Japanese

For a long time it was believed that the Japanese language is not included in any of the known language families, occupying in genealogical classification languages ​​isolated position. However, studies of recent decades allow us to reasonably assert that the Japanese language is related to Korean, and to attribute both of these languages ​​to Altai family, which also includes Turkic, Mongolian and Tungus-Manchu languages. Thus, at its core, the Japanese language is the speech of newcomers from the Asian continent who settled on the Japanese islands, apparently, long before the beginning of our era. True, the Japanese language owes some of its features even more ancient population Japan, who apparently spoke one of the languages ​​​​of the Austranesian (otherwise Malayo-Polynesian) family. For many centuries, the Japanese language has developed under the strong influence of Chinese. However, all elements of Chinese origin in Japanese are borrowed, while the kinship of languages ​​implies a common origin of the original elements. In this sense, Japanese and Chinese are not related languages. The phonetic resources of the Japanese language are relatively poor: the number of phonemes is small, their compatibility is severely limited. There are five vowel phonemes in Japanese - A (a), I (i), U (y), E (e), O (o). Japanese a, i, e, o are quite similar in timbre to the corresponding Russian sounds; the Japanese U (y) differs markedly from the Russian y, is pronounced almost without protrusion of the lips and resembles a cross between the Russian sounds u and y. Japanese vowels can be long and short: ka means ‘mosquito’, ka: (kaa is transcribed differently) - ‘car’ (from English car); ki means 'tree', ki: (or kii) - 'keys (of the car)' (from English key). In Latin and Russian transcriptions of Japanese words, vowel length is indicated by a dash above the letter, less often by a colon after the letter, sometimes by doubling the letter. Often longitude in transcription is not indicated at all. Usually this does not create any particular inconvenience, however, in some cases, the indistinguishability of short and long vowels in transcription can lead to confusion. Japanese vowels never lose their timbre, that is, they do not change into other or indefinite sounds. In almost any position, they are pronounced very clearly. True, the vowels I and U in a position between voiceless consonants or after a voiceless consonant at the end of a word are often pronounced without a voice: simasita ‘did’ sounds almost like simasta, and simasu ‘I do’ like simas. However, when counting syllables (for example, in versification), syllables with such voiceless vowels are still perceived by native speakers as full-fledged syllables: in the word sita (pronounced shta), the Japanese clearly hears two syllables, not one. As for consonants, the Japanese solid K, G, T, D, P, B, S, M, N practically do not differ from the corresponding sounds of the Russian language. There is a sound TS (ts), found only in the syllable zu, and its voiced counterpart Z (dz, pronounced as one sound, not two). The sound H (x) differs both from the English "h" in the word "hall" and from the Russian "x" in the word "cold", but still quite close to the latter. The sound F (f), found only in the syllable fu, is very different from the Russian "f" and rather resembles the English or German "h", pronounced with rounded lips. The sound R (p) is very peculiar and equally similar (more precisely, equally dissimilar) to both the Russian "r" and the Russian "l". The sound Y (found only in the syllables i, u, ё) practically does not differ from the Russian th, but the sound W (found only in the syllable va), although it is transmitted in Russian transcription by the letter v, is not at all similar to the Russian "v" and rather vaguely resembles the English "w" (not "v"!). It should be borne in mind that the phonemes G and Z are realized by different sounds depending on the position in the word. G at the beginning of a word sounds like the usual Russian ear (g), and in the middle of a word, with a few exceptions, like (ђ) (nasal "g", which is not in Russian). Therefore, a word like Nagasaki, in real Japanese pronunciation is perceived by Russians as something like Nangasaki or even Nanasaki. In the Latin and Russian practical transcriptions, the difference between these variants of the G phoneme is not noted in any way. Z at the beginning of a word and after N sounds like (dz), in the middle of a word usually like (z) (Russian "з"). In transcriptions, this difference is also not noted; at the same time, Latin transcription in any position conveys this phoneme as Z (not DZ), and Russian as dz (not z). That is why the name of one of the directions of Buddhism was fixed in languages ​​with the Latin alphabet in the form of Zen (although the real pronunciation is more accurately conveyed by the Russian "Zen"), and the word kamikaze in Russian is written "kamikaze" (although phonetically it would be more correct "kamikaze"). All Japanese hard consonants have soft (palatalized) correspondences (only Y and W are not included in the hard-soft pair). Before the vowel E (e) there are only hard consonants, before the vowel I (i) - only soft ones, before the other three vowels, both hard and soft ones are possible. The syllables KI, GI, PI, BI, MI, NI, and also RI (aside from the originality of the Japanese R) differ little in their acoustic impression from the corresponding Russian syllables; the same can be said about such syllables as KYA (kya), KYU (kyu), KYO (kyo) (cf. Russian "weaves"), PYA (pya) (cf. Russian "five"), BYA (bya ) (cf. "you") and all others in which soft k, r, p, b, m, n, p are combined with a, y, o. The consonant in the syllables HI (hi), HYA (hya), HYU (hyu), HYO (hyo) is noisier than the Russian soft "x" in the word "chemistry", and in the pronunciation of many Japanese it is difficult to distinguish from SH. The soft correspondences of the sounds S, Z, T, D are quite peculiar: they have a noticeable hissing tone. It is not surprising, therefore, that in the most common system of Latin practical transcription for Japanese, these phonemes are designated as SH, CH, J (the last phoneme serves as a soft match for both Z and D), based on sound values these characters in English ("sh", "h", "j"). In Russian transcription, it is customary to write the syllables SHI, CHI, JI as si, ti, dzi, and combinations of these consonants with other vowels - as sya, syu, sho, tya, tyu, tyo, dzya, dzyu, dzyo. Such Japanese words as the names of the firms "Toshiba" and "Hitachi" came to us through the English language (Toshiba, Hitachi), hence their spelling with the letters "w" and "h"; in accordance with the rules generally accepted among Russian Japanese scholars, it would be necessary to write Toshiba, Hitachi. If someone asks what sound is actually pronounced in such a Japanese word as the name of a dish SUSHI (in Russian sushi), - "sh" or "ss", then the correct answer will be: neither one nor the other. What is pronounced here is located somewhere halfway between the Russian "s" and the English (rather soft) "sh", while the Russian hard "sh" is far away. Most Japanese consonants can be not only short, but also long: busi (which means 'warrior') - bushi ('goods'), oto ('sound') - otto ('husband'), ama ('flax') - amma ('massage'). In the second half of the twentieth century. Many words of European origin appeared in the Japanese language, which led to a certain restructuring of the Japanese phoneme system, to the expansion of its capabilities. Yes, in modern borrowings sounds TS and F occur not only before U, and W not only before A, but also before other vowels (TSA: from Russian "tsar", FAN from English "fan", WISUKI: from "whiskey"); previously impossible syllables appeared, such as TI and DI (different from CHI and JI), TYU (not the same as CHU), FYU, etc.; long correspondences appeared in such consonants that did not have them before, for example, in voiced ones: BB, DD, etc. Nevertheless, even today, many phonological oppositions common in European languages ​​remain completely alien to Japanese hearing. The Japanese equally convey the European "r" and "l" (Roma - Rome, Rondon - London), "b" and "v" (Bon - Bonn, Benatia - Venice) by means of their language, and the distinction of these sounds represents for them great difficulty when learning foreign languages. The Japanese word JINA can convey both the name Zina and the name Dean or Jina. The syllable in Japanese is always open, i.e. does not end with a consonant sound: there are only syllables like "that", but not "that" and not "current". The immediate proximity of different consonants is not allowed - words like the Russian "hundred", "passion", "splash" are phonetically impossible. True, as can be seen at least from Japanese geographical names Nihon (i.e. Japan), Kanda or Namba, one consonant phoneme, it would seem, can still complete a syllable - this is a nasal sonant, which, depending on the subsequent sound, is realized either as (n), or as (m), sometimes as (ђ), sometimes as a lengthening of the preceding vowel, accompanied by its nasalization (in Japanese, all these rather different sounds should be considered variants of the same phoneme; in writing, they are denoted by the same sign). However, Japanese linguistic consciousness tends to consider this phoneme not as a final element closed syllable but as a separate syllable. Thus, in the word shinkansen ("new highway", the name of the high-speed railway network), the Japanese will count not three syllables, but six: si-n-ka-n-se-n. This is especially noticeable when counting syllables in poetry and when singing: the sequence of sounds like kan in songs is almost always divided into two notes and kaa-nnn is sung (whereas a Russian would sing kaa-aan). Borrowing words from other languages, Japanese adds a U sound to each consonant sound that is not followed by a subsequent vowel (after soft often I, after T and D - O). Thus, St. Petersburg in the Japanese transmission looks like Sankuto-Peteruburugu, Moscow like Mosukuwa; the first U in this word is stunned, so that the actual pronunciation is closer to Moscow, but the word still feels like four syllables. Sometimes, as a result of such an adaptation, words become extremely difficult to recognize: for example, in Japanese torio you do not immediately recognize the pan-European "trio". Stress in Japanese is not forceful, as in Russian, but tonic (musical). All syllables are pronounced with approximately the same force; the word kimono does not sound like a kimono or a kimono (bold font symbolizes the Russian power accent here), but ki-mo-no. However, some syllables are pronounced with a higher tone, others with a lower one. In the word kimono, the first syllable is low, the second and third are high. In some cases, tone is the only feature that makes it possible to distinguish words: kaki means "persimmon", kaki means "oyster" (high tone is in bold). The morphology of the Japanese language is dominated by the agglutination technique, which implies the distinctness of the boundaries between morphemes (roots, affixes) within a word and the rigid attachment of certain means of expression (for example, suffixes) to certain content elements (grammatical meanings). The vast majority of grammatical meanings are expressed by postpositive indicators (i.e. at the end, not at the beginning of a word). Missing grammatical categories kind (although there is a system of nominal classes that manifests itself when counting objects), numbers ( special instruction to plurality is possible, as a rule, only with the designation animate objects and belongs more to the