101-562: Kuramae Kokugikan ( Japanese : 蔵前国技館 , Hepburn : Kuramae Kokugi-kan ) was a building situated in the Kuramae neighborhood of Taitō, Tokyo which was built by the Japan Sumo Association and opened in 1954. Its construction was decided to replace the old bomb-damaged Ryōgoku Kokugikan . It closed its doors in 1984. The building was torn down and sporting events were transferred to the second Ryōgoku Kokugikan. The place
202-725: A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) by one Suresh Kachhadia. The Supreme Court of India uses English in its proceedings and objects to use Hindi. The Union Government uses Hindi and English as official languages, such as for parliamentary proceedings and texts of federal laws. Communications between the Union Government and state governments are in Hindi with Region A and Region B states and in English with Region C states. State governments use their own native languages in official communications. They may adopt one or more of
303-533: A "nation", these two languages may be considered two equal national languages of the nation of Canada, or the national languages of two nations within one state, English Canada and French Canada . Quebec nationalists consider Quebec French the language of the Quebec nation and is that province's official language (and recognized minority in Ontario , Manitoba and Newfoundland and Labrador ). Acadian French ,
404-637: 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
505-594: A complex system of honorifics , with verb forms and vocabulary to indicate the relative status of 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 )
606-414: 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 )
707-427: A further seven more (totalling eleven official languages): Cree , Dënesųłiné , Gwich’in , Inuvialuktun, North and South Slavey and Tłı̨chǫ . As these official languages are legislated at a territorial (sub-federal) level, they can be construed as national languages. Besides these there many Indigenous languages of Canada , which are the national languages of one or more First Nations , Inuit or Métis peoples;
808-419: 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
909-429: 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
1010-852: A number of First Nations and Inuit homelands at the Indigenous government level legislate their language as an official language of the Nation, such as the Nisg̱a’a language by Nisg̱a’a and Inuvialuktun by Inuvialuit . Notably the Cree language is spoken (with variations) from Alberta to Labrador, Anishinaabemowin is spoken across central Canada, and Inuktitut is spoken across the Arctic, northern Quebec and Labrador. There are many languages spoken across China , with most people speaking one of several varieties of Chinese . During successive imperial dynasties,
1111-519: A polity: " Regional language " ( choralect ) The last is usually given the title of official language . In some cases (e.g., the Philippines ), several languages are designated as official and a national language is separately designated. "National language" and " official language " are best understood as two concepts or legal categories with ranges of meaning that may coincide, or may be intentionally separate. Stateless nations are not in
SECTION 10
#17327806767571212-408: 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),
1313-428: 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
1414-418: A very rare sandangamae ceremony. In January 1971, yokozuna Tamanoumi and Kitanofuji , performed the same ceremony to commemorate the completion of the renovations. In May 1955, Emperor Shōwa came to his first tenran-zumō at the arena, 10 years after the end of the war, to support the sport. Until then, sumo bouts for the emperor were held at the imperial palace . The Kuramae Kokugikan
1515-535: Is Lebanese Arabic . French and English are also widespread in Lebanon. Luxembourg uses three official languages: Luxembourgish , French, and German. Previously Luxembourgish had no official status, but following a constitutional revision a law was passed on 24 February 1984 making Luxembourgish the national language. Furthermore, this law recognised the three languages of Luxembourg (Luxembourgish, French and German) as administrative languages. The Malay language
1616-466: Is Urdu , and arrangements shall be made for its being used for official and other purposes within fifteen years from the commencing day." Although Urdu has been declared an official language, so far all government documents, legislation, legal orders, and other official records are written in Pakistani English . Most higher education instruction is in English. The National Language Authority
1717-624: 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
1818-562: Is a language (or language variant , e.g. dialect ) that has some connection— de facto or de jure —with a nation . The term is applied quite differently in various contexts. One or more languages spoken as first languages in the territory of a country may be referred to informally or designated in legislation as national languages of the country. National languages are mentioned in over 150 world constitutions. C.M.B. Brann , with particular reference to India, suggests that there are "four quite distinctive meanings" for national language in
1919-400: Is also famous for holding sold-out professional wrestling venues, including Tokyo Pro, National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) and Japan Pro Wrestling Alliance (JWA) cards and the first women's professional wrestling tournament. The arena also saw the birth of Antonio Inoki as a star. The arena also held different tournaments for a large variety of sports, including boxing, judo and kendo. It
2020-448: 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,
2121-527: 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
SECTION 20
#17327806767572222-643: 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 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
2323-584: Is an organization established to make arrangements to promote Urdu since 1979. Filipino is the national language of the Philippines . The current 1987 constitution designated the Filipino language , which is based on Tagalog with the inclusion of terms from all recognized languages of the Philippines , as the national language. It also designated both Filipino and English as the official languages for purposes of communication and instruction, and designated
