Rikunarita-ORG/Wikinium huggingface dataset:
# Hepburn romanization

**Hepburn romanization** (Japanese: ヘボン式ローマ字, Hepburn: *Hebon-shiki Rōmaji*; 'Hepburn-type Roman letters') is a system of Japanese romanization. It uses the Latin alphabet. Many people from countries other than Japan use Hepburn romanization to help learn how to spell Japanese in the Latin alphabet.
# Logogram

Ancient Chinese characters, saying "uncooked"
A **logogram** or **logograph** is a grapheme (or symbol) which represents a word or morpheme in a language. This is contrasted with a phonogram, which is a symbol that represents a sound.

## Related pages

* Ideogram
* Hieroglyph
* Logo
# Old Japanese

| Old Japanese |
| --- |
|  |
| Manuscript of the *Man'yōshū*, recording Old Japanese using Chinese characters |
| Pronunciation | [jämätəkətəbä] |
| Region | Japan |
| Era | 701—794 |
| Language family | Japonic
* **Old Japanese**
 |
| Writing system | Regular script
Man'yōgana |
| Language codes |
| ISO 639-3 | `ojp` |
| Linguist List | `ojp` |
| *Glottolog* | `oldj1239` |
|

**Old Japanese** (, Yamatəkətəba) is the oldest known form of the Japanese language.

It is difficult to give a precise date when Old Japanese started. The date when the Old Japanese period is said to have finished is 794. That was the start of the Heian period.

The Japanese writing system came from the Chinese. Wooden tablets have been found with writing on. The oldest extended piece of writing we know of dates from 712. This is the start of the Nara period (710-794).

The earliest texts found in Japan are written in classical Chinese. However, some of them show the influences of Japanese grammar (e.g. word order). Sometimes bits of Chinese characters are used to make the sound of the small Japanese words called “particles”. This helps us to make some guesses about how it used to be pronounced.

Many changes in the Japanese language took place over the centuries. The spoken form of Japanese changed much more quickly than the written form.

## Related pages

* Late Old Japanese

**Notes**
# Ryukyuan languages

| Ryukyuan |
| --- |
| Geographic distribution | Ryukyu Islands (Okinawa Prefecture, Amami Islands of Kagoshima Prefecture) |
| Ethnicity | Ryukyuan people |
| Linguistic classification | Japonic* **Ryukyuan**
 |
| Subdivisions | * Amami
* Kunigami
* Okinawan
* Miyako
* Yaeyama
* Yonaguni
 |
| Language codes |
| Glottolog | ``ryuk1243`` |
| Location of Ryukyu Islands |

The **Ryūkyūan languages** (Okinawan: 琉球口, *Duuchuuguchi*) are a group of Japonic languages spoken in the Ryūkyū Islands, the southernmost part of Japan. The languages are Amami, Kunigami, Okinawan, Miyako, Yaeyama and Yonaguni.

Although Japan says the Ryukyuan languages are dialects of Japanese, most linguists see them as languages. This is because Japanese speakers would not be able to understand Ryukyuan without learning it.

In the past, the Ryukyuan languages were spoken all over Ryukyu. Due to the languages being discriminated against, they have become endangered languages. Most Ryukyuans now speak Japanese.

## History

When a group people called the Yayoi came to Japan, they brought over a language called Proto-Japonic. This language diverged into Japanese and Ryukyuan over time.

## Sound Changes

Japanese and Ryukyuan have different sound changes. For example, Japanese “o” becomes Okinawan “u”. This is why the Japanese word “t**o**” (and) is “t**u**” in Okinawan.

It’s also common for Japanese “k” to become Okinawan “ch”. This causes “O**k**inawa” to become “U**ch**inaa”.

In the Yonaguni language, Japanese “y” becomes “d”. Japanese “**y**ama” (mountain) is “**d**ama” in Yonaguni.

## Language Usage

Most older Ryukyuans can speak a Ryukyuan language, while younger people speak Japanese. Ryukyuan languages are also spoken in Hawaii and South America as many Ryukyuans live there too.

