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130-618: Asia League Ice Hockey ( Japanese : アジアリーグアイスホッケー ; Korean : 아시아리그 아이스하키 ) or ALIH ( AL ) is an association which operates a professional ice hockey league based in East Asia, with teams from Japan, South Korea, and formerly China and Russia. The league is headquartered in Japan. At the end of the playoffs every year the winner is awarded the Championship Trophy. The league was formed in 2003 due to declining popularity in

260-650: A bye to the semi-finals. In the first round, Kokudo swept the Ice Bucks while Oji Paper defeated the Vikings three games to one. In the second round Kokudo faced Halla, who were making their playoff debut. Kokudo won that series three games to one. On the other side, the Cranes faced off against Oji Paper and swept them in three games. The final was again the Cranes vs Kokudo and once again Kokudo emerged victorious, claiming

390-442: A player of the match award. This is particularly true for high profile matches like championship games. For example, during a finals championship series, a 'Finals MVP' award would be bestowed upon the most valuable player in the finals game(s). Ice hockey player, Wayne Gretzky , has been named MVP more times than any player in the history of the other three North American major professional leagues ( MLB , NBA , and NFL ). He won

520-628: A 10–7–5–3–1 point(s) system. Three finalists are named and the trophy is awarded at the NHL Awards ceremony after the playoffs. In the PLL , the MVP award (and all other awards) are selected by a two-round voting process. In first round voting, players and coaches will vote to determine nominees for each award. In second round voting, Media, PLL Front Office, and PLL Lacrosse Advisory Board vote on nominees to determine winners. Award winners are announced during

650-601: A Russian team from Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, HC Sakhalin , was affiliated to the league. The league draws most of its players from the home countries of its teams. However, the league allows each team a certain number of foreign imports on their roster. The league was formed after the collapse of the Korean ice hockey league and dissolution of the Japanese league. It was started with the goal of promoting hockey in Asia as well as helping

780-637: A benefit from the in-group to the out-group) means "[I/we] explained [it] to [him/her/them]". Such beneficiary auxiliary verbs thus serve a function comparable to that of pronouns and prepositions in Indo-European languages to indicate the actor and the recipient of an action. Japanese "pronouns" also function differently from most modern Indo-European pronouns (and more like nouns) in that they can take modifiers as any other noun may. For instance, one does not say in English: The amazed he ran down

910-665: A car manufacturer seeking to increase sales of his Chalmers Model 30 automobiles. The first recipients were Ty Cobb, playing for the Detroit Tigers, and Frank Schulte of the Chicago Cubs. The award was discontinued in 1955, after it failed to result in higher car sales. From 1922 to 1928 in the American League and from 1924 to 1929 in the National League, an MVP award was given to "the baseball player who

1040-414: A distinct language of its own that has absorbed various aspects from neighboring languages. Japanese has five vowels, and vowel length is phonemic, with each having both a short and a long version. Elongated vowels are usually denoted with a line over the vowel (a macron ) in rōmaji , a repeated vowel character in hiragana , or a chōonpu succeeding the vowel in katakana . /u/ ( listen )

1170-419: A glide /j/ and either the first part of a geminate consonant ( っ / ッ , represented as Q) or a moraic nasal in the coda ( ん / ン , represented as N). The nasal is sensitive to its phonetic environment and assimilates to the following phoneme, with pronunciations including [ɴ, m, n, ɲ, ŋ, ɰ̃] . Onset-glide clusters only occur at the start of syllables but clusters across syllables are allowed as long as

1300-573: A goaltender for Kokudo was voted Most Valuable Player (MVP) and Matsuda Keisuke of the Nikkō Ice Bucks was voted Young Guy of the Year . The 2005–06 season saw a number of changes to the make-up of Asia League. In the off-season , the Golden Amur withdrew from the league due to financial trouble. At the same time it was announced that Kangwon Land was showing interest in entering a team in

1430-474: A group from which the individual winner is decided based on regular season performance. This process is typically performing by way of a vote , wherein voters are usually either other players, members of the media and/or coaches . The specifics of this process varies across leagues. Some prominent examples of sports that conduct MVP awards are baseball, basketball, football, ice hockey, lacrosse, soccer, handball and rugby. In MLB , MVP voting takes place before

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1560-484: A listener depending on the listener's relative social position and the degree of familiarity between the speaker and the listener. When used in different social relationships, the same word may have positive (intimate or respectful) or negative (distant or disrespectful) connotations. Japanese often use titles of the person referred to where pronouns would be used in English. For example, when speaking to one's teacher, it

1690-408: A sentence need not be stated and pronouns may be omitted if they can be inferred from context. In the example above, hana ga nagai would mean "[their] noses are long", while nagai by itself would mean "[they] are long." A single verb can be a complete sentence: Yatta! ( やった! ) "[I / we / they / etc] did [it]!". In addition, since adjectives can form the predicate in a Japanese sentence (below),

1820-496: A series and were swept by Oji in three games. For the first time, the final series was not between the Cranes and Rabbits. Oji continued to roll over their opponents and swept the Cranes, marking the only time a team in Asia League had swept its way through three rounds. Due to their dominance on the ice, the point race was also swept by Oji. Takeshi Saito led the playoffs with nine assists and 15 points, while Shane Endicott had

1950-428: A single adjective can be a complete sentence: Urayamashii! ( 羨ましい! ) "[I'm] jealous [about it]!". While the language has some words that are typically translated as pronouns, these are not used as frequently as pronouns in some Indo-European languages, and function differently. In some cases, Japanese relies on special verb forms and auxiliary verbs to indicate the direction of benefit of an action: "down" to indicate

2080-511: A third worth five, a fourth worth three, and a fifth worth one. At the end of the voting, the player with the most overall points wins the award. The current MVP is Nikola Jokić from the Denver Nuggets . In the NFL , the MVP award is voted upon by a panel of 50 sportswriters at the end of the regular season , before the playoffs , though the results are not announced to the public until

