Japanese verbs , like the verbs of many other languages, can be morphologically modified to change their meaning or grammatical function – a process known as conjugation . In Japanese , the beginning of a word (the stem ) is preserved during conjugation, while the ending of the word is altered in some way to change the meaning (this is the inflectional suffix ). Japanese verb conjugations are independent of person , number and gender (they do not depend on whether the subject is I , you , he , she , we , etc.); the conjugated forms can express meanings such as negation , present and past tense , volition , passive voice , causation , imperative and conditional mood, and ability. There are also special forms for conjunction with other verbs, and for combination with particles for additional meanings.
92-533: The Japan Skating Federation ( Japanese : 日本スケート連盟 ) is the sports governing body of Japan for figure skating , speed skating , and short track speed skating . It was founded in 1929. The current president (since 2019) is Akihisa Nagashima , a member of the House of Representatives of Japan. This article related to sports in Japan is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This article about
184-409: A gerund (a verb functioning as a noun) without the need for nominalizers , although permissible use cases are limited. The conjunctive form uses the ren'yōkei base . It is one of the simplest conjugation patterns due to its lack of irregular conjugations. It does have an additional case for certain honorific verbs , but even those follow a consistent conjugation pattern. The conjunctive form
276-559: 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
368-637: 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
460-594: 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 )
552-414: 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 )
644-419: 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
736-484: 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
828-415: A pair of verbs have a strong connection in context, only the te form can bridge them. When a pair of verbs are not directly related but happen during a shared period of time, only the conjunctive form can bridge them. Furthermore, if a pair of verbs are both controllable or uncontrollable in nature, the te form must bridge them; otherwise, when a verb is controllable whilst the other verb is uncontrollable,
920-549: A progressive continuous statement, such as in the English sentence "I am shopping". To do so, the verb must first be conjugated into its te form and attached to the いる ( iru ) auxiliary verb ( see § te form: Grammatical compatibility , below ). The imperfective form uses the shūshikei / rentaikei base , and is thus equivalent to the dictionary form. The imperfective form can be used to issue prohibitive commands by attaching 〜な ( -na ) . For example, 入る な ！ ( hairu na ! , " Do not enter!") . Additionally,
1012-408: 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),
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#17327871403961104-435: A sentence terminal, it functions as a casual instruction (like a gentle imperative command ). Finally, the te form attaches to a myriad of auxiliary verbs for various purposes. There are limitations where the te form cannot be used to conjugate between pairs of verbs (such as when two verbs are unrelated) and the conjunctive form is used instead. ( see § Conjunctive form vs te form , below ) The te form
1196-428: 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
1288-627: A sports-related organization is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . 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 , the only country where it is the national language , and within the Japanese diaspora worldwide. The Japonic family also includes
1380-423: A strategy is more readily accustomed to writing and more difficult to control in spoken conversation (where the te form is usually elected for every verb). Another common usage is to form compound words, specifically compound nouns and compound verbs. As for compound nouns, the conjunctive form attaches as a prefix to another noun. Compound verbs are formed in the same way, except the conjunctive form attaches to
1472-404: A verb's category is essential for conjugating Japanese verbs. Japanese verbs can be allocated into three categories: Verbs are conjugated from their " dictionary form ", where the final kana is either removed or changed in some way. From a technical standpoint, verbs usually require a specific conjugational stem (see § Verb bases , below) for any given inflection or suffix. With godan verbs,
1564-624: 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
1656-439: Is also compatible with an extensive list of auxiliary verbs . These auxiliary verbs are attached after the 〜て . Finally, the te form is necessary for making polite requests with 下さる ( kudasaru ) and くれる ( kureru ) . These honorific words are attached with their imperative forms 〜下さい ( -kudasai ) and 〜くれ ( -kure ) , which is more socially proper than using the true imperative . During speech,
1748-448: 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,
1840-527: 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
