History and Evolution of the Japanese Language

A video going through the history and of the Japanese language, with many of the changes in sound and grammar, and the historical context of the language throughout the ages!

0:00 Intro
0:58 Old Japanese
4:32 Early Middle Japanese
7:10 Late Middle Japanese
8:42 Early Modern Japanese
10:20 Modern Japanese

#Japanese #language #languages #linguistics

[Aoiraider]

Oh my god. I studied Japanese for 15 years and have my N1, and this completely blew my mind. We need like 8 more videos diving into each of these topics please! 😅

[msruag]

"safe and secure, just like your internet connection will be if yo-" *aggressively skips 1 minute*

[Garbaz]

That was very interesting! I've been learning Japanese for some years now, but I've never really questioned how the sounds of the language as they are today came to be. I would also love to hear more about the evolution of Japanese grammar, which I am very fond of.

[MarkRosa]

Anyone who enjoyed this great video should also read Bjarke Frellesvig's "The Japanese Language", which covers all these changes in great detail with lots of sample texts. I had the pleasure of taking his class and it was one of the most enjoyable I have ever taken.

[pyroclastic]

the comparison of hiragana and katakana to their original manyougana explains so much, thank you. this is so fascinating

[laurentbouvier]

It's rare to see a youtube video with so much background research and knowledge. Well done!

[FictionHubZA]

That transition to the sponsor was smooth as butter.

[ori]

Really interesting video! I enjoyed learning a lot here.
I just have one mild criticism, in your attempt to show how a non-affricated /ti/ and /tu/ were pronounced at 1:16 you still affricated these sounds because you do this in your regular English too!
Not many people realise that their aspirated /t(ʰ)/ is actually affricated, and it's not widely taught, but once you start noticing it you can't stop hearing it!

[マイケル-vt]

Beautifully done and appreciated!

ありがとうございます。

[fictthecreator]

Thanks for putting this info together! It seems all too often people talk about the language as some static monolith, without taking into consideration the history and diversity associated with it. This is a great reference guide for looking at some of that history!

[jannepeltonen]

This was super interesting and also I would've watched a video twice as long with you speaking at a normal speed and keeping the slides there for more than a blink of an eye :D Should probably watch this at half speed :D

[danmch]

Thank you very much, this is exactly the type of content I was looking for considering Japanese language history!!! 😍

[urinstein]

No frickin' way! I basically asked for this exact video (implicitly) a while ago on one of your videos and you did not disappoint one bit. Super dense and super interesting, thank you so much!

[villalactea]

Sound changes are so fascinating. I watch a lot of Simon Roper's videos also on Proto-Germanic into English, and it's wild so see all the unexpected ways words can change. Really hits home that words and meaning can be so fluid. Amazing job! 🌸

[faizyroombaunit]

I've always had a mild fascination with the history of Japanese, but I rarely find time to dig for good resources on the phonetic details, despite having interest. (KInd of unrelated, but I also briefly had an interest in Old Japanese / 文語). So this was really helpful.

[BloxyMelonio]

oo i’ve been waiting for a video like this on japanese. i’m not too confused on why, but am confused on how to use the sound changes 😂 it’s interesting to see why and how though! i really love the history of languages, especially around asia. your videos are great.

[carloshernandez]

Awesome video. Following for one of the smoothest add transitions I’ve experienced. Linus lvl transition

[jortz]

I find the massive spelling reform in 1946 quite notworthy... it introduced small kana (きよ vs きょ) and changed every ゐ (wi), ゑ (we), を (wo) to い (i), え (e), お (o). before 1946, おお was spelled おを(owo)

[hienmai]

Cảm ơn bài nghiên cứu thú vị của bạn về tiếng Nhật trong lúc mà mình đang lười biến học nó. Bài nghiên cứu rất hay, tạo thêm cho mình sự hứng khởi để học tiếng Nhật tiếp 😁 日本語は難しいですが、面白いです。

[appleoxide]

didn't know how much i needed this video