2210-624: Is compressed rather than protruded , or simply unrounded. Some Japanese consonants have several allophones , which may give the impression of a larger inventory of sounds. However, some of these allophones have since become phonemic. For example, in the Japanese language up to and including the first half of the 20th century, the phonemic sequence /ti/ was palatalized and realized phonetically as [tɕi] , approximately chi ( listen ) ; however, now [ti] and [tɕi] are distinct, as evidenced by words like tī [tiː] "Western-style tea" and chii [tɕii] "social status". The "r" of

2340-421: Is topic–comment . Sentence-final particles are used to add emotional or emphatic impact, or form questions. Nouns have no grammatical number or gender , and there are no articles . Verbs are conjugated , primarily for tense and voice , but not person . Japanese adjectives are also conjugated. Japanese has a complex system of honorifics , with verb forms and vocabulary to indicate the relative status of

2470-448: Is also seen in o-medetō "congratulations", from medetaku ). Late Middle Japanese has the first loanwords from European languages – now-common words borrowed into Japanese in this period include pan ("bread") and tabako ("tobacco", now "cigarette"), both from Portuguese . Modern Japanese is considered to begin with the Edo period (which spanned from 1603 to 1867). Since Old Japanese,

2600-474: Is also used in a limited fashion (such as for imported acronyms) in Japanese writing. The numeral system uses mostly Arabic numerals , but also traditional Chinese numerals . Proto-Japonic , the common ancestor of the Japanese and Ryukyuan languages , is thought to have been brought to Japan by settlers coming from the Korean peninsula sometime in the early- to mid-4th century BC (the Yayoi period ), replacing

2730-440: Is appropriate to use sensei ( 先生 , "teacher"), but inappropriate to use anata . This is because anata is used to refer to people of equal or lower status, and one's teacher has higher status. Japanese nouns have no grammatical number, gender or article aspect. The noun hon ( 本 ) may refer to a single book or several books; hito ( 人 ) can mean "person" or "people", and ki ( 木 ) can be "tree" or "trees". Where number

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2860-701: Is associated with comedy (see Kansai dialect ). Dialects of Tōhoku and North Kantō are associated with typical farmers. The Ryūkyūan languages, spoken in Okinawa and the Amami Islands (administratively part of Kagoshima ), are distinct enough to be considered a separate branch of the Japonic family; not only is each language unintelligible to Japanese speakers, but most are unintelligible to those who speak other Ryūkyūan languages. However, in contrast to linguists, many ordinary Japanese people tend to consider

2990-466: Is better documentation of Late Middle Japanese phonology than for previous forms (for instance, the Arte da Lingoa de Iapam ). Among other sound changes, the sequence /au/ merges to /ɔː/ , in contrast with /oː/ ; /p/ is reintroduced from Chinese; and /we/ merges with /je/ . Some forms rather more familiar to Modern Japanese speakers begin to appear – the continuative ending - te begins to reduce onto

3120-509: Is correlated with the sex of the speaker and the social situation in which they are spoken: men and women alike in a formal situation generally refer to themselves as watashi ( 私 , literally "private") or watakushi (also 私 , hyper-polite form), while men in rougher or intimate conversation are much more likely to use the word ore ( 俺 "oneself", "myself") or boku . Similarly, different words such as anata , kimi , and omae ( お前 , more formally 御前 "the one before me") may refer to

3250-417: Is important, it can be indicated by providing a quantity (often with a counter word ) or (rarely) by adding a suffix, or sometimes by duplication (e.g. 人人 , hitobito , usually written with an iteration mark as 人々 ). Words for people are usually understood as singular. Thus Tanaka-san usually means Mx Tanaka . Words that refer to people and animals can be made to indicate a group of individuals through

3380-755: Is less common. In terms of mutual intelligibility , a survey in 1967 found that the four most unintelligible dialects (excluding Ryūkyūan languages and Tōhoku dialects ) to students from Greater Tokyo were the Kiso dialect (in the deep mountains of Nagano Prefecture ), the Himi dialect (in Toyama Prefecture ), the Kagoshima dialect and the Maniwa dialect (in Okayama Prefecture ). The survey

3510-514: Is of the greatest all-around service to his club". Prior winners were not eligible to win the MVP award again during this time. The MVP award, as it is known today in Major League Baseball, was first established in 1931. Generally, MVP awards are given at the conclusion of a multi-step process. In most professional sports leagues, the overall pool of players is initially narrowed down to a list of nominees, called finalists, forming

3640-420: Is often called a topic-prominent language , which means it has a strong tendency to indicate the topic separately from the subject, and that the two do not always coincide. The sentence Zō wa hana ga nagai ( 象は鼻が長い ) literally means, "As for elephant(s), (the) nose(s) (is/are) long". The topic is zō "elephant", and the subject is hana "nose". Japanese grammar tends toward brevity; the subject or object of

3770-498: Is preserved in words such as matsuge ("eyelash", lit. "hair of the eye"); modern mieru ("to be visible") and kikoeru ("to be audible") retain a mediopassive suffix - yu(ru) ( kikoyu → kikoyuru (the attributive form, which slowly replaced the plain form starting in the late Heian period) → kikoeru (all verbs with the shimo-nidan conjugation pattern underwent this same shift in Early Modern Japanese )); and

3900-402: Is the version of Japanese discussed in this article. Formerly, standard Japanese in writing ( 文語 , bungo , "literary language") was different from colloquial language ( 口語 , kōgo ) . The two systems have different rules of grammar and some variance in vocabulary. Bungo was the main method of writing Japanese until about 1900; since then kōgo gradually extended its influence and

4030-471: Is used for the present and the future. For verbs that represent an ongoing process, the -te iru form indicates a continuous (or progressive) aspect , similar to the suffix ing in English. For others that represent a change of state, the -te iru form indicates a perfect aspect. For example, kite iru means "They have come (and are still here)", but tabete iru means "They are eating". Questions (both with an interrogative pronoun and yes/no questions) have

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4160-405: Is victorious either in the overtime period or overtime shoot-out receives an additional point. A regulation time loss is worth zero points. At the end of the regular season, the team which has the most points is awarded the title of regular season champion. The league in the past generally takes a several week break between the regular season and postseason. As with the regular season, the format of

