Questions tagged [japanese]
The national language of Japan, member of the small Japonic language family, otherwise considered to be isolated. For non-linguistic questions about the Japanese language, visit our sister site Japanese Language Stack Exchange.
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Half-letters in American English
I'm an American spending some time in Japan, and notice that even though most people know some English words, they have a hard time understanding and pronouncing a word like "left" because ...
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Why did Japanese borrow words for simple numbers from Chinese?
I just realised that all (standalone) Japanese numbers from 1-10 are borrowed from Chinese (maybe except 4 and 7 if they're read as よん and なな instead of し and しち). Now, I understand why a language ...
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"Quoted speech" forms in Japanese
Consider the following sentences in standard Japanese:
とても小さな文字を読もうとしました。
それを信じようという気は更になかった。
なんで外国語を学ぶのに勇気が要るかというと、最初は失敗ばかりするからです。
大人になっても可愛くいたいという意識があるのかも知れません。
Below are the same four sentences, ...
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Japanese is in its own lingustic family, but it sure seems to have a lot in common with Turkish
I speak Japanese, and recently, I've been exposed to Turkish. There's a good deal of overlap between structure, and some words. An example is "good", where it's "iidesu" in ...
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The difference between the phonemes /p/ and /b/ in Japanese
Is there any difference between the phonemes /p/ and /b/ in Japanese ?
In English, they are pretty distinguishable.
E.g: 'Bat' and 'pat'
In Japanese, however, I get lost trying to tell which is which.
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Multiple-characters vocabulary acquisition by L1 Japanese/Chinese
I am looking for any evidence/reference on how L1 Japanese or L1 Chinese people acquire their multiple hanzi/kanji vocabulary. Take as simple as 折り畳み/折叠 (to fold). Words like 食べる/吃 and 飲む/喝 are not ...
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Have I actually found something or is this just a 100+ coincidence cognates? indo-european, sino-tibetan, austroneisian, japanese, korean
I like comparing languages on my free time and found that Eurasian languages have a lot in common and I couldn't quite place my finger on it but the languages just seemed similar. One time I compared ...
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Regex for segmentation as sentences for Thai, Khmer, Japanese, Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional and Amharic languages [closed]
I am processing text samples of the following languages:
Thai
Khmer
Japanese
Chinese Simplified
Chinese Traditional &
Amharic
I need the text samples to be segmented as sentences using a regex.
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Japanese terms from Sanskrit
This question started when I learned that "hannya haramita" (般若波羅蜜多) comes from Sanskrit "prajñā pāramitā" (प्रज्ञापारमिता). It is not hard to see that what was /p/ in Sanskrit ...
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Why do Korean and Japanese share similar borrowed Chinese characters and is different from Chinese language?
In Japanese and Korean, "promise" is 約束 (yakusoku) and 약속 (yagsog). Both came from the Chinese characters 約束. However, 約束 in Chinese does not mean "promise" and actually means &...
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Are there human general communication languages without a future tendency?
In Thai language there is no past tense, at least not for negative sentences:
A Thai person might say "I don't go" (ฉัน ไม่ ไป) while the listener is expected to guess from the context if ...
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Do any other languages use ruby characters(furigana) as extensively as Japanese
Just what the question asks.
I’ll note that Chinese does use it extensively with pinyin when teaching Chinese to western foreigners. However I’m referring to using in materials by and for native ...
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Why Korean transcriptions of Japanese words uses the letters ㄱ,ㄷ,ㅈ for initial /k/, /t/, /tɕ/ while using ㅋ,ㅌ,ㅊ for other languages?
Looking at Korean transcription rules for Japanese, I noticed that for some consonants, the hangul transcription would change if it was in the initial position:
https://kornorms.korean.go.kr//regltn/...
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Generic name for Hànzì/Kanji/Hanja/Chữ nôm/Sawndip?
So I was thinking about how to talk about these characters in a culturally-neutral way. Chinese seems to be used, but it implies a particular way of writing characters (not to mention it makes it ...
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Rules/Notions explaining/regulating seemingly non complementary combinations of inflections/conjugations/tenses
Note:
My original question was
[Sentences with strange/Incorrect(from English point of view) Time conjunctive][Conclusive verb form] combinations and aspects/nuances reflected?