* Sanseido (1997). *言語学大辞典セレクション：日本列島の言語* (*Selection from the Encyclopædia of Linguistics: The Languages of the Japanese Archipelago*). "琉球列島の言語" (*The Languages of the Ryukyu Islands*).
* Ashworth, D. E. (1975). *A generative study of the inflectional morphophonemics of the Shuri dialect of Ryukyuan*. Thesis (Ph. D.)—Cornell University, 1973.
* Heinrich, Patrick (2004): *Language Planning and Language Ideology in the Ryūkyū Islands*, in: Language Policy 3.2, (2004): 153
* Heinrich, Patrick, Shinsho Miyara, Michinori Shimoji, eds. 2014. *Handbook of the Ryukyuan Languages.* Berlin: de Gruyter.
* Serafim, L. A. (1985). Shodon: the prehistory of a Northern Ryukyuan dialect of Japanese. [S.l: s.n.
* Shimabukuro, Moriyo. 2007. *The accentual history of the Japanese and Ryukyuan languages: a reconstruction*. Languages of Asia series, v. 2. Folkestone, Kent: Global Oriental. ISBN 978-1-901903-63-8
* Uemura, Yukio, and Wayne P. Lawrence. 2003. *The Ryukyuan language.* Endangered Languages of the Pacific Rim (Series), A4-018. Osaka, Japan: ELPR.

## Other websites

* Ryukyuan language phonetic database Archived 2009-12-12 at the Wayback Machine
# Seal script

Chinese characters for the words 'seal script' in regular script
(left) and seal script (right).
**Seal script** (Chinese: Simplified: 篆书 ;Traditional: 篆書; pinyin: zhuànshū) is an ancient style of Chinese calligraphy.

## Books

* Chén Zhāoróng (陳昭容) *Research on the Qín (Ch'in) Lineage of Writing: An Examination from the Perspective of the History of Chinese Writing* (秦系文字研究﹕从漢字史的角度考察) (2003). Academia Sinica, Institute of History and Philology Monograph (中央研究院歷史語言研究所專刊). ISBN 957-671-995-X. (in Chinese)
* Qiú Xīguī (裘錫圭) *Chinese Writing* (2000). Translation of 文字學概要 by Gilbert L. Mattos and Jerry Norman. Early China Special Monograph Series No. 4. Berkeley: The Society for the Study of Early China and the Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley. ISBN 1-55729-071-7.

## Other websites

 Media related to Seal script at Wikimedia Commons

* Script translation
* Richard Sears on seal script
# Clerical script

Chinese characters of "Clerical Script" in regular script (left) and clerical script (right).
The **clerical script** (simplified Chinese: 隶书; traditional Chinese: 隸書; pinyin: *lìshū*; Japanese: 隷書体, *Reishotai*;) is an archaic style of Chinese calligraphy.

## Other websites

 Media related to Clerical script at Wikimedia Commons
# Hanja

|  |
| --- |
| Hanja |
|  |
| Korean name |
| Hangul | 한자/한문한자 |
| Hanja | 漢字/韓文漢字 |
| Revised Romanization | *Hanja* |
| McCune–Reischauer | *Hancha* |

**Hanja** is the Korean word for Chinese characters. It is about the Chinese characters that are borrowed from the Chinese language and used in the Korean language with Korean pronunciation. *Hanja-mal* or *hanja-eo* is about words which can be written with hanja. *Hanmun* (한문) is about the Chinese Classical writing, but *hanja* can sometimes be used to generally mean *hanmun* too. Hanja was never very changed, so almost all of the Chinese characters in hanja are the same as in traditional Chinese. Only a few hanja characters are unique to Korea.

In the 1440s, however, a Korean hangul alphabet relying on sound was made by a group of students, led by King Sejong the Great. It was not widely used at first. However, by the early 19th and 20th century it was more widely used than *hanja*, and it is now the official writing system of Korea.

But until then, everyone mostly read and wrote in *hanja*, so most of the older books in Korean literature are written in hanja. Students who learn Korean history learn hanja to read historical papers. Children in South Korea still learn hanja, for many South Korean words still have roots in hanja. In North Korea, however, hanja has been abolished along with many Chinese loanwords, and North Koreans only use hangul to write in Korean.

