what is the difference between Chinese and Japanese?

Answer 1

Japanese

- Is not a tonal language
- Has less characters
- Some of the chracters are borrowed from China
(50% of Japanese words came from China)
- Japanese also adopt some foriegn words mostly English
(biru=beer, hoteru=hotel)
- Another interesting feature of Japanese is the distinction between male and female speech. This involves vocabulary, grammar and particularly pitch - women tend to speak in very high, squeaky voices, at least in public, while men prefer low, gruff voices. If a foreign man learns Japanese from his Japanese girlfriend the results can sound very funny to Japanese ears!


Chinese

- Is a tonal language
(different intonations are used to distinguish words with
the same pronounciation)
- Has many characters
(The largest Chinese dictionaries include about 56,000
Knowledge of about 3,000 characters enables you to
read about 99% of the characters in Chinese
newspapers and magazines. To read Chinese
literature, technical writings or Classical Chinese
though, you need to be familiar with about 6,000
charaters)
- Chinese has many varieties
( Mandarin has 4 tones, Cantonese has 6-9 tones)

----- if you are choosing Chinese or Japanese to study it is better for you to study Chinese first than Japanese................

Answer 2

Since this is under languages, I'll assume the question is the difference in the two languages. Earlier answers have have said as different as French and Spanish, or Russian and English, or Spanish and Italian. WRONG. Those pairs of languages are all related, and in the scheme of languages are very close. Italian/Spanish is close to mutually intelligible; French/Spanish has much in common; Russian/English are farther apart, but even they have some degree of commonality.

There is absolutely no relation between Chinese (any of the Chinese languages) and Japanese. Japanese is what's called an isolate - a single language with no relation whatsoever with any other language.

There have been attempts over the years to establish ties with Japanese to other languages, generally Ural-Altaic ones, but none have proved out.

So the answer to the question is they are absolutely and totally different.

Answer 3

As it is not clear whether the question is about the people of the language, since it can mean both, I think we can answer, first according to the history of the Japanese, they started to be noticed as a different culture around 300 BC. Since the Chinese history started at least 1200 years earlier than that with the recorded history of the second dynasty in China, the Shang Dynasty, we can say that they originated from China, but later have been mixed with the Ainus, the natives of the Islands of Japan.
As to the languages called Chinese and Japanese. The Chinese language or writings consists of simplified drawings consisting of kanji. But the Japanese writing uses 1800 Chinese kanji, together with the katakana and hiragana.
The kanji have the same way of writing as the Japanese but different way of pronouncing it. For instance the words :
日本人 are kanji, and it is pronounced as "ri ben ren" [ruh bun run] by the Chinese Manarin or Han people, and "Yat bun yan" by the Cantonese, and "ni hon jin" by the Japanese.

But when it is turn into the sentence: "I am a Japanese", in Chinese they use all kanji words: Wo shi ri ben ren. While the Japanese mixed it with hiragana at its beginning and become:
"Watashi wa ni hon jin desu." So the "watashi wa" and "desu" is not in kanji, but hiragana, while the "ni hon jin" is the same kanji as the Chinese "ri ben ren".

But the Japanese can communicate with the Chinese by expressing themselves in the kanji, although they cannot communicate themselves orally because the writings may be the same, but the pronunciations are entirely different.

Answer 4

The Chinese and the Japanese are people from two completely different cultures, with different languages, and the many differences you would find between any two different cultures. I suggest you learn about China and its people, about Japan and its people, and come up with your own conclusions. It is important to be informed and stay away from stereotyping.

Answer 5

if u r talking about the language -- japenese is a different language using differnet characters although it uses kanji which is taken from chinese roots...there are two different types of chinese too -- which r extremely different actually
as for the people -- they look a little bit different in many cases and the cultures r quite different
infact many people in china hate the japanese. mmm...

Answer 6

Japanese borrowed their culture from the Chinese.

Answer 7

They're completely different languages. It's like asking "what's the difference between French and Spanish?", or between Russian and English. They're totally different.

Answer 8

they're from different countries. the chinese are from china, and the japanese are from japan. do you happen to live near a cliff that's a really high above the ground. . .

Answer 9

Chinese people are from China
Japanese people are from Japan

Chinese peple speaks Chinese
Japanese people speaks Japanese

Chinese people has more population
Japanese population is not compared to Chinese population.

Japanese are more advanced in technology
Chinese are not compared to Japs

Eyes of japs people are hardly noticeable
chinese one can be noticed.

that's all I know.

Answer 10

that's like asking what the difference is between Spanish and Italian.