Japan's Role in Philological Studies of the Korean Language in The
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Load more
Recommended publications
-
On Translation a Short Introduction to the Japanese Language Will
On Translation A short introduction to the Japanese language will illustrate the kind of difficulties one encounters in translating Japanese into the European languages, and vice versa. Linguistically, Japanese is an isolated language. It has no relation to Chinese. It must have had some relation to Korean, another isolated language, but the two went into different directions thousands of years ago. Some linguists claim that the Japanese language, along with the Korean, belongs to the Ural-Altaic family, yet the claim remains hypothetical. The Japanese language features some characteristics that would seem most strange to those who are only familiar with the European languages. For example, a grammatical subject is unnecessary in Japanese to construct a grammatically complete sentence. “淋しい” (Sabishii) means (someone is) lonely. It is a complete sentence, but there is no subject. The sentence may mean ‘I’m lonely,’ ‘you are lonely,’ ‘he/she is lonely,’ ‘the rock is lonely,’ ‘all human beings are lonely,’ etc, depending on the context. It may furthermore refer to a vague sense of loneliness which needn’t be specified. It is true that in some European languages, such as Italian, a grammatically complete sentence is possible without a named subject. But the subject can always be determined by the inflection of the verb (and often also by the changes in the articles, adjectives and nouns): “Sono sola,” “Sei solo.” A Japanese sentence may be very long and still be without a subject. Tale of Genji , for instance, might contain a sequence of three long sentences without subjects, yet in each a different subject would be implied. -
NOT WRITING AS a KEY FACTOR in LANGUAGE ENDANGERMENT: the CASE of the RYUKYU ISLANDS Patrick Heinrich Dokkyo University, Tokyo
NOT WRITING AS A KEY FACTOR IN LANGUAGE ENDANGERMENT: THE CASE OF THE RYUKYU ISLANDS Patrick Heinrich Dokkyo University, Tokyo Abstract: Language shift differs from case to case. Yet, specifi c types of language shift can be identifi ed. Language shift in the Ryukyu Islands is caused by the socioeconomic changes resulting from the transition from the dynastic realms of the Ryukyu Kingdom and the Tokugawa Shogunate to the modern Meiji state. We call the scenario of shift after the transition from a dynastic realm to a modern state ‘type III’ language shift here. In type III, one language adopts specifi c new functions, which undermine the utility of other local or ethnic languages. The dominance of one language over others hinges, amongst other things, on the extent to which a written tradition existed or not. In the Ryukyu Kingdom, Chinese and Japanese were employed as the main languages of writing. The lack of a writing tradition paved the way for the Ryukyuan languages to be declared dialects of the written language, that is, of Japanese. Such assessment of Ryukyuan language status was fi rst put forth by mainland bureaucrats and later rationalized by Japanese national linguistics. Such a proceeding is an example of what Heinz Kloss calls near-dialectization. In order to undo the effects thereof, language activists are turning to writing in order to lay claim to their view that the endangered Ryukyuan Abstand languages be recognized as languages. Key words: Ryukyuan languages, language shift theory, writing, language adaptation, language revitalization INTRODUCTION The Ryukyuan languages have rarely been written in their history. -
The Languages of Japan and Korea. London: Routledge 2 The
