Japanese leid

Japanese
日本語 Nihongo
"Nihongo" ("Japanese") in Japanese script
Pronunciation	/nihoɴɡo/: [ɲ̟ihõŋɡo]
Native tae	Japan
Ethnicity	Japanese (Yamato)
Native speakers	~128 mulȝeon (2020)
Leid faimily	Japonic Japanese
Early forms	Old Japanese Early Middle Japanese Late Middle Japanese Early Modern Japanese
Writin seestem	Mixed scripts of Kanji (Chinese character) and Kana (Hiragana, Katakana) Japanese Braille
Signed forms	Signed Japanese
Offeecial status
Offeecial leid in	Japan (de facto) Palau  ∟Template:Kintra data Angaur
Recognised minority leid in	Palau  ∟Template:Kintra data Angaur
Leid codes
ISO 639-1	ja
ISO 639-2	jpn
ISO 639-3	jpn
Glottolog	nucl1643  leain oot Hachijo
Linguasphere	45-CAA-a

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

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

Vowels

	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

	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

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

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

• Japanese dictionar
• List o Japanese Kanji chairacters Archived 2007-02-13 at the Wayback Machine
• Kana Copybeuk (PDF)
• Japanese Coorse