## Related pages

* Hangul
* Kanji

## Other websites

* Korean Hangul to Hanja Conversion Tool
# Chữ Hán

| Chữ Hán Chữ Nho |
| --- |
| *Chữ Hán* and *chữ Nho* written in chữ Nôm, with chữ Quốc ngữ on the right. |
| Script type |  Logographic
 |
| Time period | 3rd century BC – 20th century AD, present (limited usage) |
| Direction | Top-to-bottom, columns from right to left (traditional) |
| Languages | Literary Chinese, Vietnamese (written in chữ Nôm) |
| Related scripts |
| Parent systems | Oracle bone script* Seal script
	+ Clerical script
		- Regular script
			* Chữ Hán
 |
| Child systems | Chữ Nôm |
| Sister systems | Kanji, Hanja, Zhuyin, traditional Chinese, simplified Chinese, Khitan script, Jurchen script, Tangut script, Yi script |
|

**Chữ Hán**, meaning 'Han characters' in Vietnamese, refers to Chinese characters used in Vietnam. They were employed for writing Literary Chinese (Hán văn) and Sino-Vietnamese words in the Vietnamese language. Vietnam started using Chữ Hán during the Han dynasty's rule over the Red River Delta region, persisting until the early 20th century (111 BC – 1919 AD). However, as Literary Chinese lost its prominence with the end of Confucian court examinations, Chữ Hán gradually faded from use.

## Other names

In Vietnamese, Chinese characters are commonly called chữ Hán, but there are other terms like chữ Nho ("Confucian characters") or Hán tự (漢字). Classical Chinese is referred to as Hán văn, while Văn ngôn is used for Literary Chinese.

## Usage today

A Vietnamese edict (1765) written in chữ Hán. It uses the Lệnh thư script.
Nowadays, Chinese characters are mostly found in temples and old buildings in Vietnam. Chữ Hán is no longer widely used and is associated with cultural traditions. During Vietnamese festivals, calligraphers, known as ông đồ, write couplets in Chinese characters to convey wishes for prosperity and longevity. This cultural practice is reflected in the poem "Ông đồ" by Vũ Đình Liên, which laments the declining appreciation for Vietnamese calligraphy during Tết.
# Phonetic transcription

**Phonetic transcription** is the act of writing down the way a word sounds. One way of writing phonetic transcription is by using the International Phonetic Alphabet. This is helpful because in many languages, words are sometimes written differently than how they are pronounced. Some people also pronounce words differently due to their accent. Different languages also use different writing systems. Phonetic transcription can tell a person how a word sounds even if they can not read the language's writing system.
# Japanese writing system

The **Japanese writing system** is the writing system of the Japanese language. It is made up of three different scripts: hiragana, katakana, and kanji. Almost all written Japanese sentences contain a mix of these different scripts. Because written Japanese uses a mixture of scripts and includes a very large number of kanji characters, it is thought to be one of the most complicated writing systems in the world.

Kanji is the oldest type of Japanese script. It is based on Chinese characters and has been used since around the 5th century. There are thousands of different kanji, and students in Japan must learn 2,136 of them by the end of high school, as of 2010. Kanji is logographic, which means that the characters represent meaning rather than sounds. They can be pronounced differently depending on how they are used. This is not the same as hiragana and katakana, which are syllabic, meaning each character represents a different short sound. These types of characters are called *kana* in Japanese.

Hiragana and katakana first started to be used in the Heian period (794–1185). Hiragana characters are mostly used to write words that are native to the Japanese language, as well as grammatical words like particles. Katakana is used for words from other languages, like foreign names and places. It is also used for onomatopoeia, some scientific names, and sometimes to emphasize words. In modern Japanese, the hiragana and katakana scripts are made up of 46 basic characters, or 71 including diacritics, with each sound in Japanese represented by one character in each script. Like kanji, hiragana and katakana characters are also originally based on Chinese characters, but they have been simplified and changed so much that it is not obvious where they came from.

Modern written Japanese also sometimes uses initialisms from the Latin alphabet, like "BC/AD," "a.m./p.m.," "FBI," and "CD." Romanized Japanese (Japanese written using the Latin alphabet) is mainly used for people who cannot read kanji or kana, like on street signs, passports, and in dictionaries for foreign learners. It also helps write Japanese words in English or other languages. Since the end of World War II, romanized Japanese has been taught in Japanese elementary schools, so most Japanese people can read it, but it is rarely used in everyday writing. Most native Japanese speakers prefer reading kanji and kana.
# Syllabary

A syllabary letter often begins as a simpler version of a logogram; shown here with the Japanese katakana writing system. The left side of each box shows the modern Japanese letter and the right side shows the original Chinese logogram.
A **Syllabary** is a writing system that uses symbols for syllables called syllabograms, as opposed to an alphabet which has letters to represent individual consonants and vowels. These syllables are often an optional consonant sound (C) followed by a vowel sound (V) — that is, a CV or V syllable, however, there are examples of syllabaries with symbols for CVC, CV- tone, and C (normally nasal consonants) syllables.

