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Wednesday, 24 August 2016

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Old Japanese

Old Japanese is the oldest attested stage of the Japanese language. It was spoken by the Japanese ethnic group from an unknown beginning point until it evolved into Early Middle Japanese in the eighth century, during the Heian period, although the precise separation of these two languages is controversial. Old Japanese was an early member of the Japonic family; no conclusive links to other language families have been drawn.

Old Japanese was written using Chinese characters, using an increasingly standardized and phonetic form that eventually evolved into man'yogana. japanese-language-courses-in-chennai Typically for a Japonic language and for a step in the evolutionary line of modern Japanese, Old Japanese was a primarily agglutinative language with subject–object–verb word ordering. However, the language was marked by a few phonemic differences from later forms of Japanese, such as an eschewing of diphthongs. It distinguished between a few pairs of syllables with identical pronunciations—a phenomenon known as Jodai Tokushu Kanazukai—but the function of this differentiation is not known.

Writing system

The earliest texts found in Japan are written in Classical Chinese, although they may have been meant to be read as Japanese by the kanbun method. Some of these Chinese texts show the influences of Japanese grammar, such as the word order (for example, placing the verb after the object). japanese-language-courses-in-chennai In these "hybrid" texts, Chinese characters are occasionally used phonetically to represent Japanese particles. Over time, the phonetic usage of Chinese characters became more and more prevalent, until Man'yogana, a system of using the Chinese characters phonetically to record Japanese, was born. This system was already in use in the non-prose part of Kojiki, and was used in a highly sophisticated manner in Man'yoshu.

Phonology

The study of Old Japanese phonology is based on the comparative study of synchronous pronunciation of Chinese, reverse analysis of diachronic change in Japanese pronunciation, and comparative study of the Ryukyuan languages.

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Although the majority of Old Japanese writing represents the language of the Nara court in central Japan, some poems in the Man'yoshu are from southern and eastern Japan, and represent different dialects of Old Japanese. Some of these dialectal differences are still found today.

Old Japanese differed phonetically from later periods of the language. An analysis of Man'yogana reveals a peculiar system known as Jodai Tokushu Kanazukai. See the Syllables section for details.

Early Modern Japanese

Early Modern Japanese is a stage of the Japanese language following Middle Japanese and preceding Modern Japanese.

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It is a period of transition in which the language sheds many of its medieval characteristics and becomes closer to its modern form.

The period spanned roughly 250 years extending from the 17th century through half of the 19th century. Politically, this generally corresponds with the Edo period.

Background

At the beginning of the 17th century, the center of government moved to Edo from Kamigata under the control of the Tokugawa shogunate. Until the early Edo period, the Kamigata dialect, the ancestor of the modern Kansai dialect, was the most influential dialect.

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However, since the late Edo period, the Edo dialect, the ancestor of the modern Tokyo dialect, became the most influential dialect, during the time in which the country closed its borders to foreigners. Compared to the previous centuries, the Tokugawa rule brought about much stability. The newfound stability made the importance of the warrior class gradually fell, to be replaced by the merchant class. There was much economic growth, and new forms of artistic developments appeared such as Ukiyo-e, Kabuki, and Bunraku.

In an attempt to spread their religion, the Portuguese missionaries studied and learned Japanese.

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They created a number of linguistic grammars, dictionaries, and even translated some of their literature. These resources have proven extremely valuable in Late Middle Japanese studies.

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Varities of Japanese Language

Early Middle Japanese

Early Middle Japanese is a stage of the Japanese language used between 794 and 1185, a time known as the Heian Period. japanese-training-institute-in-chennai It is the successor to Old Japanese. It is also known as Late Old Japanese, but the term "Early Middle Japanese" is preferred, as it is closer to Late Middle Japanese (after 1185) than to Old Japanese (before 794).

Background

Whereas Old Japanese borrowed and adapted the Chinese script to write Japanese, during the Early Middle Japanese period two new scripts emerge: kana scripts hiragana and katakana. japanese-training-institute-in-chennai This development simplified writing and brought about a new age in literature with such classics as Genji Monogatari, Taketori Monogatari, Ise Monogatari and many others.

Late Middle Japanese

Late Middle Japanese is a stage of the Japanese language following Early Middle Japanese and preceding Early Modern Japanese.

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It is a period of transition in which the language sheds many of its archaic features and becomes closer to its modern form.

The period spanned roughly 500 years extending from the 12th century through the 16th century. It is customarily split into an Early and Late division.

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Politically, the first half of Late Middle Japanese consists of the end of the Heian period known as Insei and the Kamakura period; the second half of Late Middle Japanese consists of the Muromachi period.

Background

The end of the 12th century was a time of transition from the aristocratic society of the nobles in the Heian period to the feudalistic society of the warrior class.

