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98-512: The Nishi Kyushu Shinkansen ( Japanese : 西九州新幹線 , romanized :  Nishi Kyūshū Shinkansen , lit.   ' West Kyushu Shinkansen ') is a Japanese Shinkansen high-speed rail line on the northwest part of Kyushu Island that is operated by the Kyushu Railway Company (JR Kyushu). A segment of the line that connects Nagasaki to Takeo-Onsen commenced service on 23 September 2022. The line runs parallel to

196-409: A Unichanger capable of handling four different VGA systems was under development. VGA is particularly important with international railway traffic because gauge changes tend to occur more often at international borders. Different systems have different limitations, for example, some can be used on carriages and wagons only and are unsuitable for motive power, while others require that rolling stock

294-559: 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

392-436: A variable gauge system. Permission to build the line between Takeo-Onsen and Nagasaki as a standard gauge Shinkansen was applied on 12 June 2012, and was granted on 29 June. The initial plan involved using the existing narrow gauge track from Shin-Tosu to Takeo-Onsen as well as duplicating the 13.7 km (8.5 mi) Hizen Yamaguchi to Takeo-Onsen section, and building a new Shinkansen line from Takeo-Onsen to Nagasaki. It

490-473: A 100 m (328 ft) train takes only 24 seconds to convert. A gauge changer is a device which forces the gauge adjustment in the wheels. Designs consist of a pair of running rails that gradually vary in width between the two gauges, combined with other rails and levers to perform the following steps, using Talgo RD as an example: In the Spanish Talgo-RD system, a constant spray of water

588-653: A Shinkansen between Fukuoka and Nagasaki was first laid out in 1971 by the Ministry of Transport . The construction of the route was decided in the 1973 basic plan. At the time the route was decreed to pass through Saga , split from the main Kyushu Shinkansen route in Tsukushi Plain, and share the route with the Kyushu Shinkansen to Fukuoka. In 1985 Japanese National Railways published

686-521: A Shinkansen line. Following the decision not to use GCTs, Nagasaki Prefecture pushed for the remaining segment to be built in Shinkansen standard on the premise that it offers better convenience and shorter travel time, while Saga Prefecture opposes building in Shinkansen standard as it will need to pay a significant part of the budget despite there being no substantial change in travel time compared to preexisting services. A decision on whether to build

784-637: 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

882-594: 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 )

980-414: 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 )

1078-419: 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

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1176-484: 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

1274-559: A map of the line that ran via Haiki in Sasebo . In 1992, JR Kyushu published a report on the revenue of the route on the premise that it would be built with Shinkansen-level facilities but with track gauge in narrow gauge ( Super Tokkyū ) instead of the standard gauge normally used in Shinkansen routes. In 2002, the Japan Railway Construction, Transport and Technology Agency (JRTT) applied for permission to build

1372-408: 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),

1470-819: A similar Talgo-RD gauge changer at the Haparanda end used to exist, but was removed as it required de-icing in winter. Train ferry traffic operated by SeaRail and arriving from Germany and Sweden by sea used bogie exchange facilities in the Port of Turku . A new gauge changer has been put in place in Akhalkalaki for Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway . Northwestern end has rails 1,435 mm ( 4 ft  8 + 1 ⁄ 2  in ) apart, southeastern end has rails 1,520 mm ( 4 ft  11 + 27 ⁄ 32  in ) apart. Both bogie exchange and variable gauge adapters are provided. The "Gauge Change Train"

1568-428: 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

1666-589: A while on the Grand Trunk Railway in the 1860s in Canada to connect 5 ft 6 in ( 1,676 mm ) and 4 ft  8 + 1 ⁄ 2  in ( 1,435 mm ) standard gauge without transshipment. Five hundred vehicles were fitted with "adjustable gauge trucks" but following heavy day-in, day-out use the system proved unsatisfactory, particularly in cold and snowy weather. The system used telescoping axles with wide hubs that allowed

1764-624: 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

1862-520: Is a project started in Japan in the 1990s to investigate the feasibility of producing an electric multiple unit (EMU) train capable of operating both the 1,435 mm ( 4 ft  8 + 1 ⁄ 2  in ) Shinkansen high-speed network at 270–300 km/h (168–186 mph) and the original 1,067 mm ( 3 ft 6 in ) network at 130–140 km/h (81–87 mph). See U.S. patent 5,816,170 . The first-generation train

1960-448: 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,

2058-527: 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

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2156-440: 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

2254-701: 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

2352-466: 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

2450-509: 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

2548-417: 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

2646-755: 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

2744-436: Is less room between the wheels for the gauge change mechanism, the traction motors, and the brakes. The diameter of the wheels also limits the axleload to no more than 22.5 tonnes. A variable gauge multiple unit , or a train including a variable gauge locomotive (e.g. Talgo 250) and rolling stock, may drive straight across a gauge changer. Normally the locomotive will not be able to change gauge, meaning that it must move out of

