Why does Japanese sound so good?

The reason lies in pronunciation. Chinese pronunciation is divided into 4 tones, while Japanese has all soft tones, so it is easier to express something cold or something like that.

Japanese (Japanese: Hiragana にほんご, Katakana ニホンゴ, Roman pronunciation nihon go), referred to as Japanese, Japanese, is a language mainly used by the Yamato people on the Japanese archipelago, and is the official language of Japan language. Japanese is an agglutinative language. Sentences are formed by pasting grammatical components on words, which is called conjugation. The combination is not close and does not change the meaning of the original words. It only represents the grammatical function. The language family is controversial. Some people think it can be classified into the Altaic language family, some scholars think it is the Fuyu language family, and some Japanese scholars think it is an isolated language (some Japanese scholars then proposed the concept of the Korean-Japanese-Ryukyu language family and considered Japanese to be subordinate to it) or Japan language family. The relationship between Japanese and Chinese is very close. In ancient times, due to the influence of Guanzhong culture, a large number of ancient Chinese words were introduced to Japan along with Chinese characters. In modern times, a large number of Japanese words entered China in large quantities and replaced the transliteration. word and was adopted by Chinese.

1. Introduction:

Japanese has two sets of phonetic symbols: hiragana (flat and 仮 names) and katakana (katero names). It can also be written in Romaji (ローマ字). Latin alphabet. Kana and kanji are mostly used in daily life, and romaji are mostly used for signboards or advertisements. The phonetic notation of Japanese Chinese characters is not romaji but hiragana.

In terms of phonology, in addition to the pronunciation "っ" and the dial sound "ん", the open syllable language has strong characteristics and has a sound beat (mora). In terms of stress, it belongs to pitch accent. In terms of word order, sentences are composed of the order of subject, object, and predicate, which belongs to the subject-object-predicate structure and is one of the representative topic-first languages. In terms of morphology, it is an agglutinative language.

In terms of vocabulary, in addition to the Japanese language passed down from ancient times, there are also words imported from other countries. Recently, the proportion of loanwords introduced from various countries has gradually increased. In terms of how it treats people, the Japanese language is extremely varied. There are not only differences between spoken and written language, but also differences between ordinary and solemn, male and female, old and young, etc., as well as a well-developed honorific system. As for dialects, the differences between eastern and western Japan are greater, and are called Kanto dialect and Kansai dialect. In addition, for the deaf, there is Japanese Sign Language that corresponds to the Japanese grammar and phonology system.

The Ryukyuan language is similar to Japanese. Japanese is mainly spoken in Japan. When Japan invaded and ruled Taiwan, parts of mainland China, Hong Kong, the Korean Peninsula, Southeast Asia and Oceania, local people were forced to learn to speak Japanese and were forced to give Japanese names. Some of the many Japanese immigrants who settled in California and Brazil also spoke Japanese. Although their descendants have Japanese names, few of them can speak Japanese proficiently.

2. History of the language family:

Japanese is an agglutinative language. It forms sentences by pasting grammatical components on words, which is called conjugation. The combination is not close and the original vocabulary is not changed. The meaning of only indicates the grammatical function. The Japanese language is extremely varied, not only in the differences between spoken and written language, but also in simplified and respectful styles, ordinary and solemn, male and female, old and young. People in different industries and positions speak differently. This aspect reflects the strict hierarchy and team thinking of Japanese society. Honorifics are well developed in Japanese. The use of honorifics makes Japanese speaking in public very elegant. But the overly complicated grammar makes learning honorifics extremely difficult. Even native Japanese are not completely proficient in it. Languages ??with similarly developed honorifics include Korean, Mongolian, etc. The pronunciation of Japanese is very simple, with only five vowel phonemes and a small number of consonants. Including various uncommon pronunciations, the total number is no more than 100. Similar pronunciations to Japanese include Spanish and Italian. Generally speaking, the ratio of consonants to vowels in the pronunciation of these three languages ??is close to 1:1. Japanese has a very rich vocabulary and a large number, and it has absorbed a large number of foreign words. There are more than 30,000 general vocabulary (excluding names of people and places) (1956). (See Japanese#Japanese vocabulary) It is closely related to the Altaic and Austronesian languages. It is greatly influenced by Chinese and absorbs the tones and quantifiers that were originally characteristics of the Sino-Tibetan language family. Therefore, the linguistic affiliation of Japanese has become Very complex. Linguists disagree about the origin of Japanese.

