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Japanese leid

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Japanese
日本語
Nihongo
"Nihongo" ("Japanese")
in Japanese script
Pronunciation/nihoɴɡo/: [ɲ̟ihõŋɡo]
Native taeJapan
EthnicityJapanese (Yamato)
Native speakers
~128 mulȝeon (2020)[1]
Japonic
  • Japanese
Early forms
Old Japanese
Signed Japanese
Offeecial status
Offeecial leid in
 Japan (de facto)
Recognised minority
leid in
Leid codes
ISO 639-1ja
ISO 639-2jpn
ISO 639-3jpn
Glottolognucl1643  leain oot Hachijo[2]
Linguasphere45-CAA-a
This article contains IPA phonetic seembols. Withoot proper renderin support, ye mey see quaisten merks, boxes, or ither seembols insteid o Unicode chairacters. For an introductory guide on IPA seembols, see Help:IPA.

Japanese (日本語 "Nihon-go" or "Nippon-go" in Japanese) is the leid spak on the island kintra o Japan, in Eastren Asie. The leid is yaised by up aboot 128 million fowk. Japanese belongs tae the Japonic ilk, sic an sae wae Ryukyuan. In maugre o ettle, thaurs no definitive link wae onny ither language ilks. Thae proposit include Ainu, Austroasiatic, Koreanic, an the noo believt discreditit Altaic. No ane o thir theories hiv gained traction.

Japanese is an Agglutinative leid, wae five monophthong vouel soonds. It kythes Gemination an a wird can be changefu by the accentit syllable (Pitch-accent)

Wird order in Japanese is for ordinar Subject-Object-Verb, hou-and-ither particles can be uised tae tirl sentences orders, an add heartit virr tae a thocht as weel. Benon that, Japanese kythes a pernicketie system o honorifics an siclike mensie gab.


In Japanese, Japan is cried Nihon (日本), an the Japanese leid is cried Nihongo (日本語) (whaur -go means leid). Whiles the wirds Nippon and Nippongo is uised an aw; these wirds is thocht o as mair nationalist the nou, while Nihon is a mair neutral wird.

Writin seestem

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The Japanese leid uises three writin seestems, kanji (漢字), katakana (カタカナ) an hiragana (ひらがな). Katakana is maistly for writin soond effecs an wirds fae ootwi o Japan. Hiragana is for maistly writin wirds fae inside Japan an verb conjugations. Baith writin seestems haes seembols that means a seelable, wae the exception o ん wha constitutes a nasal mora. Katakana haes strauchter lips an shairper neuks nor hiragana. Hiragana haes mair bowes nor katakana.

The third wey tae write, cried kanji (漢字), whaur ilka wird or idea haes a pictur chairacter taen fae Cheenese. For tae can read Japanese newspapers, students maun learn 2 ,136 kanji. Mony kanji is made fae mair smaw, sempler kanji, whaur this happens thir smaller ‘’kanji’’ are cried ‘’radicals’’ . Kanji haes unalike soonds whan uised in unalike weys, but ilka kanji still haes anerly certaint weys it can be read.

Written Japanese disna hae spaces atween wirds, sae kanji helps sinder wirds in a sentence.

Japanese can be wrat in twa weys:

  1. Fae left tae richt, muivin fae the tap tae the dowp o the page (same as in Scots).
  2. Fae tap tae dowp, muivin fae the richt tae the left o the page.


Phonology

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Front Central Back
Close i u
Mid e o
Open a

Japan haes juist the five vouel soonds. They are /a/, /i/, /u/, /e/, /o/. Forby thon, vouels can be baith short or lang. For example, benkyousuru (勉強する)(tae study) haes a lang "o".


Consonants

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Bilabial Alveolar Alveolo-
palatal
Palatal Velar Uvular Glottal
Nasal m n (ɲ) (ŋ) (ɴ)
Stop p  b t  d k  ɡ
Affricate (t͡s)  (d͡z) (t͡ɕ)  (d͡ʑ)
Fricative (ɸ) s  z (ɕ)  (ʑ) (ç) h
Liquid r
Semivowel j w
Special moras /N/, /Q/

Japanese consonants cannae endure on thir ain (wae the exception o the Moraic nasal (ん), as sic it’s classified as a mora-timed leid.

Examples

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Here's some examples o Japanese wirds :

  • 人 (hito) : body
  • 女 (onna) : wifie or wumman
  • 男 (otoko) : man
  • 子 (ko) : bairn
  • 水 (mizu) : watter
  • こんにちは (konnichiwa) : hello (in the mids o the day or efternuin), sic as “guid day”
  • さようなら (sayounara) : fareweel/guidbye
  • はい (hai) : aye
  • いいえ (iie) : no

Example Screed

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Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Japanese:

すべて の 人間 は、 生まれながら に して 自由 で あり、 かつ、 尊厳 と 権利 と に ついて 平等 で ある。 人間 は、 理性 と 良心 と を 授けられて おり、 互い に 同胞 の 精神 を もって 行動 しなければ ならない。

Aw human beins are born lowse and equal in deegnity and richts. They are endowed wae raison and conscience and shoud act taewart ilk ither in a speerit o britherheid.

Fremmit airtins

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  1. "Världens 100 största språk 2010" (The World's 100 Largest Languages in 2010), in Nationalencyklopedin
  2. Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Japanese". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.