Languages of Japan

Languages of Japan
The most widely spoken language in Japan is Japanese, which is separated into several dialects with Tokyo dialect considered Standard Japanese.
In addition to the Japanese language, Ryūkyūan languages are spoken in Okinawa and parts of Kagoshima in the Ryūkyū Islands. Along with Japanese, these languages are part of the Japonic language family, but they are separate languages, and are not mutually intelligible with Japanese, or with each other. All of the spoken Ryukyuan languages are classified by UNESCO as endangered.
In Hokkaidō, there is the Ainu language, which is spoken by the Ainu people, who are the indigenous people of the island. The Ainu languages, of which Hokkaidō Ainu is the only extant variety, are isolated and do not fall under any language family. Ever since the Meiji period, Japanese has become widely used among the Ainu people and consequently Ainu languages have been classified critically endangered by UNESCO.
In addition, languages such as Orok, Evenki and Nivkh spoken in formerly Japanese controlled southern Sakhalin are becoming more and more endangered. After the Soviet Union took control of the region, speakers of these languages and their descendants migrated to mainland Japan and still exist in small numbers.
History
Not until shortly after the turn of the second century did indications of language appear in Chinese texts. Chinese characters were adopted and records of spoken language were made in Japan. Hiragana and Katakana characters were incorporated as a relatively accurate way to represent the sounds of Chinese characters.
Ryūkyūan languages
Chinese characters were first introduced to Ryūkyūan languages shortly into the 13th-century. Details concerning the language before then are not well known. 14th-century records indicate that gifts from Ryūkyū Islands to China used Hiragana, which indicates that these languages were tied to Mainland Japanese at the time.
Ainu languages
History records that people in Hokkaidō, Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands spoke Ainu languages, but there are also places in and around Tōhoku whose names derive from Ainu languages. According to 16th-century records, Ainu languages had no written form. Only from the 19th-century did the Ainu languages begin to use Katakana.
Orok language
Records show that the Orok language was spoken during the latter part of the Edo period in Hokkaidō, Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands; however, there are only a few speakers still in existence.
Nivkh language
Like Orok, the Nivkh language was spoken in Sakhalin and later in Hokkaidō, and the Kuril Islands. It is unknown whether speakers of Nivkh still remain in Japan.
European languages
Since the Middle Ages, owing to visits from Europeans, Japanese has adopted a number of foreign words.
Post-1543 Portuguese was the initial contact language with Europeans, but this was later replaced by Dutch after the Japanese removed Portuguese people from the country. The Japanese government conducted negotiations with Western authorities in Dutch until around 1870. Since then English became the primary language of interaction with Western countries.
Language classifications
The oral languages spoken by the native peoples of the insular country of Japan at present and during recorded history belong to either of two primary phyla of human language:
Japonic languages
Japanese language (See also Japanese dialects)
Hachijō Japanese
Eastern Japanese
Western Japanese
Kyūshū Japanese
Ryūkyūan languages
Northern Ryūkyūan languages
Amami
Kunigami
Okinawa
Southern Ryūkyūan languages
Miyako
Yaeyama
Yonaguni
Ainu languages
Hokkaidō Ainu language
Sakhalin Ainu language (extinct)
Kuril Ainu language (extinct)
In addition to these two indigenous language families, there is Japanese Sign Language, as well as significant minorities of ethnic Koreans and Chinese, who make up respectively about 0.5% and 0.4% of the country's population and many of whom continue to speak their ethnic language in private (see Zainichi Korean). There is also a notable history of use of Kanbun (Classical Chinese) as a language of literature and diplomacy in Japan, similar to the status of the Latin language in medieval Europe, which has left an indelible mark on the vocabulary of the Japanese language. Kanbun is a mandatory subject in the curricula of most Japanese secondary schools.
See also
Demographics of Japan
Japanese people
Yamato people
Ryukyuan people
Ainu people
Koreans in Japan
Chinese in Japan
Brazilians in Japan
Classical Chinese as a literary language of Japan
East Asian languages
Deafness in Japan
References
Further reading
About the role of Dutch in Japan
(PDF) - Abstract available in French
- Posted online on 24 February 2016
- Posted online on 26 February 2017
- Posted online on 7 October 2017
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