Introduction To Japanese As A Language
About 130 million people speak Japanese. The language is part of the Japonic-Ryukyuan languages. Japanese is spoken almost exclusively in Japan though it is also sometimes spoken in Korea, Taiwan, parts of Chinese mainland, Philippines and some Pacific Islands which were occupied by Japan during and prior to World War II. Japanese emigrant communities as in Brazil, Hawaii, Argentina, Peru, Australia, and the United States too speak the language. However, increasingly the descendants rarely speak fluent Japanese. Japanese is the official language of Japan and the island nation of Palau. The Japanese vocabulary consists of words taken from other languages. Predominant amongst them are the Chinese words, a result of 1,500 years of interaction. It has borrowed words from the Indo-European languages, particularly English in the 19h century and some Portuguese and Dutch in the 16th and 17th century respectively. Three different types of scripts are combined to make the Japanese language. They are Kanji, Hiragana and Katakana. The first is the modified Chinese characters while the latter two are two syllabic scripts of the modified Chinese characters.
The standard language taught in schools is Hyōjungo. It is also the official language. But the common form used is the Kyōtsūgo. The traditional written language Bungo is no longer much in use but it is the colloquial language Kōgothat that is commonly used for writing. Different Japanese dialects are spoken in different parts of Japan. The most dominant dialect is the Tokyo-type. Next is the Kyoto-Osaka-type followed by the Kyūshū-type. Often the mainstream Japanese do not understand the dialects of the outer regions such as Tsushima or Tōhoku or southern Kyūshū. The Ryūkyūan languages that are spoken in Amami and Okinawa Islands are considered as dialects of Japanese though they are distinct languages. However, the standard Japanese have become predominant with their use in education and mass media.
The world’s second largest economy is Japan after the United States. Its technological prowess is world renown. The industrial and financial activities of Japan have spread throughout the world. There has been an increased interest in learning Japanese. A spate of courses offering to teach Japanese has also been produced. The Japanese language proficiency test is something many learners seek to clear.
Increasing global economic dominance and its fascinating culture has popularized the country, its language and culture. Many Japanese words have been borrowed and integrated to English and also commonly used by other languages such as haiku, karaoke, judo, karate, rickshaw, ninja, tycoon, samurai, sayonara, sudoku, sushi, sumo, tsunami and many others.
The Japanese language expresses what the Japanese have gone through and how they have grown throughout the centuries. So, once you’ll be going through the Japanese courses, you will come to appreciate who they are as a nation.
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