sphere of vocabulary than grammar), faces. Thus, the Japanese ha is both 'leaf' and 'leaves' (more precisely, 'foliage' in general, without indicating the quantity), toru means both 'take', and 'take', and 'take', and 'take ', etc. Category verb form does not imply a distinction between perfect and imperfect species, but the "general" (abstract) and "long" (concrete or effective) form are distinguished: hasiru - ‘I run’, hasitte iru - ‘I run’; suvaru - ‘I sit down’, suwatte iru – ‘I sit’. The category of time is represented not by three, but by two values: present-future and past tenses (the same verb forms denote both present and future actions, cf. Russian "Tomorrow we're going to the cottage"). On the other hand, categorical and presumptive moods are distinguished: iku - ‘I’m going’, ‘I’ll go’, iko: – ‘probably I’ll go’, ‘perhaps I’ll go’, ‘let’s go’. Many meanings, which in Russian are usually expressed in separate words, are expressed in Japanese within one word form: yomeru - 'I can read', yomitai - 'I want to read', yomaseru - 'force to read' or 'allow to read'. There is a developed system of gerunds: yomi, yonde - ‘reading’ or ‘having read’, yomeba – ‘if you read’, yondemo – ‘even if you read’, etc. A notable feature of the Japanese language is the obligatory grammatical expression level of politeness (address category), for example: youmu - 'read', 'read' (when referring to "you"), yomimasu - the same when referring to "you" (this opposition affects the designations of actions not only of the interlocutor, as in Russian - (you) read / (you) read, but also any persons). The "respectful" and "modest" verbal forms inherited from the era of feudalism are widespread (the category of the honorific), cf. Russian deign to rest, I dare to ask. The syntax is characterized by a lack of agreement. Word order is more strict than in Russian. The determiner always precedes the determined: not only old house, but also the parents' house (as opposed to the Russian parents' house). The predicate always stands at the end of the sentence: The Master draws a picture with ink (and not the Master draws a picture with ink). There is a postpositive linking verb with the meaning 'is, is (something or some)', represented by several options that differ in degree of politeness: yes, de aru, desu, de gozaimasu, etc., for example: Mo: aki desu - 'Already autumn (is)'. Interrogative sentences are usually formed with the final particle ka, for example: Mo: aki desu ka? - '(What,) it's already autumn, (yes)?' There are other final particles expressing different modalities: Okureru is just 'We're late', but Okureru ne is 'We're late, aren't we?', and Okureru yo is ' We're late, be aware!' From a structural point of view, Japanese word formation is relatively transparent and regular: cf. Russian words French, English, Japanese and their Japanese equivalents furansujin, igirisujin (from Igirisu - ‘England’), nihondzin (from Nihon - ‘Japan’). Compared to the Russian language, Japanese uses affixation much less when forming new words, preferring root formation: where a Russian says cat-yonok, deer-yonok, piglet-yonok, the Japanese says ko-neko, ko-jika, ko-buta, t .e. "child-cat", "child-deer", "child-pig"; it should be borne in mind that in Japanese there is also an independent word ko - ‘child, child’, while the Russian -yonok is just a suffix that independent word it can not be. It is characteristic, in particular, that in the Japanese language there are absolutely no suffix adjectives with a relative and possessive meaning (cf. Russian mother's, father's, parental) - nouns in the definitive position successfully cope with their role: Rosia - 'Russia', Rosia ryo: ri - 'Russian cuisine' (in literal translation"Russian cuisine" or even "Russian cuisine"). From the number productive affixes First of all, it should be noted that the suffixes of warm treatment attached to the names of persons -san, -kun, -tyan. The first expresses respect; Tanaka-san is often translated as ‘Mr. Tanaka’ (Tanaka is a common surname), although in Japanese it sounds less formal and more like Russian address by first name. The second suffix expresses friendliness towards an equal or junior; the treatment of Tanaka-kun is used among colleagues and comrades in general (usually males); it is also used by bosses and mentors, referring to their subordinates or students (young men and boys). The third suffix has a diminutive meaning; an address like Aki-chan (from the male name Akira or the female Akiko) is possible in a conversation between an adult and a little boy or girl of any age, and is also often found in a conversation between girls and women (cf. Rus. Sashenka, Shurochka). An important role in colloquial speech is played by the respectful prefixes o- and go-, attached to the names various items and persons: heya - ‘room’, o-heya - ‘room of a respected person’, ‘your room’; hon - 'book', go-hon - 'book of a respected person', 'your book'. However, there are also affixes expressing contempt and disgust. From an etymological point of view, the vocabulary of the Japanese language is usually divided into three layers: wago, i.e. native Japanese words, kango, i.e. words of Chinese origin, and gairaigo, i.e. lexical borrowings from other languages. The bulk of kango was acquired by the Japanese language in the period from about the 7th to the 13th centuries, however, many related to this layer lexical units were created from Chinese roots already in Japan in a much more late time. The earliest gairaigo entered Japanese through contact with Portuguese and Spanish missionaries in the 16th and 17th centuries, and with Dutch traders in the 17th and 19th centuries, but most gairaigo came from other European languages, primarily from English, during the last 150 years, and the Japanese language is still actively absorbing more and more gairaigo. Wago is the most fundamental component of the Japanese lexicon; in general, they are characterized by high usage and are found in all styles and genres without exception, although their percentage is highest in colloquial speech. These are words such as hi - 'sun', tsuki - 'moon', ookii - 'big', manabu - 'study', etc. Kango is primarily characteristic of writing, for the most part they are perceived as book words; it was kango that served in the Japanese language as the main material for the formation of various terminological systems, in particular for the terminology of modern natural sciences and the humanities, which was especially intensively created in Japan in the second half of the last century. Taiyo lexemes could serve as examples of kango: - 'Sun (as an astronomical name)', ichigatsu, nigatsu, sangatsu - 'January', 'February', 'March' (lit. 