History of Japanese Language

In the world we live in today, the overwhelming surfeit of languages and dialects nicely complements the myriad of ethnicities in the world. The rich history of these languages can also be unravelled and allow Man to be appreciative of their respective spoken languages. Thus, one should never take for granted the Japanese language that one would inevitably hear when in Japan. Behind the simple syllable structure in the language when spoken or written, holds a long history that dates back to the 2000 BC. The Japanese language is the only language in the world that has no definitive answer in the “clarification of its origins” [An Overview of the History of the Japanese Language, 20 March 2008].

In its spoken tongue, the Japanese language has been also transformed from its “Old-Japanese” language, to the modern Japanese language, which has been influenced by other ethnicities due to our shrinking world as Man accelerates in breaking down barriers to allow one to travel and explore abroad. From external influences, the “Old-Japanese” language, with originally 8 vowel phonemes, the modern Japanese language has only 5, changing the original pronunciation of Japanese words, thus leading to its evolution from ancient to modern.

Aside from verbal linguistics, the written language has been nothing but complex and intricate, just like how Chinese is. Why is this so? Lacking a proper writing system like what the Chinese had, the educated Japanese initially followed the Chinese style of writing. However, the intricate nature of the Chinese language was also the factor which led to the evolution of the Japanese language. By the 8th and 9th century, the Chinese words that the Japanese have adopted changed for simplicity’s sake. And through the evolution of the written language, it has allowed for the Japanese to “easily” express themselves through poetry, songs and stories (etc.).