2424-440: 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
2525-701: 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
2626-466: 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
2727-509: 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
2828-430: Is deprecated. Bengali , the sole official language of Bangladesh , is also the de jure and de facto national language of the country. Establishing Bengali as a national language was one of the key reason for the independence of Bangladesh. Bosnia and Herzegovina de jure has three national languages - Bosnian , Croatian and Serbian - which are de facto varieties of one language, Serbo-Croatian . It
2929-537: Is designated as the national language. This is due the recognition of ethnic Malays (approximately 14% of the population ) as the indigenous peoples of Singapore. Traditionally, the lingua franca among the different ethnic groups in Singapore was Bazaar Malay , a Malay-based creole . Since independence, the government has been promoting English as the main language of Singapore. The bilingual education policy requires students to study two languages: English and
3030-417: 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
3131-556: 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 the language, affecting the phonology of Early Middle Japanese . Late Middle Japanese (1185–1600) saw extensive grammatical changes and
Kuramae Kokugikan - Misplaced Pages Continue
3232-755: 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
3333-633: Is not officially classified as a minority language but equal to Finnish. Both national languages are compulsory subjects in school (except for children with a third language as mother tongue) and a language test is a prerequisite for governmental offices where a university degree is required. The constitution also grants the Sami and the Roma peoples the right to maintain and develop their languages: The Sami have partial right to use Sami languages in official situations according to other laws. Hindi and English are
3434-495: Is now the site of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Bureau of Sewage. The Sumo Association has owned the site of the former Tokyo Technical High School at the base of Kuramae Bridge since before World War II . The construction plan for the new Kokugikan was underway since around 1940 but was suspended due to the war. After the war, the old Kokugikan was occupied by the allied forces enforcing
3535-592: Is nowadays the culture of Italy . Furthermore, Italian was often an official language of the various Italian states before unification , slowly replacing Latin, even when ruled by foreign powers (such as the Spaniards in the Kingdom of Naples , or the Austrians in the Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia ). While English and Swahili are official languages, Swahili also has a special status as national language. None of
3636-552: Is officially defined under the three names, corresponding to the country's constituent nations . The Latin and Cyrillic alphabets both have official and equal status. Bulgarian is the sole official language in Bulgaria . Canada 's official languages since the Official Languages Act of 1969 are English ( Canadian English ) and French ( Canadian French ). Depending on one's views of what constitutes
3737-420: 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
3838-405: Is one of the few sign languages in the world to have such status. Besides official English ( Nigerian Standard English ), Nigeria recognizes three 'majority', or national, languages. These are Hausa , Igbo , and Yoruba , each with some 20 million speakers or more. Article 251(1) of the 1973 Constitution of Pakistan , titled National language , specifies: "The National language of Pakistan
3939-498: 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
4040-510: Is the Romanian language . The Russian language is the only national language of Russia and had federal official status, but 27 other languages are considered official in different Federal subjects of Russia . Singapore has four official languages: English ( Singapore English variety), Chinese ( Singaporean Mandarin variety), Malay and Tamil . Although English is the primary language of business, government, and education, Malay
4141-459: Is the de jure and de facto official language of Italy . Italian is also referred to as national language for historical and cultural reasons, because since the 15th century, Italian became the language used in the courts of nearly every state in Italy and in general among educated Italians (scholars, writers, poets, philosophers, scientists, composers and artists) who contributed to what
Kuramae Kokugikan - Misplaced Pages Continue
4242-662: Is the national language of Malaysia in accordance with Article 152(1) of the Federal Constitution of Malaysia . Dhivehi is the national language of Maldives per the Maldivian constitution. The Maltese language is the national language of Malta. It is also the official language of the island, together with English . Maltese only is recognised as "national" in Chapter 1 of the Laws of Malta. Although English
4343-460: Is the official language of The Netherlands. In the province of Friesland , Frisian is also spoken and is recognized as the second official language there. While the population of New Zealand is predominantly English-speaking , the language of the indigenous Polynesian people is the Māori language . Both these languages have official status in the country, along with New Zealand Sign Language , which
4444-507: Is the only nationwide official language in Namibia , there are also 20 national languages , which are each spoken by more or less sizeable portions of the population and are considered Namibia's cultural heritage. All national languages have the rights of a minority language and may even serve as a lingua franca in certain regions. Among Namibia's national languages are German , Afrikaans , Oshiwambo , Otjiherero , Portuguese , as well as
4545-402: 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
4646-471: 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
