About the Japanese language...?

Question

Is it true that the Japanese language (especially the traditional verson) is very closely linked with the family of African languages?

Answer 1

Hello,

Japanese language is related to the chinese language not the african language. it is true that some words are loan words from other countries like portugal and germany but not any african languages. if you recieved this course from a book, can their evidence be founded ?

You can tell from the characters and also the words are similar to chinese

Answer 2

I have studied both Mandarin and Japanese. On a strictly language learning note, Mandarin has the most minimalist and logical grammar of any language I have ever seen. That being said, I enjoyed Japanese mostly because it was anything but minimalist, and the grammar conjugates and is structured in ways that were completely alien to my native language (English). Basic Japanese is deceptively simple, and intermediate Japanese is very challenging. Few of the people I have encountered who claim to speak Japanese function very well at or above the intermediate level. Mandarin does not have a similar stark curve, however there is also the issue of tones. If you are interested in a language that is going to challenge you in the pronunciation department, tonal language are fun. Additionally, Mandarin has one of the larger lexicons I have encountered. They have words for things you never knew needed a word. As far as which language will be more useful in the future, it is hard to say.Here are a few factors for you to consider though. Since the early 2000's there has been a push both by the Confucian Institute and other local entities to increase Mandarin fluency internationally. Additionally, there has been a lot of hype about Chinese being a highly marketable language to learn. This could contribute to there being more second language Mandarin speakers in the future than second language Japanese speakers. Additionally, the number of people who actually speak Japanese competently above an intermediate level are rare in my experience. Also, in my experience, the general level of English fluency among educated Chinese is similar to the level I have seen from most Europeans. However, the level of fluency of any foreign language, let alone English among educated Japanese is closer to the percent of fluent second language speakers that exist in the United States. Anyone who says Japanese will fade away is being a little ridiculous in my opinion. Also, the percentage of the Chinese that receive an education is still less than most developed countries, though it is growing every year. Another thing to consider. Not all Chinese people speak Mandarin. Several of them will speak it as a second language. It is the language spoken on TV and the language school is taught in. Anyone you encounter in the business world or similar situations will speak Mandarin. However, the farther you go from city centers, and the older the people there are, the more likely it will become that they will not communicate well in Mandarin.

Answer 3

Well I am neither a linguist, translator nor a student of either branches of language -- but what I wonder is why everyone is so quick to dismiss any of the ideas submitted.

There are more words in common between Japanese and Yoruba words than there are between Japanese and Chinese, Japanese and Turkish or really any of the other comparisons that have been made. The easiest way to settle such a dispute is by the relative ages of the nations. The African nations are older than any of the other nations said to have influenced the Japanese language. To me, this makes the connection between African language and Japanese language more likely than any other.

Answer 4

Almost definitely not!

There's a lot of controversy over exactly which other languages Japanese is related to, but even the most die-hard experts have given up trying! We're talking about things that may or may not have happened millennia ago! No-one can either prove, or disprove, any possible links with any countries from anywhere in the world! Except for China - the Japanese language is 100% NOT related to Chinese! Anyone who thinks it is, is merely thinking of the kanji used in Japanese. These are Chinese characters, and sometimes they're even used with the Chinese pronunciation (of 100s or even 1,000s of years ago - not necessarily the same as now!) but even with Chinese pronunciations sprinkled through it Japanese bears NO relation to Chinese! The grammar is the DEAD give-away...
; )

Answer 5

Phoenix:

I'm a professional linguist. Unfortunately, the answerers above may be good-intentioned but are incorrect. Japanese is a mysterious language. The bottom line though, agreed upon by most scholars, is that it is a distant relative of the Turkic-Altaic languages, which include Turkish, the -Stan languages, Mongolian,m possibly Korean, and possible Finnish and Hungarian, believe it or not. It's a language that has borrwed extensively from others neighboring ones, so nowadays you can find influences from Turkish, Chinese, Indonesian and Polynesian languages in Japanese, it's very versatile!

One girl said it's related to Chinese. It's not. At all. It has hundreds of borrowed words from Chinese, and all 3 of their writing systems are adaptations of Chinese characters, but there's no genetic relation, meaning they didn't come from the same place.

Japanese bears no relation to any African ones.

Answer 6

I don't think that is an assumption that I would make. Though I haven't learned any African language (but I am a Japanese translator), Japanese, I'm sure, belongs to a very different branch of the lengual family tree...

Answer 7

Japanese and Swahili (African language) actually do sound alike sometimes.

So much so that Japanese written in Romaji form tends to confuse the Google translator application as being a type of Swahili..

Answer 8

Yes. There are a number of books and Internet documents that will explain this fully. A simple search like ---japanese african language--- will give you many results.

Answer 9

There are more than one Japanese language. There are separate dialects for the different islands.
Check in Wikipedia under Languages, Japonic Languages.

Answer 10

Nope.

Grammatically, its closest relative is Korean - naturally I guess. And the written language is based upon Chinese characters imported over the centuries via Korea.

Edit:
I just did a quick search as another poster suggested. The gullibility of some people is ASTOUNDING. Let's do a little reading and maybe even THINK before we believe what's on the net !