4290-405: Is why some linguists do not classify Japanese "pronouns" as pronouns, but rather as referential nouns, much like Spanish usted (contracted from vuestra merced , "your ( majestic plural ) grace") or Portuguese você (from vossa mercê ). Japanese personal pronouns are generally used only in situations requiring special emphasis as to who is doing what to whom. The choice of words used as pronouns

4420-563: The Ainu , Austronesian , Koreanic , and the now-discredited Altaic , but none of these proposals have gained any widespread acceptance. Little is known of the language's prehistory, or when it first appeared in Japan. Chinese documents from the 3rd century AD recorded a few Japanese words, but substantial Old Japanese texts did not appear until the 8th century. From the Heian period (794–1185), extensive waves of Sino-Japanese vocabulary entered

4550-730: The FIFA World Cup , the award is called the Golden Ball and is chosen by the FIFA Technical Study Group. In the Premier League , Player of the Season is chosen by a panel assembled by the league's sponsors consisting of members of "football's governing bodies, the media and fans,” and is announced in the second or third week of May. The concept of the 'most valuable player' is discussed within

4680-561: The Japan Ice Hockey League and the folding of the Korean Ice Hockey League . It was formed with the goal of promoting hockey and developing players' skills. The league initially comprised five teams in two countries. It expanded to highs of four countries (2004–05 season) and nine teams (2005–06 season) and it comprised eight teams from three countries in the 2013–14 season. Prior to the 2014–15 season,

4810-517: The Japonic language family, which also includes the Ryukyuan languages spoken in the Ryukyu Islands . As these closely related languages are commonly treated as dialects of the same language, Japanese is sometimes called a language isolate . According to Martine Irma Robbeets , Japanese has been subject to more attempts to show its relation to other languages than any other language in

4940-581: The Japonic language family spoken by the Japanese people . It has around 123 million speakers, primarily in Japan , the only country where it is the national language , and within the Japanese diaspora worldwide. The Japonic family also includes the Ryukyuan languages and the variously classified Hachijō language . There have been many attempts to group the Japonic languages with other families such as

5070-514: The Philippines , and various Pacific islands, locals in those countries learned Japanese as the language of the empire. As a result, many elderly people in these countries can still speak Japanese. Japanese emigrant communities (the largest of which are to be found in Brazil , with 1.4 million to 1.5 million Japanese immigrants and descendants, according to Brazilian IBGE data, more than

5200-738: The United States (notably in Hawaii , where 16.7% of the population has Japanese ancestry, and California ), and the Philippines (particularly in Davao Region and the Province of Laguna ). Japanese has no official status in Japan, but is the de facto national language of the country. There is a form of the language considered standard : hyōjungo ( 標準語 ) , meaning "standard Japanese", or kyōtsūgo ( 共通語 ) , "common language", or even "Tokyo dialect" at times. The meanings of

5330-806: The de facto standard Japanese had been the Kansai dialect , especially that of Kyoto . However, during the Edo period, Edo (now Tokyo) developed into the largest city in Japan, and the Edo-area dialect became standard Japanese. Since the end of Japan's self-imposed isolation in 1853, the flow of loanwords from European languages has increased significantly. The period since 1945 has seen many words borrowed from other languages—such as German, Portuguese and English. Many English loan words especially relate to technology—for example, pasokon (short for "personal computer"), intānetto ("internet"), and kamera ("camera"). Due to

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5460-527: The postseason , but the results are not announced until after the World Series . The BBWAA began by polling three writers in each league city in 1938, reducing that number to two per league city in 1961. The BBWAA does not offer a clear-cut definition of what "most valuable" means, instead leaving the judgment to the individual voters. In the NBA , the protocol for selecting the MVP has shifted throughout

5590-527: The 1.2 million of the United States ) sometimes employ Japanese as their primary language. Approximately 12% of Hawaii residents speak Japanese, with an estimated 12.6% of the population of Japanese ancestry in 2008. Japanese emigrants can also be found in Peru , Argentina , Australia (especially in the eastern states), Canada (especially in Vancouver , where 1.4% of the population has Japanese ancestry),

5720-706: The 1967 MVP award, despite not qualifying for the playoffs. Likewise, O. J. Simpson won the 1973 MVP award, despite not qualifying for the playoffs. Similar to Jerry West in basketball, Chuck Howley in football won the 1971 Super Bowl Most Valuable Player Award despite having lost the Super Bowl V . In 1960, Bobby Richardson won the World Series MVP Award, but lost the World Series. In ice hockey, three players, Al Rollins in 1954, Andy Bathgate in 1959 and Mario Lemieux in 1988 each won

5850-413: The 1975–76 MVP award even though his team did not qualify for the postseason. Additionally, several other NBA players in history have been awarded MVP, and proceeded to lose in the first round of the postseason. In another instance in professional basketball, Jerry West was awarded the 1969 NBA Finals MVP Award , despite having lost the finals. In the sport of professional football , Johnny Unitas won

5980-416: The 2008–09 season the awards were issued after the postseason but in that season they were issued during the break between the regular season and postseason. The league presents awards for: All of the awards, except for Best Hockey Town, are sponsored by an organization or individual. Japanese language Japanese ( 日本語 , Nihongo , [ɲihoŋɡo] ) is the principal language of

6110-565: The Awards Ceremony at the end of the season. In the NLL , the MVP award (and all other awards) nominees are voted on by select media. Each ballot allowed the voting members to rank their top five choices for the award. Each individual voter ranks their top five candidates on a 10–7–5–3–1 point(s) system (similar to the NHL system). The top three vote accumulating individuals will be announced as

6240-530: The Cranes but the team came back with two straight wins to advance to the final for the first time in their short time in the league. However, a 9.0 magnitude earthquake near the Free Blades hometown forced the League to cancel the finals. Halla had already in Japan just an hour before the disaster struck the area. Fortunately, both teams survived, but the League felt the final could not go on. On 22 March 2011

6370-589: The Cranes had the most assists with 13. At the awards ceremony Itoh also took the award for MVP of the Year while Jun Tonosaki received the award for Young Guy of the Year. The 2007–08 season started with a further reduction in teams. Harbin and Qiqihar combined into a single team and became owned and operated by the San Jose Sharks . They took the name of their new owner and became the China Sharks . Kangwon Land renamed to High1. With only seven teams,

