Japanese is not distinctly related to any other language or family of languages. Despite ages of research, it remained a mystery and constantly induces the Japanese speaker to seek out their identity. Nowadays, Western linguist believe that it is linked either to Korean which is a neighbor or to the Ural-Altaic family or to both. Similar to Japanese, the Korean language is an orphan and most of those supporting the Japanese-Altaic theory also propose Korean belongs to Altaic families.
Few had proposed that Japanese is related to Austronesian or Malayo-Polynesian language because of their similarities in phonotactic. For instance, they share the same 5 vowels, together with the attributes of open syllables and no diphtongs.
There is scientific evidence that shows the correlation between Korean and Japanese . Both the grammatical morphology and phonology of these two languages are similar. For instance, little arrangement is needed as the word is most likely the same. Neither of them has initial /r/ except in more recent words especially loan words.
Most of scholarly opinions are more toward Altaic family as origin of Japanese language. There are some evidences to support this theory. For example, Altaic languages have no grammatical distinction of number and gender which is similar to Japanese. Both have propositions instead of word order or declension. Neither of them has relative pronounce or passive voice.
Almost 150 years ago, the connection between Japanese and Altaic was first suggested. In 1857, Antar Boller (Viennese man) suggested that Japanese came from the Ural-altaic group of languages. Since then, linguistic research has split that group into Uralic and Altaic families. Western scholars mostly have dropped the theories that maintain Uralic in the family tree of Japanese, which gave way for Altaic to be in the forefront.
Eventhough there is a somewhat general consensus in the West that Japanese is an Altaic language; it cannot absolutely confirm the origin of Japanese language.
Few had proposed that Japanese is related to Austronesian or Malayo-Polynesian language because of their similarities in phonotactic. For instance, they share the same 5 vowels, together with the attributes of open syllables and no diphtongs.
There is scientific evidence that shows the correlation between Korean and Japanese . Both the grammatical morphology and phonology of these two languages are similar. For instance, little arrangement is needed as the word is most likely the same. Neither of them has initial /r/ except in more recent words especially loan words.
Most of scholarly opinions are more toward Altaic family as origin of Japanese language. There are some evidences to support this theory. For example, Altaic languages have no grammatical distinction of number and gender which is similar to Japanese. Both have propositions instead of word order or declension. Neither of them has relative pronounce or passive voice.
Almost 150 years ago, the connection between Japanese and Altaic was first suggested. In 1857, Antar Boller (Viennese man) suggested that Japanese came from the Ural-altaic group of languages. Since then, linguistic research has split that group into Uralic and Altaic families. Western scholars mostly have dropped the theories that maintain Uralic in the family tree of Japanese, which gave way for Altaic to be in the forefront.
Eventhough there is a somewhat general consensus in the West that Japanese is an Altaic language; it cannot absolutely confirm the origin of Japanese language.
Before introduction of the Chinese, Japanese had no writing system. Kojiki and Manyoshu were the earliest known Japanese records. The Kaojiki mostly maintains Chinese syntax, while using character combinations specific to Japanese for their semantic content. Meanwhile, the Manyoshu begins to use Chinese characters for their pronunciation to indicate Japanese words.
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Due to the complex nature of Kanji, it is less convenient to use for phonetic purpose. Thus, two kana systems, hiragana and katakana were developed independently to simplify writing. However, Japanese still use kanji because kanji is more efficient since each individual kanji has a meaning in which a single character can represent a whole word. Besides, text is a lot easier to read when kana and kanji are mixed.
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REFERENCES
1. J.Vogler, d. (1998). An overview of the History of The japanese language.
2. Perkins, D. (1991). Encyclopedia of Japan: Japanese history and culture, from abacus to zori. Facts on File.
2. Perkins, D. (1991). Encyclopedia of Japan: Japanese history and culture, from abacus to zori. Facts on File.