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Accompanying this change, the political center moved with establishment of various shogunates in the east.

Various new Buddhist movements began and literacy increased due their spread.

In the middle of 16th century, Portuguese missionaries arrived in Japan.

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While introducing western concepts and technology, they also shared their language. Various Portuguese loanwords entered the language.

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Classification

Japanese is a member of the Japonic languages family, which also includes the languages spoken throughout the Ryukyu Islands. As these closely related languages are commonly treated as dialects of the same language, Japanese is often called a language isolate.

According to Martine Irma Robbeets, Japanese has been subject to more attempts to show its relation to other languages than any other language in the world. best-japanese-language-institute-in-chennai Since Japanese first gained the consideration of linguists in the late 19th century, attempts have been made to show its genealogical relation to languages or language families such as Ainu, Korean, Chinese, Tibeto-Burman, Ural-Altaic, Altaic, Uralic, Mon–Khmer, Malayo-Polynesian and Ryukyuan. At the fringe, some linguists have suggested a link to Indo-European languages, including Greek, and to Lepcha. As it stands, only the link to Ryukyuan has wide support, though linguist Kurakichi Shiratori maintained that Japanese was a language isolate.

Korean hypothesis

Similarities between Korean and Japanese were noted by Arai Hakuseki in 1717, and the idea that the two might be related was first proposed in 1781 by Japanese scholar Teikan Fujii. The idea received little attention until William George Aston proposed it again in 1879. Japanese scholar Shosaburo Kanazawa took it up in 1910, as did Shinpei Ogura in 1934. Shiro Hattori was nearly alone when he criticised these theories in 1959. best-japanese-language-institute-in-chennai Samuel Martin furthered the idea in 1966 with his "Lexical evidence relating Korean to Japanese", as did John Whitman with his dissertation on the subject in 1985. Despite this, definitive proof of the relation has yet to be provided. Historical linguists studying Japanese and Korean tend to accept the genealogical relation, while general linguists and historical linguists in Japan and Korea have remained skeptical. Alexander Vovin suggests that, while typologically modern Korean and Japanese share similarities that sometimes allow word-to-word translations, studies of the pre-modern languages show greater differences. According to Vovin, this suggests linguistic convergence rather than divergence, which he believes is amongst the evidence of the languages not having a genealogical connection.

Altaic hypothesis

The proposed Altaic family of languages, which would include languages from far eastern Europe to northeastern Asia, has had its supporters and detractors over its history.

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The most controversial aspect of the hypothesis is the proposed inclusion of Korean and Japanese, which even some proponents of Altaic have rejected. Philipp Franz von Siebold suggested the connection in 1832, but the inclusion first attracted significant attention in the early 1970s. Roy Andrew Miller published Japanese and the Other Altaic Languages, and dedicated much of his later career to the subject. Sergei Starostin published a 1991 monograph which was another significant stepping stone in Japanese—Altaic research.

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A team of scholars made a database of Altaic etymologies available over the internet, from which the three-volume Etymological Dictionary of the Altaic Languages was published in 2003. Scholars such as Yevgeny Polivanov and Yoshizo Itabashi, on the other hand, have proposed a hybrid origin of Japanese, in which Austronesian and Altaic elements became mixed.

Skepticism over the Japanese relation to Altaic is widespread amongst both amateurs and professionals, in part because of the large number of unsuccessful attempts to establish genealogical relationships with Japanese and other languages. Opinions are polarized, with many strongly convinced of the Altaic relation, and others strongly convinced of the lack of one.

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While some sources are undecided, often strong proponents of either view will not even acknowledge the claims of the other side.

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Geographic distribution

Although Japanese is spoken almost exclusively in Japan, it has been spoken outside. japanese-language-training-in-chennai Before and during World War II, through Japanese annexation of Taiwan and Korea, as well as partial occupation of China, the Philippines, and various Pacific islands, locals in those countries learned Japanese as the language of the empire. As a result, many elderly people in these countries can still speak Japanese.

Japanese emigrant communities (the largest of which are to be found in Brazil, with 1.4 million to 1.5 million Japanese immigrants and descendants, according to Brazilian IBGE data, more than the 1.2 million of the United States) sometimes employ Japanese as their primary language. japanese-language-training-in-chennai Approximately 12% of Hawaii residents speak Japanese, with an estimated 12.6% of the population of Japanese ancestry in 2008. Japanese emigrants can also be found in Peru, Argentina, Australia (especially in the eastern states), Canada (especially in Vancouver where 1.4% of the population has Japanese ancestry), the United States (notably California, where 1.2% of the population has Japanese ancestry, and Hawaii), and the Philippines (particularly in Davao and Laguna).