6500-504: The Cranes won the first game, Kokudo won three games straight and won the playoffs. Chris Yule of Kokudo acquired ten points in the playoffs to lead the league while Chris Lindberg of the Cranes led the league in goals scored with six. Several players from Kokudo and the Cranes all had five assists. The 2005 ALH Awards were held in Tokyo and announced in April. Among the awards Kikuchi Naoya

6630-607: The Eagles in four games. The final was a close series, needing all five games and with four of the five games only being decided by a single goal. In the final game, Halla tied the game with 17 seconds remaining and in over-time the team captain, Kim Woo-jae scored to give Halla a victory and mark the first time a non-Japanese team had won the cup. In the play-offs Brock Radunske led with six goals and 13 points overall while Darcy Takeshi Mitani led with 8 assists. Patrik Martinec took regular season MVP honors, and Cho Min-ho , also from Halla,

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6760-486: The Japanese language is of particular interest, ranging between an apical central tap and a lateral approximant . The "g" is also notable; unless it starts a sentence, it may be pronounced [ ŋ ] , in the Kanto prestige dialect and in other eastern dialects. The phonotactics of Japanese are relatively simple. The syllable structure is (C)(G)V(C), that is, a core vowel surrounded by an optional onset consonant,

6890-427: The League declared that both Halla and the Free Blades would be declared co-champions. Though shortened, Masato Domeki of Oji led the playoffs with four goals, Bruce Mulherin led with six assists and fellow Free Blade Brad Farynuk had eights points overall. In the 2013–14 season, a new Seoul -based team, Daemyung Sangmu , joined the league, and prior to the 2014–15 season a team from Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk , HC Sakhalin ,

7020-685: The NHL's oldest MVP award, the Hart Trophy , with Lemieux also receiving the Ted Lindsay Award (introduced in 1970–71 and voted on by the league's players), but did not make the playoffs. Also, Reggie Leach won the 1976 Conn Smythe Trophy , presented to the most valuable player in the Stanley Cup playoffs , while breaking the league record for most playoff goals, but lost the finals . In baseball history, several MVPs have not made

7150-421: The NHL. If the game is tied at the end of 60 minutes, the teams play an overtime period. Overtime is five minutes, with four skaters on each team. If the game remains tied after five minutes, then the teams partake in a three player shoot-out, until one team comes out ahead. Prior to the 2008–09 season these games ended in a tie with no shoot-out. In a playoff game the league does not use the shoot-out, and instead

7280-736: The Old Japanese sections are written in Man'yōgana , which uses kanji for their phonetic as well as semantic values. Based on the Man'yōgana system, Old Japanese can be reconstructed as having 88 distinct morae . Texts written with Man'yōgana use two different sets of kanji for each of the morae now pronounced き (ki), ひ (hi), み (mi), け (ke), へ (he), め (me), こ (ko), そ (so), と (to), の (no), も (mo), よ (yo) and ろ (ro). (The Kojiki has 88, but all later texts have 87. The distinction between mo 1 and mo 2 apparently

7410-488: The Ryūkyūan languages as dialects of Japanese. The imperial court also seems to have spoken an unusual variant of the Japanese of the time, most likely the spoken form of Classical Japanese , a writing style that was prevalent during the Heian period , but began to decline during the late Meiji period . The Ryūkyūan languages are classified by UNESCO as 'endangered', as young people mostly use Japanese and cannot understand

7540-504: The Seibu Prince Rabbits. With eight teams, the league further reduced the number of games played to 34, which again resulted in an uneven play schedule. The Chinese-based teams, for example, played each other and the Korean teams each six times but only played the Japanese teams four times. The Paper Cranes easily won the regular season again finishing first with 86 points. With the previous year's goal leader not participating

7670-455: The Year marking the first time the award has gone to an import player. Young Guy of the Year went to Kim Ki-sung , also from Halla. After a season with little change to the make-up of the league, the 2009–10 saw further change. The San Jose Sharks ended their association with the Chinese team. They pulled out all coaches and players they had sent. The Chinese Ice Hockey Association took over

7800-543: The addition of a collective suffix (a noun suffix that indicates a group), such as -tachi , but this is not a true plural: the meaning is closer to the English phrase "and company". A group described as Tanaka-san-tachi may include people not named Tanaka. Some Japanese nouns are effectively plural, such as hitobito "people" and wareware "we/us", while the word tomodachi "friend" is considered singular, although plural in form. Verbs are conjugated to show tenses, of which there are two: past and present (or non-past) which

7930-414: The assists race with 48. The League further reduced the number of teams making the playoffs to only four. As well they brought in referees from outside the league to assist in officiating. The two Korean teams faced each other in one semi-final guaranteeing for the first time that a Korean team would appear in the final. Halla defeated High1 in four games after a loss on home ice. The Cranes similarly defeated

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8060-501: The award a record nine times during his career, eight consecutively. Barry Bonds is second, having won the MVP award seven times in the National League of Major League Baseball (The American League also awards an MVP), although until the 1930s baseball players were only permitted to win the award one time which limited the number of times Babe Ruth could win. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar won the NBA MVP award six times, and Michael Jordan won

8190-534: The award five times. Peyton Manning won the NFL MVP five times. Only five other players have won more than two NFL MVP awards: Jim Brown , Johnny Unitas , Brett Favre , Tom Brady , and Aaron Rodgers . An important distinction is that the MVP is not be conflated with the most winningest player. Although the two are usually somewhat correlated, there are several (albeit rare) prime counterexamples. For instance, in professional basketball , Kareem-Abdul Jabbar won

8320-404: The case of China who only has one team. Teams going to Japan will play against the Cranes and Eagles on the same trip as they are geographically close together, then in another trip play against the Free Blades and Ice Bucks. The league ranks the teams by points. A regulation time win is worth three points. If the teams are tied at the end of regulation, both teams receive one point. The team which

