Editing Culture of Japan (section)

== Language ==
{{Main|Japanese language|Japanese dialects}}
[[Japanese language|Japanese]] is the national and primary language of Japan. The language is a lexically distinct [[Japanese pitch accent|pitch-accent system]]. Early Japanese is known primarily by its state in the 8th century when the three major works of [[Old Japanese]] were compiled. The earliest attestation of the Japanese language was found in a Chinese document from 256 CE. However, the Japanese language has no genetic relationship with Chinese, nor any clear affiliation with any other language.<ref name="Japanese-language2"/> While there are a number of theories about the origins of Japanese, the strongest arguments for affiliation are with Korean on the basis of similar syntax. More controversially, it has also been paired with [[Altaic languages]] due to a similar number of systems and verb forms.<ref name="Japanese-language2" /> While Japanese is the only official language of Japan, other languages such as [[Ainu language|Ainu]]<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Shiraishi |first=Hidetoshi |date=January 2022 |title=Ainu: An urban-rural indigenous language of the north |url=https://academic.oup.com/book/38834/chapter/337725778 |access-date=2023-10-25 |website=Oxford Academic |doi=10.1093/oso/9780198856610.003.0007}}</ref> and [[Ryukyuan languages|Ryukyuan]]<ref>{{Citation |last=Pellard |first=Thomas |title=Handbook of the Ryukyuan Languages |chapter=1. The Linguistic archeology of the Ryukyu Islands |date=2015-02-17 |chapter-url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9781614511151.13/html |pages=13–38 |access-date=2023-10-25 |publisher=De Gruyter Mouton |language=en |doi=10.1515/9781614511151.13 |isbn=978-1-61451-115-1|url=https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01289257/file/Pellard_2015_The_linguistic_archeology_of_the_Ryukyu_Islands.pdf }}</ref> are spoken on the Japanese islands.

Written Japanese uses a combination of three scripts: [[Chinese characters]] pronounced as "[[kanji]]" {{nihongo||漢字}} in Japanese, [[hiragana]], and [[katakana]]. Japan had no writing system prior to adopting kanji from China in 751 CE,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Yamagiwa |first=J. K. |title="Literature and Japanese Culture" in Twelve Doors to Japan |publisher=McGraw-Hill |year=1965 |isbn=9780070256101 |edition= |location=New York |pages=233 |language=English}}</ref> and like Chinese, kanji are used extensively in Japanese as [[logogram]]s.<ref>{{Citation |last1=Chandler |first1=Daniel |title=writing systems |date=2011-01-01 |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780199568758.001.0001/acref-9780199568758-e-3033 |work=A Dictionary of Media and Communication |access-date=2023-11-29 |publisher=Oxford University Press |language=en |doi=10.1093/acref/9780199568758.001.0001 |isbn=978-0-19-956875-8 |last2=Munday |first2=Rod}}</ref> Presently, there is a notable number{{clarify|date=October 2020}} of kanji in modern Japanese with a different meaning from the corresponding {{transliteration|zh|[[hanzi]]}} character used in modern Chinese. Modern Japanese also features far fewer [[simplified Chinese characters]] in comparison to modern Chinese as Japanese typically uses fewer kanji, mainly for [[nouns]], [[adjective]] stems, and [[verb]] stems.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Takayama |first=K. Peter |date=1995 |title=Adaptation and Resistance to Chinese Literary Hegemony: Korea and Japan |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20007203 |journal=International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society |volume=8 |issue=3 |pages=468 |doi=10.1007/BF02142896 |jstor=20007203 |issn=0891-4486}}</ref> Both hiragana and katakana are phonetic syllabaries derived from the Chinese {{transliteration|ja|[[man'yōgana]]}} of the 5th century.<ref>''Yookoso! An Invitation to Contemporary Japanese'' 1st edition McGraw-Hill, page 13 "Linguistic Note: The Origins of Hiragana and Katakana"</ref> Hiragana and katakana were developed from simplified kanji; hiragana emerged somewhere around the 9th century<ref>{{Cite web |last=Burlock |first=Ben |date=2017 |title=How did katakana and hiragana originate? |url=http://www.sljfaq.org/afaq/originofkana.html |access-date=26 July 2017 |website=sci.lang.japan}}</ref> and were mainly used by women for informal language while katakana was mainly used by men in formal language. By the 10th century, both systems were used commonly by everyone.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Ager |first=Simon |date=2017 |title=Japanese Hiragana |url=http://www.omniglot.com/writing/japanese_hiragana.htm |access-date=26 July 2017 |website=Omniglot}}</ref>

Japanese vocabulary consists of 49% words of [[Sino-Japanese vocabulary|Chinese origin]], 33% words of [[Wago|Japanese origin]], and 18% loanwords from other languages, including [[European languages]], words of mixed origin, and the made-in-Japan pseudo-English known as [[wasei-eigo]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=24 May 2016 |title=Are Loanwords a Threat to the Japanese Language? |url=https://www.nippon.com/en/column/g00195/ |website=nippon.com}}</ref> The [[Latin alphabet]] is often used in modern Japanese, especially for company names, logos, advertising, and when inputting Japanese into a computer. The [[Hindu–Arabic numeral system|Hindu–Arabic numerals]] are often used for numbers and can be read in either Japanese or English, but traditional [[Japanese numerals|Sino–Japanese numerals]] are also common.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Schourup |first=Lawrence |date=2000 |title=Japanese Number Mnemonics |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/489551 |journal=The Journal of the Association of Teachers of Japanese |volume=34 |issue=2 |pages=132 |doi=10.2307/489551 |jstor=489551 |issn=0885-9884}}</ref> The influence of Japanese culture in the [[Western world]] over the past few centuries has led to many of its terms, such as ''[[origami]]'', ''[[tsunami]]'', ''[[karaoke]],'' and pop cultural terms like ''[[shonen]]'' and ''[[shōjo]]'' being incorporated into the English language. Words like these have also been added to the [[Oxford English Dictionary]].<ref>{{cite web |date=4 August 2021 |title=From anime to zen: Japanese words in the OED |url=https://public.oed.com/blog/japanese-words-in-the-oed/ |website=Oxford English Dictionary}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |date=16 August 2012 |title=New Words September 2011 |url=https://public.oed.com/blog/september-2011-update-new-words-notes/ |website=Oxford English Dictionary}}</ref>