'first moon', 'second moon', 'third moon'), daigaku - 'university' (lit. ' great teaching') etc. If the main vocabulary of the Japanese language is quantitatively dominated by wago, then in the general vocabulary (taking into account rare and special words) in the first place in terms of quantity are kango; in any case, in large dictionaries they account for at least 50% dictionary entries. As for the gairaigo, in general, the vocabulary of this layer is one way or another connected with the process of modernization; there are many modern scientific and technical terms among gairaigo (computer: ta - ‘computer’, purinta – ‘printer’, sofuto – ‘software, software products'), but even more vocabulary related to sports, entertainment, prestigious consumption (ge: mu, from English game - 'game (especially computer)'; tarento, from English talent - 'popular TV program host'; and: buningu, from English evening dress - 'evening dress'), a lot of expressive colloquial and jargon(okke:, in writing often OK - 'okay'; bi: efu, in writing BF - 'boyfriend'). Many gairaigo are composed of components of foreign origin by the Japanese themselves; this is how, for example, the Japanese word sarari was born: man - 'employee', which goes back to the English words salary - 'salary' and man - 'person', which, however, do not form a stable combination in English. AT quantitatively gairaigo make up, according to some estimates, up to 10% of the vocabulary of modern Japanese, but in the text, depending on the genre (for example, in youth magazines), their share can be much higher. For many centuries, different literary languages ​​coexisted in Japan. Around the 7th century, when the country borrowed Chinese forms state structure and the Buddhist religion, in Japanese society, the classical Chinese language - "Latin of the Far East", which in Japan was assigned the name kanbun, lit. "Han (i.e. Chinese) writing". However, already in the VIII century. extensive texts appeared in Japanese proper (for example, fragments of the Kojiki collection of myths and legends, the poetic anthology Manyoshu). Over time, the Japanese literary language has developed and enriched, experiencing strong influence kambun, but at the same time retained its grammatical basis. Conversational speech, meanwhile, spontaneously changed. To mid-nineteenth in. discrepancies between the literary language (received in this era the name bungo, lit. " written language") and uncodified colloquial speech, represented by many dialects (which has come to be denoted by the term ko: go, lit. " spoken language"), became so noticeable that a painful situation of triglossia developed in society: kanbun was used in "high" documents, bungo in less official, "medium" literature, which was regarded as a "low", vulgar language. In the course of modernizing Japanese society in the last third of the XIX century in the country unfolded social movement for the "unity of speech and writing", thanks to which the kanbun practically fell into disuse by the end of the century, and the bungo sharply reduced the scope of its application, giving way to fiction, then in journalism and science. After the Second World War, bungo ceased to be used in official documents. The modern Japanese literary language is grammatically based on the norms of ko:go (more precisely, on the norms of colloquial speech of residents of wealthy areas of Tokyo at the end of the last century), and in terms of lexical and phraseological terms, it has absorbed all the richness of linguistic forms developed over the centuries within the kanbun and bungo. However, kanbun and bungo did not completely disappear; they are still studied to a limited extent today, primarily for reading purposes. classical literature, and are used in some genres of poetry, in the performance of religious cults, etc. The stylistic diversity of the modern Japanese language is no less significant than in the languages ​​of Europe: book and colloquial speech are clearly distinguished, various functional styles, the gradation of speech is developed according to the degree of politeness, there are vernacular and jargons. Differences between male and female speech are noticeable, almost absent in European languages. Until quite recently in Japan, the majority of whose population had never left the territory of their feudal clan for many generations, the territorial dialects were very different from each other. In our century, with the advent of unified school education and later radio and television, the differences between dialects have largely smoothed out, and the scope of their use has narrowed: today, in most situations, the Japanese use the standard (or "common") language, and local dialects they speak only in the family and in general in a relaxed atmosphere. Thus, although the variety of forms of the Japanese language is preserved, the scale of their differences is much less than a century and a half ago, in the era of coexistence of kanbun, bungo and ko:go.