8450-399: The context in which it is used. A 'League MVP' is the most valuable player in an entire league, and refers to the player whose performance is most excellent in the league. Similarly, a "Team MVP" is the most valuable player on a team, referring to the player whose team contribution is greatest amongst their teammates. In many sports, MVP awards are presented for a specific match—in other words,

8580-592: The day before the Super Bowl . The sportswriters chosen regularly follow the NFL, and remain mostly consistent from year to year. They are chosen based on expertise and are independent of the league itself. In the NHL , the MVP award voting is conducted at the end of the regular season by members of the Professional Hockey Writers' Association , and each individual voter ranks their top five candidates on

8710-578: The effect of changing Japanese into a mora-timed language. Late Middle Japanese covers the years from 1185 to 1600, and is normally divided into two sections, roughly equivalent to the Kamakura period and the Muromachi period , respectively. The later forms of Late Middle Japanese are the first to be described by non-native sources, in this case the Jesuit and Franciscan missionaries; and thus there

8840-563: The fewest. In the early seasons, the China Dragon was provided with western players from the San Jose Sharks as part of the sponsorship deals, and the two Chinese teams were provided Swedish players when the Nordic Vikings were active in the league. Prior to the 2018–19 season, the players from Russia were treated as imports if playing for a non-Russian teams; since the 2018–19 season, each team can have two import players, while

8970-402: The field of philosophy of sport . Philosophers Stephen Kershnar and Neil Feit argue that the concept of the MVP is a fundamentally vague concept, but still valuable in that it promotes the active discussion of different types of excellence found within a specific sport and the weight to be assigned these types, thus leading to a gain for the discussants. Stephen Kershnar termed this vagueness

9100-413: The finalists for the award. The finalist who accumulated the most points after the voting period ended will be the award winner. In the case of a tie, the tiebreaker is to be decided by the individual who received the most 1st Place votes, followed by the number of 2nd place votes, and so on, until a winner is decided. MVP is more commonly referred to in association football as "Player of the Season.” In

9230-432: The first time a non-Japanese team won a playoff series in Asia League. The second round was over quickly as the Cranes and Rabbits who both had byes swept their opponents in three games each. For the third year in a row the final was between the Paper Cranes and the Rabbits. The Cranes took the series in four games. Joel Prpic won himself another scoring title as he led the playoffs in goals, 8, and points, 17. Kengo Itoh for

9360-455: The flow of loanwords from European languages increased significantly, and words from English roots have proliferated. Japanese is an agglutinative , mora -timed language with relatively simple phonotactics , a pure vowel system, phonemic vowel and consonant length, and a lexically significant pitch-accent . Word order is normally subject–object–verb with particles marking the grammatical function of words, and sentence structure

9490-609: The genitive particle ga remains in intentionally archaic speech. Early Middle Japanese is the Japanese of the Heian period , from 794 to 1185. It formed the basis for the literary standard of Classical Japanese , which remained in common use until the early 20th century. During this time, Japanese underwent numerous phonological developments, in many cases instigated by an influx of Chinese loanwords . These included phonemic length distinction for both consonants and vowels , palatal consonants (e.g. kya ) and labial consonant clusters (e.g. kwa ), and closed syllables . This had

9620-430: The language, affecting the phonology of Early Middle Japanese . Late Middle Japanese (1185–1600) saw extensive grammatical changes and the first appearance of European loanwords . The basis of the standard dialect moved from the Kansai region to the Edo region (modern Tokyo ) in the Early Modern Japanese period (early 17th century–mid 19th century). Following the end of Japan's self-imposed isolation in 1853,

9750-458: The languages of the original Jōmon inhabitants, including the ancestor of the modern Ainu language . Because writing had yet to be introduced from China, there is no direct evidence, and anything that can be discerned about this period must be based on internal reconstruction from Old Japanese , or comparison with the Ryukyuan languages and Japanese dialects . The Chinese writing system

9880-449: The languages. Okinawan Japanese is a variant of Standard Japanese influenced by the Ryūkyūan languages, and is the primary dialect spoken among young people in the Ryukyu Islands . Modern Japanese has become prevalent nationwide (including the Ryūkyū islands) due to education , mass media , and an increase in mobility within Japan, as well as economic integration. Japanese is a member of

10010-427: The large quantity of English loanwords, modern Japanese has developed a distinction between [tɕi] and [ti] , and [dʑi] and [di] , with the latter in each pair only found in loanwords. Although Japanese is spoken almost exclusively in Japan, it has also been spoken outside of the country. Before and during World War II , through Japanese annexation of Taiwan and Korea , as well as partial occupation of China ,

10140-496: The league announced that Kangwon Land had acquired some imports and strengthened the team. They had applied again and were expected to enter the league that season. As well another new team, the Nordic Vikings , was expected to join the league. The Nordic Vikings were a Swedish-Chinese joint venture that saw the team based in Beijing. As part of the venture, Swedish players were also sent to the two existing Chinese teams. This brought

10270-541: The league hoped to quickly expand to twelve teams, but could not due to financial difficulties. In the 2024–25 season, the Asia League Ice Hockey consists of five teams, with four teams from Japan and one from South Korea. The Asia League Ice Hockey season is divided into three parts. The late summer and early autumn parts consist of training camps and exhibition play. After that, the regular season takes place, which lasts for several months depending on

10400-407: The league in the 2006–07 season. After the last season The Nordic Vikings were looking for sponsors for the team. However, they failed to find sufficient sponsorship and left the league due to financial trouble. Harbin moved their home rink to Beijing and changed their name to Hosa to reflect this. Qiqihar acquired a new sponsor and changed their name to Changchun Fuao. Kokudo also changed their name to

10530-438: The league in the off-season. The Tohoku Free Blades were able to hire enough players and imports to join the league in time for the beginning of the season. This again left the league with seven teams. The league left the number of games played at 36, marking the first time that the league didn't adjust the schedule from the previous year. The league also introduced a couple of rules changes. All face-offs will take place on one of

10660-613: The league reduced the number of games played to its lowest at just 30 games. The league continued with an unbalanced schedule and the Korean and Chinese teams played each other more than the Japanese teams did. After three years of dominance, the Nippon Paper Cranes slipped to fourth place and the regular season was won by the Prince Rabbits. Alex Kim, playing for High1, recorded the most goals with 23 and most points with 51. Joel Prpic continued to find himself on top of

