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Languages of Japan

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Languages of Japan
OfficialNone[1]
NationalStandard Japanese
MainStandard Japanese
IndigenousAinu
RegionalJapanese dialects,Amami-Ōshima,Kunigami,Miyako,Okinawan,Yaeyama,Yonaguni
MinorityBonin English,Matagi,Nivkh,Orok,Sanka,Zainichi Korean
ImmigrantChinese,Korean,Mongolian,Portuguese,Spanish
ForeignArabic,Bengali,Burmese,Chinese,Dutch,English,Filipino,French,German,Hindi,Indonesian,Italian,Khmer,Korean,Kurdish,Lao,Malay,Nepali,Persian,Portuguese,Russian,Spanish,Tamil,Thai,Turkish,Vietnamese
SignedJapanese Sign Language
Amami Oshima Sign Language
Miyakubo Sign Language
Keyboard layout

The most widely spoken language inJapanisJapanese,which is separated into severaldialectswithTokyo dialectconsideredStandard Japanese.

In addition to the Japanese language,Ryūkyūan languagesare spoken inOkinawaand parts ofKagoshimain theRyūkyū Islands.Along with Japanese, these languages are part of theJaponic language family,but they are separate languages,[citation needed]and are notmutually intelligiblewith Japanese, or with each other. All of the spoken Ryukyuan languages are classified byUNESCOas endangered.

InHokkaidō,there is theAinu language,which is spoken by theAinu people,who are the indigenous people of the island. The Ainu languages, of which Hokkaidō Ainu is the only extant variety, are isolated and do not fall under any language family. Ever since the Meiji period, Japanese has become widely used among the Ainu people and consequently Ainu languages have been classified critically endangered byUNESCO.[2]

In addition, languages such asOrok,EvenkiandNivkhspoken in formerly Japanese controlled southernSakhalinare becoming more and more endangered. After theSoviet Uniontook control of the region, speakers of these languages and their descendants migrated to mainland Japan and still exist in small numbers.

History

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Not until shortly after the turn of the second century did indications of language appear in Chinese texts.Chinese characterswere adopted and records of spoken language were made in Japan.HiraganaandKatakanacharacters were incorporated as a relatively accurate way to represent the sounds of Chinese characters.

Ryūkyūan languages

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Chinese characters were first introduced toRyūkyūan languagesshortly into the 13th-century. Details concerning the language before then are not well known. 14th-century records indicate that gifts fromRyūkyū Islandsto China used Hiragana, which indicates that these languages were tied to Mainland Japanese at the time.

Ainu languages

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History records that people inHokkaidō,Sakhalinand theKuril IslandsspokeAinu languages,[citation needed]but there are also places in and aroundTōhokuwhose names derive from Ainu languages. According to 16th-century records, Ainu languages had no written form.[citation needed]Only from the 19th-century did the Ainu languages begin to use Katakana.[citation needed]

Orok language

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Records show that theOrok languagewas spoken during the latter part of theEdo periodin Hokkaidō,[dubious–discuss]Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands;[dubious–discuss]however, there are only a few speakers still in existence.[citation needed]

Nivkh language

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Like Orok, theNivkh languagewas spoken in Sakhalin and later in Hokkaidō,[citation needed]and the Kuril Islands.[dubious–discuss]It is unknown whether speakers of Nivkh still remain in Japan.[citation needed]

European languages

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Sincethe Middle Ages,owing to visits from Europeans, Japanese has adopted a number of foreign words.

Post-1543Portuguesewas the initial contact language with Europeans, but this was later replaced byDutchafter the Japanese removed Portuguese people from the country.[3]The Japanese government conducted negotiations with Western authorities in Dutch until around 1870.[4]Since then English became the primary language of interaction with Western countries.

Language classifications

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Theoral languagesspoken by the native peoples of the insular country ofJapanat present and duringrecorded historybelong to either of two primaryphyla of human language:

In addition to these two indigenous language families, there isJapanese Sign Language,as well as significant minorities of ethnicKoreansandChinese,who make up respectively about 0.5% and 0.4% of the country's population and many of whom continue to speak their ethnic language in private (seeZainichi Korean). There is also a notable history of use ofKanbun(Classical Chinese) as a language of literature and diplomacy in Japan, similar to the status of theLatin languagein medieval Europe, which has left an indelible mark on the vocabulary of the Japanese language.Kanbunis a mandatory subject in the curricula of most Japanesesecondary schools.

See also

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References

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  1. ^"Tham Nghị Viện pháp chế cục".
  2. ^Ertl, John, ed. (2008).Multiculturalism in the new Japan: crossing the boundaries within.New York: Berghahn Books. p. 57.ISBN9780857450258.
  3. ^"Dutch-Japanese relations".Netherlands and You.Government of the Netherlands.28 April 2017.Retrieved2019-12-11.
  4. ^Vos, Fritz (2014)."Dutch Influences on the Japanese Language: With an Appendix on Dutch Words in Korean".East Asian History.39.(PDF) - Originally inLingua12 (1963): pp. 341–88.

Further reading

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About the role of Dutch in Japan
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