2842-420: 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

2940-498: 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

3038-402: 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

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3136-571: Is unloaded before going through the gauge changer. When one of the gauges is narrow there may not be enough space between the wheels for the Brakes, Gauge Changer and the Traction Motors. The maximum speed of the trains equipped with the different technologies varies. Only CAF and Talgo produce high-speed VGA, allowing speeds up to 330 km/h. The Talgo RD GC changes gauge at a speed of 15 kilometres per hour (9.3 mph; 4.2 m/s) so

3234-471: 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

3332-583: Is used to lubricate the metal surfaces, to reduce heat and wear. A Talgo RD gauge changer is 20 m (65 ft 7 in) long and 6 m (19 ft 8 in) wide. At present the choice of gauge is limited to two out of three of 1,435 mm ( 4 ft  8 + 1 ⁄ 2  in ) and broad gauges 1,520 mm ( 4 ft  11 + 27 ⁄ 32  in ) and 1,676 mm ( 5 ft 6 in ). With narrow gauges such as 1,000 mm ( 3 ft  3 + 3 ⁄ 8  in ) as found at Zweisimmen , Switzerland, there

3430-405: 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

3528-517: 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

3626-569: The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism agreed that the two sides should continue holding discussions on this matter. In 2021 Saga Prefecture proposed to the government that the full line be built either north along the Nagasaki Expressway, or south connecting to Chikugo-Funagoya Station via Saga Airport . As of September 2022, the opening of the segment between Takeo-Onsen and Hakata remains unknown as no constructions have been approved or initiated. Debates on how

3724-514: 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

3822-517: 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

3920-738: 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

4018-806: 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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4116-448: 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 ,

4214-527: 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),

4312-465: 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

4410-486: 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,

4508-510: The Kraków-Lviv line. On 14 December 2003 VGA passenger trains were introduced between Kraków (Poland) and Lviv (Ukraine) instead of bogie exchange . VGA saves about 3 hours compared to bogie exchange. The trains last ran in 2016. Spain is the largest user of variable gauge systems. This is because of the need to connect older mainlines built to Iberian gauge and extensive new high-speed railway lines and connections to France, using

4606-502: The Montreux–Gstaad–Zweisimmen–Spiez–Interlaken line. Trains automatically switch from 1,000 mm ( 3 ft  3 + 3 ⁄ 8  in ) to 1,435 mm ( 4 ft  8 + 1 ⁄ 2  in ) at Zweisimmen . The bogie has no axles, which allow the bogie half frames holding the wheels on both sides to slide sideways relative to each other. The EV09-Prose gauge changer at Zweisimmen

4704-736: 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

4802-874: The Polish SUW 2000 system is installed at Mockava north of the Lithuanian-Polish border. VGA passenger trains between Lithuania and Poland were running between October 1999 and May 2005, and VGA goods trains between early 2000s and 2009. There are two gauge changing facilities of the Polish SUW 2000 system installed on the Polish-Ukrainian border, one of them in Dorohusk (Poland) on the Warsaw-Kiyv line, another in Mostyska (Ukraine) on

4900-488: 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

4998-543: 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

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5096-476: The arriving locomotive stops just short of the gauge changer, uncouples and moves into a short siding out of the way. Gravity then moves the train through the gauge changer at a controlled low speed. The new locomotive is coupled onto the front only after the full train has finished passing through the changer. From 2014 gauge changing systems for freight wagons were being developed. In 1933, as many as 140 inventions were offered to Australia railways to overcome

5194-607: The body height with the platform height on the MOB or BLS AG portion of the GoldenPass Express. John Fowler mentions in 1886 at attempt by the GWR to develop a "telescopical" axle. Trams ran between Leeds ( 4 ft  8 + 1 ⁄ 2  in or 1,435 mm standard gauge ) and Bradford ( 4 ft or 1,219 mm gauge) following a successful trial in 1906 using Bradford tram car number 124. The system

5292-419: The breaks of gauge between the different states. None was accepted. About 20 of these devices were adjustable wheels/axles of some kind or another, which may be analogous to the modern VGA . VGA systems were mostly intended for Broad Gauge and Standard Gauge lines. Break of Gauge stations were installed at Port Pirie , Peterborough and Albury ; these were fairly manual in operation. The newest installation

5390-578: 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

5488-469: The entire line will be completed. For the foreseeable future, the Relay Kamome limited express service will continue to provide a connection to Hakata. Services are operated by 6-car N700S series trains, at a maximum speed of 260 km/h (160 mph). Initially, there is only one service type, named Kamome . All Kamome services stop at Takeo-Onsen, Isahaya and Nagasaki, while most stops at