Below is what I found ...
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Etymology of ぐるぐる
Since it's written in Hiragana, I presume it is likely not a recent loan word. However, its pronounciation bears resemblance to "軲轆", a Mandarin word meaning wheel--similar to ぐるぐる's meaning ...
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When and how did the Japanese honorific system evolve?
I know that languages, in general, can denote honorifics, especially with second person pronouns (T/V distinction, etc), and I imagine that the Japanese system of honorifics is probably an extension ...
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Differences between free languages and official languages?
In short: as far as I know, English in the USA has no official standards from the government for how it's to be written and used. There are just dictionaries. Spanish however, has the RAE, which is an ...
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Term for non-homograph homophone synonyms?
In Japanese, 熱い and 暑い are both read atsui and both mean 'hot'. The former pertains to an object (e.g. hot coffee) and the latter to weather.
In French 'cuissot' and 'cuisseau' have the same ...
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Does Japanese have V-T movement?
I am doing a research assignment on Japanese Syntax and I cannot seem to find any information regarding whether or not the Japanese language has V-T movement. Can anyone help with this?
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Origin of Japanese particles だい(dai), かい(kai)
I was wondering about the origin of these emphatic interrogative particles in Japanese. It seems very likely that they are related to the more typical forms だ and か, but what led to the postfixed /i/? ...
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Why can Japanese Godan verbs only have nine possible consonant sounds before the final -u?
The dictionary form of Japanese verbs always ends in a -u syllable. Ichidan (one row or single-step in German) verbs will always end in -る (-ru, e.g. 食べる, taberu, to eat) while godan (five rows or ...
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Pronunciation and spelling of English loanwords in Japanese
The word for allergy in Japanese is アレルギ (pronounced "a/re/ru/gi")
The first three characters are typical for words borrowed from English, but why is the last sound "gi" instead of "ji"? Is this word ...
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Can you write Japanese in only Hiragana, or only Katakana, or only Chinese characters?
I don't know Japanese, but I notice they have a mixture of Hiragana, Katakana, and Chinese characters. Instead of a mixture, could you write a whole article in just one of them? Does this ever occur? ...
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What language/script did Japan during the Yamato period and earlier have?
The Yamato period (300 - 710) had an organized ruler, civilozation, etc. However, only in Nara period (710 - 794), which existed along with the Tang dynasty of China, a Japanese script and language ...
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What is the difference between the nominative case and the subject?
I'm studying Japanese and recently I came across the term "double nominatives". The idea is that ga marks the nominative case, so a phrase with two ga has two phrases in the nominative case:
boku ga ...
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Does high-context manifest in Japanese grammar and syntax?
Supposedly being a high-context culture, do modern Japanese text genres also sport a higher prevalence of ellipsis?
Do Japanese texts, by and large, sport more kinds of high-context manifestations ...
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Describing continuity and change (like mou and mada in Japanese)
In Japanese, mada まだ refers to a continuing state: 'still (as it was)' or 'not (changed) yet', and mou もう is about change: 'already (changed)' or 'no longer (the same)'. Are there other languages ...
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Accidentally speak Japanese on reflex
There is one time I woke up late and accidentally speak in Japanese "yabai" which means "oh no" or "this is bad", when I came around after finishing getting ready I then realized I've just spoken in ...
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Is Swahili a Mora-counting language like Japanese?
I have this simple question on Kiswahili, a Bantu language.
As you know in english, we can not always define morae. it's completely different from Japanese morae system.
But when I learn Swahili, ...
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Does each Japanese copula, だ, な, に, introduce a new clause?
In the book The Japanese Copula: Forms and Functions there's a passage that says:
The existence of an adverbial copula is expected when we consider the fact that adjectives inflect to end form, the ...
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Should Japanese postpositions be treated as belonging to the same category as English prepositions?
The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language and WALS, as well as Wikipedia, treat both English prepositions and Japanese postpositions (particles) as belonging to 'adpositions' (although CGEL ...
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What exactly is the Japanese 'u' sound?
