The Japanese Language

The Japanese Language

• Basic points about language in general– The basic form of language is spoken

• Everyone speaks; not everyone writes

– Language is always evolving• e.g. loan words

• Japanese has simple phonetics but difficult grammar

Japanese phonetics

• 5 vowels, all short– A I U E O

• But Japanese sounds come in syllables– ka sa ta na ha ma ra– ki shi chi ni hi mi ri– ku su tsu nu fu mu ru– ke se te ne he me re– ko so to no ho mo ro– also ya yu yo wa n o

More Japanese phonetics

• 5 vowels, all short– A I U E O

• Also vocalized variants– ga gi gu ge go– za ji zu ze zo– Da ji zu de do (etc.)

• And “ha” line has a “p” variant– pa pi pu pe po

Pronouncing loan words

• All those vowels make words longer– McDonald’s becomes– Makudonarudo, that is, Ma-ku-do-na-ru-do

• Confusion can ensue from lack of phonetic variation– A building is a birudingu, shortened to biru– Beer is called biiru– No L-R distinction; what to call Bill?

Phonetics: lengthened vowels

• the long marks over o and u• There’s a difference between

– shinto (believer), and– Shintō (one of Japan’s religions)

• The long marks mean that the sound of the vowel is lengthened (not changed)

Basic Japanese grammar

• The basic order of a Japanese sentence is subject⇨object⇨verb, as in– Kinō watashi wa hon o kaimashita.– (Yesterday I bought a book.)

• If you leave out “watashi” (I), no one is confused. Subjects are often omitted.

• Particles mark the function of a word– “wa” marks a subject, “o” an object

Particles

• There are particles for possession, location, etc.

• The particle for possession is “no”– Kore wa watashi no hon desu.– Mitsubishi jidōsha no Tanaka desu.– possessive, or “of”

Polite speech

• Japan’s social hierarchy is reflected in speech patterns– How you speak depends on who you

are talking to– Indicates both relative status and

familiarity

• Polite forms are typically longer and more complicated

The writing system

• Japanese has characters representing both sound and meaning

• Sounds are written with the “kana” syllabaries (they represent syllables)– Hiragana– Katakana

• Follow the A I U E O pattern

Hiragana

• Used mostly for word inflections– Japanese is an inflected language– あ か さ た な は ま や ら – い き し ち に ひ み り – う く す つ ぬ ふ む ゆ る – え け せ て ね へ め れ – お こ そ と の ほ も よ ろ– Also wa わ o を n ん

• Hiragana is “loopy” looking

Katakana

• Used mostly for foreign words– ア カ サ タ ナ ハ マ ヤ ラ– イ キ シ チ ニ ヒ ミ リ– ウ ク ス ツ ヌ フ ム ユ ル – エ ケ セ テ ネ ヘ メ レ – オ コ ソ ト ノ ホ モ ヨ ロ – Also wa ワ o ヲ n ン

• Katagana is “squarish” looking

Writing other sounds

• Changing “ha” to “ba” for example

•は becomes ば• Paris パリ and Bali バリ• What about a word like Kyōto?

– How do we write the “Kyō” sound

– Kyōto is written きょうと

Ideographs

• Ideographic or pictographic characters– another borrowing from China– called kanji

• By the end of High school, a person is supposed to know about 1,970 characters

• Writing words in kanji saves confusion– Many homophones

Kanji

• Some Kanji are simple– Mountain is 山 (yama)

– one (1) is 一 ; two is 二 ; three is 三– but four is 四– some are complicated!

•hibiki 響

Twenty kanji for you

• All from the “50 Chinese characters” in the reading

•一二三四五六七八九十•日月火水木金土山目人• You will only be required to

recognize them

Summary

• Japanese is phonetically simple– A I U E O and the other syllables

• Sentence structure:– subject⇨object⇨verb– word functions marked by particles– kinō watashi wa hon o kaimashita

• Three writing systems– hiragana, katakana, kanji; mixed

together

–昨日私は本を買いました。