Japanese language

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The Japanese language (日本語 or nihongo) is spoken mostly in Japan. In its written form it employs Chinese characters (Kanji) and three separate alphabets called Hiragana (ひらがな), Katakana (カタカナ), and Romaji (ローマ字 the Roman alphabet).

The language is different from English and most other European languages in terms of its alphabets, grammatical structure and usage and role in the society. Like Finnish, Turkish, and Korean, Japanese is an agglutinative language, with two (phonologically distinctive) tones like Serbian/Croatian and Swedish. It is of uncertain affiliation, though there are theories that it is related to East Asian languages such as Korean (but not Chinese), though phonological and lexical similarities to Malayo-Polynesian languages have also been noted.

It is the official language of Japan and of no other country. Because the only official language of Japan is Japanese and there are few Japanese speakers outside Japan, the Japanese language is heavily tied to Japanese culture and vice versa. There are many Japanese words describing certain Japanese cultural things, traditions, and customs such as Wa, Nemawashi, Kaizen, Kamikaze, and there are no words corresponding to those in non-Japanese languages. Without knowledge of the Japanese language, it is impossible to see Japanese society as well: learning the Japanese language is synonymous with knowing Japanese culture.

There are dozens of dialects spoken in regions in Japan. Among them are Kansai-ben, Okinawa-kotoba, Tugaru-ben

The Japanese Writing System

Written Japanese uses four different scripts: Romaji, Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji. Romaji refers to the Roman alphabet and is the writing system that will be used here.

Full-blown Japanese text is typically written in a combination of the other three: Kanji, which is an adaptation of Chinese ideograms, and Hiragana and Katakana, which are syllabaries. Although Roman letters are not typically used to write Japanese, wholesale borrowing of English and other western loan words can include their foreign spelling. Also, important acronyms, such as 'NATO' and 'WTO' are written alphabetically.

Here is the word "I" in hiragana, kanji and romaji:

File:Pismo japonskie sample small.png

N.B. There are two main systems for the romanization of Japanese, known as Kunrei and Hepburn. The Kunrei system is little used outside of Japan, as it is difficult for non-Japanese-speakers to decipher. However, it is slighty briefer than the Hepburn system, and is therefore generally used for keyboard input of Japanese on computer systems. The word for "I" is written "watashi" according to the Hepburn system, and "watasi" in the Kunrei romanization.

Although the Japanese language adapted Chinese characters, Kanji in Japanese slightly or significantly differs from actual characters in the Chinese writing system. Unicode has severely been criticized in Japan as well as China and Korea because it assigned the same code to the similar character though it varies in Japan and in other East-Asian countries in terms of form and pronunciation [1]. Besides, Unicode is criticized for the fact that, while Kanji changed its form over the years, that is simply ignored. Though Japanese computer users have almost no trouble handling contemporary text, research about old Japanese language and about cross-country matters is considerably handicapped by languages using roman alphabets.

Pronunciation

The Japanese sound system, for the purpose of native literacy, is expressed in terms of syllables (or technically moras) rather than isolated vowels or consonants. This is because written Japanese possesses two syllabaries, not an alphabet, in which each character represents a syllable (though some characters represent only one vowel). Any Japanese syllable can be written in Hiragana or Katakana, the two syllabaries, or in Romaji, as shown below.

Japanese Syllabary in Romaji

Basic Syllables: Vowel, Consonant plus vowel and "n".

N.B. Japanese vowels

are pure sounds like their Italian counterparts. Japanese /u/, however is unrounded.


	A	I	U	E	O
	a あア	i いイ	u うウ	e えエ	o おオ
K	ka かカ	ki きキ	ku くク	ke けケ	ko こコ
S	sa さサ	shi しシ	su すス	se せセ	so そソ	N.B	shi
T	ta たタ	chi ちチ	tsu つツ	te てテ	to とト	N.B.	chi	tsu
N	na なナ	ni にニ	nu ぬヌ	ne ねネ	no のノ
H	ha はハ	hi ひヒ	fu ふフ	he へヘ	ho ほホ	N.B.	fu (hu)
M	ma まマ	mi みミ	mu むム	me めメ	mo もモ
Y	ya やヤ	-	yu ゆユ	-	yo よヨ	N.B	No ye or yi
R	ra らラ	ri りリ	ru るル	re れレ	ro ろロ
W	wa わワ	wi	-	we	wo をヲ	wi and we are archaic due to changes in pronunciation of the spoken language
N	"n" comprises a syllable んン in itself the spoken language
Modified Syllables: Consonant plus basic vowel
G	ga	gi	gu	ge	go
Z	za	ji	zu	ze	zo	N.B.	ji
D	da	ji	zu	de	do	N.B.	ji, zu (dzu)
B	ba	bi	bu	be	bo
P	pa	pi	pu	pe	po

