Japanese is the national language of Japan and is considered as one of the most difficult languages in the world. This fact makes sense when you get to know that the language is not spoken across a large number of countries, in contrast to the likes of English and Spanish.
Here are some more fascinating facts about the language.
Area
Besides having majority of its speaking population in Japan, the language is quite popular in a few other countries including Korea, Taiwan, and parts of China.
No Language Family
Though, the Japanese is said to be a member of the Japonic (or Japanese-Ryukyuan) language family, Japanese is not related to any other language family directly.
Did Anyone Say Difficult?
Despite the fact that Japanese is one of the most difficult and complex languages to master; Japan boasts of an adult literacy rate of 99%.
Writing Style
There are basically 4 distinct systems in which Japanese is written, namely Kanji, Hiragana, Katakana and Romanji.
- Kanji is based on Chinese writing system and contains about 2000 signs. The system was adopted from Chinese in 6th century AD and has developed strongly ever since; in fact, some original letters have also been simplified.
- Hiragana is syllabic and considered as the original writing system in Japan. It consists of simple words, particles, conjugations and children’s literature, due to which, it is the first set of writing taught to children.
- Katakana is primarily used to write foreign words.
- Romanji is romanization of Japanese words and has developed recently.
Formal/Informal Address
There are 4 different ways to address people in Japanese, including kun, chan, san and sama.
- Kun is somewhat patronizing
- Chan is used to address children and people
- San is the universal mode to address
- Sama is used to show respect
Some Grammatical Wonders
In Japanese, the vocabulary of the sentence varies according to the gender of the speaker. Thus, men and women have different vocabularies. Also, there’s no difference between singular and plural.
Word Order
The most interesting point in written Japanese is that verbs usually find place at the end of a sentence. Also, majority of the words in Japanese language end in vowels, which help in determining the rhythm of the language.
Bottom Line
With such interesting facts and features, Japanese is surely a difficult language to master. Thus, if you are heading to Japan or hosting Japanese nationals at your place, it will be advisable to avail translation services from a reputed translation service provider. Dial 888-670-336 to find out more.