2006-09-07 07:13:27 · 7 answers · asked by Hobby 5 in Society & Culture ➔ Languages
Japan is officially Nihon; but, like we have the American Tobacco Co. the Japanese have Nippon Denki (Japan Electric). If it is the official government of Japan then it has to be Nihon. OK now that settled ... neither Nihon nor Nippon are adjectives. Now that I have said that I just want to make sure. I just happen to have with me a Japanese dictionary. I mean, a kokugo jiten a Japanese dictionary. (...would you believe that Nihon is not listed?) There are nevertheless many phrases using Nihon for example nihonichi (nipponichi is also listed) It means "our country's number one thing." Or our company's...
Anyway, both of them are nouns and you need to add something to make them adjectives and I want to make clear that nihongo and nihonjin are both nouns. If you wanted to say "Japan's interest in the middle east" or "Japanese interest in the ..." you would use a postpositional to show genitive case. Japanese grammar is divided into bound and unbound words. A bound word cannot exist in the context of a sentence with the word it is bound to. Nihon is an independent or unbound word and the postpositional helper, no, is a bound word. Japan's = Nihon no (I write it seperatly but you can consider that it is bound to the word it modifies.) There are many kinds of postpositional helpers, joushi, in Japanese. They change the meaning of the word in some instances like we use syntax to indicate the subject and object for a sentence. Japanese uses a helper word, ga, to indicate the subject. There is a helper word to make a topic, ha, which is pronounced "wa."
There are postpositional helpers and (verb) helpers, joudoshi, to indicate a question or the end of a sentence. They constitute the class of bound words in Japanese.
Adjectives are another matter in Japanese and they have two types depending on which kind of ending they take. But, Nihon and Nippon neither falls into this group. It is possible to make adjectives by adding the typical ending, however.
I have not seen Nippon used this way ever. But, nihon teki na and nihon rashii exist ( I can't see why not Nippon rashii? ) I had best mention that doing this changes the meaning to "Japan-like."
2006-09-07 13:44:09 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 2⤋
The word Nippon is not an adjective. It's a noun referring to the Japanese.
2006-09-09 02:48:47 · answer #2 · answered by rosieC 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No. Nippon is Japanese for Japan. Pronounced knee-hone.
2006-09-07 14:18:25 · answer #3 · answered by lori k 1 · 3⤊ 0⤋
No. In fact, "nippon" is rarely used in everyday speech in Japan. The common word is "nihon".
In order to say Japan-something, the Japanese only add something to the word Nihon.
e.g.:
-go means language so adding it to "nihon" = Japanese language
-jin is for people = Japanese people
The word used to describe something that is specific to Japan is "wa". This is because there is also a western version of the objects and it helps to stop confusion."Wa" is added before certain words such as
Washitsu = Japanese-style room
Washoku = Japanese-style food
Wafuku = Japanese style clothes
2006-09-07 16:45:57 · answer #4 · answered by Belie 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Do you mean as in Formula Nippon, the Japanese Formula 2000? If so, then I have no idea.
2006-09-08 06:28:31 · answer #5 · answered by serenityredflowers 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It's from "Nippon my Kawasaki".
2006-09-07 14:21:08 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
It means Japan.It is not an adjective for Japan.
2006-09-07 14:23:27 · answer #7 · answered by wisechineseguy 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