To appear in: Tranter, David N (ed.) The Languages of Japan and Korea. London: Routledge 2 The relationship between Japanese and Korean John Whitman 1. Introduction This chapter reviews the current state of Japanese-Ryukyuan and Korean internal reconstruction and applies the results of this research to the historical comparison of both families. Reconstruction within the families shows proto-Japanese-Ryukyuan (pJR) and proto-Korean (pK) to have had very similar phonological inventories, with no laryngeal contrast among consonants and a system of six or seven vowels. The main challenges for the comparativist are working through the consequences of major changes in root structure in both languages, revealed or hinted at by internal reconstruction. These include loss of coda consonants in Japanese, and processes of syncope and medial consonant lenition in Korean. The chapter then reviews a small number (50) of pJR/pK lexical comparisons in a number of lexical domains, including pronouns, numerals, and body parts. These expand on the lexical comparisons proposed by Martin (1966) and Whitman (1985), in some cases responding to the criticisms of Vovin (2010). It identifies a small set of cognates between pJR and pK, including approximately 13 items on the standard Swadesh 100 word list: „I‟, „we‟, „that‟, „one‟, „two‟, „big‟, „long‟, „bird‟, „tall/high‟, „belly‟, „moon‟, „fire‟, „white‟ (previous research identifies several more cognates on this list). The paper then concludes by introducing a set of cognate inflectional morphemes, including the root suffixes *-i „infinitive/converb‟, *-a „infinitive/irrealis‟, *-or „adnominal/nonpast‟, and *-ko „gerund.‟ In terms of numbers of speakers, Japanese-Ryukyuan and Korean are the largest language isolates in the world. -
Source-Based Translation and Foreignization: a Japanese Case
Source-Based Translation and Foreignization Source-Based Translation and Foreignization: A Japanese Case Yukari Fukuchi Meldrum Modern Languages and Cultural Studies, University of Alberta Introduction Foreignization, as currently understood in Translation Studies, is a concept that is charged with “more emphasis on the ideological pressure against the target-language culture than on the faithfulness to the original text” (Tamaki, 2005: 239). In other words, it is a conscious operation of bringing a foreign flavor into translations in order to counteract the effects of domestication, claimed by Venuti (1995) to be the cause of invisibility of translation and translators. Tamaki, in her 2005 paper, also cautions that the concept of foreignization should not be confused with a literal method of translation. Literal translation does not involve ideological intentions and is a mere translation method. In this paper, I will attempt to provide a supporting view that source-based translation, often seen in Japanese translation, needs to be understood outside of foreignization in the above sense. Specifically, I will illustrate that Japanese readers, in premodern times, had to gain specific knowledge and adapt to what was required in order to read and interpret texts in a satisfactory manner. This could have been a factor for the source-orientedness of Japanese translations still observed in a certain form today. By examining this background of Japanese text culture, the more source-based translation is shown to be merely a translation carried out by a literal method without any political or ideological intentions. Therefore, the concept of foreignization does not have a place in Japanese translation. -
The Japanese Writing Systems, Script Reforms and the Eradication of the Kanji Writing System: Native Speakers’ Views Lovisa Österman
The Japanese writing systems, script reforms and the eradication of the Kanji writing system: native speakers’ views Lovisa Österman Lund University, Centre for Languages and Literature Bachelor’s Thesis Japanese B.A. Course (JAPK11 Spring term 2018) Supervisor: Shinichiro Ishihara Abstract This study aims to deduce what Japanese native speakers think of the Japanese writing systems, and in particular what native speakers’ opinions are concerning Kanji, the logographic writing system which consists of Chinese characters. The Japanese written language has something that most languages do not; namely a total of three writing systems. First, there is the Kana writing system, which consists of the two syllabaries: Hiragana and Katakana. The two syllabaries essentially figure the same way, but are used for different purposes. Secondly, there is the Rōmaji writing system, which is Japanese written using latin letters. And finally, there is the Kanji writing system. Learning this is often at first an exhausting task, because not only must one learn the two phonematic writing systems (Hiragana and Katakana), but to be able to properly read and write in Japanese, one should also learn how to read and write a great amount of logographic signs; namely the Kanji. For example, to be able to read and understand books or newspaper without using any aiding tools such as dictionaries, one would need to have learned the 2136 Jōyō Kanji (regular-use Chinese characters). With the twentieth century’s progress in technology, comparing with twenty years ago, in this day and age one could probably theoretically get by alright without knowing how to write Kanji by hand, seeing as we are writing less and less by hand and more by technological devices. -
