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* Susumu Ohno and other linguists including R. Caidwell, Susumu Shiba and Fujiwara Akira have suggested a possible relationship between Japanese and [[Tamil language|Tamil]], a member of the [[Dravidian languages|Dravidian language]] family spoken in [[South India]]. Evidence for this theory is that Japanese and Tamil are both [[agglutinative language]]s and also have similar [[phonetics]], [[vocabulary|vocabularies]], and [[retroflex consonant]]s. |
Specialists in Japanese [[historical linguistics]] all agree that Japanese is related to the [[Ryukyuan languages]] (including [[Okinawan language|Okinawan]]); together, Japanese and Ryukyuan are grouped in the [[Japonic languages]]. Among these specialists, the possibility of a genetic relation to [[Goguryeo]] has the most evidence; relationship to [[Korean language|Korean]] is considered plausible but is still up to debate; the Altaic hypothesis has somewhat less currency, though it has grown significantly more respectable in recent years, primarily due to the work of [[Sergei Starostin]], et al. Almost all specialists reject the idea that Japanese could be genetically related to [[Austronesian languages|Austronesian]]/[[Malayo-Polynesian languages]] or [[Sino-Tibetan languages]], and the idea that Japanese could be related to [[Tamil language|Tamil]] is almost entirely excluded. |
It should be noted that linguistic studies, like all fields, can be strongly affected by national politics and other non-academic factors. For example, most linguists would say that [[Romanian language|Romanian]] and [[Moldovan language|Moldovan]] are essentially the same language, and that they are known as two different languages for political reasons. Japan's long-standing rivalries and enmities with virtually all of its neighbours make the study of linguistic connection particularly fraught with such political tensions. However, these tensions are less prevalent among non-Japanese researchers. |
==Geographic distribution== |
Although Japanese is spoken almost exclusively in Japan, it has been and is still sometimes spoken in countries besides Japan. When Japan occupied [[Korea]], [[Taiwan]], parts of [[China]], and various Pacific islands, locals in [[Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere|those countries]] were forced to learn Japanese in empire-building programmes. As a result, there are still many people in these countries who speak Japanese instead of or as well as the local languages. In addition, emigrants from Japan, the majority of whom are found in [[Brazil]], where the biggest Japanese community outside Japan is found, [[Australia]] (especially [[Sydney]], [[Brisbane]], and [[Melbourne]]), and the [[United States]] (notably [[California]] and [[Hawaii]]), also frequently speak Japanese. There is also a small community in [[Davao]], [[Philippines]]. Their descendants (known as ''nikkei'' 日系, literally Japanese descendants), however, rarely speak Japanese fluently. There are estimated to be several million non-Japanese studying the language as well. |
=== Official status === |
Japanese is the official language of Japan, and Japan is the only country to have Japanese as an official working language. There are two forms of the language considered standard: {{nihongo|''hyōjungo''|標準語|}} or standard Japanese, and {{nihongo|''kyōtsūgo''|共通語|}} or the common language. As government policy has modernized Japanese, many of the distinctions between the two have blurred. ''Hyōjungo'' is taught in schools and used on television and in official communications, and is the version of Japanese discussed in this article. |
Standard Japanese can also be divided into {{nihongo|''bungo''|文語|}} or "literary language," and {{nihongo|''kōgo''|口語|}} or "oral language," which have different rules of grammar and some variance in vocabulary. ''Bungo'' was the main method of writing Japanese until the late 1940s, and still has relevance for historians, literary scholars, and lawyers (many Japanese laws that survived World War II are still written in ''bungo'', although there are ongoing efforts to modernize their language). ''Kōgo'' is the predominant method of speaking and writing Japanese today, although ''bungo'' grammar and vocabulary occasionally appears in modern Japanese for poetic effect. |
===Dialects=== |
{{main|Japanese dialects}} |
Dozens of dialects are spoken in Japan. The profusion is due to the mountainous island terrain and Japan's long history of both external and internal isolation. Dialects typically differ in terms of pitch accent, inflectional [[morphology (linguistics)|morphology]], [[vocabulary]], particle usage, and pronunciation. Some even differ in vowel and consonant inventories, although this is uncommon. |
Dialects from less central regions, such as the [[Tōhoku Region|Tōhoku]] or [[Tsushima]] dialect may be unintelligible to speakers from other parts of the country. The dialect used in [[Kagoshima]] in southern [[Kyūshū]] is famous for being unintelligible not only to speakers of standard Japanese but to speakers of nearby dialects elsewhere in Kyūshū as well. Kagoshima dialect is 84% cognate with standard Tokyo dialect. [[Kansai-ben]], a group of dialects from west-central Japan, is spoken by many Japanese; the Osaka dialect in particular is associated with comedy, and many entertainers use Osaka dialect phrases solely for humor value. |
The [[Ryukyuan languages]] are spoken in the [[Ryukyu Islands]]. Not only is each language unintelligible to Japanese speakers, but most are unintelligible to those who speak other Ryukyuan languages. Due to the close relationship of Ryukyuan and Japanese, they are still sometimes said to be only dialects of one language, but modern scholars consider them to be separate languages. |
Recently, Standard Japanese has |