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Ethnologue > Web version > Country index > Asia > Japan > Japanese

Japanese

A language of Japan

ISO 639-3jpn

Population  121,000,000 in Japan (1985). Population total all countries: 122,080,100.
Region  Widespread. Also in American Samoa, Argentina, Australia, Belize, Brazil, Canada, Dominican Republic, Germany, Guam, Mexico, Micronesia, Mongolia, New Zealand, Northern Mariana Islands, Palau, Panama, Paraguay, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States.
Language map  Japan
Dialects  Western Japanese, Eastern Japanese. Possibly related to Korean [kor]. The Kagoshima dialect is 84% cognate with Tokyo dialect.
Classification  Japonic
Language use  National language. 1,000,000 L2 speakers.
Language development  Fully developed. Bible: 1883–1987.
Writing system  Han, Hiragana, and Katakana scripts.
Comments  SOV; postpositions; demonstrative, numeral, adjective, possessive, relative clause, proper noun precede noun head; adverb precedes verb; sentence final question particle; CV. Buddhist, Shintoist.

Also spoken in:

Taiwan

Language name   Japanese
Language use  Trade language. 10,000 L2 users in Taiwan (1993). A few older adult aboriginals.
 

Entries from the SIL Bibliography about this language:

Academic Publications

BOSTROM, Mark W., author. 1993. The pitch-accent component of Japanese phonology: a description demonstrating the usefulness of phonotactically motivated rules.

CORMO, Christiane, author. 1997. "Towards a constructivist approach to the Japanese ‘passive’."  Available online

DEL CORRO, Anicia, author. 1990. "An analysis of polysemy in Kapampangan and Japanese, using the systems correspondence theory."  Available online

GLOVER, Warren W.; YADAVA, Yogendra P., editors. 1999. Topics in Nepalese linguistics.

GRUMMITT, John, author. 2009. Review of: Japanese language, gender and ideology: cultural models and real people, by Shigeko Okamoto and Janet S. Shibamoto Smith.  Available online

MANABE, Takashi, author. 1978. Topic-comment based linguistics model and its application to Greek and Japanese.

MARTIN, Dorothy J., author. 1992. A text-based study of clause chaining in Japanese.

TOBA, Sueyoshi, author. 1983. Neparugo kaiwa.

TOBA, Sueyoshi, author. 1998. Review of: Nepaarugo jiten (Nepali-Japanese dictionary), by Saigusa Reiko.

TOBA, Sueyoshi, author. 1999. "A typological comparison of Nepali and Japanese."

TOBA, Sueyoshi, compiler. 1980. Neparugo kisogoìshu.

TOBA, Sueyoshi, translator; HARI, Anna Maria, editor. 1977. Neparugo kaiwa dokuhon.