Japanese

Nihongo (Japanese)

Japanese (Nihongo)


Before the 4th century AD, the Japanese had no writing system of their
own. During the 5th century they began to import and adapt the Chinese
script, along with many other aspects of Chinese culture, probably via
Korea. However the Japanese were aware of Chinese writing from about
the 1st century AD from the characters that appeared on imported Chinese
goods.

At first the Japanese wrote in Classical Chinese or in a Japanese-Chinese hybrid
style. An example of the hybrid style is the kojiki (Records of Antiquity)
written in 712 AD. They then started to use Chinese characters to write
Japanese in a style known as man’yōgana, literarly "Ten Thousand
leaf syllabic script", which used the characters for their phonetic
values.

Over time a writing system emerged in which Chinese characters were
used to write either words borrowed from Chinese or Japanese words with
the same or similar meanings. Chinese characters were also used for their
phonetic values to write grammatical elements and these characters
were simplified and eventually became two syllabic scripts,
hiragana and
katakana.

Japanese literature reached a high point during the 11th century
with the Genji Monogatari (Tale of Genji) by Lady Murasaki
Shikibu. Many other Japanese literary works were also written by women.

Modern Japanese is written with a mixture of
hiragana and katakana,
plus kanji. Modern Japanese texts may also include
rōmaji, (Roman letters), the standard way of
writing Japanese with the Latin alphabet, eimoji
(English script), non-Japanese words written in their own script and various
symbols known as kigō.

Notable features

  • Type of writing system: mixed (kana syllabaries + semanto-phonetic kanji)
  • Direction of writing: right to left in vertical columns or left to right
    in horizontal lines. Horizontal writing was first used during the Meiji Period
    (1868-1912) in Western language dictionaries of Japanese. Today both orientations
    are used.
  • Used to write: Japanese – a modified version of katakana is also used to write Ainu

Sample text 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、理性と良心を授けられてあり、互いに同胞の精神をもって行動しなければならない。

Transliteration (rōmaji)

Subete no ningen wa, umarenagara ni shite jiyū de ari, katsu, songen to
kenri to ni tsuite byōdō de aru. Ningen wa, risei to ryōshin
to o sazukerareteori, tagai ni dōhō no seishinn o motte kōdō
shinakereba naranai.

A recording of this text

Translation

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They
are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another
in a spirit of brotherhood.
(Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)


Japanese Translation
Japanese Translation
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  • Categoria dell'articolo:Lingue
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