1932-440: 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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#17327871403962024-647: 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
2116-466: 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
2208-509: Is compatible with particles for additional functions, such as expressing purpose or a firm avoidance. The conjunctive form is also compatible with an extensive list of auxiliary verbs . One of which, ます ( masu ) , has highly irregular inflections. The conjunctive form, like the te form , connects clauses in a similar way to how "and" does in English. However, the conjunctive and te forms are not usually interchangeable, and each form fulfills specific grammatical purposes. When
2300-463: Is compatible with the ～で ( -de ) particle for additional functions, such as requesting someone to cease/desist or joining a subordinate clause. It is also compatible with i ‑adjective inflections, since the ～ない ( -nai ) suffix ends with ～い ( -i ) . The negative continuous form is created by using the mizenkei base, followed by the 〜ず ( zu ) suffix; equivalent to replacing 〜ない ( -nai ) with 〜ず ( -zu ) in
2392-509: 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
2484-518: Is created by using the onbinkei base , followed by the て・で ( te/de ) suffix. Just like the perfective form , this conjugation pattern is more complex compared to other conjugations because the exact realization of the inflectional suffix—particularly in godan verbs—is based on the euphony ( 音便 , onbin ) of the verb stem. (See also: Euphonic changes ) The te form is compatible with particles for additional functions, such as giving permission or expressing prohibition. The te form
2576-417: 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
2668-755: 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
2760-420: 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
2852-430: Is only used in written Japanese or formal speech. The perfective form ( 過去形 ・ 完了形 , kakokei / kanryōkei , also known as the "ta form", "past tense" and the "perfect tense" ) is equivalent to the English "past tense" . The perfective form is created by using the onbinkei base , followed by the た・だ ( ta/da ) suffix. This conjugation pattern is more complex compared to other conjugations because
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2944-498: 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
3036-402: 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
3128-471: 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
3220-405: 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
3312-451: The "stem form", "masu form", "i form" and the "continuative form" ) functions like an intermediate conjugation; it requires an auxiliary verb to be attached since the conjunctive form is rarely used in isolation. It can also function to link separate clauses (hence the name " conjunctive ") in a similar way to the te form above; however usage of the conjunctive form as a conjunction has restrictions . The conjunctive form can function as
3404-517: 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
3496-514: 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
3588-517: 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 is known of the language's prehistory, or when it first appeared in Japan. Chinese documents from
3680-738: 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
3772-806: 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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3864-437: The negative past tense or the negative -te form ). However, the です negative forms, じゃありません ( ja arimasen ) and ではありません ( de wa arimasen ) , are conjugated into the past tense by appending でした ( deshita ) as a suffix (and are therefore incompatible with subsequent 〜ない ( -nai ) conjugations). Furthermore, the perfective forms , だった ( datta ) and でした ( deshita ) , are compatible with
3956-426: The passive voice ("to be done") and the spontaneous voice ("something happens on its own"). This evolved into the modern passive ending （ら）れる ( -(ra)reru ) , which can similarly express potential and spontaneous senses. As usage patterns changed over time, different kinds of potential constructions emerged, such as the grammatical pattern of the rentaikei base + -koto ga dekiru ( 〜ことができる ) , and also via
4048-402: The perfective and conjunctive ( te ) forms for certain verb stems, giving rise to the onbinkei or euphonic base. In the onbinkei base, the inflectional suffixes for godan verbs vary according to the last kana of the verb's ren'yōkei base. The copula or "to be" verb in Japanese is a special case. This comes in two basic forms, だ ( da ) in the plain form and です ( desu ) in
4140-460: The potential , volitional , and euphonic sub‑bases, as shown in the Verb base formation table above. As with all languages, the Japanese language has evolved to fulfil the contemporary needs of communication. The potential form of verbs is one such example. In Old Japanese and Early Middle Japanese , potential was expressed with the verb ending ゆ ( yu ) , which was also used to express
4232-448: 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 is an agglutinative , mora -timed language with relatively simple phonotactics ,
