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This is a book about the structure, history and evolution of the Japanese language. The Japanese Language is a classic study of one of the world's most widely used but least understood languages. Emphasizing the richness and complexity of Japanese as well as its limitations, this fine book provides a lively discussion about the uniqueness of the Japanese language. The relationship of Japanese to other languages is not well understood even by native speakers, and Professor Kindaichi sets out to define it. He concludes that Japanese is indeed only remotely related to other world languages although it shares many features in common with the languages of mainland Asia. Japanese shares with those...
The Japanese Language: An Introduction is a book that offers a systematic overview of Japanese from the perspective of the English-speaking learner.
This is a fun and entertaining beginner level children's Japanese language book (9 years old and up) that is also appropriate for adults. I'm Learning Japanese! takes a lighthearted approach to the Japanese language by using fun anime-style manga characters to teach Japanese. The book starts out with the main characters, Emily, Nico and Teo sitting on the grass after school, minding their own business, when--unbelievable!--a giant talking fox dressed in a kimono appears. Explaining that he knows magic, speaks many languages and is respected as a sensei master, he wonders if the three kids are ready to learn Japanese from him. During the next 128 amusing pages, the three friends learn to spea...
Introduces pragmatics, discourse, language, and culture in the Japanese context. It covers: Language in context; Japanese in conversation; Honorifics and politeness; Language and gender; and Young people's language.
Put simply, practice is the most effective method of mastering written Japanese. The large, open format of Writing Japanese Hiragana invites the student to pick up a pencil and get started! Two phonetic syllabaries, hiragana and katakana, and a set of kanji characters based on Chinese ideographs are what comprises written Japanese. This workbook has been carefully designed to facilitate the quick and easy mastery of the forty-six character hiragana syllabary used to write all types of native words not written in kanji. An understanding of hiragana is essential for the serious student wishing to learn Japanese effectively. Each character is introduced with brushed, handwritten, and typed samp...
This book is a user-friendly language guide for basic spoken Japanese. To effectively learn Japanese and communicate in another culture you need more than the bare bones of the language. You need to understand the given norms of that society, how people interact, how things work, what the system is, how to navigate and manipulate those systems--in short, how to use the language in context. More than a Japanese phrase book, Conversational Japanese provides basic material for practical day-to-day communication. Through hundreds of example sentences and dialogs, as well as thorough explanations of the customs involved, learners will know what to say and do when: Meeting new people. Reserving a ...
Bjarke Frellesvig describes the development of the Japanese language from its recorded beginnings until the present day as reflected by the written sources and historical record. Beginning with a description of the oldest attested stage of the language, Old Japanese (approximately the eighth century AD), and then tracing the changes which occurred through the Early Middle Japanese (800–1200), Late Middle Japanese (1200–1600) and the Modern Japanese (1600–onwards) periods, a complete internal history of the language is examined and discussed. This account provides a comprehensive study of how the Japanese language has developed and adapted, providing a much needed resource for scholars. A History of the Japanese Language is invaluable to all those interested in the Japanese language and also students of language change generally.
This is a concise and user–friendly introduction to the Japanese language. Japanese has too often been treated by Westerners as an exotic curiosity, but the reality is that it is a functional language spoken as a mother tongue by more than 125 million people, and ranks as the ninth most spoken language in the world. In the present global age, an age characterized by a vast range of Japanese products including electronic games and anime, more and more Westerners are in one way or another interacting with Japan and Japanese people. But it is nonetheless fair to say that the language, while increasing in popularity as a subject of study, is still not as widely spoken among non–Japanese as we might expect. In this book we would therefore like to "demistify" Japanese, to show how the language is formed and used, and to encourage you to pursue the study of it. Of course it has its challenges, especially with regards to the writing system, but we try to put these in a balanced context. And we like to think that, by describing the various facets of the Japanese language to you, we thereby empower you with a degree of knowledge and familiarity.