## History

## Short list of Syllabaries

* Canadian Aboriginal syllabics
* Cherokee
* Japanese Kana (Hiragana, Katakana)
* Linear B
* Old Persian Cuneiform
# Pronunciation

**Pronunciation** is a way a word is usually spoken. It can be affected by many different factors:

1. Geographical location or dialect
2. Presence of speech defect
3. Ethnic group
4. Education level
5. Social class

**Mispronunciation** is an actual mistake in speaking. It is not used for how a speaker of a dialect pronounces a word. Examples occur in many place names and personal names. For instance, Leicester Square is actually pronounced like "Lester Square".

## Related pages

* Phonetics
* Accent
* Dialect
	+ Dialects of English
* Register of a language
# On'yomi

**On'nyomi** are Japanese reading of a Kanji. The On'yomi readings originated in China. On'yomi along with **Kun’yomi** are important readings when it comes to learning kanji and reading words in Japanese.
# Loanword

A **loanword** is a word that is adopted by a language that comes from another language. Since people who speak different languages often need to talk to each other, it is actually very common for languages to "borrow" words from other languages.

Examples of this can be seen in the English language because it has many loanwords. When the Normans took over England during the Norman Conquest in 1066, they made French the official language of England. Since then, many French words later became English words. For example, the English words beef, pork, poultry, and mutton are loanwords based on the Norman French names of the animals cow, swine, chicken, and sheep in that same order. In English, the loanwords mean the meat of those animals specifically. Since later the British Empire took over many different countries and people, they also borrowed many words from the languages of the people they took over. An example of this is the word "jungle", which is a Hindi word that has been adopted into English.

Languages often use loanwords because cultures learn about new ideas and inventions from people of the languages they borrow from. For example, in English the names of meats and wines often come from French, musical terms often come from Italian, and philosophical terms often come from German. Although native English speakers are now familiar with Chinese ideas and inventions, they are often called by their Japanese names in English because these were introduced to Americans through Japan. China, on the other hand, was closed off from the world when its ideas and inventions spread throughout the world because its communist government stopped communication with most outside countries, including America.

The names of food are some of the most common loanwords across languages because people may not have any idea of what the food is like when they are first introduced to a certain culture. For example, Italian food usually has Italian names like *spaghetti* and *pasta*, Japanese food has Japanese names like *sushi* and *tempura*, and Mexican food has Spanish names like *tacos* and *carnitas*.

## Related pages

* Calque
* Gairaigo
# Middle Chinese

**Middle Chinese** (Chinese: 中古漢語; pinyin: *zhōnggǔ Hànyǔ*), or *Ancient Chinese* as used by linguist Bernhard Karlgren is a name given to an older version of the Chinese language. People spoke it during Southern and Northern Dynasties and the Sui, Tang, and Song dynasties (6th century - 10th century). The term "Middle Chinese", in contrast to Old Chinese and Modern Chinese, is usually used for historical Chinese phonology, which wants to reconstruct the pronunciation of Chinese used during these times.

Middle Chinese can be divided further. There was an early period and a later period. These can be told apart by the pronunciation of certain sounds that changed.
# Meiji Restoration

New fighting the old: graphic from ~1870
The **Meiji Restoration** (明治維新) was a time of great change in Japan. In the Japanese language, *Meiji-ishin* is the term for the **Meiji Restoration**. The term describes a series of events that changed the shape of Japan’s political and social systems. These changes took place mainly in the three years from 1866 to 1869, at the beginning of the Meiji period.

## End of the Shogunate

In 1866, the Tokugawa Shogunate was ruling Japan. In the year 1866, two domains, the local government at that time, came together under an alliance. The name of this alliance was the Sat-cho Alliance. This was an alliance between the Satsuma Domain and the Chōshū Domain, and a person named Sakamoto Ryoma brought the two domains together. These two domains supported the Emperor Meiji of Japan who, at the time, did not have much power. With their support the emperor could regain much of his power.

The Tokugawa Shogunate’s rule ended on 9th November 1867, but they still retained some authority and power. In the Boshin War of 1868, an army from Satsuma Province and Choshu defeated the forces of the Tokugawa Shogunate. This completely ended the power of the Tokugawa Shogunate.

## The Revolution of the country's system

After defeating the Tokugawa Shogunate, the leaders of the Meiji Restoration started to reform the system of the country. They acted in the name of Japan’s emperor, to restore (that is, to return) the emperor’s powers. But, the leaders also kept to themselves a number of powers. In fact, even after the Meiji Restoration, an oligarchy, a small group, had the real power and ruled in the name of the emperor.

