Japanese is one of the world’s most spoken languages and is used primarily in Japan, though linguists have found evidence of its use dating as far back as 12,000 years ago. Japanese has three distinct alphabets: hiragana, katakana, and kanji. Kanji are characters derived from Chinese writing that are incorporated into Japanese language and literature. Japanese poets have been known to contribute greatly to the language with masterful creation of words and phrases like haiku. Famous Japanese authors such as Haruki Murakami, Yasunari Kawabata, Yoko Ogawa, Natsume Soseki, and Kenzaburo Oe have also helped spread Japanese language around the world through the sale of their works. Japanese rulers and kings like Emperor Meiji were instrumental in promoting Japanese language and culture around the world. Japanese is essential to understanding Japanese industry, business, culture, literature, and art around the world today.As such, it has a huge international reach that continues to grow every year.
Japanese is an invaluable language for those looking to understand and gain insight into Japanese culture, industry, and society. It is also a great tool for international business people, making it the perfect choice for career growth and development. Japanese language knowledge can open up many opportunities in the global marketplace. Knowing Japanese gives you access to historical facts, new information from Japan’s vibrant media scene, unique cultural experiences, and many other aspects of Japanese life. Ultimately, Japanese language proficiency offers a gateway to a world of possibilities.
“Learn to Handwrite Japanese Alphabets”
Little is known of the language’s prehistory, or when it first appeared in Japan. Chinese documents from the 3rd century AD recorded a few Japanese words, but substantial Old Japanese texts did not appear until the 8th century. From the Heian period (794–1185), extensive waves of Sino-Japanese vocabulary entered the language, affecting the phonology of Early Middle Japanese. Japanese (1185–1600) saw extensive grammatical changes and the first appearance Kansaiof European loanwords. The basis of the standard dialect moved from the region to the Edo region (modern Tokyo) in the Early Modern Japanese period (early 17th century–mid 19th century). Following the end of Japan’s self-imposed isolation in 1853, the flow of from European languages increased significantly, and words from English roots have proliferated.
Modern Japanese is considered to begin with the Edo period (which spanned from 1603 to 1867). Since Old Japanese, the de facto standard Japanese had been the Kansai dialect, especially that of Kyoto. However, during the Edo period, Edo (now Tokyo) developed into the largest city in Japan, and the Edo-area dialect became standard Japanese. Since the end of Japan’s self-imposed isolation in 1853, the flow of loanwords from European languages has increased significantly. The period since 1945 has seen many words borrowed from other languages—such as German, Portuguese and English. Many English loan words especially relate to technology.
Although Japanese is spoken almost exclusively in Japan, it has been spoken outside. Before and during World War II, through Japanese annexation of Taiwan and Korea, as well as partial occupation of China, the Philippines, and various Pacific islands, locals in those countries learned Japanese as the language of the empire. As a result, many elderly people in these countries can still speak Japanese.
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.
“Learn to Handwrite Japanese Alphabets”
Japanese emigrant communities (the largest of which are to be found in Brazil, with 1.4 million to 1.5 million Japanese immigrants and descendants, according to reports, more than the 1.2 million of the United States sometimes employ Japanese as their primary language. Approximately 12% of Hawaii residents speak Japanese, with an estimated 12.6% of the population of Japanese ancestry in 2008. Japanese emigrants can also be found inPeru, Argentina, Australia (especially in the eastern states), Canada etc.
As Japanese people give weight to the politeness and formality, Japanese language has a 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.