Japanese Vocabulary for Speakers and Readers
- Used
- Paperback
- Condition
- Very Good condition - very light wear
- Seller
-
Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
Japanese Vocabulary for Speakers and Readers
ISBN-13: 9784590007069
ISBN-10: 4590007061
Publication Date: 6/1992
Publisher: Books Nippan
Paperback
7.75 x 7.2 inches, 230 pages
Japanese is spoken as a native language by about 128 million people, primarily Japanese people and primarily
in Japan, the only country where it is the national language. Japanese belongs to the Japonic or
Japanese-Ryukyuan language family. There have been many attempts to group the Japonic languages
with other families such as the Ainu, Austroasiatic, Koreanic, and the now-discredited Altaic, but none of
these proposals has gained widespread acceptance.
Little is known of the language's prehistory, or when it first appeared in Japan. Chinese documents from
the 3rd century AD recorded a few Japanese words, but substantial Old Japanese texts did not appear until
the 8th century. From the Heian period (794–1185), extensive waves of Sino-Japanese vocabulary entered
the language, affecting the phonology of Early Middle Japanese. Late Middle Japanese (1185–1600) saw
extensive grammatical changes and the first appearance of European loanwords. The basis of the
standard dialect moved from the Kansai region to the Edo region (modern Tokyo) in the Early Modern
Japanese period (early 17th century–mid 19th century). Following the end of Japan's self-imposed isolation in
1853, the flow of loanwords from European languages increased significantly, and words from English roots
have proliferated.
Japanese is an agglutinative, mora-timed language with relatively simple phonotactics, a pure vowel system,
phonemic vowel and consonant length, and a lexically significant pitch-accent. Word order is normally
subject–object–verb with particles marking the grammatical function of words, and sentence structure is
topic–comment. Sentence-final particles are used to add emotional or emphatic impact, or form questions.
Nouns have no grammatical number or gender, and there are no articles. Verbs are conjugated, primarily
for tense and voice, but not person. Japanese adjectives are also conjugated. Japanese has a complex system
of honorifics, with verb forms and vocabulary to indicate the relative status of the speaker, the listener,
and persons mentioned.
The Japanese writing system combines Chinese characters, known as kanji , with two unique syllabaries
(or moraic scripts) derived by the Japanese from the more complex Chinese characters:
hiragana ('simple characters') and katakana ('partial characters'). Latin script (romaji) 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.
Reviews
(Log in or Create an Account first!)
Details
- Bookseller
- Worldwide Collectibles (US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 0819202308
- Title
- Japanese Vocabulary for Speakers and Readers
- Book Condition
- Used - Very Good condition - very light wear
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Binding
- Paperback
- Publisher
- Books Nippan
- Date Published
- 1992
- Pages
- 230
- Size
- 7.75 x 7.2 inches
- Weight
- 0.00 lbs
- Keywords
- Non-fiction, Language, Vocabulary, Japanese
Terms of Sale
Worldwide Collectibles
Payments are expected within 10 days unless prior arrangements are made.
About the Seller
Worldwide Collectibles
Biblio member since 2001
Coeur d'Alene, Idaho
About Worldwide Collectibles
Our specialties are unusual books, unusual CDs, and sports memorabilia
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- A.N.
- The book is pristine and free of any defects, in the same condition as ...