Modified Syllables: Consonant

plus ya, yu, yo, or palatalized consonants

K	kya	kyu	kyo	N.B. sha, shu, sho
S	sha	shu	sho	N.B. cha, chu, cho
T	cha	chu	cho
N	nya	nyu	nyo
H	hya	hyu	hyo
M	mya	myu	myo
R	rya	ryu	ryo	N.B. the Japanese "r" is between the English " r" and "l."
G	gya	gyu	gyo	N.B. the Japanese "r" is between the English " r" and "l."
Z	ja	ju	jo	N.B. ja, ju, jo
B	bya	byu	byo
P	pya	pyu	puo

Double (Geminate) Consonants: length of two syllables

KK	preceded by a glottal stop and held for 2 syllables.
PP	preceded by a glottal stop and held for 2 syllables
SS	preceded by a glottal stop and held for 2 syllables.
TT	preceded by a glottal stop and held for 2 syllables.
Note: the so-called 'doubled' consonants often involve the glottis in speech, but may not necessarily be a full glottal stop.

Long Vowels: length of two syllables

AA	same as "a" but held an extra syllable.
II	same as "i" but held an extra syllable.
UU	same as "u" but held an extra syllable.
EI	same as "e" but held an extra syllable.
OU	same as "o" but held an extra syllable.

In Romaji, long vowels may be indicated by either a macron (bar over the vowel), circumflex, additional vowel to match the Japanese orthography, or not at all: "Tokyo" is really "Toukyou" in Japanese.

Note that "e" is normally doubled by the addition of "i" rather than an extra e. Likewise, "o" is usually doubled by "u". There are, however, some exceptions to this rule, such as the word for "big" ("大") which is lengthened by an "o" as in "ookii"

The letter "n" is both a syllable in itself and the leading consonant in some other syllables. Written out in kana, there is no ambiguity, because each kana is a single distinct character. To prevent ambiguity in romaji, when the syllabic "n" is followed by a vowel, it is often separated from the vowel by an apostrophe.

Pronunciation: Features

In English, stressed syllables in a word are pronounced louder and longer. In Japanese, all syllables, with a few exceptions, are pronounced with equal length and loudness.
In Japanese, a stressed syllable is merely pronounced at a higher pitch. This is part of the Japanese intonation pattern.
Japanese does have a distinct intonation pattern. This pattern can be heard not only in individual words, but also in whole sentences. Intonation is produced by a rise and fall in pitch over certain syllables. In the case of questions, the Japanese intonation patterns bear little resemblance to the English ones. This is a source of a lot of confusion.

Example: What typical Japanese syllables look like

A typical (yet contrived) exchange between two people would look like this: Mr. Hayashi introduces Mr. Tanaka to Mr. Sanger.

Yamada:   Tanaka-san, kochira wa, Senga-san desu.
Senga:    Hajimemashite, Senga desu. Yoroshiku onegaishimasu.
Tanaka:   Hajimemashite. ABC no Tanaka desu. Yoroshiku onegaishimasu.
Yamada:   Senga-san wa Nupiidia no shain desu.

Yamada:   Mr. Tanaka, this is Mr. Sanger.
Sanger:   How do you do. My name is Sanger. I'm very glad to meet you.
Tanaka:   How do you do. I am Mr. Tanaka from ABC Company. I'm very glad to meet you.
Yamada:   Mr. Sanger is an employee of Nupedia.

Writing System

The preceding conversation could be written in a mix of Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji. Content roots of words would be written in Kanji, the partially pictographic and iconic logograms/morphograms that the Japanese borrowed from the Chinese.

Particles marking parts of speech, like "wa", and "o" and verb inflections would be spelled out syllable by syllable in Hiragana, one of the two Japanese syllabaries. Many everyday spoken words, if written down, are also written using hiragana instead of the kanji.

Hiragana is also used to spell out words which have particularly complex kanji, when writing for younger children or foreigners who have limited knowledge of kanji, or when displaying text on character-cell displays. Foreign words like "Sanger" or "Wikipedia" would be spelled out syllable by syllable in Katakana, the second Japanese syllabary, which is most often used to write loan words of non-Chinese origin (the relationship of Chinese to Japanese is somewhat like French to English, except Chinese is not at all related to Japanese).

Grammar: Overview

Avoiding detailed explanations, Japanese grammar has the following features.

1. The basic sentence structure of a Japanese sentence is

     TOPIC: PARTICLE: COMMENT.
     For example:
     Kochira wa, Senga-san desu.
     Kochira is the topic of the sentence, indicated by the particle "wa."
     This means "as for this person."
     The verb is "desu" meaning 'is.'
     "Senga-san desu" is the comment.
     Therefore, this loosely translates to:
     "As for this person, (it) is Mr. Sanger."

Japanese, like Chinese, is often called a 'topic prominent' language, which means it marks topic separately from subject, and the two do not always coincide.

2. Japanese nouns usually have neither number nor gender. Thus "hon" meaning "book" can be used for the singular or plural. However, in the case of certain native words (of proto-Japanese rather than Chinese origin) plurality is indicated by reduplication. For example, "hito" means "person" whilst "hitobito" means "people"; "ware" means "I" whilst "wareware" means "we".