Japan from A to Z. Encyclopedia. EdwART. 2009

Learning any foreign language "for yourself" will not bring any results, except for disappointment. This rule applies especially to Japanese. A clear understanding of the specifics of your goals is the basis for building effective plan learning.

Tourism, receiving unique education, development international business, passion for traditional and modern Japanese art, professional immigration - whatever you choose, this will be your main motivation and driving force for immersion in Japanese.

Setting specific deadlines will help set reference points throughout the training. For example, your goal is to pass the Nihongo noryoku shiken Japanese Language Proficiency Exam at the Beginning Level (N5) in eight months. The list of words, hieroglyphs and grammar required for the exam can be viewed in advance on the relevant sites and compiled step by step plan for the entire period of study.

2. Structure your learning material

Select a few proven textbooks and print out the copybooks. This will form the basis of your learning. In parallel, you can use the online simulator to test your knowledge. One of the most popular and effective is the Japanese textbook Minna no Nihongo: Basic Workbook in two parts, which is best taken immediately with a grammar commentary and additional teaching materials.

If you are fluent in English, you can use time-tested and thousands of students textbooks, workbooks and audio materials from the GENKI series. From Russian editions we can recommend the “Japanese Language Textbook for Children” in two parts by the author M. R. Golomidova - a well-known Russian specialist in the field of Japanese. The textbook will be an excellent educational tool for adults.

3. Start simple

The Japanese writing system consists of two syllabaries (hiragana and katakana) and kanji (hieroglyphs). First you need to master both alphabets, where each of the 46 characters means not a sound, but a syllable. And only after that move on to kanji. Try to study symbols and hieroglyphs not separately, but in the context of words and sentences.

The basic set of knowledge is very clearly spelled out in the requirements for the fifth level. international exam in Japanese. For a beginner, this can be a great guide.

When moving on to the study of kanji, you should pay attention to the so-called keys, from which, like from Lego cubes, you can compose and memorize quite complex Japanese characters. Don't forget that your successful learning last but not least depends on constant written practice. To do this, you can download and print ready-made recipes. Work on pronunciation better reading aloud.

4. Practice Japanese Regularly and Variedly

Despite the logic of this point, many people forget about it over time. Undoubtedly, with constant employment, it is really difficult to allocate several hours a day for learning a language, but 20 minutes is quite real!

Diversify your weekly schedule, for example:

• Monday, Thursday - theoretical lessons on the textbook;
• Tuesday - reading your favorite manga in the original or information from Japanese Internet resources;
• Wednesday - work with prescriptions;
• Friday, Saturday - watching interesting videos;
• Sunday - communication with native speakers.

Daily study of Japanese, if it is a pleasure, will bring tangible results very, very soon!

5. Use proven kanji memorization techniques

There are several original tools for memorizing hieroglyphs.

Card method

Cut out required amount cards made of thick paper, on one side indicate the symbol or hieroglyph being studied, on the other - the corresponding value. This will help not only in learning, but also in testing your knowledge. By the way, you can buy ready-made sets of cards.

Irecommend.ru

association method

Memorization is the best fit for the Japanese language. When learning kanji, it is often difficult to remember the spelling of a character and its meaning. To solve this problem, for each hieroglyph, invent your own image! For example:

• 木 (tree) really looks like a tree;
• 森 (forest) - but three trees turn into a real forest;
• 火 (fire) - a little imagination, and you are already warming your hands by the fire near the mountain (山).

So you can effectively memorize several hieroglyphs at once.

s5.pikabu.ru

Word replacement method

For this you need a great computer program under the name "Cananization" (from Japanese word"kana" - alphabet). The program replaces syllables in any Russian-language text copied into it with signs of Japanese alphabets.

There is a Japanese belief.

Skあzka, easier to sayおrya:

Withおtookい onceあwait the beastい

Choose い to fight with えbe the king!

Using this program will help you easily memorize Japanese characters.

Perhaps the most important rule for learning Japanese (and not only) is self-confidence and focus on results. Don't believe that Japanese is impossible to learn. Foreigners say the same about the Russian language. But how did we learn it? Good luck to you, patience and the fulfillment of the Japanese dream!

