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
ki
ku
ke
ko
also
sa
shi
su
se
so
ya
ta
chi
tsu
te
to
yu
na
ni
nu
ne
no
yo
ha
hi
fu
he
ho
wa
ma
mi
mu
me
mo
n
ra
ri
ru
re
ro
o
More Japanese phonetics
• 5 vowels, all short
–A
I
U
E
O
• Also vocalized variants
– ga
– za
– Da
gi
ji
ji
gu
zu
zu
ge
ze
de
go
zo
do
• And “ha” line has a “p” variant
– pa
pi
pu
pe
po
(etc.)
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
イ キ シ チ ニ ヒ
ウ ク ス ツ ヌ フ
エ ケ セ テ ネ ヘ
オ コ ソ ト ノ ホ
Also wa ワ o ヲ n ン
マ ヤ ラ
ミ
リ
ム ユ ル
メ
レ
モ ヨ ロ
• 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。