Languages Codexery

Japanese language

The principal language of the Japonic family, spoken by over 123 million people, primarily in Japan.

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Within Japan, Japanese lacks any official legal status yet serves as the country's de facto national language.[1]

Key facts and history

Proto-Japonic was brought to Japan by settlers from the Korean peninsula in the early- to mid-4th century BC, replacing the languages of the original Jōmon inhabitants.[2] Buddhism and the Chinese writing system arrived in Japan from Baekje near the beginning of the 5th century.[3] During the Early Middle Japanese period, the language gained phonemic length contrasts for vowels and consonants, palatal consonants, and closed syllables.[4] The Edo period, lasting from 1603 until 1867, marks the start of what is considered Modern Japanese.[5]

After 1945, Japanese borrowed numerous words from German, Portuguese, and English.[6] Japanese is used almost entirely within Japan, though sizable emigrant communities exist in Brazil and the United States.[7][8]

What the cited sources add

A 2006 Japan Times article by Pulvers notes that Japanese people speak their local dialect in their community and use standard Japanese outside it.[9] A Kyoto woman working in a large office with people from various parts of Japan would speak standard Japanese.[9] Ager also states that the hiragana syllabary consists of 48 syllables and is mainly used to write word endings.[10] The Kuwashii Japanese blog describes Japanese as having 10 vowels and roughly 20 consonants, with a syllable structure of medium complexity.[11]

Bullock's explanation of pitch accent notes that there are two basic patterns in standard Japanese, the "Tokyo dialect".[12] In 1946, the Japanese government officially codified the modern hiragana orthography.[10]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Japanese language" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Legislative Bureau of the House of Councillors (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "Japanese language" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Wade, "Finding on Dialects Casts New Light on the Origins of the Japanese People", The New York Times, 4 May 2011 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "Japanese language" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Frellesvig 2010, p. 11; Seeley 1991, p. 25–31; Frellesvig 2010, p. 11 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Japanese language" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: ; Labrune, "The Phonology of Japanese", Oxford University Press, 2012, p. 89–91; (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Japanese language" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Frellesvig 2010, p. 11 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "Japanese language" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Miura, Akira, English in Japanese, Weatherhill, 1998. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "Japanese language" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "2005 Census of Population and Housing of the Republic of Palau - Volume I: Basic Tables", The World Factbook }}. However, very few Japanese speakers were recorded in the {{cite web, December 2005 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  8. Wikipedia, "Japanese language" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "IBGE traça perfil dos imigrantes", Made in Japan, 2008-06-21; "S0201", American FactFinder (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  9. Pulvers, "Opening up to difference: The dialect dialectic", The Japan Times, 2006-05-23. facts only, no text reused. japantimes.co.jp
  10. Ager, "Japanese Hiragana", Omniglot, 2017. facts only, no text reused. omniglot.com
  11. "Kanji and Homophones Part I – Does Japanese have too few sounds?", Kuwashii Japanese, 8 January 2017. facts only, no text reused. kuwashiijapanese.com
  12. Bullock, "What is Japanese pitch accent?", Ben Bullock. facts only, no text reused. sljfaq.org

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Japanese language (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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Sources

Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

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