3. Verbs normally come at the end of a sentence.

4. Verbs are conjugated to show tenses, of which there are two: the present and the past. The present tense (or imperfect tense) in Japanese serves the function of the simple present and the future tense, while the past tense (or perfect tense) in Japanese serves the function of the simple past tense. The distinction is between actions which are completed (perfect) or are not yet completed (imperfect). The present perfect, present continuous, present perfect continuous, future perfect, future continuous, and future perfect continuous are usually expressed as a gerund (-te form) plus the auxilary form imasu/iru. Similarly, the past perfect, past continuous, and past perfect continuous are usually expressed with the gerund plus the past tense of imasu/iru. For some verbs, that represent an ongoing process, the "-te iru" form regularly indicates a continuous (or progressive) tense. For others, that represent a change of state, the "-te iru" form regularly indicates a perfect tense. For example, "kite imasu" regularly means "I have come," and not "I am coming," but "tabete imasu" regularly means "I am eating," and not "I have eaten." Note that in this form the initial "i" of "imasu/iru" is often not voiced, especially in casual speech and the speech of young people. The exact meaning is determined from the context, as Japanese tenses do not always map one-to-one to English tenses. In addition, Japanese verbs are also conjugated to show various moods.

5. Adjectives are inflected to show the present, past, affirmative and negative.

6. The grammatical function of nouns like possession, direct object, indirect object etc. are indicated by particles, like "wa" and "no" above. Particles play an extremely important function in Japanese.

7. There is a "standard" dialect of Japanese, "hyoujungo", taught in schools and used on television and in official communications. However, Japanese also has many dramatically different dialects, differing in terms of vocabulary, pitch accent, and in some cases pronunciation. Dialects are generally mutually intelligible, although extremely geographically separated dialects such as the Touhoku and Kyuushuu variants are not. The Ryuukyuu dialects used in and around Okinawa are related to Japanese, but the two are mutually unintelligible.

8. Japanese has many ways to express different levels of politeness, including special verbs, verbs indicating relative status, use of different nouns, etc.

9. The verb desu/da is not a copula in the western sense of the verb "to be". In the sentences above, it has played the copulative function of equality, that is: A = B. However a separate function of "to be" is to indicate existence, for which the verbs arimasu/aru and imasu/iru are used for inanimate and animate things respectively.

10. Derived forms of words occur often in Japanese. Nouns can be made into verbs, adjectives into nouns, gerunds, and other forms, and so on. Verbs, in addition to other derived forms, have one (the "-tai" form) which is an adjective meaning "want to do X"; e.g., "tabetai desu" means "I want to eat."

Politeness

There are three main language levels in Japanese: the plain form, the simple polite form or teinei and the advanced polite form or keigo.

In Japanese society, most relationships are not equal: one person has a higher level than the other depending upon his job, age or the situation. The lower position person must use a polite form but the higher one can use a familiar form.

The difference between honorific ("sonkeigo") and humble ("kenjougo") language 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 used when describing the interlocutor and his group. For example, the "san" suffix (approximately meaning "Mr.", "Mrs." or "Ms.") is an example of honorific language. It should never be used to talk about oneself. Nor should it be employed when talking about someone from one's own company to an external person, since the company is the speaker's "group". The difference between honorific and humble language is especially noticeable in polite speech ("keigo").

Example of Basic Japanese Sentence structure

Note the importance of the particles, verb tenses, and adjectives.

Mr. Sanger and Mr. Wales eat at a Japanese restaurant.

Senga:     Sumimasen, menyuu o misete kudasai.  Please show us the menu.
Ueitoresu: Hai, doozo.                          Certainly sir. Here you are.
(cont'd):  Nomimono wa nani ga  ii desu ka.     What would you like to drink? 
Weruzu:    Biiru ga, hoshii desu.               I like beer.
Senga:     Sukiyaki ga, ii desu                 I'll have the "sukiyaki."
Weruzu:    Biiru o 2-hon to sukiyaki o kudasai. Two bottles of beer and some
                                                  sukiyaki, please.
Senga:     Dezaato wa, meron ga ii desu.        For dessert we'll have melon.
Ueitoresu: Hai, wakarimashita.                  I see (understood).

Notes

Vocabulary:
ueitoresu     -  waitress    
sumimasen     -  excuse me
menyuu        -  menu
hai           -  yes
nomimono      -  beverage
nani          -  what
hoshii        -  desirable
ii            -  good
biiru         -  beer
hon           -  to count bottles (or any long object)
dezaato       -  dessert
meron         -  melon
onegaishimasu -  please
X kudasai     -  please give me X

Particles:
wa - indicates the topic.
ga - indicates the topic with de-emphasis on the topic
o  - indicates the direct object
ka - indicates a question
to - and

Verbs:
misemasu   - show
desu       - to be (copulative) 
wakarimasu - to understand.

External links and references

Jim Breen's site:

A large and sophisticated collection of resources, including dynamic dictionaries and translators

There is a Japanese version of Wikipedia at http://ja.wikipedia.com/
Ethnologue report for Japanese

See Common phrases in different languages