There are many theories about the origin of the Japanese language. Many scholars believe that, syntactically, Japanese is close to Altaic languages ??such as Turkish and Mongolian. The syntactic similarity of Japanese to Korean is widely recognized. There is also evidence that Japanese morphology and vocabulary were influenced prehistorically by Malayo-Polysian languages ??to the south.

Linguistically speaking, Japan is almost a single nation, with more than 99% of the population speaking the same language. This means that Japanese is the sixth most spoken language in the world. However, Japanese is rarely spoken outside of Japan.

Although the languages ??spoken by the Japanese and Chinese are completely different, the Japanese writing system comes from Buddhist texts that arrived in Japan from India via China and Korea. After more than a thousand years of changes, although the current Japanese characters have changed, some pronunciations are similar or close to Chinese.

There are still many local dialects in Japan.

Under the influence of mass media such as radio, television, and movies, Standard Japanese based on Tokyo dialect has gradually spread throughout the country, but in particular, the dialects spoken by people in Kyoto and Osaka continue to thrive and retain their prestige.

3. How to learn Japanese at the beginning:

The first step: learn common sense

If you want to learn Japanese, you must have a sequence:

1.50 Sound pictures

2 It is best to follow the textbooks and learn from the class. If you are self-study, you should also learn from the video lectures

3 At the same time, memorize words, watch anime and listen to listening skills, etc.< /p>

4 When you have some strength, go to some Japanese websites, read celebrity blogs, sports news, political and economic news, etc., and exercise

Step 2: Preparation< /p>

Self-study steps for reference

1 Buy a set of self-study textbooks (recommended "New Edition of Standard Japanese") recommended to you

2 Prepare all reference books (such as dictionaries) , grammar books, etc.)

3 First learn the words in each lesson and read them aloud

4 Then read the explanations of grammar and sentence patterns after each lesson and memorize and master them

< p>5 Read the text aloud and pay attention to the use of new words and grammar in the text

6 Do the accompanying exercises for each lesson

7 Ask questions on the Japanese forum when you encounter questions that you do not understand

p>

(Recommended "Coffee Japanese Forum", "Hefeng Japanese Forum", "New World Japanese Forum", "Hujiang Japanese Forum")

8 Keep memorizing words, reading more texts, and more Watch Japanese dramas or anime movies. If you are interested, find a friend who knows Japanese and have a simple conversation with each other in Japanese

Part 3: Study Plan

I made a simple study plan for myself:

1. The pronunciation part (fifty syllabary) will be completed in one week.

The average study time is 8 hours per day (note: I was studying full-time at that time. You can adjust the study time appropriately according to your actual situation).

2. Text study part.

An average of 1.5 days/1 lesson.

Step 2.1:

a. First read the word part, and then read it aloud according to the phonetic pronunciation behind it. Copy it again (note: there is a phonetic symbol after the Japanese word, this symbol determines whether your future Japanese pronunciation is correct or pleasant!).

b. Listen to the tape once and read along (preferably with a repeater).

c. Read the text independently once or twice.

d. Complete the following exercises (this step is very important!!! Because you can learn a lot here that cannot be learned in the text).

e, look at the text and write out the Japanese part of the Chinese translation word for word, and do the same thing again in reverse.

3. In this way, one lesson can be regarded as passed.

4. It is also recommended that you listen to more Japanese radio or watch some Japanese sitcoms. Although you may not understand the meaning, it is very helpful in cultivating your sense of language (I was like this at the time).