History UsefulNotes / JapaneseLanguage

The UsefulNotes/JapaneseLanguage is considered an extremely "complicated" language to an English speaker's ear. While certain concepts are simplified (very few real plurals, for instance), the grammar is switched around, and both the words and wording are often grounded in concepts that are either different or entirely external to the English language. And let's not even ''start'' get into things like [[{{Keigo}} etiquette and connotation]].

The UsefulNotes/JapaneseLanguage is considered an extremely "complicated" language to an English speaker's ear. While certain concepts are simplified (very few real plurals, for instance), the grammar is essentially [[StarWars Yoda-talk]][[note]]In fact, Yoda's own manner of speech is inspired by Japanese grammar.[[/note]], and both the words and wording are often grounded in concepts that are either different or entirely external to the English language. And let's not even ''start'' get into things like [[{{Keigo}} etiquette and connotation]].

* GreenIsBlue

* JapaneseRanguage: A common stereotypical depection of Japanese speak, which is not entirely accurate.

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* There are two ways of "alphabetizing" lists. The modern order is logical and proceeds through the initial consonants in [a, i, u, e, o] order (it is, amusingly, the older system, having been inherited from Sanskrit via Buddhist scriptures). The pre-WWII system is much weirder and orders the characters according to a poem that uses each of them once (kinda like "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog"). No one uses this for much anymore, but the initial 3 characters ''I'', ''ro'', ''ha'' ("ee", "row", "hah") are still often used much like "ABC" in the English alphabet. For the record, those three translate as "as for the color".

The UsefulNotes/JapaneseLanguage is considered an extremely "complicated" language to an English speaker's ear. While certain concepts are simplified (very few real plurals, for instance), the grammar is essentially [[StarWars Yoda-talk]], and both the words and wording are often grounded in concepts that are either different or entirely external to the English language. And let's not even ''start'' get into things like [[{{Keigo}} etiquette and connotation]].

The UsefulNotes/JapaneseLanguage is considered an extremely "complicated" language to an English speaker's ear. While certain concepts are simplified (very few real plurals, for instance), the grammar is essentially [[StarWars Yoda-talk]], and both the words and wording are often grounded in concepts that are either different or entirely external to the English language.

The UsefulNotes/JapaneseLanguage is considered an extremely "complicated" language to an English speaker's ear. While certain concepts are simplified (very few real plurals, for instance), the grammar is essentially in reverse order compared to English, and both the words and wording are often grounded in concepts that are either different or entirely external to the English language.

** {{Oba-san}}

** Left-to-right writing is actually West-influenced. Before the left-to-right writing was introduced to Japan, all horizontal writings (e.g. signs above doors) were done in the opposite direction, right-to-left. Even after the left-to-right writing started to be used in books, the public signs still continued to be written right-to-left until the WWII. [[hottip:*:The same is true also for China. Remember that scene from BruceLee's film ''Chinese Connection'' when the Japanese bring the sign [[http://www.flickr.com/photos/manropa/2399529133/ "Sick Man of Asia"]] to Bruce's martial arts school? That sign is written right-to-left!]] There are still some old-style and legacy signs written right-to-left. ''KenichiTheMightiestDisciple'' plays with this when Boris Ivanov breaks into the Ryôzanpaku dojo. Since its horizontal sign is written in the old way (right-to-left), and Boris is unfamiliar with this legacy writing direction, [[http://www.mangafox.com/manga/history_s_strongest_disciple_kenichi/c177/7.html he misreads it as "Hakuzanryô"]].

* There are no plurals in Japanese - if someone was talking about "kimono", there would be no way of knowing if it was one garment, two garments, ten, or ten thousand. The closest they have is the term "-tachi", which can be added both to regular nouns and proper nouns, and means "and all the rest" (when used for proper nouns this is often translated as e.g. "John and his friends" or "John and his party"). There is also no way to indicate a group of X's in particular; "kimono-tachi" in Japanese could mean multiple kimonos or it could mean a kimono and a bunch of other clothing sitting next to it.

* There are no plurals in Japanese - if someone was talking about "kimono", there would be no way of knowing if it was one or ten of them. The closest they have is the term "-tachi", which can be added both to regular nouns and proper nouns, and means "and all the rest" (when used for proper nouns this is often translated as e.g. "John and his friends" or "John and his party"). There is also no way to indicate a group of X's in particular; "kimono-tachi" in Japanese could mean multiple kimonos or it could mean a kimono and a bunch of other clothing sitting next to it.

* Japanese has a simpler syllable structure compared to English. This is exacerbated because words borrowed from Chinese, which include most of the complicated terms (think Latin and Greek with English), use only a subset of the sounds of Japanese, and the tones that would distinguish them in Chinese are lost. This makes homonyms more prevalent; humour based on this, such as puns and malapropisms, tends to be easier. This is especially true when noting that the kanji for words that sound the same can make the difference clear. A good example would be the title for ''AiYoriAoshi'', which literally translates as "bluer than indigo" but is simultaneously a pun on ''ai'', the word for love (an equivalent meaning would be "true blue love") and an allusion to the main character Aoi-chan.

** Which is because Japanese has no native "v" sound. They ''can'' pronounce "v" (or something like it) but since "v" a foreign sound (used exclusively in loan-words) and "b" isn't it's easier to say the far more common "b" instead. (Hence, the transformation of the Norse "Verdandi" into "Belldandy" in ''AhMyGoddess''.)

* {{UsefulNotes/Romanization}}

* GratuitousEnglish and [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gairaigo other foreign loanwords]]

* GratuitousEnglish

* JapaneseHonorifics

* JapanesePronouns

* GenderAndJapaneseLanguage

* JapaneseStockPhrases

* JapaneseSiblingTerminology