5586-638: The existing Nagasaki Main Line and has a total length of 66 kilometers (41 mi), making it the shortest high-speed Shinkansen railway line in Japan in terms of length. The entire line is envisioned to connect Hakata to Nagasaki , and potentially become an extension of the San'yō Shinkansen in Honshu . However, as of 2022, the route of the segment east of Takeo-Onsen to Hakata via Saga has yet to be determined, with construction yet to commence. It remains unclear when

5684-609: 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

5782-733: The higher axle weight increases the technological challenge. Although several alternatives exist, including transferring freight, replacing individual wheels and axles , bogie exchange , transporter flatcars or the simple transshipment of freight or passengers, they are impractical, thus a cheap and fast system for changing gauge would be beneficial for cross-border freight traffic. Alternative names include Gauge Adjustable Wheelsets (GAW), Automatic Track Gauge Changeover Systems (ATGCS/AGCS), Rolling Stock Re-Gauging System (RSRS), Rail Gauge Adjustment System (RGAS), Shifting wheelset , Variable Gauge Rolling Truck , track gauge change and track change wheelset . Variable gauge axles help solve

5880-564: The internal network of Spain, and are installed on international links between Spain/France (Spanish train), Sweden/Finland (Swedish train), Poland/ Lithuania (Polish train) and Poland/ Ukraine (Polish train). A system for changing gauge without the need to stop is in widespread use for passenger traffic in Spain , for services run on a mix of dedicated high-speed lines (using Standard gauge ) and older lines (using Iberian gauge ). Similar systems for freight traffic are still in their infancy, as

5978-458: 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

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6076-449: 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

6174-427: 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 ,

6272-531: The line between Takeo-Onsen and Nagasaki in Super Tokkyū standard. On 16 December 2007, JR Kyushu reached an agreement with Saga and Nagasaki Prefectures that operation of the conventional narrow gauge trains between Hizen-Yamaguchi and Isahaya by JR Kyushu will be continued for 20 years after the opening of the Shinkansen. JRTT applied for permission to build the 45.7 km-long (28.4 mi) segment between Takeo-Onsen and Isahaya on 19 March 2008, and

6370-488: The line was planned to pass with a stop at Saga Station , has refused to allow the construction of the full line to Shin-Tosu. The reasons stated by Saga's prefectural governor are the lack of advantages gained by the prefecture compared to the price of building and maintaining the full Shinkansen line. Saga Prefecture estimates that their burden would be over 240 billion yen, much higher than that of Nagasaki Prefecture's estimated burden of 100 billion yen. In addition,

6468-492: The new locomotive and pulled the rest of the way. A long length of wire-rope with hooks on the end means that the process can be asynchronous, with the rope used to bridge across the length of the gauge changer (to temporarily couple the arriving cars and receiving locomotive, although without braking control from the locomotive to the train vehicles). On long-distance trains in Spain and night trains crossing from Spain into France,

6566-425: 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

6664-583: The other two stations. At Takeo-Onsen each Kamome connects to a relay service by means of a cross platform interchange to allow travel between Hakata and Nagasaki . The relay service is either the Relay Kamome or a Midori / Huis Ten Bosch acting as a Relay Kamome. With the start of the Nishi Kyushu Shinkansen, trains are operated by a fleet of four JR Kyushu N700S series trainsets. Each train consists of six cars. Plans for

6762-470: 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

6860-415: 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,

6958-468: The problem of a break-of-gauge without having to resort to dual gauge tracks or transshipment . Systems allow the adjustment between two gauges. No gauge changer designs supporting more than two gauges are used. There are several variable gauge axle systems: The variable gauge systems are not themselves all compatible. The SUW 2000 and Rafil Type V systems are interoperable, as are TALGO-RD and CAF-BRAVA. In 2009, at Roda de Barà near Tarragona ,

7056-481: 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

7154-607: The remaining segment in Shinkansen standard, or a Mini-shinkansen with standard gauge tracks but slower speed, was to be made in the summer of 2018, but due to financial concerns from Saga Prefecture it was postponed. On 5 August 2019 a committee in the governing party decided that the segment should be built in Shinkansen standard. Saga Prefecture expressed strong opposition to this, and opined that all possible options ( Super Tokkyū , Gauge Change Train , relay train method, Mini-shinkansen and full Shinkansen standard) should be evaluated thoroughly. On 28 October 2019 Saga Prefecture and

7252-459: 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

7350-549: The segment will be operated are still ongoing. Legend: 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

7448-485: The standard gauge. Two gauge changes are installed on lines to France and at all entrances/exits leading between the high-speed network and older lines. There are also significant lengths of 1,000 mm ( 3 ft  3 + 3 ⁄ 8  in ) secondary lines but these are not connected to the main network. In February 2004, RENFE placed orders for: There is also a 14.4 km (8.95 mi) circular test track in Spain. Variable gauge bogies are implemented on