10790-463: The league to its high point of nine teams. Even though there were more teams than in the previous season the league reduced the number of games from 42 to 38, which resulted in an uneven schedule. For example, the Korean teams played nine games against each other, while playing four games against the teams from Japan and China except the Nordic Vikings, whom they played five times. At the end of

10920-431: The league with 24 goals, while his teammate Yosuke Kon led with 45 assists. However, with a couple of second-place finishes, Go Tanaka of the Free Blades led the overall points race with 59. The League also maintained the number of play-off teams at four. Anyang faced Oji while Nippon faced Tohoku. Halla managed to take two of three in Japan and defeat Oji on home ice to advance. The Free Blades needed all five games to defeat

11050-551: The league. However, only a few weeks later, they withdrew their application because it was felt their team wasn't strong enough to enter the league. The league also revised the limits on the number of imports some teams were allowed to have. Halla and the Ice Bucks were both allowed to carry an additional import player while the two Chinese teams were permitted two more import players. It was announced in July 2005 that Anyang Halla Winia would change their name to Anyang Halla. In late July,

11180-465: The most goals with 6. Kunihiko Sakurai , also from Oji, won the MVP of the Year and Eum Hyun-seung, from High1, won the Young Guy of the Year award. After several years of many changes to the teams, the 2008–09 season came with only one change. Oji Paper renamed themselves to Oji Eagles in July 2008. The league increased China's allowance to seven import players to help their competitiveness. Prior to

11310-420: The nine face-off dots as well teams will no longer be allowed to change after an icing. Anyang Halla repeated as the regular season champions finishing with 79 points and 23 wins. The team also set the record for the most goals by a team in a 36-game season with 180. Alex Kim and Tim Smith lead the points race. Both finished with 75 points on the season, with Kim taking the goal scoring race with 29 and Smith taking

11440-472: The number of teams changing from season to season in the first few years the league adjusted the schedule each year which often included an unbalanced schedule. Under the current schedule all teams make an away visit to each other team's home rink for a three-game series and also play a three-game series against that team at their own home rink. In order to minimize travel, teams traveling to other countries will stay there for two weeks and play two teams, except in

11570-425: The only strict rule of word order is that the verb must be placed at the end of a sentence (possibly followed by sentence-end particles). This is because Japanese sentence elements are marked with particles that identify their grammatical functions. The basic sentence structure is topic–comment . For example, Kochira wa Tanaka-san desu ( こちらは田中さんです ). kochira ("this") is the topic of the sentence, indicated by

11700-470: The out-group gives a benefit to the in-group, and "up" to indicate the in-group gives a benefit to the out-group. Here, the in-group includes the speaker and the out-group does not, and their boundary depends on context. For example, oshiete moratta ( 教えてもらった ) (literally, "explaining got" with a benefit from the out-group to the in-group) means "[he/she/they] explained [it] to [me/us]". Similarly, oshiete ageta ( 教えてあげた ) (literally, "explaining gave" with

11830-532: The pack with 30 assists. With six of seven teams going to the playoffs, the Sharks were the only team that didn't find themselves in a playoff spot. The first round was over quickly as the Cranes swept Halla in three games and Oji did the same to the Ice Bucks. Nippon faced their rivals, the Rabbits, in the second round and defeated them three to one. High1 couldn't repeat their success from the previous year by winning

11960-415: The particle wa . The verb desu is a copula , commonly translated as "to be" or "it is" (though there are other verbs that can be translated as "to be"), though technically it holds no meaning and is used to give a sentence 'politeness'. As a phrase, Tanaka-san desu is the comment. This sentence literally translates to "As for this person, (it) is Mx Tanaka." Thus Japanese, like many other Asian languages,

12090-572: The players with Russian citizenship are no longer treated as imports. Several former National Hockey League players have played in the league, including Chris Allen , Greg Parks , Esa Tikkanen , Chris Lindberg , Tavis Hansen , Shjon Podein , Jason Podollan , Derek Plante , Steve McKenna , Jarrod Skalde , Joel Prpic , Tyson Nash , Jamie McLennan , Shane Endicott , Wade Flaherty , Kelly Fairchild , Brad Tiley , Ben Walter , Ricard Persson , Bryan Young , Claude Lemieux , Brad Fast , Ric Jackman and Cole Jarrett . Early in its existence,

12220-563: The playoffs has varied from year to year. In the 2009–10 season the top four teams advanced to the playoffs and play two best-of-five rounds. The league scheduled the end of the regular season and postseason around the Olympic break. In each round the higher ranked team from the regular season will receive a home-ice advantage and the series will begin play and have the majority of games play in their rink. Asia League awards several awards each season in addition to The Championship Trophy. Prior to

12350-485: The playoffs, and in 2021, none of the six MVP finalists in Major League Baseball played for teams that reached the postseason . The term is most common in the United States and Canada . In most other countries around the world, " player of the year " is used for a season-spanning award and " player of the match " for individual games. In Australia, Australian rules football clubs and leagues use

12480-476: The playoffs. The table below gives the final regular-season ranks for all teams, with the playoff performance encoded in colors. The teams are ordered by their best championship results. Each Asia League Ice Hockey regulation games are played between two teams and are 60 minutes long. Games consist of three 20-minute periods separated by two 15-minute intermissions. While some teams have television broadcast contracts, they do not take television time-outs like

12610-480: The points race holding the top three spots in goals scored with Masatoshi Ito taking top honours at 33 goals. Darcy Mitani , also from the Cranes, took top spot in assists with 44 and points with 69. The playoffs saw the top four teams advance. The Golden Amur were swept in three games by Kokudo and the Cranes beat the Oji Paper in a close series, three games to one. The final was between the Cranes and Kokudo. While

12740-403: The previous year's record setting playoff run, Oji found themselves swept by the Rabbits in four games. For the fourth time in five years the final was between the Rabbits and Cranes. The Cranes won for the second time. The Cranes swept the playoffs point race with Kengo Itoh taking the lead with 16 assists and 21 points. Masahito Nishiwaki led with 12 goals. Brock Radunske took the award for MVP of

