漢字の由来を英語で説明するとこうなります！

こんにちは！

こちらに来ていただいて、ありがとうございます！！

先日、マラウイで語学交流会を開催しました。

その時に、「日本語の講義」をさせていただきました。英語でその内容を説明しましたが、、、、。

調べて書き上げるのにだいぶ時間がかかりました、、、。
でもなんとか仕上がったので、よかった。

普段は当たり前に使っている日本語だけど、調べてみると思った以上に奥深かったです。

中国とのつながりや、どうやって中国語から独立したのかについて調べてみました。

 へー、なるほどこうなっているんだと思うことばかりです。

目次

malawi2015.hatenablog.com

Introduction 

日本語は他の言語と比べようがないぐらい、特殊な言語のようです。

There is no conclusive evidence relating Nihongo to a singular hierarchy of languages. 

日本語の発達は鎌倉~室町時代が盛んだったみたいです。

The language of that era was composed of features that have been lost through time are no longer in existence. The modernization of the Japanese language initialized in the 12th century A.D. to the 16th century A.D.

日本語の起源はなんだろう？？

 1.What are the origins of the Japanese language?

Japanese language did not originate in China, only the writing system did.

Obviously the written language (i.e. kanji) pulls a lot from Chinese, but where the spoken language comes from is more or less a complete mystery for everybody.

We simply borrowed their writing system.

そう！

日本語って中国語を借りているだけなんです！

We borrowed Kanzi (Chinese characters) to write Japanese oral language (which obviously was preexisting).

At first it was a real mess, but, with time, We found a way to use Kanzi to write Japanese.

2.What are the distinguishing features of Nihongo ? 

Spoken Japanese

Japanese is not conclusively linked to any other language or family of languages.

It has remained a mystery despite all these centuries of research, and continues to prod the people who speak it to seek out their identity.

Written Japanese

The Japanese had no writing system prior to the introduction of the Chinese one. As a result of this Chinese influence and domestic adaptation, Japanese writing developed into the threefold system it is today

In Japanese, three types of character sets - Hiragana, Katakana and kanji (Chinese characters) are used in a mixed way.

 

3.How did hiragana and katakana originate?

Both hiragana and katakana are simplified forms of kanji (Chinese characters). Japan had no writing system before Chinese characters were introduced in the first or second century AD. 

Japanese consists of two alphabets (or kana) called hiragana and katakana, 

Hiragana and katakana consist of a little less than 50 "letters", which are actually simplified Chinese characters adopted to form a phonetic alphabet.

4.How many kanji must one normally learn?

The standard set of about 2136 kanji characters

(jōyō kanji;) are taught in elementary and middle schools (i.e., grades 1 - 9) as part of mandatory education in Japan.

(High school is not mandatory.) Formally, we don't have to learn more than this, so few students would spend time doing something like kanji drill books in high school and college.

In Japan, there are only 2,136 Jōyō kanji (lit. commonly-used kanji), which are the ones taught in school, though literate people usually know more. The equivalent list in Chinese is the Xiàndài Hànyǔ Chángyòng Zìbiǎo, which has about 3,500 characters.

5.How are kanji, hiragana, and katakana used?

Hiragana developed from man Chinese characters, The forms of the hiragana originate from the cursive script style of Chinese calligraphy.

The forms of the hiragana originate from the cursive script style of Chinese calligraphy.It represents every sound in the Japanese language.

Katakana is used for loanwords (words of foreign origin) such as Amerika (America) and Wain (wine).

6.Is Japanese text more commonly written vertically or horizontally?

Historically, vertical writing was the standard system, and horizontal writing was only used where a sign had to fit in a constrained space, such as over the gate of a temple or the signboard of a shop.

This horizontal writing is in fact a special case of vertical writing in which each column contains just one character.

日本語は基本的に縦書きです♪ 

7.What are the different levels of honorifics or politeness in Japanese speech?

The honorifics use is mandatory in many social situations. Honorifics in Japanese may be used to emphasize social distance or disparity in rank, or to emphasize social intimacy or similarity in rank.

日本語は話すときはどれだけ丁寧な言葉なのかということ示唆しています。

8.How would you describe the grammatical structure of Nihongo?

It Japanese sentence structure is very different from English, but it’s not hard to master. Compared to other languages I’ve studied, Japanese isn’t heavily grammatical.

Japanese sentence structure is classified as SOV (subject-object-verb). English is SVO. However, it is misleading to focus on the order of the verb and object as a source of confusion for Westerners learning Japanese.

Japanese sentence structure summary

• The verb comes last
• Particles define the roles of each of the different elements within a sentence
• Word order is less important, and only influences the emphasis
• Each noun in a sentence can be expanded into a more detailed noun phrase
• It is usually more natural to put the topic and time phrases near the beginning of the sentence

9.What is the lingua franca or standard language of Japan?

It is a common language consisting of Italian mixed with French, Spanish, Greek, and Arabic that was formerly spoken in Mediterranean ports

Tokyo is often considered to be standard Japanese, though it differs from standard Japanese in a number of areas and social classes.

「フランク語」、「フランク王国の言葉」を意味するイタリア語に由来し、それから転じて、共通の母語を持たない集団内において意思疎通に使われている言語のことを指すようになった。 現在では、「共通語」や「通商語」の意味で使われることが多いです。

10.What differences are there between masculine and feminine speech?

Women speak Japanese in completely different ways, almost as if they were speaking different dialects.

The Japanese language has some words and some grammatical constructions that are associated with men or boys, while others are associated with women or girls.

Such differences are sometimes called "gendered language". In Japanese, speech patterns associated with women are referred to as onna kotoba.

 

 最後まで読んでいただいて、ありがとうございます！！

ボリュームがありました♪