7546-817: 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

7644-481: 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

7742-572: 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". Variable gauge Variable gauge systems exist within

7840-473: The travel time from Saga to Hakata would only be shortened by around 15 minutes. There is also the issue of the status of the conventional Nagasaki Main Line after the construction of the West Kyushu route. Saga Prefecture would prefer that JR Kyushu continue to operate the line as opposed to transferring them over to a third-sector company, as commonly practiced around the country after the construction of

7938-467: The travel time would be 51 minutes. The current plan is to continue using the existing narrow gauge track with a cross platform interchange at Takeo-Onsen Station until the finalization of the remaining section to Shin-Tosu. In addition, the initial plan of duplicating 13.7 km (8.5 mi) of the section between Takeo-Onsen to Hizen-Yamaguchi has been reduced to 6.3 km (3.9 mi) between Ōmachi to Takahashi . Saga Prefecture , through which

8036-419: 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 ,

8134-577: 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

8232-480: 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

8330-407: 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

8428-633: The wagons or disconnect (and test) the brake equipment. Alternatively, as the train need not be uncoupled, the locomotive may pull the coupled carriages all together. See Talgo Gauge Changer. Steam locomotive are generally not gauge convertible on-the-fly. While diesel locomotives can be bogie exchanged, this is not normally done owing to the complexity in the reconnection of cables and hoses. In Australia, some locomotives are transferred between gauges. The transfer might happen every few months, but not for an individual trip. By 2004, variable gauge electric passenger locomotives were available from Talgo. It

8526-433: The way whilst the remainder of the train itself passes through. On the opposite side, a new locomotive of the other gauge will couple to the train. A Talgo train with a locomotive can drive across a gauge change at 1 axle per second at a speed of about 10–15 km/h (6.2–9.3 mph). A train (or an individual car) can be pushed halfway across the gauge-changer, uncoupled, and then (once far enough across) coupled to

8624-542: The wheels to be squeezed or stretched apart through a gauge-changer, after holding pins had been manually released. Railway operations over the Niagara Bridge were also complicated. In 1999, a gauge-changer was installed at Tornio at the Finnish end of the dual-gauge section between Haparanda and Tornio, for use with variable gauge freight wagons. The Tornio gauge changer is a Rafil design from Germany;

8722-548: 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

8820-517: Was at Dry Creek and was of a more automatic design. The Talgo RD design is even more automatic and efficient. A Talgo gauge changing facility is installed at Brest near the Belarusian-Polish border. It is used by Russian Railways ' fast trains connecting Moscow and Berlin. Orders for 7 Talgo VGA trainsets placed were placed in 2011. The trains under the brand " Strizh " are in service since 2016. Variable gauge axles were used for

8918-539: 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

9016-439: Was granted on 26 March. Construction of the segment began on 28 April 2008. Debate over the final section between Isahaya and Nagasaki continued for several years, before construction was approved by the government. On 26 December 2012 the Japanese government issued a policy that the under-construction segment between Takeo-Onsen and Isahaya, and the segment yet to break ground between Isahaya and Nagasaki shall be built together as

9114-735: 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,

9212-423: Was later patented by – GB190601695 (A) of 1906. This system was improved again in patent GB190919655 (A) of 1909 by introducing a locking system acting on the wheel and axle rather than just the wheel rim. This provided a more effective grip where the wheel was free to move along the splined axle. In VGA, the train is pulled through the "adjuster" at about 15 km/h (9.3 mph) without any need to uncouple

9310-474: 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 )

9408-453: Was proposed that Gauge Change Train (GCT) trainsets be used, however technical issues resulted in the cancellation of the GCT, requiring the consideration of other options. The GCT was expected to allow travel times of around 1 hour 20 minutes between Hakata to Nagasaki, versus the 1 hour 50 minutes currently operated by the 885 series . If the entire route was constructed to Shinkansen standards,

9506-403: Was satisfactorily tested on 19 June 2019. The system, designed to allow operation on both Montreux Oberland Bernois Railway 's (MOB) 1000mm gauge line and BLS AG 1435mm gauge infrastructure, was first implemented on 11 December 2022. Moreover, while the gauge is being automatically changed at Zweisimmen, the air spring mounted on the bogie cross member is automatically adjusted by 200 mm to match

9604-540: Was tested from 1998 to 2006, including on the US High-speed Test Track in 2002. The second-generation train, intended to run at a maximum speed of 270 km/h (168 mph), was test-run in various locations in Japan between 2006 and 2013. A third-generation train has been undergoing reliability trials since 2014 in preparation for potential introduction to service on the planned Kyushu Shinkansen extension to Nagasaki. A gauge changing facility of

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