Here's what the Wik has to say about Japanese
Japanese vocabulary has been heavily influenced by
loans from other languages. A vast number of words
were borrowed from Chinese, or created from Chinese
models, over a period of at least 1,500 years. Since
the late 19th century, Japanese has borrowed a
considerable number of words from Indo-European
languages, primarily English. Because of the special
trade relationship between Japan and first Portugal in
the 16th century, and then mainly Holland in the 17th
century, Portuguese and Dutch have also been
influential.
Formerly, standard Japanese in writing
(文語 bungo , "literary language") was
different from colloquial language (口語
kōgo ). The two systems have different rules
of grammar and some variance in vocabulary. Bungo was
the main method of writing Japanese until about 1900;
since then kōgo gradually extended its influence
and the two methods were both used in writing until
the 1940s. Bungo still has some relevance for
historians, literary scholars, and lawyers (many
Japanese laws that survived World War II are still
written in bungo, although there are ongoing efforts
to modernize their language). Kōgo is the
predominant method of both speaking and writing
Japanese today, although bungo grammar and vocabulary
are occasionally used in modern Japanese for effect.
Main article: Japanese dialects
Dozens of dialects are spoken in Japan. The profusion
is due to many factors, including the length of time
the archipelago has been inhabited, its mountainous
island terrain, and Japan's long history of both
external and internal isolation. Dialects typically
differ in terms of pitch accent, inflectional
morphology, vocabulary, and particle usage. Some even
differ in vowel and consonant inventories, although
this is uncommon.
The main distinction in Japanese accents is between
Tokyo-type (東京式
Tōkyō-shiki ) and Western-type
(京阪式 Keihan-shiki ), though
Kyūshū-type dialects form a third, smaller
group. Within each type are several subdivisions. The
Western-type dialects are actually in the central
region, with borders roughly formed by Toyama,
Kyōto, Hyōgo, and Mie Prefectures; most
Shikoku dialects are also Western-type. Dialects
farther west are actually of the Tokyo type. The final
category of dialects are those that are descended from
the Eastern dialect of Old Japanese; these dialects
are spoken in Hachijojima, Kōchi Prefecture, and
very few other locations.
Dialects from peripheral regions, such as Tōhoku
or Tsushima, may be unintelligible to speakers from
other parts of the country. The several dialects used
in Kagoshima in southern Kyūshū are famous
for being unintelligible not only to speakers of
standard Japanese but to speakers of nearby dialects
elsewhere in Kyūshū as well[citation
needed]. This is probably due in part to the Kagoshima
dialects' peculiarities of pronunciation, which
include the existence of closed syllables (i.e.,
syllables that end in a consonant, such as /kob/ or
/koʔ/ for Standard Japanese /kumo/ "spider"). The
vocabulary of Kagoshima dialect is 84% cognate with
standard Tokyo dialect.[citation needed] Kansai-ben, a
group of dialects from west-central Japan, is spoken
by many Japanese; the Osaka dialect in particular is
associated with comedy.
The Ryūkyūan languages, while closely
related to Japanese, are distinct enough to be
considered a separate branch of the Japonic family,
and are not dialects of Japanese. They are spoken in
the Ryukyu Islands and in some islands that are
politically part of Kagoshima Prefecture. Not only is
each language unintelligible to Japanese speakers, but
most are unintelligible to those who speak other
Ryūkyūan languages. See Classification of
the japanese language.
Recently, Standard Japanese has become prevalent
nationwide (including portions of the Ryūkyū
islands like Okinawa) due not only to television and
radio, but also to increased mobility within Japan due
to its system of roads, railways, and airports, as
well as economic integration. Young people usually
speak their local dialect and the standard language,
though in most cases, the local dialect is influenced
by the standard, and regional versions of "standard"
Japanese have local-dialect influence.
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