JAPANESE, language spoken ca. 125 million inhabitants of Japan, as well as the descendants of the Japanese who moved in the first half of the 20th century. to other countries: to the USA, including Hawaiian Islands(more than 800 thousand), Brazil (about 400 thousand), Peru (more than 100 thousand), China, Canada, Argentina, Mexico, etc. The family ties of the Japanese language have long been controversial; now most researchers recognize it as related Altaic languages- Korean, Tungus-Manchu, Mongolian, Turkic. There is a hypothesis about its relationship with the Austronesian (Malayo-Polynesian) languages, however, apparently, the similarity with these languages ​​is due to ancient contacts. AT historical period The Japanese language has been greatly influenced Chinese and, in recent decades, English.

Center Japanese politics and culture used to be the area of ​​Nara and Kyoto, but in the Tokugawa era (1600-1867) it moved to Edo (modern Tokyo). Until the 19th century as a literary language, the language that developed on the basis of the Kyoto court language of the 9th-12th centuries was used. In the second half of the 19th century a modern literary language was formed on the basis of the Tokyo colloquial basis.

The Japanese language, excluding the dialects of the Ryukyu Islands, is divided into four dialect areas: Eastern (including the Tokyo area), Central Honshu, Western Honshu (including Shikoku) and Kyushu; dialects of the Ryukyu Islands ( common name small islands in the south of the Japanese archipelago) differ sharply from all the others and are considered by some researchers as independent language. The majority of Japanese people use dialect forms in conversation with the inhabitants of their places, and in conversation with speakers of other dialects and in writing they use literary Japanese. In Japanese, there is a rich literature, the history of which goes back more than 1200 years; first surviving monument, chronicle Kojiki O-no Yasumaro, dated 712.

Spoken Japanese (disregarding new borrowings) includes five vowels ( a, and, at, uh, about) and twenty-six consonant phonemes: P, pi, b, b, t(before at pronounced like c), be h), d, d, to, ky, G, gh(the last two words inside acquire a nasal overtone), With, camping(pronounced close to soft w), dz, dz(pronounced close to soft j), R, p(one-hit, or "clapping" varieties), m, m, n, ny, X(before at pronounced like f), xx(close to the German "ih-laut"), th, in(labial, like English w). In new borrowings from English and other languages, in, vy(labio-dental); t and d before at; f and c not before at; ph, ts. These features of Japanese phonetics explain the different rendering of Japanese sounds in borrowings that came directly from Japanese and passed through European languages; the same applies to the transfer of proper names: city Hiroshima, but the firm Toshiba”, mountain fuji(pit), but the firm fuji» ( w and j at the same time, according to the rules of Russian phonetics, they are pronounced firmly, and instead of and naturally sounds s; it turns out very far from the Japanese original); judo, but jujutsu; in a number of cases there is also the presence of doublet forms, cf. traditional transfer of the company name " Misubishi” and the occasional anglicized “ Mitsubishi»; With " Toshiboy" and " Toshiboy» The situation is rather the opposite – now the second option clearly prevails. Most syllables are open; at the end of a syllable, only nasal consonants are possible; there are long vowels and consonants.

Japanese stress is musical. For each word, it is characterized, first of all, by the pitch and, depending on this, by the number of vibrations produced by speech sounds. There are three levels of pitch: low, medium and high. The distance between low and medium, as well as between medium and high, is approximately equal to a third (in musical terms). The pitch is differential sign, which can distinguish between otherwise phonetically identical words. Yes, the word ame with a tone accent on the first syllable means "rain", and the word ame, where the tone rises from low on the first syllable to medium on the second, serves as a designation for gelatin sweets.

Verbs and adjectives have forms of inflection, which are formed by changing endings; these forms denote the syntactic position (forms of the predicate, adverb), tense, mood. Between the stem and endings there can be suffixes with the meaning of passive, causative, negation, politeness different types etc. Other categories of words are not subject to inflection: this includes substantives (nouns, pronouns and numerals), adverbs, postpositions, conjunctions and interjections. The usual word order in a sentence is “subject-object-predicate” (SOV), the definition precedes the defined. grammatical meaning nouns, subordinate phrases and sentences is determined by the following postpositions. Thus, a noun followed by a postposition ha, is the subject, a noun followed by a postposition about, is a direct complement. Particle placed at the end of a sentence ka turns it into a question. Japanese has certain forms and constructions (the so-called forms of politeness), indicating the relative hierarchy of the social statuses of the speaker, the addressee, and the person in question.

