Knowra Japanese language Japanese language Japanese is a Japonic language spoken primarily in Japan. It is written with kanji and kana and has regional varieties and a grammatical system of honorifics.
Japanese phonology : The sound system of Japanese, including its mora-based rhythm, pitch accent, and restricted syllable patterns. Mora timing and pitch accent shape pronunciation and distinguish some words.
Topic–comment structure : A sentence organization that distinguishes what is being discussed from what is said about it. The topic marker wa often frames a sentence around an established topic.
Japonic languages : A language family comprising Japanese and the Ryukyuan languages, spoken in Japan. Japanese belongs to this family, whose internal history includes the Ryukyuan languages.
Japanese dialects : Regional and social varieties of Japanese that differ in pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar. Regional varieties show how Japanese changes across communities and locations.
Japanese grammar : The rules governing Japanese word forms, sentence structure, particles, and grammatical relations. Particles and verb-final sentences organize meaning differently from English syntax.
Japanese verb conjugation : The inflection and suffixation patterns that express tense, polarity, voice, and politeness in Japanese verbs. Verb endings carry grammatical and interpersonal information at sentence ends.
Old Japanese : The earliest documented stage of Japanese, attested chiefly in eighth-century texts. Its texts preserve early Japanese vocabulary, grammar, and writing practices.
Ryukyuan languages : A group of Japonic languages spoken in the Ryukyu Islands, distinct from Japanese dialects in linguistic classification. Their relationship to Japanese clarifies the boundary between dialect and separate language.
Japanese writing system : The combination of kanji, hiragana, and katakana used to write Japanese. Its three scripts divide lexical, grammatical, and borrowed-word functions.
Japanese word order : The arrangement of constituents in Japanese sentences, typically placing verbs at the end. Verb-final order works alongside particles to permit variation in constituent placement.
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