Japanese Language Guide

Official language in
Japan
Script
Han, Hiragana, Katakana

Where it's spoken

Japan's official language is Japanese. Japan also has a number of Ryukyuan languages, which are related to Japanese but are not mutually intelligible with Japanese or with each other; all of them are classified as endangered. The sole minority indigenous language is Ainu, spoken now by only a few indigenous people on Hokkaidō.

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Script & pronunciation

Japanese is written with three writing systems: Sino-Japanese characters, called kanji, and two syllabaries called kana, hiragana and katakana. Kanji are used in combination with hiragana and katakana in modern Japanese. Each kana character represents a syllable.

Hiragana is mainly used to write grammatical particles and suffixes. Katakana is used primarily for the phonetic transcription of foreign words: in ナッツアレルギーがあります。 ("I have a nut allergy."), the word ナッツアレルギー (Nattsu arerugii) is written in katakana.

A report on revised romanization by Japan's Council for Cultural Affairs writes long vowels with a macron over the vowel letter, as in Tōhoku, but also allows writing the vowel letters side by side. The same report writes the particles は, へ and を as wa, e and o. This app's romanization is not uniform: some cards separate syllables with hyphens, as in a-ri-ga-tō go-za-i-ma-su ("Thank you very much"), while others write whole words, as in Nattsu arerugii ga arimasu. In こんにちは (kon-ni-chi-wa, "Hello / Good afternoon"), the final は is pronounced wa, as its card notes.

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Grammar essentials

Japanese word order is subject–object–verb. In 領収書をください ("Please give me a receipt"), 領収書 ("receipt / official receipt") and the object particle を come before ください ("please give me").

The negative comes after the verb. In 袋は要りません (fu-ku-ro wa i-ri-ma-sen, "I don't need a bag"), 要りません is the polite negative of "need", and in 日本語は話せません (ni-hon-go wa ha-na-se-ma-sen, "I can't speak Japanese"), 話せません is the polite negative of "can speak".

Yes/no questions are formed with a question particle. In お弁当、温めますか？ (Obentō, atatamemasu ka?, "Would you like the boxed meal heated up?"), a question you will almost always be asked when you bring a bento to the till, the question particle か (ka) comes at the end.

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Politeness & etiquette

Japan's Council for Cultural Affairs, in its guidelines on honorific language (keigo), divides honorifics into five types. It describes respectful expression, citing an earlier report, as language chosen with consideration for the listener and the situation, based on mutual respect.

One type, called teineigo, adds です and ます to the end of a sentence to speak politely to the listener. The guidelines give (で)ございます as the same type with a higher degree of politeness. This app's card おはようございます (o-ha-yō go-za-i-ma-su, "Good morning") is the polite greeting; its card notes that casual speech drops ございます, leaving おはよう (o-ha-yō).

Another type, called sonkeigo, raises the person whose action is being described; the guidelines list 召し上がる ("eat, drink") among its examples. Shop staff use it when they ask 店内でお召し上がりですか？ (Tennai de omeshiagari desu ka?, "Will you be eating in the store?").

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