After the Meiji Restoration started, Japan’s progress was fast. The revolution included centralizing power, changing the tax system, starting the educational system, constructing factories and railways, etc.

Industrialization developed rapidly and within next three to four decades (by 1905) the Empire of Japan had become a military power, comparable to the great powers of the time.

## Leaders

* Okubo Toshimichi (1830-1878)
* Kido Takayoshi (1833-1877)
* Saigo Takamori (1827-1877)
* Iwakura Tomomi (1825-1883)
* Ito Hirobumi (1841-1909)
* Kuroda Kiyotaka (1840-1900)
* Matsukata Masayoshi (1835-1924)
* Oyama Iwao (1842-1916)
* Saigo Tsugumichi (1843-1902)
* Yamagata Aritomo (1838-1922)
* Inoue Kaoru (1835-1905)
* Saionji Kinmochi (1849-1940)
# Shinjitai

**Shinjitai** (kanji: 新字体, kana:しんじたい) literally means "new character forms" in Japanese. These are kanji (the Japanese word for Chinese characters) that were simplified in Japan after World War II. At that time the Japanese government changed the writing system by replacing many kyūjitai (kanji: 旧字体, kana: きゅうじたい, meaning: old character forms) by making simpler characters. These newer characters had the exact same meaning and pronunciations as the older ones, but they could be written with fewer strokes of a pen. For example, the character 樂 simplified to 楽. Some shinjitai characters are also used as simplified Chinese characters. For example, the character 国 is used in both Japanese and simplified Chinese. However, most shinjitai look more like traditional Chinese characters (called kyūjitai in Japanese) than even simplified Chinese characters do, and there are also far fewer shinjitai than simplified Chinese characters. While most Japanese words these days use the shinjitai form, there are a few words where writing the kyūjitai form is still common. For example, the word "dragon" is usually written using the shinjitai character 竜, but writing the kyūjitai character 龍 for it is also still quite common. For most kanji, however, the shinjitai form is unchanged from the kyūjitai form.

## Comparison of Kyūjitai, Shinjitai, and Simplified Chinese Characters

| Kyūjitai | Shinjitai | Simplified Chinese | Meaning |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| **Characters simplified differently in both Japanese and Chinese** |
| 龍 | 竜 | 龙 | dragon |
| 龜 | 亀 | 龟 | turtle |
| 廣 | 広 | 广 | wide / expanse |
| 闗 | 関 | 关 | close |
| 單 | 単 | 单 | single / odd |
| 亞 | 亜 | 亚 | inferior / second ; Asia |
| 樂 | 楽 | 乐 | happy / cheerful / joy / pleasure |
| 圓 | 円 | 圆 | round/ Japanese *yen* or Chinese *yuan* (name of currency) |
| 鐡 | 鉄 | 铁 | iron / railroad |
| 齒 | 歯 | 齿 | tooth |
| 歸 | 帰 | 归 | return |
| 麵 | 麺 | 面 | noodles |
| **Characters simplified the same way in both Japanese and Chinese** |
| 國 | 国 | 国 | country / kingdom / state / nation |
| 濕 | 湿 | 湿 | wet / damp |
| 豿 | 狗 | 狗 | dog |
| 舊 | 旧 | 旧 | old |
| 體 | 体 | 体 | form |
| **Characters simplified in Chinese but not in Japanese** |
| 東 | 東 | 东 | east |
| 車 | 車 | 车 | car / coach / cart / vehicle ; wheel |
| 飮 | 飲 | 饮 | drink |
| 話 | 話 | 话 | talk / speech |
| 銀 | 銀 | 银 | silver |
| 紙 | 紙 | 纸 | paper |
| 貝 | 貝 | 贝 | shell |
| 測 | 測 | 测 | survey / measure |
| 門 | 門 | 门 | door / gate |
| 聞 | 聞 | 闻 | hear / news |
| 葉 | 葉 | 叶 | leaf |
| 機 | 機 | 机 | machine |
| 愛 | 愛 | 爱 | love |
| **Characters simplified in Japanese but not in Chinese** |
| 渴 | 渇 | 渴 | thirsty |
| 冰 | 氷 | 冰 | ice |
| 佛 | 仏 | 佛 | Buddha / Buddhism |
| **Characters not simplified in either language** |
| 潟 | 潟 | 潟 | salinized soil / lagoon |
| 鼠 | 鼠 | 鼠 | mouse / rat / rodent |