4324-463: The table above . An exception is する ( suru , to do) , which instead conjugates as せず ( sezu , not doing) . In this form, the negative continuous cannot terminate a sentence. The verb has the "negative continuous tense" unless followed by the に ( ni ) particle, where its meaning changes to "without". The -zuni form ( 〜ずに , without doing) is semantically interchangeable with -naide ( 〜ないで , without doing) . However, -zuni
4416-458: The ~tara conditional . The imperfective form (also known as the "non‑past", "plain form", "short form", "dictionary form" and the "attributive form" ) is broadly equivalent to the present and future tenses of English. In Japanese, the imperfective form is used as the headword or lemma . It is used to express actions that are assumed to continue into the future, habits or future intentions. The imperfective form cannot be used to make
4508-527: 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),
4600-465: 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 the first appearance of European loanwords . The basis of
4692-486: 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,
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#17327871403964784-736: 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
4876-488: 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
4968-543: 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
5060-624: The classification as a monograde verb). This phenomenon can be observed by comparing conjugations of the two verb types, within the context of the gojūon table. As visible above, the godan verb yomu ( 読む , to read) has a static verb stem, yo- ( 読〜 ) , and a dynamic conjugational stem which changes depending on the purpose: yo ma - ( 読 ま 〜 , row 1) , yo mi - ( 読 み 〜 , row 2) , yo mu ( 読 む , row 3) , yo me - ( 読 め 〜 , row 4) and yo mo - ( 読 も 〜 , row 5) . Unlike godan verb stems, ichidan verb stems are also functional conjugational stems, with
5152-535: The conjugated forms are themselves conjugable verbs (or i -adjectives ), which can result in several suffixes being strung together in a single verb form to express a combination of meanings. For Japanese verbs, the verb stem remains invariant among all conjugations. However, conjugation patterns vary according to a verb's category. For example, 知る ( shiru ) and 着る ( kiru ) belong to different verb categories (godan and ichidan, respectively) and therefore follow different conjugation patterns. As such, knowing
5244-407: The conjugational stem can span all five rows of the gojūon kana table (hence, the classification as a pentagrade verb ). Ichidan verbs are simpler to conjugate: the final kana, which is always る ( ru ) , is simply removed or replaced with the appropriate inflectional suffix . This means ichidan verb stems, in themselves, are valid conjugational stems which always end with the same kana (hence,
5336-448: The conjunctive form must bridge them. Finally, the te and conjunctive forms are interchangeable if additional information is included between the verbs. In the case where the conjunctive form is interchangeable with the te form, there is a stylistic means where the conjunctive form is preferred. This avoids 「て…て…て…」 ( te…te…te… ) repetition, much like how English users might avoid saying "and…and…and…". In practice however, such
5428-578: 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
5520-420: The exact realization of the inflectional suffix—particularly in godan verbs—is based on the euphony ( 音便 , onbin ) of the verb stem. (See also: Euphonic changes ) The perfective form is compatible with: The te form ( て形 , tekei ) allows verbs to function like conjunctions . Similar to the word "and" in English, the te form connects clauses to make longer sentences. Conversely, as
5612-453: The final kana of the stem remaining static in all conjugations. Conjugable words (verbs, i ‑adjectives, and na ‑adjectives) are traditionally considered to have six possible conjugational stems or bases ( 活用形 , katsuyōkei , literally "conjugation forms") . However, as a result of the language evolving, historical sound shifts , and the post‑WWII spelling reforms , three additional sub‑bases have emerged for verbs (seen in
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#17327871403965704-609: 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
5796-443: The imperfective form is compatible with the nominalizers 〜の ( -no ) and 〜こと ( -koto ) , which repurpose the verb as a noun. For example, カラオケで 歌うの は楽しい！ ( karaoke de utau no wa tanoshii! , Singing at karaoke is fun!) . The negative form is broadly equivalent to the English word "not". The negative form is created by using the mizenkei base , followed by the ない ( nai ) suffix. The negative form
5888-523: The kanōkei base. The historical development of the kanōkei base is disputed, however the consensus is that it stemmed from a shift wherein transitive verbs developed an intransitive sense similar to the spontaneous, passive, and potential, and these intransitive forms conjugated in the 下二段活用 ( shimo nidan katsuyō , lower bigrade conjugation pattern ) of the Classical Japanese of the time. The lower bigrade conjugation pattern evolved into
5980-458: 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
6072-449: 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
6164-427: 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 ,
