Japanese language portfolio

Noriki Yamamoto 11-6

Phonetic and phonology (sound

system)
English have 10 vowels but Japanese one have only half of English is mean is
much easier to learn Japanese. The vowels is almost a,i,u,e, and o. the first line
of Japanese list its very interesting because English is not like that style. Also
Japanese dont have diphthongs its different to English, and its easier than
English. In phonemes was difficult to decide but in vowels is easy.
i
M or
u

(a
)

Vowel chart
High
Back
i

Phonemes analysis
Fron
t
Lo
w

e
a

From this chart, there are 20 of phonemes in this chart as from 2 resources, in
English there are 22 phonemes. Japanese has this sound but English do not
have that sound. there are no labiodental and dental to make sound in place of
articulation. Also there are only one lateral such as r, but its not sure because
one of the resource shows r in lateral, on other resource doesnt show that.
There are many resource of Japanese phonemes chart, but those charts are not
same all of the time. Therefore Japanese is difficult to decide which phoneme is
in the chart, this is very interesting thing in Japanese. After this project I want to
make best Japanese phonemes chart to know my first language.

Morphology analysis
1)
Simple word
Japanese

IPA
kyk
ht
mzu

English
subject
people
water

Complex word
ktdnw

kyksyo

tbmn

gmibk

phone
text book
food
garbage bin

2)
text book

teach

section
food

eat

thing

book

 garbage box

garbage

box

In kanji we just write together one to make new meaning however some of the
bound of hiragana change to easy to say that word. For example, food() is
made from (eat-taberu) and (thing-mono) in this case tabe-ru, ru is
deleted and add mono to make word food.

3) Free morphs:
(yama-mountain )(book-hon)(yourself-onore)
(microphone-maiku)(human,people-hito)
Each kanji has meaning, also when word shows by katagana, that
word came from English or other countries.
Bound morphs:
- (-ed-ta) - (probably- darou) - (polite word-desu) (polite word-masu)
Those bound words to show how setae or change to polite for elder
people. There are many bound word to change for polite.

4) -()(tachi)-()(ra)-()(domo)-(say same thing two times)

These are the special plural words, however normally japanese dont use plural
word like s.
(necotachi-cats)-but this one meaning is group
(karera-they)- this one also shows group
(hitobito-people)
Actually Japanese plural words dont show number. And japanese dont need to
add plua

5) (goods) (Commodity)(Brand new) hin- pin

(connections)(transmits)(help) tutau-tudau
(bag)(place name) hukuro- bukuro
In 2 and 3 are change too voice to say easier. Ikehukuro and tetutau is not easy
to say because those need to say same word two times. But I dont know why 1
dont change to h-b.
6) (word-moji)
(tv-terevi)
(chair- isu )

Syntactical Description
Sentences Chart:
English
the girl with long hair eats
steak with a boy.
the girl with long hair eats
steak with a boyfriend.
the girl with long hair eats
dinner with a boy.
the crazy girl with long hair
eats dinner with a boy.
the guy with long hair eats
steak with a boy.
the girl with hat eat steaks
with a boy.
the girl with long hair cooks
steak with a boy.
the girl with long hair eats
steak with a boy in cafe.
the girl with long hair in cafe
eats steak with a boy .
the girl with long hair and
mom eats steak with a boy.

in Japanese

the girl with long hair eats

steak with a boy and go
back home.
the girl with long hair eats
steak quickly with a boy.

word order in English

long hair with the girl a
boy with steak eats
long hair with the girl a
boyfriend with steak eats
long hair with the girl a
boy with dinner eats
long hair with crazy the
girl a boy with steak eats
long hair with the girl a
boy with steak eats
hat with the girl a boy
with steak eats
long hair with the girl a
boy with steak cook
long hair with the girl cafe
in a boy with steak eats
cafe in long hair with the
girl a boy with steak eats
long hair with the girl and
mom a boy with steak
eats
long hair with the girl a
boy with steak eats and
go back
long hair with the girl a
boy with quickly steak

the girl with long hair will

eats steak with a boy.

eats
long hair with the girl a
boy with steak eat

PSR
S=N P+VP
NP= PP+ N
PP= NP + P
N= adj + N
VP= PP + VP
VP = adv +NP + V
S= sentence
NP= Noun phase
PP=preposition phase
Adv= adverb
Adj= adjective
VP = verb phase

Explain about PSR & chart:

In English the verb come first of VP, but in Japanese the verb come last of
sentence. Also the auxiliary as will dont work in Japanese because the last of
word change as will but it still read as current sentence. In addition, the PP
comes to after VP as last of sentence or last of NP in English but in Japanese the
PP come to first of NP or VP. There are a or an and the also past tense with
verb but in Japanese there no those of them. Also the preposition come to after
PP side of noun to connect for verb is different style with English but preposition
work is same as English to connect with verb and preposition phase. So the PSR
between English and Japanese have big different structure of grammar.

