Japanese language

==History==
{{further|Japanese writing system#History of the Japanese script}}

===Prehistory===
[[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 the languages of the original [[Jōmon people|Jōmon]] inhabitants,<ref>{{Cite news |last=Wade |first=Nicholas |date=4 May 2011 |title=Finding on Dialects Casts New Light on the Origins of the Japanese People |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/04/world/asia/04language.html |url-status=dead |url-access=subscription |access-date=7 May 2011 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220103/https://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/04/world/asia/04language.html |archive-date=2022-01-03}}{{cbignore}}</ref> 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 [[Comparative method|comparison]] with the Ryukyuan languages and [[Japanese dialects]].{{sfn | Frellesvig | Whitman | 2008 |p = [https://books.google.com/books?id=aun8BRHTDEAC&pg=PA1 1]}}

===Old Japanese===
{{main|Old Japanese}}
[[File:Genryaku Manyosyu.JPG|right|thumb|alt=Page from the Man'yōshū|A page from the {{Lang|ja-latn|[[Man'yōshū]]}}, the oldest anthology of classical [[Japanese poetry]]]]
The [[Chinese character|Chinese writing system]] was imported to Japan from [[Baekje]] around the start of the fifth century, alongside Buddhism.{{sfn|Frellesvig|2010|p=11}} The earliest texts were written in [[Classical Chinese]], although some of these were likely intended to be read as Japanese using the {{lang|ja-latn|[[kanbun]]}} method, and show influences of Japanese grammar such as Japanese word order.{{sfn|Seeley|1991|pp=25–31}} The earliest text, the {{Lang|ja-latn|[[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.{{sfn|Frellesvig|2010|p=24}} As in other texts from this period, 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 syllables. Texts written with Man'yōgana use two different sets of ''kanji'' for each of the syllables now pronounced {{lang|ja|き}} (ki), {{lang|ja|ひ}} (hi), {{lang|ja|み}} (mi), {{lang|ja|け}} (ke), {{lang|ja|へ}} (he), {{lang|ja|め}} (me), {{lang|ja|こ}} (ko), {{lang|ja|そ}} (so), {{lang|ja|と}} (to), {{lang|ja|の}} (no), {{lang|ja|も}} (mo), {{lang|ja|よ}} (yo) and {{lang|ja|ろ}} (ro).<ref>Shinkichi Hashimoto (February 3, 1918)「国語仮名遣研究史上の一発見―石塚龍麿の仮名遣奥山路について」『帝国文学』26–11(1949)『文字及び仮名遣の研究(橋本進吉博士著作集 第3冊)』(岩波書店)。</ref> (The {{Lang|ja-latn|Kojiki}} has 88, but all later texts have 87. The distinction between mo<sub>1</sub> and mo<sub>2</sub> apparently was lost immediately following its composition.) This set of syllables shrank to 67 in [[Early Middle Japanese]], though some were added through Chinese influence. Man'yōgana also has a symbol for {{IPA|/je/}}, which merges with {{IPA|/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'') 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 voice|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 the genitive particle ''ga'' remains in intentionally archaic speech.

===Early Middle Japanese===
{{main|Early Middle Japanese}}
[[File:Genji emaki 01003 001.jpg|thumb|right|alt=Genji Monogatari emaki scroll|A 12th-century [[emaki]] scroll of ''[[The Tale of Genji]]'' from the 11th century]]
Early Middle Japanese is the Japanese of the [[Heian period]], from 794 to 1185. It formed the basis for the [[Literary language|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 [[Sino-Japanese vocabulary|Chinese loanwords]]. These included phonemic length distinction for both [[geminate consonant|consonants]] and [[vowel length|vowels]], palatal consonants (e.g. ''kya'') and labial consonant clusters (e.g. ''kwa''), and [[closed syllable]]s.<ref name="Frel">{{harvnb|Frellesvig|2010 |p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=v1FcAgiAC9IC&pg=PA184 184]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Labrune |first=Laurence |chapter=Consonants |url=https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199545834.001.0001/acprof-9780199545834 |title=The Phonology of Japanese |date=2012 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-954583-4 |series=The Phonology of the World's Languages |pages=89–91 |doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199545834.003.0003 |access-date=2021-10-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211027181824/https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199545834.001.0001/acprof-9780199545834 |archive-date=2021-10-27 |url-status=live}}</ref> This had the effect of changing Japanese into a [[mora-timed]] language.<ref name=Frel/>

===Late Middle Japanese===
{{main|Late Middle Japanese}}
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 [[Jesuits|Jesuit]] and [[Franciscans|Franciscan]] missionaries; and thus there 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 {{IPA|/au/}} merges to {{IPA|/ɔː/}}, in contrast with {{IPA|/oː/}}; {{IPA|/p/}} is reintroduced from Chinese; and {{IPA|/we/}} merges with {{IPA|/je/}}. Some forms rather more familiar to Modern Japanese speakers begin to appear – the continuative ending -''te'' begins to reduce onto the verb (e.g. ''yonde'' for earlier ''yomite''), the -k- in the final syllable 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 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 language|Portuguese]].

===Modern Japanese===
{{Redirect|Standard Japanese|other dialects|Japanese dialects}}
Modern Japanese is considered to begin with the [[Edo period]] (which spanned from 1603 to 1867). Since Old Japanese, 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 [[Sakoku|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{{mdash}}such as German, Portuguese and English.<ref>Miura, Akira, ''English in Japanese'', Weatherhill, 1998.</ref> Many English loan words especially relate to technology{{mdash}}for example, ''pasokon'' (short for "personal computer"), ''intānetto'' ("internet"), and ''kamera'' ("camera"). Due to the large quantity of English loanwords, modern Japanese has developed a distinction between {{IPA|[tɕi]}} and {{IPA|[ti]}}, and {{IPA|[dʑi]}} and {{IPA|[di]}}, with the latter in each pair only found in loanwords.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hall |first=Kathleen Currie |title=Proceedings of the 2013 Annual Conference of the Canadian Linguistic Association |year=2013 |editor-last=Luo |editor-first=Shan |chapter=Documenting phonological change: A comparison of two Japanese phonemic splits |access-date=2019-06-01 |chapter-url=http://homes.chass.utoronto.ca/~cla-acl/actes2013/Hall-2013.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191212034227/http://homes.chass.utoronto.ca/~cla-acl/actes2013/Hall-2013.pdf |archive-date=2019-12-12 |url-status=live}}</ref>