There are (not counting the Japanese Latin alphabet, which has not received much distribution) two types of writing. The first type is borrowed from China in the 6th-8th centuries. hieroglyphs ("kanji"). Their number reached several tens of thousands, but only approx. 3 thousand hieroglyphs. The second type is phonetic writing, the common name for all its species is "kana". Two versions of kana are now common: hiragana (more rounded) and katakana (more angular); hiragana and katakana independently evolved from hieroglyphs in the 9th-10th centuries. Kana - basically a syllabary: a syllable from a vowel and a consonant is written in one character, special characters write the second components of long vowels, diphthongs and final syllable nasals. AT contemporary texts hieroglyphs usually denote the roots of meaningful words, and grammatical elements - affixes, postpositions, particles, conjunctions, and interjections - are written in hiragana. Katakana is commonly used to record new borrowings, mostly from of English language, which do not have a hieroglyphic way of writing. Ordinary japanese text characterized by a combination of hieroglyphs, katakana and hiragana signs; special Japanese punctuation marks, Arabic numerals, and sometimes the Latin alphabet are also used. The usual direction of writing, as in China, is from top to bottom from right to left, although some texts of a scientific and informational nature are printed in a horizontal direction from left to right. The manuscript distinguishes at least three writing styles: square (more angular), regular, and fluent (more simplified).

The book version of the Japanese language, even in our time, is noticeably different from the spoken one. Many words of Chinese origin are used in writing, where they are understood by hieroglyphic notation, but are avoided in oral speech due to homonymy (formal coincidence of words with different meanings). In vocabulary and grammar in the book versions of the language, words and forms borrowed from the old literary language are common. So, ieba"if someone says" may appear in the book version in the old form iwaba. Many particles and postpositions lost in colloquial version Japanese, may appear in book: for example, instead of Kara and dake in the meaning of "from" and "only" can be used ori and nomi.

Learning Japanese in Japan has centuries of history; in fact, Japan is one of the few European countries, in which a national linguistic tradition was formed and developed, reaching highest development in the period from the end of the 17th to the middle of the 19th century; at the turn of the 19th–20th centuries. this tradition came into contact with the European one. The first acquaintance of Europeans with the Japanese language took place in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, when Portuguese missionaries settled in the country; they created the first dictionaries (1595, 1603) and the first grammar of the Japanese language (J. Rodrigues, 1604). This was followed by more than two centuries of almost complete closure Japan for Europeans; connections were resumed only in the 1860s, when quite numerous Japanese grammar books appeared, written by scholars from various European countries; by this time in Japan there was already a grammar written according to Dutch models by S. Tsurumine (1833). In the 20th century the Japanese language became the object of description within the framework of new linguistic trends emerging in the West; in particular, the American linguists B. Block, R. E. Miller built descriptivist descriptions of the Japanese language; most Full description Grammar of Japanese in the West was published by S. Martin. Theoretically important results were obtained by Japanese linguists both in Japan proper (S.Hashimoto, M.Tokieda, S.Hattori and others) and in the USA (S.Kuno, S.Kuroda, M.Shibatani and others); interesting page in the history of linguistics and sociology was the Japanese "school of linguistic existence”, which took shape at the turn of the 1940s–1950s ( cm. also DISCOURSE). Comprehension of the features of the structure of the Japanese language had a significant impact on the theoretical constructions of such linguists as C. Fillmore, J. McCauley, A. A. Kholodovich, W. Chaif. At present, Japanese studies is a large and developed section of linguistics, which is facilitated by modern high status Japanese language in the world (derived from Japan's status as an economic superpower).

In Russia, the study of the Japanese language dates back to the 18th century, but the intensive development of domestic Japanese studies, as well as Western European studies, began with the “opening” of Japan to the outside world in the middle of the 19th century. The first Japanese-Russian dictionary was created in 1857 by I.A. Goshkevich, the first grammar - by D.D. Smirnov in 1890. From the end of the 19th century. regular teaching of the Japanese language began; St. Petersburg and Vladivostok became the main centers of domestic Japanese studies; subsequently Moscow was added to them. Outstanding Contribution E.D. Polivanov, N.I. Konrad, A.A. Kholodovich contributed to domestic and world Japanese studies; The works of V.M. Alpatov, I.F. Vardul, I.A. Golovnin, N.A. Syromyatnikov, S.A. Starostin, N.I. Feldman are devoted to various aspects of Japanese linguistics.

みなさんこんにちは。(MINASAN KONNICHIWA)! Good afternoon everyone!

A few words about me, I wrote earlier that half a year ago I started learning Japanese on my own using the Minna no Nihongo textbook and the NHK WORLD website, now I continue, or rather I don’t continue, and like-minded people and I learn Japanese from scratch in courses with a native speaker. I think a lot of people are asking:

The first two paragraphs, although similar in sound, have different meanings.

Each of us has a reason why we wanted to learn Japanese. I'm not mistaken that the vast majority of guys who started learning nihongo ( に ほんご) started with anime, very good and enjoyable reason to step on hard way language acquisition. But just as it's easy to watch anime, it's just as easy to drop out of school. That is, this good reason, but only the most patient and persistent anime lovers will be able to learn a language just to watch their favorite anime or read manga in the original.

