Introduction:

When we start to learn a language, it's sometimes cause we like how it sounds, cause we
like the country, or the writing.
But, it appears one day or the other that we want to know the origin of this language. For
people whose, like me, are interested by the history of japanese language, please read this
article.

Have a nice trip to the roots of this wonderful language!

 

 

Back to the roots:

It seems that it's difficult to place the japanese language in a specific category. Some
people say that it should be classified in the same group as korean, ainu or Ryuu-kyuu and,
some others say it should be in the large chinese group.

Anyway, japanese language is unique. Following the ethnologists opinion, the structure of
the language is still the same since prehistoric age. Sure, the vocabulary has been enhanced
and influenced by chinese, korean and ainu languages.

Chinese influence:
Even if a lot of imported chinese words have been transformed, it's said that, for 40% of the
"everyday used words" come from China! (as you may know, through the kanji).

 

 

Polysyllabic language?
The original japanese language is polysyllabic. Its name is "Yamato-kotoba". At the opposite,
words that come from China are monosyllabics.
If we look at the Yamato vocabulary, we can say that it's not very wide. But, the number
of words used in japanese language is impressive. For example, the "Dai Nippon Kokugo Jiten"
have a list of 200 000 words and the "Daijiten" have 700 000 words!

 

 

Vowels / consonants evolution:

At the end of the VIIIth century, there were 8 vowels. From these 8, only 5 are still used

today. The 50 "sounds" of the today alphabet are called "Gojuu-on-zu".

When the edo era started, some consonants like "p" also disappeared from the language.

 

 

To go further:

You have to know that, in japanese language, there are no articles, and the name don't
change following the gender. Singulars and plurals are the same. As you may know, there
are also a lot of different "politeness" levels (about 6 levels are used today, back to the
past, there were 12 levels ^_^).

 

 

Conclusion:

This was a short article about japanese language history. I hope you found it useful and
interesting. If you find errors, tell me, I'll correct it ^_^.

 

 

***alyussium - 2004-06-23