The Japanese language is spoken all over the mainland of Japan, in some parts of Korea, Taiwan and China. The language of Japan is very similar to the other oriental languages like Chinese and many words are even borrowed from the Chinese dictionary. The Japanese considers their language to be unique and of high standards but the linguists of western origin does not think likewise and believe it to be very much similar to the other languages of North Asia. There is a very common belief among the people of Japan t hat their language is extremely hard for a non Japanese to learn and comprehend. The term ‘Hen Gaijin' which means ‘crazy foreigners' are attributed to the non –Japanese who are accustomed with the Japanese language . This expression is a clear indication that the Japanese people are extremely possessive about their language.
Origin of Japanese Language
There are three major speculations and hypothesis regarding the birth of the Japanese language. The first group of linguists relates the Japanese language with the Altaic language group within which the Korean, Mongolian and Turkish languages fall. The theory where Japanese language is related to Austronesian or the pacific languages is also fairly common. Relation is also drawn with the South East Asian group of languages and even the language which is spoken in southern India. All these theories are however unable to solve the disagreement between the Japanese and western linguists about the exclusivity of the Japanese language.
Japanese Script
A school of thought believes that the vocabulary of Japanese language was influenced by the Malaya- Polynesian languages and the script has resemblance to the Chinese lingo. The Japanese script is a blend of kanji, Chinese language and the indigenous Japanese terms. The influence of Latin is also detectable in the script.
Grammar in Japanese Language
The sentence construction in the Japanese language is not at all like the European languages. The verb comes after the object and the subject in a sentence. The tense in a Japanese verb is also quite different from the English ones. There are no specific changes in grammar for distinguishing number or gender.
The Japanese language is spoken in different dialect in different cities. The speech used in Tokyo is the most common one but different dialects are in use in Kyoto and Osaka.