12870-481: The proposed larger Altaic family, or to various Southeast Asian languages , especially Austronesian . None of these proposals have gained wide acceptance (and the Altaic family itself is now considered controversial). As it stands, only the link to Ryukyuan has wide support. Other theories view the Japanese language as an early creole language formed through inputs from at least two distinct language groups, or as

13000-410: The regular season, the Nippon Paper Cranes had captured first place for a second year in a row with 95 points. While the Cranes had a very strong showing in the point rankings, the top goal scorer was Song Dong-hwan from Anyang Halla with 31. Derek Plante led in assists with 47 and overall points with 75. The top six teams advanced to the playoffs with the top two teams, the Cranes and Halla, receiving

13130-405: The regular season. The league reduced the number of teams making the playoffs and only five teams advanced. The first round saw a short three games series between the Cranes and High1. The Cranes swept High1 in two games. The second round found the regular season winners, Halla, facing the Cranes and Oji facing the Rabbits. Halla and the Cranes took it to seven games, but Halla lost on home ice. After

13260-459: The same structure as affirmative sentences, but with intonation rising at the end. In the formal register, the question particle -ka is added. For example, ii desu ( いいです ) "It is OK" becomes ii desu-ka ( いいですか。 ) "Is it OK?". In a more informal tone sometimes the particle -no ( の ) is added instead to show a personal interest of the speaker: Dōshite konai-no? "Why aren't (you) coming?". Some simple queries are formed simply by mentioning

13390-450: The schedule. Finally several teams advance to a post-season playoff. This is an elimination tournament where teams play a " best-of " format to advance through the rounds. The final remaining team is crowned the champion for the year. The regular season has been changed in almost every season that Asia League has been in operation. The first full season mirrors the two most recent seasons in which all teams play all other teams six times. With

13520-407: The scoring race went to Tim Smith of Kangwon Land. He led the league with 30 goals. Patrik Martinec of Halla led the league with 53 assists and 71 points. The playoffs followed the same format as the year before and six teams advanced. Kangwon Land swept Halla in three games and Oji Paper beat the Ice Bucks three games to one. While it was inevitable with two Korean teams facing each other, it marks

13650-495: The season the Halla coach, Shim Eui-sik was suspended for refusal to play after a disputed goal against High1. Halla was forced to forfeit the game, but at the end of the regular season they had finished in first place with 76 points, becoming the first non-Japanese team to do so. Brock Radunske of Halla finished first in goals and points with 29 and 57 respectively. Kunihiko Sakurai, a previous MVP, finished on top with 40 assists in

13780-585: The season. In December 2004 there was speculation by the South Korean media that North Korea could potentially field a team in the league, but that never materialized. The league also had an all-star game which took place on 22 and 23 January 2005 in Kushiro . The league was broken up into two teams, the Blue Orion and Red Antares. Fans voted on their favorite players and coaches. The most popular vote

13910-400: The shortened tournament format, there were no playoffs and the winner was declared from the point tally. The Nippon Paper Cranes won the tournament with 39 points. Joel Prpic from Kokudo was the assist and points leader with 25 assists and 33 points. Ryan Haruo Kuwabara , of the Cranes, was the scoring leader with 15 goals. The 2004–05 season was the first full season for the league, and

14040-439: The speaker, the listener, and persons mentioned. The Japanese writing system combines Chinese characters , known as kanji ( 漢字 , ' Han characters') , with two unique syllabaries (or moraic scripts) derived by the Japanese from the more complex Chinese characters: hiragana ( ひらがな or 平仮名 , 'simple characters') and katakana ( カタカナ or 片仮名 , 'partial characters'). Latin script ( rōmaji ローマ字 )

14170-454: The start of the regular season a series of exhibition games, dubbed "Anyang Cup 2008" was held in Anyang . Five of the seven teams in the league participated with the Ice Bucks and Rabbits sitting out. Oji won the exhibition tournament without losing a game. The league increased the number of games played to 36 and balanced the schedule by having all teams play each other an equal amount. Early in

14300-817: The state as at the time the constitution was written, many of the elders participating in the process had been educated in Japanese during the South Seas Mandate over the island shown by the 1958 census of the Trust Territory of the Pacific that found that 89% of Palauans born between 1914 and 1933 could speak and read Japanese, but as of the 2005 Palau census there were no residents of Angaur that spoke Japanese at home. Japanese dialects typically differ in terms of pitch accent , inflectional morphology , vocabulary , and particle usage. Some even differ in vowel and consonant inventories, although this

14430-481: The street. (grammatically incorrect insertion of a pronoun) But one can grammatically say essentially the same thing in Japanese: 驚いた彼は道を走っていった。 Transliteration: Odoroita kare wa michi o hashitte itta. (grammatically correct) This is partly because these words evolved from regular nouns, such as kimi "you" ( 君 "lord"), anata "you" ( あなた "that side, yonder"), and boku "I" ( 僕 "servant"). This

14560-412: The team and brought in new import players and coaches to replace those lost. The team also changed its name from China Sharks to China Dragon. Midway through the previous season the Seibu Prince Rabbits announced that due to financial difficulties they would withdraw from the league at the end of the 2008–09 season. They were unable to find a buyer and the team folded. However, another team from Japan joined

14690-441: The teams play continuous overtime periods of 20 minutes until one team scores. Asia League Ice Hockey was established primarily for the development of ice hockey in Asia. The league allows teams to hire a small number of imports to play on the team in order to even out strength as well as increase the level of competitiveness in the league. Initially, China was allowed the most imports while the experienced Japanese teams were allowed

14820-590: The term " best and fairest ", while those playing rugby league use "player of the year", such as the Dally M Medal . The first most valuable player award given in North American sports can be traced back to professional baseball in the early 1900s. A group of sportswriters met after the 1911 baseball season to determine the "most important and useful players to the club and to the league". These athletes would receive The Chalmers Award, named for Hugh Chalmers,