Subj: Revision
Intercultural Communication Studies IX-1 Fall 1999-0 Hoffer - Review REVIEW Multilingual Japan. John C. Maher and Kyoko Yashiro, editors. Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters. 1995. Multilingual Japan, a special issue of the Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Matters, edited by John C. Maher and Kyoko Yashiro, is an excellent book from which to learn more about the language and cultural history and status of Japan. The stereotype that Japan is a unique monolingual/ monocultural country is one that refuses to go away. All countries are unique and, as they make clear, Japan has never been monolingual and monocultural. We need more such serious empirical studies like that conducted by Maher and Yashiro to help change the rather resistant attitudes of the government and a segment of the population at large. On the more than 3000 islands which stretch from Hokkaido almost to Taiwan, the languages which are present in identifiable numbers include Japanese, Ainu, the various types of Ryukyuan languages, Korean, Chinese, English, and some languages from Southeast Asia. Maher and Yashiro note that required English courses have produced millions of Japanese with some level of bilingual ability and that the large number of Japanese families which have returned after lengthy stays abroad means that there is a large number of bilinguals involving several of the world's languages. Japan is and has been a multilingual country with a large number of bilinguals in the mainstream of society. Matsumori's chapter covers Ryukyuan, a cover term for a group of languages which are spoken in the southern islands of Japan and which have a close relation to the Japanese language. -
Characteristics of Developmental Dyslexia in Japanese Kana: From
al Ab gic no lo rm o a h l i c t y i e s s Ogawa et al., J Psychol Abnorm Child 2014, 3:3 P i Journal of Psychological Abnormalities n f o C l DOI: 10.4172/2329-9525.1000126 h a i n l d ISSN:r 2329-9525 r u e o n J in Children Research Article Open Access Characteristics of Developmental Dyslexia in Japanese Kana: from the Viewpoint of the Japanese Feature Shino Ogawa1*, Miwa Fukushima-Murata2, Namiko Kubo-Kawai3, Tomoko Asai4, Hiroko Taniai5 and Nobuo Masataka6 1Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan 2Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, the University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan 3Faculty of Psychology, Aichi Shukutoku University, Aichi, Japan 4Nagoya City Child Welfare Center, Aichi, Japan 5Department of Pediatrics, Nagoya Central Care Center for Disabled Children, Aichi, Japan 6Section of Cognition and Learning, Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University, Aichi, Japan Abstract This study identified the individual differences in the effects of Japanese Dyslexia. The participants consisted of 12 Japanese children who had difficulties in reading and writing Japanese and were suspected of having developmental disorders. A test battery was created on the basis of the characteristics of the Japanese language to examine Kana’s orthography-to-phonology mapping and target four cognitive skills: analysis of phonological structure, letter-to-sound conversion, visual information processing, and eye–hand coordination. An examination of the individual ability levels for these four elements revealed that reading and writing difficulties are not caused by a single disability, but by a combination of factors. -
Japanese Language and Culture
