There are various dialects of Japanese that are spoken by Japanese people all across the world. These dialects slightly differ in grammar and conjugation of verbs. The true origin of the Japanese language is still not known. The Japanese people did not have access to any written language prior to being exposed to the Chinese language. After being introduced to Chinese, educated people in Japan started to learn how to write and speak Chinese and later on they started developing their own language from Chinese characters. Japanese is a very unique language. Though it does not have much similarity with other languages, it has been influenced by other languages and has borrowed some words from other languages. There are a number of English words that the Japanese language has borrowed.
Below are some of the amazing facts that you must be aware of the Japanese language.
Only two verb tenses:
The first amazing fact about the Japanese language is that it involves only two verb tenses i.e.
- Past tense
- Present tense
There is no future tense in the Japanese language and therefore, sometimes present tense can be used in order to refer to a future incident. This is something that sets the Japanese language apart from most of the languages that are spoken worldwide.
Only a few irregular verbs:
The second amazing fact about the Japanese language is that it involves only a few irregular verbs. Surprisingly, the most commonly used irregular verbs are not more than 10. Compared to Japanese, English involves a number of irregular verbs. This signifies that it is quite easy and simple to conjugate Japanese verbs once you are able to comprehend the primary logic.
Phonetic Pronunciation:
Unlike in English, Japanese pronunciation is phonetic where all syllables sound the same way. No silent letters or hard/soft consonants are involved.
Nouns do not have number or gender:
The third amazing fact about the Japanese language is that nouns that are used in the languages do not have any gender or number. This means that the same word can be used for the purpose of referring to a singular entity as well as plural entities. Similarly, the same nouns are used for both males and females.
Word order is different:
Another amazing fact about the Japanese language is that the word order is different from the English language. Where the English language follows the SVO (Subject-Verb-Object) structure, Japanese language follows the SOV (Subject-Object-Verb) structure.
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