4747-513: Is used to issue driving licenses and report tax income, making it not a national language but official language of the government. Finland has two national languages: the Finnish language and the Swedish language . The Constitution of Finland guarantees the right to use Finnish and Swedish in courts and other state institutions. Despite the large difference in the numbers of users, Swedish
4848-405: 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
4949-585: The Constitution of Ireland as the national language and first official language of Ireland, and the English language is recognised as a second official language. Hebrew was identified as the national language of the State of Israel with the adoption of the Nation-State Bill in 2018, with Arabic recognized as a language with "special status" used in state institutions. The Italian language
5050-517: 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
5151-455: 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
SECTION 50
#17327806767575252-483: The Republic of China . In order to promote a sense of national unity and enhance the efficiency of communications within the nation, the government decided to designate a national language. The Beijing dialect of Mandarin and Guangzhou dialect of Cantonese were each proposed as the basis for a national language for China. In the beginning, there were attempts to introduce elements from other Chinese varieties into
5353-738: 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
5454-513: The budo ban, forcing the Japan Sumo Association to hold tournaments and Sumo venues in shrines and baseball stadiums. Due to resource shortages after the war, the beginnings of the arena were built using the scraps from the demolition of the naval hangar of Atsugi . The target capacity was 11,000 spectators. From 1950 to 1953, main tournaments were held at the Kuramae Kokugikan, which was still under construction. Kuramae Kokugikan
5555-806: 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
5656-527: 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),
5757-489: The 22 languages listed in the Indian constitution 's eighth schedule — Assamese , Bengali , Bodo , Dogri , Gujarati , Hindi , Kannada , Kashmiri , Konkani , Maithili , Malayalam , Marathi , Meitei , Nepali , Odia , Punjabi , Sanskrit , Santali , Sindhi , Tamil , Telugu and Urdu . The Supreme Court of India uses English as its sole official language; high courts in some states use other languages spoken in
5858-654: The Czech Republic. Amharic was the national language in Ethiopian Empire . The country is composed of at least 80 different ethnic nationalities. Its people altogether speak over 80 different languages. Amharic , Oromo , Tigrinya , Somali , and Afar are the official working languages of Ethiopia. But courts, and legislations work in Amharic and the constitution of the country is written in Amharic in an official capacity. And in day-to-day basis, Amharic
5959-486: 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,
6060-736: 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
6161-604: The Republic of China. Since then, the Beijing dialect has become the main standard for pronunciation, due to its prestigious status during the preceding Qing dynasty . Still, elements from other dialects do exist in the standard language, which is now defined as reflecting the pronunciation of Beijing, the grammatical patterns of Mandarin dialects spoken in the northern parts of China, and the vocabulary of modern vernacular Chinese literature. The People's Republic of China renamed
SECTION 60
#17327806767576262-488: 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
6363-543: 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
6464-542: The bout results, air conditioning and heating. Originally built using recycled materials, there had been some debate within the Japan Sumo Association as to whether the arena should be fully renovated or partially renovated, or whether a new Kokugikan should be built. In 1982, it was decided a new arena would be built and the Kuramae Kokugikan closed in 1984. At the opening ceremony (September 18, 1954), both yokozuna Chiyonoyama and Kagamisato performed
6565-469: The country's biggest languages ( Gikuyu , Luo , Kamba , Kalenjin , etc.) have any explicit legal status on the national level, but the 2010 constitution enjoins the state to "promote and protect the diversity of language of the people of Kenya." In Lebanon , the Arabic language is the "official national" language. Modern Standard Arabic is used for official purposes, while the everyday spoken language
6666-578: 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
6767-423: 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, the flow of loanwords from European languages increased significantly, and words from English roots have proliferated. Japanese
6868-609: 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
6969-647: The languages of the Himba , Nama , San , Kavango and Damara . Nepali is the official language in the federal government of Nepal. Over 123 languages are spoken in Nepal, all of which are granted constitutional status as rāṣṭrabhāṣā ( राष्ट्रभाषा ), officially translated as 'languages of the nation' (the word rāṣṭrabhāṣā also simply means 'national language'). Some of the languages include: Nepal Bhasa , Tamang , Sherpa , Rai , Magar , Gurung , Maithili , Awadhi , English , Limbu , Bhojpuri , etc. Dutch
7070-458: 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
7171-449: 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
7272-427: 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 ,
7373-591: The national language 普通话 (Pinyin: Pǔtōnghuà, literally "common speech"), without otherwise changing the definition of the standard national language. The Croatian language is the official language of Croatia. "The Croatian language and the Latin script shall be in official use in the Republic of Croatia" in Article 12 of the Croatian Constitution. The Czech language is the national language of
7474-512: The national language in addition to those from the Beijing dialect; this was reflected in the first official dictionary of the national language, given the name 國語 ( Pinyin : Guóyǔ , literally "national language"). But this artificial language had no native speakers and was difficult to learn, so it was abandoned in 1924. Ultimately, the Beijing dialect was chosen as the national language and it continued to be referred to as 國語 in Chinese in
