0_Wizard
Lately I have been teaching myself Japanese words as preparation for moving to Tokyo.
English loanwords, in particular, have become frequent, and Japanese words from English roots have proliferated.
chosen_Japanese_language_0
Japanese language
chosen_topic_0_Japanese_language
Japanese language
Little is known of the language's prehistory, or when it first appeared in Japan. Chinese documents from the 3rd century recorded a few Japanese words, but substantial texts did not appear until the 8th century. During the Heian period (794–1185), Chinese had considerable influence on the vocabulary and phonology of Old Japanese. Late Middle Japanese (1185–1600) included changes in features that brought it closer to the modern language, and the first appearance of European loanwords. The standard dialect moved from the Kansai region to the Edo (modern Tokyo) region in the Early Modern Japanese period (early 17th century–mid-19th century).
Classical Japanese language
The classical Japanese language ( "bungo", "literary language"), also called "old writing" ( "kobun"), is the literary form of the Japanese language that was the standard until the early Shōwa period (1926–89). It is based on Early Middle Japanese, the language as spoken during the Heian period (794–1185), but exhibits some later influences. Its use started to decline during the late Meiji period (1868–1912) when novelists started writing their works in the spoken form. Eventually, the spoken style came into widespread use, including in major newspapers, but many official documents were still written in the old style.
Kanji
Kanji (; ) are the adopted logographic Chinese characters, that are used in the Japanese writing system. They are used alongside "hiragana" and "katakana". The Japanese term "kanji" for the Chinese characters literally means "Han characters". It is written with the same term and characters in the Chinese language to refer to the character writing system, "hanzi" (). Chinese characters first came to Japan on official seals, letters, swords, coins, mirrors, and other decorative items imported from China. The earliest known instance of such an import was the King of Na gold seal given by Emperor Guangwu of Han to a Yamato emissary in 57 AD.
Japanese writing system
The modern Japanese writing system is a combination of two character types: logographic kanji, which are adopted Chinese characters, and syllabic kana. Kana itself consists of a pair of syllabaries: hiragana, used primarily for native or naturalised Japanese words and grammatical elements, and katakana, used primarily for foreign words and names, loanwords, onomatopoeia, scientific names, and sometimes for emphasis. Almost all written Japanese sentences contain a mixture of kanji and kana. Because of this mixture of scripts, in addition to a large inventory of kanji characters, the Japanese writing system is often considered to be the most complicated in use anywhere in the world.
Haruhisa Handa
He is also known by his real name, Haruhisa Handa, in the Western World, while he uses principally as his artistic name in Asia, including Japan, China and Cambodia. "Toshu" in Japanese means Asia or Japan which is located in the eastern area when the world was deemed as one nation. As recorded in the ancient record, of "Sange-gakushoshiki" (The Regulations for Students of the Mountain School), written by Saichō who was a Japanese Buddhist monk credited with founding the Tendai, where the word "Toshu" was used to signify Japan. In addition he also uses the pen name as the president of his theater company and for his literary activities as a novelist and poet etc.
Japanese dictionary
Japanese dictionaries have a history that began over 1300 years ago when Japanese Buddhist priests, who wanted to understand Chinese sutras, adapted Chinese character dictionaries. Present-day Japanese lexicographers are exploring computerized editing and electronic dictionaries. According to Keisuke Nakao: After introducing some Japanese "dictionary" words, this article will discuss early and modern Japanese dictionaries, demarcated at the 1603 CE lexicographical sea-change from "Nippo Jisho", the first bilingual Japanese–Portuguese dictionary. "Early" here will refer to lexicography during the Heian, Kamakura, and Muromachi periods (794–1573); and "modern" to Japanese dictionaries from the Edo or Tokugawa era (1603–1867) through the present.
Honorific speech in Japanese
The Japanese language has many honorifics, referred to as keigo (敬語, literally "respectful language"), parts of speech that show respect. Their use is mandatory in many social situations. Honorifics in Japanese may be used to emphasize social distance or disparity in rank, or to emphasize social intimacy or similarity in rank. The system of honorifics in Japan is very extensive, including various levels of respectful, humble, and polite speech, and it closely resembles the honorific systems of the Korean language and, in some elements, Chinese. It includes both special vocabulary and special grammatical forms.