History and Present of the Japanese Language

This short lecture introduces the history of the Japanese language and also offers a crash course in the very basics of modern Japanese—not enough to help you speak or read it, but enough to teach you how to recognize Japanese as distinct from Chinese, Korean, and other Asian languages. Sources used: Kindaichi, Haruhiko. The Japanese Language. Rutland, VT: Tuttle Publishing, 2010. Martin, Samuel. The Japanese Language through Time. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1987. Miller, Roy. Origins of the Japanese language: Lectures in Japan during the Academic Year 1977–78. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1980. Unger, J. Marshall. The Role of Contact in the Origins of the Japanese and Korean Languages. Honolulu: University of Hawaiʻi Press, 2009. Haiku audio reproduced from a video by NHK Eテレ. Hiragana and katakana evolution charts from Wikipedia by user Pmx. Used under CC-BY-2.5 license. *********************** The Ohio State University’s East Asian Studies Center (EASC) and Columbus State Communit