a brief history of Japaneseand notes about language choice and language changelinguistic prehistory of JapanLong ago, Japan was a patchwork of languages and dialects.
Most likely, the dominant families were Altaic and Austronesian.  

fiHere are ve theories about the origin of the Japanese language:(1) a language isolate, with no extant relatives (popular, but unlikely)(2) an Altaic language, like Korean and Ainu (good evidence)(3) an Austronesian language, as in Formosa (some evidence)(4) a Dravidian language, as in southern India (silly!)(5) a creole language, born in northern Kyushu (a good possibility)

kokugo appears
By the 1500s, the primary languages of Japan were Ainu,Japanese, and Ryukyuan, each with several distinct dialects.
The Shogunate maintained a network of samurai who could
translate the local ways of speakingfl.

Meiji imperialism began the promotion of a single “kokugo”.
Immigrants learned “Japanese” as a second language; however,trade pidgins (e.g., Yokohama Pidgin) continued to ourish in
the communities of foreigners who were short-term residents.

foreign language multilingualism
As the Japanese nation-state began to assert itself internationally,
Japanese of cials and professionals learned more foreignlanguages.
English, German, and French were popular among bankers andbusinessmen; as well as in the military. 

fi Chinese, Dutch, German, French, and English have all been usedin medical discourse, although the particular language ofpreference has changed over the years.

dialect loss and national standardization
In the Fascist era, Japanese regional speech varieties were discouraged in favorof kokugo. Although regional varieties were not completely eliminated,Japan's excellent system of universal education, and later radio, greatly
homogenized the speech of people across JapanThe concept of kokugo 国語 which emerged over the Meiji-Taisho-Showa
years was that standard Japanese was the language of Japan. Other ways of
speaking were either foreign languages or “nonlanguages”. 

.

As a result, ethnic Chinese and Koreans who lived in Japan faced less pressure
to abandon their ancestral languages than did the Ainu and the Okinawans.

kokugo differences
Even after a century of language
standardization, not all Japanese speakkokugo the same way
In addition to different vocabulary
preferences, there are distinct differencesof pronunciation
This map shows the different types of“pitch accents” used when speaking.

.

standard Japanese.

four Ps of language choice
Multilingual people must constantly choose to use a particularlanguage from their linguistic repertoires. There are four
considerations which often guide this choice of language use.
(1) Practicality: Choose so that you can communicate andinteract more easily with others.
(2) Prestige: Choose so that others will think highly of you.
(3) Pride: Choose so that you can show others your own wayof speaking.
(4) Punishment: Avoid a language which is forbidden.

prestige vs. pride
For practical reasons, educated people in Japan now typically use
standard Japanese or English at work to facilitate communication
Native speakers of Zuzu-ben (Tohoku Dialect) often switch
to standard Japanese (or even to a local Tokyo Dialect)
because Zuzu-ben has low prestige
When traveling, even when they are in Tokyo,
persons from Kansai may continue to speak
Kansai-ben because they are proud of their.

.

Kansai heritage.

language change
A language does not change all at once. When a languagechanges, it can change in any of the following ways:(1) speaker by speaker, with individuals adopting the change
in no obvious social or stylistic pattern;(2) from group to group, with some groups in the community
adopting the change before others;(3) from style to style, with individuals adopting the change insome usage situations and then later in other usage situations.

similarities with other languages
The history of multilingualism and language change in Japanis in certain ways similar to that of other places
For example, the development of a national language in Italy
happened during the creation of modern Italy.

.

Similarly, the Fascists in Italy encouraged the use of standard
Italian and discouraged the use of regional and local dialects.

Italy was created during the Meiji Era 明治時代
The Italian
Peninsula wasa patchwork ofcountries withdifferent
regional
languages
before 1858
After 1870,
many Italians
felt a need for astandard Italian
language forthe newly.

fiuni ed nation.

further reading
B. Frellesvig (2010) A History of the Japanese Language (Cambridge University Press)
M. I. Robbeets (2005) Is Japanese Related to Korean, Tungusic, Mongolic and Turkic? (Leipzig: Otto Harrassowitz Verlag)
S. R. Ramsey (2004) “The Japanese Language and the Making of Tradition”, Japanese Language and Literature, Vol. 38, No. 1,
pp. 81-110
J. DeChicchis (2000) “International precedents for multilingual initiatives in Japan”, in R. E. Asher & R. Harris (eds.),
Linguisticoliterary (Delhi: Pilgrims Book, pp. 134-145)
J. Maher (1996), “North Kyushu Creole: A language-contact model for the origins of Japanese”, in D. Denoon, M. Hudson, G.
McCormack & T. Morris-Suzuki (eds.), Multicultural Japan: Palaeolithic to Postmodern (Cambridge: Cambridge UniversityPress, pp. 31-45)
J. DeChicchis (1995) "The Current State of the Ainu Language", in J. C. Maher & K. Yashiro (eds.), Multilingual Japan(Clevedon, Avon: Multilingual Matters, pp. 103-124)

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R. Miller (1980) Origins of the Japanese language: Lectures in Japan during the academic year, 1977–78 (Seattle: University ofWashington Press).