Japanese - 日本語
History of Japanese- 歴史
History of Japanese- 歴史
The origin of Japanese is in considerable dispute amongst linguists. Evidence has been offered for a number of sources: Ural-Altaic, Polynesian, and Chinese among others. Of these, Japanese is most widely believed to be connected to the Ural-Altaic family, which includes Turkish, Mongolian, Manchu, and Korean within its domain.
Korean is most frequently compared to Japanese, as both
languages share significant key features such as general structure, vowel
harmony, lack of conjunctions, and the extensive use of honorific speech, in
which the social rank of the listener heavily affects the dialogue. However,
pronunciation of Japanese is significantly different from Korean, and the
languages are mutually unintelligible.
Japanese has an extremely complicated writing system,
consisting of two sets of phonetic syllabaries (with approximately 50 syllables
in each) and thousands of Chinese characters called “kanji”, approximately
2,000 of which the Ministry of Education has designated as required learning
before high school graduation.
The adaptation of Chinese characters during the sixth to
ninth centuries A.D. was the most important event in the development of the
language. By the 12th century, the syllabic writing systems, “hiragana” and
“katakana”, were created out of “kanji”, providing the Japanese new freedom in
writing their native language. Today, Japanese is written with a mixture of the
three: “kanji”, “hiragana”, and “katakana”.
Since the mid 18th century the Japanese have adopted a huge
amount of “gairaigo”: foreign words mainly from English. These include “teburu”
(table), “biru” (beer), “gurasu” (glass), “aisu” (ice), “takushi” (taxi) and
“hoteru” (hotel).
There are also a
few words from Portuguese, Dutch and Spanish, such as “pan” (bread) and
“igirisu” (the UK), from the Portuguese “po” and “ingles”. Such words arrived
in Japan mainly during the 16th and 17th centuries, when missionaries and
merchants started to visit the country.
(Today Translations, 2017)
(Today Translations, 2017)
Common
Areas that Japanese is spoken in the World-
More than 130 million people speak Japanese, making it the ninth most widely spoken language in the world. Outside of Japan, there are another 5 million people who speak Japanese with some degree of proficiency – predominantly Japanese descendants in Hawaii and Brazil.
Although Japanese
is spoken almost exclusively in Japan, it has been spoken outside. 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. 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).
Japanese as found in the United States -
These
following states and cities contain at least 1% of the population that are of
Japanese heritage, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Hawaii- Honolulu, Aiea, Pearl City, Waimalu,
Hilo, Mililani Town, Kaneohe, Waipio, Wailuku, Wahiawa, Halawa
California- Sacramento, San Francisco, San Jose,
Los Angeles, Torrance, Irvine, Sunnyvale, Berkeley, Gardena, Rancho Palos
Verdes, Rolling Hills Estates, Monterey Park, Cupertino, Palos Verdes Estates, Cerritos,
Lomita, Los Altos, Redondo Beach
Washington- Seattle, Bellevue, New Castle, Mercer
Island
New York- Rye
Ohio- Dublin
Jobs in the US that require Japanese - ジョブ
(The following are jobs are titles of what was found, not the actual job listing itself.)
(The following are jobs are titles of what was found, not the actual job listing itself.)
Customer
Service:
- Concierge in Flushing, NY
- Waiter in Brooklyn, NY
- Write Reviews for Winston and Strawn LLP in Los Angeles, CA
- Massage Therapist in Seattle, WA
- Mechanic Shop Administrator in Berkeley, CA;
Business:
- Engineer in San Diego, CA
- Translator at Japanese Manufacturing Coorporation TOP NY in Darbydale, OH
- Interpreter for Mr. Japanese in Lincoln Village, OH
- Career Consultant in Manhattan, NY
- Administrative Protocol Assistant in Irvine, CA
- Quality Control Administrator in Mansfield, OH
Communications:
- Translator in Memphis, TN
- Call Center Representative in Flushing, NY
- John Deere Communications Representative in Dublin, OH
Law:
- Attorney in New York, NY
Healthcare:
- Night-shift Nurse in San Francisco, CA
- Medical Translator in New York, NY
Sales:
- Sales Consultant in Honolulu, HI
- Merchandise Warehouse Manager in Pearl City, HI
- Loan Adjuster in Trenton, NJ
Resources:
- Today Translations. "Home." Japanese Language History and Facts | Today Translations London, UK. Accessed February 14, 2017. https://www.todaytranslations.com/language-history/japanese.
- "Japanese language." Wikipedia. February 07, 2017. Accessed February 14, 2017. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_language#Geographic_distribution.
- "List of U.S. cities with large Japanese-American populations." Wikipedia. February 18, 2017. Accessed February 21, 2017. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._cities_with_large_Japanese-American_populations.
- "Japanese Jobs | Monster.com - Page 2." Monster. Accessed February 21, 2017. https://www.monster.com/jobs/search/?q=Japanese&page=2.
- https://www.shutterstock.com/image-vector/map-japan-japanese-flag-illustration-2487210
