History and Present of the Japanese Language

This short lecture introduces the history of the Japanese language and also offers a crash course in the very basics of modern Japanese—not enough to help you speak or read it, but enough to teach you how to recognize Japanese as distinct from Chinese, Korean, and other Asian languages.

Sources used:
Kindaichi, Haruhiko. The Japanese Language. Rutland, VT: Tuttle Publishing, 2010.
Martin, Samuel. The Japanese Language through Time. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1987.
Miller, Roy. Origins of the Japanese language: Lectures in Japan during the Academic Year 1977–78. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1980.
Unger, J. Marshall. The Role of Contact in the Origins of the Japanese and Korean Languages. Honolulu: University of Hawaiʻi Press, 2009.
Haiku audio reproduced from a video by NHK Eテレ.
Hiragana and katakana evolution charts from Wikipedia by user Pmx. Used under CC-BY-2.5 license.

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The Ohio State University's East Asian Studies Center (EASC) and Columbus State Community College (CSCC) collaborated to develop modules on Japanese history to be incorporated into the World History curriculum at CSCC. These modules are made available online for classroom use worldwide.

Project Contributors:
OSU: Ryan Schultz, Etsuyo Yuasa, Amy Carey
CSCC: Jennifer Nardone, Dona Reaser

This project is supported by a U.S. Department of Education Title VI grant for EASC.

[gengotaku]

Just a small correction: Standard Japanese is not THE SAME as Tokyo dialect.Rather, it is based upon the dialect spoken in Tokyo. Actually it is difficult to distinguish between Standard Japanese （標準語） and Standard language （共通語）because people from different regions might speak with a ¨local flavor¨. Standard Japanese refers to the accent of words used by announcers on NHK. Actually there are some communication barriers if one comes to the Kansai region, since most people here are proud of their ¨kansai-ben¨. Tōhoku dialect might present difficulties to understand due to lack of clarity with I and E vowels, voicing of consonants and nasalization between words.Kyūshū dialects can be difficult to hear because of the negation in -n, adjectives ending in -ka, verbal aspect and some interesting final particles. From all dialects, Kagoshima and Aomori pose a challenge even for well trained ears, because they sound like a foreign language. In that aspect, Okinawan shouldn't even be considered a dialect, because it's a totally different language and can even vary from island to island. Thanks for the awesome presentation.

[Mattropolis]

Just saying, under most circumstances, the "u" in "desu" isn't pronounced. It's called a "whispered vowel". I know you know that because you pronounced よろしくお願いします correctly at the end, I'm just saying this so other people know.

I'm guessing you only pronounced the full "su" in order to avoid confused people asking "why are there two characters for one sound?!"

Still, great video! I learned a lot of year-date approximations in history, which is ultimately what I came here for!

[marcia_ln]

( Brazil) Vim por indicação da faculdade do curso Letras Português - Japonês. Gratidão pelo vídeo.

this is exactly the kinda background presentation I was looking for, in order to get the bigger picture :)
so Dumo Arigato Gozaimasu!!!! :D

[ngfsllu]

11:41
Conversely, these are also the points that confuse Japanese people like me when learning English.
From the point of view of English speakers, Japanese is often said to be difficult, but similarly, from the point of view of Japanese speakers, English is difficult.
Personally, I find it easier to learn Chinese, which uses the same ideographic Chinese characters and can often be understood by looking at them even if you cannot speak them. On the other hand, we have developed a habit of learning languages from writing due to the sense that we can understand the meaning of these characters when we look at them, and I think this is a factor of failure in learning English in Japan.

[RR_DM]

Hello, my name is Arlo~~

Koreans are separated by political ideology similarly to how India and Pakistan are seperated by religion, hindu and muslim, respectively. The people are are same but the political ideology differs. Korea is on a peninsula.

[daklina]

Thanks a lot for this introduction to the japanese language and the history of it, also you didn't speak english so fast so it was easy to understand every single word and its meaning for non native english speakers like me haha, congratulations from spain :)

[KAZAK-TATAR-MONGOL-TURK-]

I'm so suprized now. It is very similar to Old Turkish.😯

[gjongamingchannel]

Japanese are really smart, they formed their own language which is Hiragana and Katakana from Chinese characters.

It's like Japanese is an evolution of the Chinese writing system but it became the Japanese language which was divided to Katakana, Hiragana and Kanji

[apotheosis]

I thought that Chinese characters were brought to Japan Far earlier than the 6th Century, I thought they came at like the 100s or 200s but wasn't Utilized until then.

[jimshaw]

I am not sure if I can reach you through here but I try. I have a question. My question is about the period from the 5th to 8th century when Japan was becoming familiar with the use of kanji or the ancient Chinese language. Do you think there was the condition of diglossia in Japan, where people mixed Japanese with the languages(s) of immigrants? I am trying to understand why the Japanese added Japanese sounds to the ancient Chinese writing symbols.

[Xirnatts]

The tale of Genji was written in old Japanese? Not middle Japanese??

[jesussanchezherrero]

There exists perfective aspect in Japanese?

[ryoand]

13:36
これは(This is)
私の(my)
ペンです(pen-desu)
"です" is polite way of speaking.
Without "です" is also OK but brusque way and childish way of speaking.

[dara_]

これ　は　　私　の　　ペン　です。
so that makes it 3 languages into 1 😘

[cds]

This professor cant even pronounce これ....