I've mostly heard that its a ɯ sound. But I've also heard that its an 'endo-labial close back rounded vowel'. By 'endo-labial', I mean that its a rounded vowel that's pronounced without protruding the ...
user19661
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Vowel Deletion and Allophone variation in Japanese High Vowel Clusters?
I seem to have heard from films, shows and other japanese programs that there is a kind of vowel deletion in certain contexts which triggers a consonant change which might be allophonic.
This paper ...
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In what way is Japanese related to Sanskrit?
The Wikipedia says that Japanese katakana vowels “The gojūon inherits its vowel and consonant order from Sanskrit practice. “. Could expert explains this in easy language?
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Why is transliteration of japanese always done English-style while transliteration from other non-latin script languges doesn't?
So it's a common issue that words transliterated from a non-latin alphabet towards latin alphabet will depend on which language using the latin alphabet they're translated into.
Arabic example : The ...
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Japanese kun'yomi with final N? [closed]
It is thought that the moraic post-vocalic consonant [N], spelt with ん, appeared in Japanese under the Chinese influence, with the influx of borrowings. Are there any kun-readings in Japanese that ...
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Markers for size, shape etc. on number words in Japanese
Some languages, such as Japanese, mark number words with suffixes denoting size, shape, and other qualities (e.g., ichi (one) becomes ippon for one book). Why would such a linguistic practice develop?
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What methods do languages use to re-introduce the subject of a passive construction?
In German and Spanish (I think), you use the word for 'from'. In Japanese though, I think they use 'ni' (which can either mean 'to' or 'at'). In English we use the preposition 'by', which is rarely ...
user19661
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Abbreviations for pinyin and hepburn transliterations?
Are there 2 letter ISO codes for the pinyin or hepburn transliterations? If not, are there non-ISO abbreviations in common use? Thanks.
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Is Japanese "subaru" related to Russian "soberu" and Latin "conferre"?
Is Japanese "subaru" related to Russian "soberu" ("I'll put together") and Latin "conferre" ("to bring together")?
I think both Latin and Russian words derive from Proto-Indo-European "com bheroa̯" "...
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What is the relationship between perfectivity and the Classical Japanese conjunctive particle "-て" ("-te")?
In Classical Japanese, the auxiliary verb "-つ" ("-tsu") has a perfective function, indicating the completion of an action or process. According to Haruo Shirane's Classical Japanese: A Grammar, "-て" ("...
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Why do Korean and Japanese sound similar to each other to native speakers of English?
I don't understand why, but Korean and Japanese sound very similar to me, and also to other native speakers of English. I think I once read a comment saying something like "If it sounds like Japanese ...
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Is use of sorting expected and used in East Asian languages (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)?
For an English speaker with 26 characters, the concept of sorting is ubiquitous. If I see a list, I inherently expect it to be sorted by one of the columns, and of course clicking a column to sort is ...
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Why do Japanese people have difficulties in pronouncing English?
When I watch Anime, I notice that Japanese English pronunciation is really bad, they twist all the sounds, and they can't pronounce sounds like "L". I think English is the easiest language when it ...
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Why are some words to express country names different between Chinese and Japanese?
In some countries, their principal chinese characters are represented differently between Chinese and Japanese. For example,
意 vs 伊 (Italy)
法 vs 仏 (France)
德 vs 独 (Germany)
That being said, there ...
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What are arguments for and against a common origin of Korean and Japanese?
Now, Korean and Japanese have been proposed to be part of other language families, for instance Altaic, but Altaic is not considered a valid term subterfuged by evidence as much as Sino-Tibetan and ...
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Why is Korean considered a language isolate?
According to the Wikipedia article on Koreanic languages:
Among extant languages, Korean is considered by most linguists to be a language isolate and by others as part of the widely rejected ...
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Replacement of the letters in Japanese while compounding words
I've spent some time solving Fakepapershelfmaker NACLO problem, and later at solution I've read that some japanese letters do not require replacement while compounding.
In Japanese you should ...
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Which of 可爱/可愛い was exported to the other between Chinese and Japanese?
In Chinese (Mandarin), there exists a word 可爱 that means "pretty" or "cute" in English. In Japanese, there is also a word 可愛い (adjective) that means the same thing in English.
Given that both words ...
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