Tree diagram:
The girl with long hair eats steak with a boy.
S

V
P

N
P

ad
lon

N
P
N ha

N
wit
P The

aN P

P
wit

V
Nstea

Veat

The beautiful birds fly in the blue sky.

S

V
P

N
P

ad
j

beautif

bird
s

N
P

ad
j

fl

We are the champion in our school.

blu
S
e

sk
y

V
P

N
P

wN ad
ou

N P
scho
N

iP

V
ar

Lexicon of Japanese
1) What are 3 examples of idioms in your language?
- aisogatukiru
-To be disgusted with; to be fed up with; to run out of patience with

-agogahazureru
-Too funny and lough too much

-itanituku
To get used to one's work; to become accustomed to one's position

- otokogasutaru
-be ashamed (of oneself); cannot live with oneself

-ohirewotukeru

-embellish, talk story more big things but not too big things

-katanonigaoriru
-a load is off one's mind

From http://www7a.biglobe.ne.jp/~gakusyuu/kanyouku/kanyouku.htm
2) How old is your language?
Japanese started around 5th century in japan as Heian period. The old Japanese
found in the sword of the king at that time. This resource is most clear evidence
in Japanese history.

3) What other languages are similar to your language and how?

Japanese is independently Language because there are some similar languages
but not exactly same. Also there are no evidence to know the way to made
Japanese. However similar languages such as Korean, japonic, Altaic, because
they use vowel harmony, agglutinative language, the grammar is subject - object predicate, they dont like to use r to prefix.
4) Where do loanwords in your language come from?
Those words come from Chinese as writing system such as kanji and English
such as new technology or new things, Japanese didnt have the way to show
that word in Japanese thats why Japanese borrowed words from English and
write as Katagana.

5) What are 3 examples of loanwords in your language?

- pen
- computer
-tv

Those words are come from English.

Variation of Japanese
Geographical Distribution
There are many geographical distribution of
Japanese language.
For first this map is most basic Geographical
Distribution map.
There are a lot of areas of dialects, for example
Main Island of dialect and Ryukyuan dialect. For
more detail in Main Island, there are north area,
east area, south area, and west area. Those
dialects base is same but some of the wordings
are totally different from most basic language as
Tokyo dialect. So sometimes they cant
understand each other by dialects.

- Phonetic and Phonological Variation

For Tohoku dialects features of Phonetic and Phonological Variation, the stage of
(i) and (u) such as [] [] become near pronunciation. For example, (shi/ su),
(chi/tsu), (ji/zi), and (ju/zu) are not able to distinguish. For stage of (e) sound, (e)
became near sound with (i). When only vowel cannot distinguish (i) and (e) etc
Last of the word of stage of (k) and (t) become (g) and (d) sounds. In basic Tokyo
dialects the voice sounds such as (z), (d), and (b) sounds are pronounced by
nasal cavity, so those are different from normal sounds become voice sounds.
Ex: [mado](mato)[ma do](mado). Therefore there are a lot of
Phonetic and Phonological Variation between basic Tokyo dialect and Touhoku
dialect.

- Morphological Variation
Some kansai dialect always (san) becomes (han).Also the last word of (ne)
become (nen). Tha causes of those differences are come from accent of dialects.
I think those words are difficult to say for Phonetic and actually they didnt try to
speak same as Tokyo dialect in ancient japan, because the Tokyo dialects came
out after many of dialects. Before kamakura era kanto are didnt have any power,
there are only forest and mountain at that time. So many ancient Japanese didnt

respect new basic dialect, thats why many dialects have differences in the last
of sentence.

- Lexical Variation
For plaster (band aid) is called different in each area In Yellow area
(sabio), in Orange area (katban), In Blue area (band aid), in White area
(kizuban), in pink area (bansoukou), and in Purple area (ribateepu). The
most main place such as kanto area and kansai area are called
same as English, because those place are easy to
catch up the information form outside countries.
Then, if the place is far from those central areas, the
name of band aid become much different from
English. However Tokyo people call band aid as
(bansoukou) too, I think that came from near kanto
area. Therefore the information goes not only one
direction form central are to countryside, the information goes two from
countryside to central place too, the information changes little by little and
affects each other as information.

- Syntactical Variation
In Wikipedia write syntactical variation but in my opinion those syntactical
variations are very similar with Morphological Variation. Because they changed
only last of sentence for more their dialectical style. They dont change place of
verb, subject, adjective, or particle. So Wikipedia was written as syntactical
variation but I included as Morphological Variation.