for a while. In other words, they wrote in Chinese. But because the two languages had very different grammatical systems, it was very inconvenient for the Japanese to record their thoughts this way. What would you think if you had to write “I read a book” as “I book read”?
The Japanese later began to twist the Chinese language by changing the word order and inserting some particles to make the sentences ‘more Japanese’. To read Chinese in the Japanese way may sound like a crazy idea, but this phenomenon still exists in modern Japan’s high school curriculum. The name of the subject is called Kanbun.
A lot of Kanji lost their original meanings when they were borrowed to “spell out” Japanese words and used as Japanese grammatical elements. Sometimes different Kanji were used to represent the same sound. And it wasn’t uncommon that one single Kanji could represent more than one sound. It was really a mess. So later people standardized the borrowed Kanji and simplified their strokes as their original meanings were useless. These standardized and simplified Kanji, after many years of evolution, finally became today’s Hiragana and Katakana. Yes. Hiragana and Katakana are actually deformed Kanji!!!
LOAN WORDS:
Over the centuries, many words from foreign languages were incorporated into the Japanese language, especially from the Chinese and English languages.
A large amount of Chinese words was adapted together with the Chinese writing system in the 5th century and afterwards. Chinese loan words are naturally written in kanji (Chinese characters).
In more recent times, many words were also borrowed from Portuguese, Dutch, German (especially from the fields of medicine and mountaineering), French and Italian (especially from the fields of music and food), and, of course, English which is the origin of most modern loan words. Non Chinese loan words are written in katakana.
Loan words are often heavily Japanized in various ways (see below), which is a complicating factor not only for students of the Japanese language but also for Japanese students of foreign languages:
- The pronunciation of loan words is Japanized, and sometimes quite different from the original pronunciation: e.g. curtain=kaaten, elevator=elebeetaa, girl=gaaru.
- Many loan words get abbreviated in ways they do not get abbreviated in the original language: e.g. suupaa=supermarket, kilo=kilometer (and kilogram), depaato=department store, waapuro=word processor.
- The meanings of some loan words do not correspond with the words’ original meanings: e.g. “manshon” from the English “mansion” means “condominium”.
- And finally, some “loan words” are actually Japanese creations rather than loan words. For example, “salaryman” is a Japanese word for a typical Japanese company worker, while the “walkman” even found its way back into English dictionaries.
KEIGO – HONORIFIC LANGUAGE
The Japanese language accommodates several levels of politeness through different verb endings and alternative expressions and words. There are three general levels of politeness, which are expressed through different kinds of speech. The levels correspond to colloquial, polite, and honorific situations. The honorific level of speech is called keigo.
When speaking to those of much higher social status, (for example, to customers, teachers or elders), you are supposed to use the honorific, keigo speech. Generally, keigo involves using very humble expressions to refer to yourself, and very honorific ones to refer to the person being addressed.
Those studying Japanese as a second language may find keigo complicates their attempts to communicate. However, even native Japanese speakers need considerable exercise in order to be able to correctly express themselves in this formal, honorific way.
JAPANESE LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY TEST
The Japanese Language Proficiency Test (Nihongo Noryoku Shiken) measures a person’s proficiency in the Japanese language. Test results are widely used by professionals seeking employment at Japanese companies and students seeking acceptance at Japanese educational institutions to certify their language proficiency.
The test has five levels, from level 5 for beginners, to level 1 for advanced students. Writing, reading, listening, vocabulary and grammar skills are all tested during the 1.5 to 3 hour test. The JLPT is held twice a year, in July and December, in various cities inside and outside of Japan (only once per year in some locations).
Anyone wishing to take the test should register at least three months in advance (check official website for exact dates). Results of the test are released about two to three months after the test date.
