Tag Archives: Japanese language

Still, think that the dialects that are being used by the Chinese and Japanese people are funny?  Here is what you need to know about the two distinct dialects and their features, which will leave you stunned.  So, let’s proceed as to what these languages have to offer. 
It can be said that both Chinese and Japanese language uses a very cultured language, which is filled with erudition.  Their system of writing includes kanji ideograms.  Well, in comparison to the Japanese language, the Chinese language is known for its greater use of characters than the Japanese language.  So, my blog will help you to locate the differences between Chinese and Japanese language.  Although they seem to similar after hearing, they are far more complex than you can ever think. 

Let me enlighten you with the complexities of these languages. 
What are the intrinsic properties of Chinese language? 
The Chinese language is considered to be the most complex language among the several other East Asian languages.  Almost 20% of the world population uses this language.  Although it is quite common that, most of the people use this language, which usually includes pictorial fonts.  But a majority of the people use one semantic and one phonetic element while using the Chinese language. 

The Chinese dictionary has over 40,000 characters- thrilling, isn’t it?  Let me tell you another interesting fact- if you want to read the Chinese newspaper, you need to know at least 3,000 of those characters!  Quite hectic just for a journal. 

One of the most common dialects of Chinese language, known as Mandarin, uses four individual tones of pronunciation.  They embrace high level rising, falling and then rising and falling tones.  If you pronounce the entire word wrong, the meaning of the word will change completely. 

The linguistic aspect of Chinese language is characterised by isolation, and analysis, in the words that remain same after inflect.  Each of the Chinese characters is correspondent to exactly one syllable and one morpheme.  However, the phonological structure of Chinese syllables is subjected to clear limitations.  For instance, in Mandarin, a single vowel is up to five phonemes, which is the smallest unit of sound, and ends in either a vowel –n, -ng or r. Thus, it is to be noted that, with all these restrictions, the total number of possible syllables present in the Chinese language has a maximum clarity of limit.  There are only

Syllables in Mandarin, which includes tonal variances, and over 261 correspondent pronunciations.  The omission often results in the reduction of about 400 different syllables from the dialect.  Another important fact about the Chinese language is that they have a rich vocabulary than any other living language.  Thus, this results in the tremendous number of homophones with the dominating aspect of Mandarin. 

If you look at the language from the perspective of grammar, you will see that the language displays a basic norm of the subject-verb-object order of word as we use in English.  Although most of the Chinese men admit to the fact that, the Chinese language has no grammar.  This is because, grammar is not taught in schools, due to their lack of inflection in the dialect.  Then, I think, it will be more accurate to propagate that, the Chinese languages have a high and uninflected word order dependent grammar. 

What are the intrinsic properties of the Japanese language? 
Previously, I presented an extensive study on the linguistic aspects of Chinese language.  And now it’s time that I also mention the intrinsic properties of the Japanese language.  It is to note that, the language is far more complex than Chinese.  Three scripts are combined in Japanese, which includes three characters, including kanji (漢字), hiragana (ひらがな), and katakana (カタカナ), are combined in Japanese.  Hiragana is used for native Japanese words, katakana is used to denote foreign words, and kanji is the colloquial dialect used here.  But when it comes to the inventory of sound, it is comparatively small in Japanese.  However, it is distinguished by local dialects and honorific. 

Unlike the counterparts that they have in European languages, the Japanese verbs and adjectives are much more similar to each other.  It is important to note that, verbs also function as adjectives; on the other hand, attributes lead to the incorporation of the verb ‘to be’ and formulate inflection like verbs.  The linking of ideas in a sentence largely depends on the inflexions of adjectives and verbs. 
The linkage between two words in Japanese is made by the usage of ‘-te form’ of the Japanese verb ‘iku’, which means to go. 
Japanese vs. Chinese language

Well, now that I have promulgated the essential features Chinese and Japanese language, I will proceed to the main point, which is the point of difference between these two languages.  They are as follows:

The Chinese language is predominantly written in Hanzi, whereas, the Japanese language is written in Kanji. 

The Chinese language uses only Hanzi, while the Japanese language uses two more variations, which are hiragana and katakana. 
Another significant difference between Chinese and Japanese language is regarding words and meanings, although most of the characters in both the language are similar to each other. 

Almost 30% of Kanji indicates something in Japanese and something different in Chinese.  Thus, if you still think that these languages are just the same, think again! 

Chinese and Japanese languages have different writing styles.  The stroke order might also be different between these two dialects even though the result appears to be the same.