Spoken by over 130 million people, Japanese is an agglutinative language characterized by a complex system of honorifics, which guides verb formation and vocabulary choice based on the relative status of speaker and listener. The language's vocabulary is heavily influenced by words borrowed from Chinese and several different Indo-European languages including English.
This page contains resources for learning and studying the Japanese language.
Background Information
Japonic language is considered to be the first language used by the Japanese people by the historic society. However, some historic experts don’t agree about the beginnings of the Japanese language. Some believe that Japanese language was spoken by historic cultures, which are now called Korean and Manchuria people. Yet, others believe that the Japanese dialect is a distant relative of other Asian languages. Other theories may exist as well, like Japanese language is a type of Creole language that is mixed with an Altaic and Austronesian vocabulary. Either way, this is a language the dates back to many millenniums and is spoken by many Japanese families. http://www.japanese-language.org/japanese/history.asp
Common Words and Phrases
- Good morning: Ohayo gozaimasu
- Good day: Konnichiwa
- Bye: Sayonara
- How are you?: O genki desu ka?
- Thank you: Domo arigato
- I am sorry: Gomen nasai
- Do you speak English?: Anata wa eigo o hanashimasu ka?
- My name is ___: Watashi no namae wa ___ desu
- How much is it?: Sore wa ikura desu ka?
- It's beautiful: Kirei desu
- Hello (on telephone only): Moshi moshi
Featured Video of How to Speak Fluent Japanese
This is an informational and instructional video about how to learn to speak fluent Japanese without saying a word to anyone. The video is intended for the beginner, who is learning the language and for those looking to improve their vocabulary as well. The non verbal gestures can speak just as loud, as someone who is speaking the language.
References
Fast Facts
-
Language Family
Japonic
-
Number of Speakers
130 million
-
Official Language
-
Major Dialects
-
Systems of writing
-
Fact:
- Hiragana
-
Fact:
- Katakana (primarily used for foreign words)
-
Fact:
- Kanji (Chinese characters)
