Japanese Language
Japanese is a language spoken by over 130 million people, primarily in Japan, but also in a number of Japanese emigrant communities around the world.
The Japanese language is written with a combination of three different types of characters: kanji, or Chinese characters, plus two syllabic scripts, hiragana and katakana. Kanji often symbolize concepts while hiragana and katakana are phonetic characters representing sounds only. The Latin alphabet is also often used in modern Japanese, especially for company names and logos.
An aspect unique to the Japanese language is the presence of structures speakers use for indicating respect and modesty. These are known as honorifics. Honorifics include words, structures, and prefixes. By listening to the honorifics, it may be possible to learn the relative status of the speakers or the people mentioned in the conversation.