NIHONGO History of Japanese Language Many linguistic experts have found that there is no specific evidence linking Japanese to a single family of language. The most prominent theory says that it stems from the Altaic family(Korean, Mongolian, Tungusic, Turkish) The transition from old Japanese to Modern Japanese took place from about the 12th century to the 16th century. Sentence Structure Japanese: Tanaka-san ga piza o tabemasu. (Subject) (Object) (Verb) 田中さんが ピザを 食べます。 English: Mr. Tanaka eats a pizza. (Subject) (Verb) (Object) Where is the subject? I go to Tokyo. Japanese translation: (私が)東京に行きます。 [Watashi ga] Toukyou ni ikimasu. (Lit. Going to Tokyo.) “I” or “We” are often omitted. Hiragana, Katakana & Kanji Three types of characters are used in Japanese: Hiragana, Katakana & Kanji(Chinese characters). Mr. Tanaka goes to Canada: 田中さんはカナダに行きます [kanji][hiragana][kataka na][hiragana][kanji] [hiragana]b Two Speech Styles Distal-Style: Semi-Polite style, can be used to anyone other than family members/close friends. Direct-Style: Casual & blunt, can be used among family members and friends. In-Group/Out-Group Semi-Polite Style for Out-Group/Strangers I/We Direct-Style for Me/Us Polite Expressions Distal-Style: 1. Regular Speech 2. Ikimasu(he/I go) Honorific Speech 3. Irasshaimasu(he goes) Humble Speech Mairimasu(I/We go) Siblings: Age Matters Older Brother & Older Sister Ani & Ane 兄 と 姉 Younger Brother & Younger Sister Otooto & Imooto 弟 と 妹 My Family/Your Family My father: chichi父 Your father: otoosan My mother: haha母 お父さん My older brother: ani Your mother: okaasan お母さん Your older brother: oniisanお兄 兄 さん My older sister: ane姉 Your older sister: oneesan My younger brother: お姉さ otooto弟 ん Your younger brother: My younger sister: otootosan弟さん imooto妹 Your younger sister: imootosan 妹さん Boy Speech & Girl Speech blunt polite I/Me = watashi, boku, ore, I/Me = watashi, washi watakushi I am going = Boku iku.僕行 I am going = Watashi iku く。 wa. -
Research on Endangered Ryukuan Dialects with an Aim to Preserve
KAKENHI NEWS2009 vol.2 Research on Endangered Ryukuan Dialects � Culture & � Society with an Aim to Preserve and Propagate Shigehisa Karimata� Professor� University of the Ryukyus 【Background】� /ã, õ, ı˜/and /ë˜/ for a total of 18 vowels. particle ga is spoken in the interrogative, UNESCO announced in February 2009 But the dialect of Yonakuni Island, the and nu in yes-or-no questions, to enable that of the over six thousand languages westernmost island in Japan, primarily the speaker to add extra meaning to his spoken in the world, 2500 are in danger use the three vowels a, i and u. The Miya- question. The Ryukyuan languages shed of becoming extinct. Among them are Ja- ko Ookami Island dialect has only 10 con- light on the history of the Japanese lan- pan's Ryukyuan languages (UNESCO sonants: /p, t, k, f, v, s, m, n, j/and /r/. But guage, and has many interesting linguistic treats each Ryukyuan dialect as a separate it has been discovered that the consonants typological features. � language). Although experts have long /f, v, s, m/ and n are used as monosylla- � been aware of the threat to the dialects, bles, that the /f/ and /s/ in words such as 【Outlook】� and research on their preservation and /kffi/ (make) and /pstu/ (person) function Urgent research is needed on the Ryu- propagation has been ongoing for more as vowels in a syllable, and that there are kyuan languages in order to pass them than 30 years, the inclusion of Ryukyu also long and short consonants, with down to future generations. -
Kanbun 漢文 Had Played for That
Self-introduction Sota TANAKA 田中 草大 Faculty of Letters, Kyoto University 京都大学 文学部 Studying the history of Japanese language, especially written Japanese. “A Study on Hentai Kanbun in the Heian Period ”, Bensei Pubishing, 2019 2 Aims of this talk To give an overview of the history of written Japanese languages and to explain what role kanbun 漢文 had played for that. More specifically... This talk explains how classical written Chinese became a means to write Japanese (the key to that is kundoku 訓読, by which Chinese texts are read as Japanese). Furthermore, I will show that kanbun had contributed to the long-term usage of bungobun 文語文(written Japanese by the classical grammar) in the history of Japanese. 3 An overview of the history of written Japanese (1) It began with the introduction of kanji 漢字 (Chinese characters), so writing in Japan was nothing else than writing Chinese at first. It is estimated that it dates back to the 5th century. Later, people began to use kanji for writing Japanese, by making use of two functions of kanji. (1) Its phonographic 表音 function → Writing with man’yōgana 万葉仮名文 (2) Its morphographic 表語 function→ Kanbun style writing 漢文 6 An overview of the history of written Japanese (1) (1) Its phonographic 表音 function → Writing with man’yōgana 万葉仮名文 e.g. 皮(波)留久佐乃 皮斯米之刀斯(難波宮出土木簡, early in the 7c.?) 由吉能伊呂遠 有婆比弖佐家流 有米能波奈...(万葉集・巻5-850, 8c.) → Used almost exclusively in waka (和歌, Japanese verses). 7 An overview of the history of written Japanese (1) (2) Its morphographic 表語 function → Kanbun style writing 漢文 Writing Japanese by applying a kanji to a Japanese word (morpheme) e.g. -