Official status

Japanese has no official status, but is the de facto national language. There is a form of the language considered standard: hyojungo , meaning "standard Japanese", or kyotsugo, "common language". The meaning of the two terms are almost the same. Hyojungo or kyotsugo is a conception that forms the counterpart of dialect. This normative language was born after the Meiji Restoration from the language spoken in the higher-class areas of Tokyo .

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Hyojungo is taught in schools and used on television and even in official communications.

Formerly, standard Japanese in writing (bungo, "literary language") was different from colloquial language( kogo). The two systems have different rules of grammar and some variance in vocabulary. Bungo was the main method of writing Japanese until about 1900; since then kogo gradually extended its influence and the two methods were both used in writing until the 1940s.

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Bungo still has some relevance for historians, literary scholars, and lawyers (many Japanese laws that survived World War II are still written in bungo, although there are ongoing efforts to modernize their language). Kogo is the dominant method of both speaking and writing Japanese today, although bungo grammar and vocabulary are occasionally used in modern Japanese for effect.

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History

Prehistory

A common ancestor of Japanese and Ryukyuan languages or dialects is thought to have been brought to Japan by settlers coming from either continental Asia or nearby Pacific islands (or both) sometime in the early- to mid-2nd century BC (the Yayoi period), replacing the languages of the original Jomon inhabitants, including the ancestor of the modern Ainu language. japanese-speaking-courses-in-chennai Very little is known about the Japanese of this period. Because writing had yet to be introduced from China, there is no direct evidence, and anything that can be discerned about this period of Japanese must be based on the reconstructions of Old Japanese.

Old Japanese

Old Japanese is the oldest attested stage of the Japanese language. Through the spread of Buddhism, the Chinese writing system was imported to Japan. The earliest texts found in Japan are written in Classical Chinese, but they may have been meant to be read as Japanese by the kanbun method. japanese-speaking-courses-in-chennai Some of these Chinese texts show the influences of Japanese grammar, such as the word order . In these hybrid texts, Chinese characters are also occasionally used phonetically to represent Japanese particles. The earliest text, the Kojiki, dates to the early 8th century, and was written entirely in Chinese characters. The end of Old Japanese coincides with the end of the Nara period in 794. Old Japanese uses the Man'yogana system of writing, which uses kanji for their phonetic as well as semantic values. Based on the Man'yogana system, Old Japanese can be reconstructed as having 88 distinct syllables.

Due to these extra syllables, it has been hypothesized that Old Japanese's vowel system was larger than that of Modern Japanese – it perhaps contained up to eight vowels. According to Shinkichi Hashimoto, the extra syllables in Man'yogana derive from differences between the vowels of the syllables in question. These differences would indicate that Old Japanese had an eight-vowel system, in contrast to the five vowels of later Japanese. The vowel system would have to have shrunk some time between these texts and the invention of the kana (hiragana and katakana) in the early 9th century. According to this view, the eight-vowel system of ancient Japanese would resemble that of the Uralic and Altaic language families.

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However, it is not fully certain that the alternation between syllables necessarily reflects a difference in the vowels rather than the consonants – at the moment, the only undisputed fact is that they are different syllables.

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Japanese language

Japanese is an East Asian language spoken by about 125 million speakers, primarily in Japan, where it is the national language. It is a member of the Japonic (or Japanese-Ryukyuan) language family, whose relation to other language groups, particularly to Korean and the suggested Altaic language family, is debated.

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. japanese-classes-in-chennai During the Heian period (794–1185), Chinese had considerable influence on the vocabulary and phonology of Old Japanese. Late Middle Japanese (1185–1600) saw changes in features that brought it closer to the modern language, as well as the first appearance of European loanwords. japanese-classes-in-chennai 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). Following the end in 1853 of Japan's self-imposed isolation, the flow of loanwords from European languages increased significantly.

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English loanwords in particular have become frequent, and Japanese words from English roots have proliferated.

Japanese is an agglutinative, mora-timed language with simple phonotactics, a pure vowel system, phonemic vowel and consonant length, and a lexically significant pitch-accent.

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Word order is normally subject–object–verb with particles marking the grammatical function of words, and sentence structure is topic–comment. Sentence-final particles are used to add emotional or emphatic impact, or make questions. Nouns have no grammatical number or gender, and there are no articles. Verbs are conjugated, primarily for tense and voice, but not person. Japanese equivalents of adjectives are also conjugated. Japanese has a complex system of honorifics with verb forms and vocabulary to indicate the relative status of the speaker, the listener, and persons mentioned.

Japanese has no genetic relationship with Chinese, but it makes extensive use of Chinese characters, or kanji , in its writing system, and a large portion of its vocabulary is borrowed from Chinese.

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Along with kanji, the Japanese writing system primarily uses two syllabic (or moraic) scripts, hiragana and katakana .

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Latin script is used in a limited fashion, such as for imported acronyms, and the numeral system uses mostly Arabic numerals alongside traditional Chinese numerals.

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