JAPANESE LANGUAGE FACTS:

NATIVE: 日本語 (Nihongo)

NATIVE SPEAKERS: 125 million

OFFICIAL LANGUAGE IN: Japan

WRITING SYSTEMS: Hiragana and Katakana 

REGULATED BY: 

HELPFUL RESOURCES:

Dictionaries:

Tung, Louise Watanabe. Japanese/English English/Japanese glossary of scientific and technical terms. New York: Wiley, 1993.

Daub, Edward E. Kanji for understanding technical Japanese. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1995.

Academic Research:

Brown University, East Asian Studies

Language

Japanese is a member of the Japonic (or Japanese-Ryukyuan) language family. Word order is normally subject–object–verb. Nouns have no grammatical number or gender, and there are no articles. Honorific speech is an extremely important element of Japanese language and culture, especially in a business setting.

Economic Significance

Japanese is one of the most economically significant languages we work with. The ability to communicate with potential customers in their own language is a key to winning their business. Japanese is the third most used content language on the internet, and the Japanese people claim the highest rate of internet penetration at an impressive 91%. Japan ranked second, behind the United States, in the amount of international patent applications in 2015.

History

The Japonic language family is a language isolate, and has no discernable genetic connection to other languages. Japanese has been examined by linguists more than any other language in attempts identify its relationship to other languages. The Chinese writing system was introduced to Japan through the spread of Buddhism. Modern Japanese is considered to have begun during the 17^th century during the Edo Period.

Dialects

Tokyo-type and Kyoto-Osaka-type