6256-474: The modern ichidan pattern in modern Japanese, and these stems for godan verbs have the same form as the hypothetical stems in the table above. The mizenkei base that ends with -a was also used to express the volitional mood for yodan verbs ( 四段動詞 , yodan-dōshi , "Class‑4 verbs") in Old Japanese and Middle Japanese , in combination with volitional suffix む ( -mu ) . Sound changes caused
6348-519: The necessary stem forms to which inflectional suffixes attach. Verbs are named and listed in dictionaries according to their "dictionary form" ( 辞書形 , jishokei ) . This is also called the "plain form" (since this is the plain, non‑polite, non‑past conjugation), and it is the same as the modern "terminal form" ( 終止形 , shūshikei ) , and the "attributive form" ( 連体形 , rentaikei ) . The verb group (godan, ichidan, or irregular) determines how to derive any given conjugation base for
6440-425: 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
6532-470: 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
6624-415: 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,
6716-523: The polite form. These are generally used to predicate sentences, equate one thing with another (i.e. "A is B."), or express a self‑directed thought (e.g. a sudden emotion or realization). The Japanese copula is not a standard 'verb' and conjugations are limited to a smaller subset of functions. Furthermore, this conjugates according to its own specific patterns: The だ negative forms , じゃない ( ja nai ) and ではない ( de wa nai ) , are compatible with all negative valence conjugations (such as
6808-481: 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
6900-547: The resulting -amu ending to change: /-amu/ → /-ãu/ → /-au/ (like English "ow" ) → /-ɔː/ (like English "aw" ) → /-oː/ . The post‑WWII spelling reforms updated spellings to reflect this and other sound changes, resulting in the addition of the ishikei or volitional base, ending with -o , for the volitional mood of yodan verbs. This also resulted in a reclassification of "yodan verbs" to "godan verbs" ( 五段動詞 , godan-dōshi , "Class‑5 verbs") . The ren'yōkei base also underwent various euphonic changes specific to
6992-459: 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
7084-469: The shūshikei/rentaikei and meireikei bases do not conjugate with any inflectional suffixes. By contrast, a verb cannot be considered fully conjugated in its kateikei, mizenkei, izenkei, kanōkei, or onbinkei base alone; a compatible inflectional suffix is required for that verb construction to be grammatical. Certain inflectional suffixes, in themselves, take on the form of verbs or i ‑adjectives. These suffixes can then be further conjugated by adopting one of
7176-481: The speaker may terminate a sentence in the te form but slightly lengthen the vowel sound as a natural pause: てぇ ( te… ) . Similar to when a sentence ends with "so…" in English, this serves as a social cue that can: Another usage of the te form is, just as with English, the order of clauses may be reversed to create emphasis. However, unlike in English, the sentence will terminate on the te form (rather than between clauses). The conjunctive form (also known as
7268-817: 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
7360-481: 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
7452-475: The table below as the Potential, Volitional, and Euphonic bases). Meanwhile, verbs no longer differentiate between the terminal form ( 終止形 , shūshikei , used to terminate a predicate) and the attributive form ( 連体形 , rentaikei , used to modify a noun or noun phrase) bases (these bases are only distinguished for na ‑adjectives in the modern language, see Japanese adjectives ). Verb bases function as
7544-603: 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". Japanese verb conjugation Japanese verbs have agglutinating properties: some of
7636-419: 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 ,
7728-577: 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
7820-480: 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
7912-407: 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
8004-419: The verb bases, followed by the attachment of the appropriate suffix. The agglutinative nature of Japanese verb conjugation can thus make the final form of a given verb conjugation quite long. For example, the word 食べさせられたくなかった ( tabesaseraretakunakatta ) is broken down into its component morphemes below: There are three modern verb base forms that are considered to be derived from older forms. These are
8096-555: The verb. With godan verbs, the base is derived by shifting the final kana along the respective vowel row of the gojūon kana table . With ichidan verbs, the base is derived by removing or replacing the final る ( ru ) kana. The table below illustrates the various verb bases across the verb groups, with the patterns starting from the dictionary form. Of the nine verb bases, the shūshikei/rentaikei , meireikei , and ren'yōkei bases can be considered fully conjugated forms without needing to append inflectional suffixes. In particular,
8188-548: 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
8280-539: 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
8372-735: 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,
8464-474: 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 )
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