The love of anime for many develops into an interest in Japan and the desire to travel to the Country rising sun Or better yet, work there. This desire gives rise to great motivation to learn the language. Therefore, if there is such a desire or such an opportunity, then Japanese will be easy to learn.

To summarize: in order to start learning a language, you need to find an interest related to Japan: anime, manga, a desire to study in Japan or work. Finding a favorite among Japanese actors is possible politicians so interesting to you that you want to read information about them or listen (watch) in Japanese. It is also possible to get carried away with traditional ones, such as calligraphy, ekibana, bonsai, origami. All of these interests can be a step towards learning Japanese. In general, you can learn a language just like that and without a goal, but it sounds implausible.

How to start learning a language

It is most correct to immediately learn the Japanese alphabet, or rather the syllabic alphabet and. It is recommended to learn Japanese not with words, but with phrases. Japanese has a lot of typical phrases that are used in polite speech. That is, if you learn the form of acquaintance, greeting, first acquaintance with colleagues, then with 100% probability this is exactly what the Japanese themselves say. At first I did not believe that the language should be taught in phrases, so imagine if you could learn the Russian language only in phrases, what would happen? Because our language is multifaceted and unpredictable. Japanese spoken is also very lively and interesting language, but polite style is strictly regulated.

But still, to learn phrases, it’s better to have a small vocabulary the most common words to know. It is also easier to learn a language with phrases because in Japanese the sequence of words in a sentence (noun, verb, defined word, etc.) is fundamentally different from the Russian language. Having learned individual words it will be very difficult to compose them into a sentence.

To learn the language you need to purchase:

• a block of opaque paper 9 x 9, these will be training cards. On the one hand, it will be necessary to write down the symbols of the alphabet, words in hiragana (katakana), phrases, and on the other hand, the Russian translation. With such cards, you can learn a language anywhere, in your spare time. And checking your knowledge with cards is easier and more convenient than in a textbook.
• a simple marking pencil B - soft or HB - hard-soft (you can’t use a pen, an automatic pencil too) and an eraser
• checkered notebook
• textbook, according to which you will learn the language, I wrote about it

How difficult is it to learn Japanese

We must think soberly - learning Japanese is difficult, but possible. Basically, everyone merges when it comes to kanji, even sensei's caring hand does not help. But in any language there is a system, not chaotic memorization, and you need to gather all your will into a fist and continue learning.

P.s. Having studied the first 50 kanji (hieroglyphs), I didn’t see this system, it’s just difficult to memorize, since you have to constantly repeat the material covered. And the point is not even in memorizing the kanji, but in how it is pronounced in a particular word, that is, in fact, you need to memorize all the words. Asking what the secret of memorization is from knowledgeable people, they told me that the first 300 should just be memorized, and then the system will be clear. Well ... let's cram.

And what about those who have already learned Japanese?

The pronunciation of words in Japanese is easy, since the set of sounds in Russian and Japanese is the same with some subtleties. At first, training takes place completely with the help of hiragana (katakana), and since in Japanese words are both pronounced and written, there should be no problems in writing and memorizing words (phrases).

Grammar in Japanese is not very difficult, but it also has its own characteristics, there are certain exceptions out of the rules, but not en masse. As in any language, success will only be in the case of working on the language and preferably daily. You can learn a language on your own, but how well you learn it is a moot point. Still, there should be teacher control.

Frame from the movie: Japanese, which the Japanese do not know

How much do you need to learn a language

Everyone has their own pace of language learning. Offline courses involve three years of study (half a year for each course). It's not fast and slow pace learning. During this time, you can learn all the skills: speaking, listening, reading, writing. Training for a period of three years does not mean that knowledge is 100% obtained. It is more correct to say that during this time the student will acquire basic skills and in the future will be able to independently continue his improvement of the language. Learning a language in a year or two, outside of Japan, is unlikely.

What are the main words to learn

To learn a language more effectively, you first need to learn:

1. basic verbs
2. if training will take place in courses, then grammatical words that allow you to understand the speech of the teacher
3. time expression
4. and probably that surround a person, for example: friend, car, tree, sky, house and
5. for practice, you can learn, written in kanji, hiragana, transcription and translation into Russian

To consolidate your knowledge of the Japanese language, use online service Duolingo, I wrote about it in an article. Classes on this resource are offered absolutely free of charge, I recommend.

By the way, why are you learning Japanese? Was it easy to learn? And do you think it is possible to independently learn the language at a decent level?

For self-study languages ​​you may need:

A set of 333 cards, the words are written in hieroglyphs, syllabary(hiragana/katakana) and romaji

Notebook for writing hieroglyphs, paperback, number of pages 32.

Various Japanese textbooks for beginners can be found here.