7575-682: The national language of Acadians , is an official language of New Brunswick (and recognized minority in Quebec , Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island ). Newfoundland English dialects differ substantially from other Canadian English ones. English and French are official in Canada's three territories ; two legislate a variety of Indigenous languages in addition. Nunavut and the Northwest Territories (N.W.T.) have as official languages Inuktitut and Inuinnaqtun , with N.W.T. also have
7676-509: The official language(s). Further, they may enjoy recognition as a language used in compulsory schooling and treasury money may be spent to teach or encourage adults in learning a language which is a minority language in a particular area to restore its understanding and spread its moral stories, rhymes, poems, phrases, songs, and other literary heritage which will promote social cohesion (where other languages remain) or will promote nationalist differentiation where another, non-indigenous language
7777-487: The official languages in India, according to Article 343(1) of the Constitution of India . Gujarat High Court has stated that while a majority of people in India have accepted Hindi as a national language, there is no official record or order declaring Hindi as the national language of the country. The observation was made by division bench of Chief Justice S.J. Mukhopadhaya and Justice A.S. Dave recently while rejecting
7878-609: 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 the Ainu , Austronesian , Koreanic , and the now-discredited Altaic , but none of these proposals have gained any widespread acceptance. Little
7979-425: 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
8080-470: 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
8181-415: 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,
8282-846: The position to legislate an official language , but their languages may be sufficiently distinct and well-preserved to be national languages. Some languages may be recognized popularly as "national languages", while others may enjoy official recognition in use or promotion. In many African countries, some or all indigenous African languages are officially used, promoted, or expressly allowed to be promoted (usually taught in schools and written in important publications) as semi-official languages whether by long-term legislation or short-term, case-by-case executive (government) measures. To be official, spoken and written languages may enjoy government or federalised use, major tax-funded promotion or at least full tolerance as to their teaching and employers' recognition in public education , standing on equal footing with
8383-481: 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
8484-675: The regional languages as auxiliary official languages in the regions to serve as auxiliary media of instruction therein. More than 170 languages are spoken in the Philippines and almost all of them belong to the Philippine subgroup of the Austronesian language family. In September 2012, La Union became the first province in Philippine history to pass an ordinance proclaiming a local language. It declared Ilocano as an official language . This move aims to protect and revitalize
8585-459: 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
8686-542: The spoken language of the capital city served as the official spoken language and was used across the country by government officials who traveled to communicate with one another. Dialects used for this purpose in different eras included those of Xi'an , Luoyang , Nanjing , Beijing , and other historical capital cities . After the Xinhai Revolution in 1911, the Kuomintang (Chinese nationalists) founded
8787-817: 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
8888-399: The state in addition to English. The official and national language of Indonesia is Indonesian . Indonesia has more than 700 living languages, making it the second most linguistically diverse country after Papua New Guinea. These 700+ languages, however, are without official status, and some are in danger of extinction . The largest local language is Javanese . Irish is recognised by
8989-481: 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
9090-560: 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". National language A national language
9191-419: 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 ,
9292-577: 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
9393-480: 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
9494-600: The use of Ilocano in various government and civil affairs within the province. The Filipino Sign Language is designated as the "national sign language of the Filipino deaf" as well as the official sign language for transactions of the Philippine government. Article 27 of the Constitution states: "Polish shall be the official language in the Republic of Poland". Portuguese is the sole official language of Portugal . The official and national language of Romania
9595-407: 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
9696-548: 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
9797-539: 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
9898-680: 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,
9999-474: 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 )
10100-505: Was officially completed in September 1954. To protect and preserve the rich historical heritage of Sumo, a Sumo Museum was created in the premises of the building. In September 1952, the four traditional pillars ( shihon-bashira ) were replaced by the current tsuriyane (suspended ceiling), as the matches began to be broadcast. From 1953 to 1971, the Kuramae Kokugikan underwent a series of renovations, including electric boards to announce
10201-491: Was used as the venue for the first All Japan Kendo Championships (1953) and the first World Judo Championships (1956). The Kuramae Kokugikan is seen in the 1967 film You Only Live Twice . Japanese language Japanese ( 日本語 , Nihongo , [ɲihoŋɡo] ) is the principal language of the Japonic language family spoken by the Japanese people . It has around 123 million speakers, primarily in Japan ,
#756243