14950-416: The title for the second year in a row. Kokudo had three players claiming the three top points spots for the playoffs. Joel Prpic was the top goal scorer with nine, Kiyoshi Fujita had the most assists with 12 and Takahito Suzuki had the most points with 18. Kikuchi Naoya won MVP of the year for the second time and Young Guy of the Year went to Masahito Nishiwaki of the Cranes. Further changes were seen in

15080-596: The topic with an interrogative intonation to call for the hearer's attention: Kore wa? "(What about) this?"; O-namae wa? ( お名前は？ ) "(What's your) name?". Negatives are formed by inflecting the verb. For example, Pan o taberu ( パンを食べる。 ) "I will eat bread" or "I eat bread" becomes Pan o tabenai ( パンを食べない。 ) "I will not eat bread" or "I do not eat bread". Plain negative forms are i -adjectives (see below) and inflect as such, e.g. Pan o tabenakatta ( パンを食べなかった。 ) "I did not eat bread". Most Valuable Player The term can have different connotations depending on

15210-419: The two consonants are the moraic nasal followed by a homorganic consonant. Japanese also includes a pitch accent , which is not represented in moraic writing; for example [haꜜ.ɕi] ("chopsticks") and [ha.ɕiꜜ] ("bridge") are both spelled はし ( hashi ) , and are only differentiated by the tone contour. Japanese word order is classified as subject–object–verb . Unlike many Indo-European languages ,

15340-577: The two methods were both used in writing until the 1940s. Bungo still has some 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 dominant method of both speaking and writing Japanese today, although bungo grammar and vocabulary are occasionally used in modern Japanese for effect. The 1982 state constitution of Angaur , Palau , names Japanese along with Palauan and English as an official language of

15470-480: The two terms (''hyōjungo'' and ''kyōtsūgo'') are almost the same. Hyōjungo or kyōtsūgo is a conception that forms the counterpart of dialect. This normative language was born after the Meiji Restoration ( 明治維新 , meiji ishin , 1868) from the language spoken in the higher-class areas of Tokyo (see Yamanote ). Hyōjungo is taught in schools and used on television and in official communications. It

15600-459: The various participating countries develop their hockey programs and increase their showing in the Olympics . The first season was a shortened season of only five teams, and played as a tournament rather than a regular season. Four Japanese teams and a Korean team participated. The tournament lasted just two months and each team played four games, two at home and two away, against each other. Due to

15730-407: The verb (e.g. yonde for earlier yomite ), the -k- in the final mora of adjectives drops out ( shiroi for earlier shiroki ); and some forms exist where modern standard Japanese has retained the earlier form (e.g. hayaku > hayau > hayɔɔ , where modern Japanese just has hayaku , though the alternative form is preserved in the standard greeting o-hayō gozaimasu "good morning"; this ending

15860-548: The world. Since Japanese first gained the consideration of linguists in the late 19th century, attempts have been made to show its genealogical relation to languages or language families such as Ainu , Korean , Chinese , Tibeto-Burman , Uralic , Altaic (or Ural-Altaic ), Austroasiatic , Austronesian and Dravidian . At the fringe, some linguists have even suggested a link to Indo-European languages , including Greek , or to Sumerian . Main modern theories try to link Japanese either to northern Asian languages, like Korean or

15990-407: The year. Through the 1979–80 season, the basketball players themselves comprised the MVP voting bloc up. Since the start of the 1980 NBA season, a panel of broadcasters and sportswriters are brought together to vote on the MVP award. Every person on the panel casts a vote for their first-place selection all the way to their fifth. A first-place vote nets a player 10 points while a second is worth seven,

16120-677: Was affiliated to the league. Beginning in the 2020–21 season, the Yokohama Grits joined the league, becoming the first ALIH team to play in the Greater Tokyo Area since the Seibu Prince Rabbits folded in 2009. On 2 August 2022, the league voted to remove Sakhalin in protest to the Russian invasion of Ukraine . Since its foundation in 2004, 17 different clubs have played in the ALIH, and 13 of them have at least once qualified for

16250-539: Was based on 12- to 20-second-long recordings of 135 to 244 phonemes , which 42 students listened to and translated word-for-word. The listeners were all Keio University students who grew up in the Kanto region . There are some language islands in mountain villages or isolated islands such as Hachijō-jima island , whose dialects are descended from Eastern Old Japanese . Dialects of the Kansai region are spoken or known by many Japanese, and Osaka dialect in particular

16380-414: Was for the forward position on the Blue Orion which received over 45,000 votes. Masatoshi Ito received the most votes with 9741. The skill competition and game were both won by the Blue Orion. The regular season finished with the Nippon Paper Cranes and Kokudo both having 98 points. After applying the league's tie-breaking procedure, the Nippon Paper Cranes were ranked first. The Nippon Paper Cranes also won

16510-680: Was imported to Japan from Baekje around the start of the fifth century, alongside Buddhism. The earliest texts were written in Classical Chinese , although some of these were likely intended to be read as Japanese using the kanbun method, and show influences of Japanese grammar such as Japanese word order. The earliest text, the Kojiki , dates to the early eighth century, and was written entirely in Chinese characters, which are used to represent, at different times, Chinese, kanbun , and Old Japanese. As in other texts from this period,

16640-474: Was lost immediately following its composition.) This set of morae shrank to 67 in Early Middle Japanese , though some were added through Chinese influence. Man'yōgana also has a symbol for /je/ , which merges with /e/ before the end of the period. Several fossilizations of Old Japanese grammatical elements remain in the modern language – the genitive particle tsu (superseded by modern no )

16770-441: Was named Young Guy of the Year. The 2010–11 season saw virtually no change to the structure of the season or league. All teams from the previous season remained in the league, and the number of games remained at 36. The regular season ran from 18 September 2010 to 20 February 2011. After two years of leading the league, Halla slipped to fourth place and Oji Eagles took the regular season honors with 76 points. Shunhei Kuji of Oji lead

16900-543: Was seen by some to be the inaugural season. Before the season began, there was already interest by the National Hockey League (NHL) in China's hockey program. In addition to the five teams which took part in the tournament the year before, the league added Golden Amur from Russia as well as Harbin and Qiqihar from China. The first season had a schedule of 42 games. Teams played each other six times during

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