Premodern East Asia and the Power of Character Scripts Wiebke Denecke
15 Worlds Without Translation: Premodern East Asia and the Power of Character Scripts Wiebke Denecke We are used to thinking that translation is indispensable. An English speaker without competence in Latin does not understand Virgil unless he is translated into English. But we forget that this is partly a function of the alphabetic script Latin and English use. Translation has not been a prerequisite for full mutual intelligibility with char- acter scripts that rely heavily on logographic writing, in which each character stands for a word (more precisely a morpheme). As we will see below, into the twentieth century an educated Japanese, for example, could read a Chinese text by pronouncing it in Japanese, without any knowledge of Chinese or any need for translation. All cultures that were arguably independent sites of script invention developed scripts with a strong logographic component: Mesopotamian cuneiform, Egyptian hiero- glyphs, Chinese characters, and Maya glyphs. Of these primary scripts only Chinese survives today, vigorously, from its already mature form in the thirteenth century bce into our digital age. It is used in the sinophone world, in Japan, and to a limited degree in Korea, and it stands as a thought-provoking exception to the alphabetic scripts that dominate much of today’s world. Some scholars have, justly, downplayed the difference between logographic systems, where the relation between sign and sound is more flexible, and syllabic or alphabetic systems, which are more prescriptive and phonographic (recording sound). I. J. Gelb’s (1963) scheme that assumes a progression from logographic to syllabic to alphabetic writing systems is questionable (Daniels and Bright 1996, 8–10). -
Ryukyu Language (The Shuri Dialect)
International Journal of Humanities Social Sciences and Education (IJHSSE) Volume 2, Issue 11, November 2015, PP 115-123 ISSN 2349-0373 (Print) & ISSN 2349-0381 (Online) www.arcjournals.org Examining the Grammatical Functions of the Auxiliary Verb Rijun in the Shuri Dialect of Ryukyuan Languages Yan Kit Kwong Department of Asian and International Studies, City University of Hong Kong Y7714, Department of Asian and International Studies, Yellow Zone, 7/F, Academic 1, City University of Hong Kong, Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong [email protected] Abstract: This paper reexamines the functions of the auxiliary verb rijun (or riin) in the Ryukyuan languages. Ryukyuan languages, which are widely considered as sister languages to Japanese language, can be divided into Northern Ryukyuan languages and Southern Ryukyuan languages. This paper focuses on the Shuri dialect, one of the dialects belonging to the Northern Ryukyuan languages. In Ryukyuan languages, the auxiliary verb rijun can be used to express passive, potential, and honorific morpheme. In this paper, the author aims to reexamine the functions of rijun in order to clarify the grammatical functions and characteristics of rijun. Keywords: Ryukyuan language, Shuri dialect, auxiliary verb, rijun, passive voice, honorifics, potential form. 1. INTRODUCTION Ryukyuan languages are widely considered as sister languages of the Japanese language [1]. Phonological and grammatical similarities are found between Ryukyuan languages and Japanese Kyushu dialects and they also show close lexical connections [2]. Ryukyuan languages can be divided into two main groups, namely Northern Ryukyu language and Southern Ryukyu language. Northern Ryukyu language is further divided into Northern Amami dialect, Southern Amami and Northern Okinawa dialect, and South Central Okinawa dialect; on the other hand, Southern Ryukyu language can be subdivided into Miyako dialect, Yaeyama dialect, and Yonaguni dialect [3].