A Brief History of Japanese Language

The Japanese had no writing system prior to the introduction of the Chinese one, which
was originally used by Chinese people who lived in Japan during the early Christian era. Later,
the educated Japanese used it to write the Chinese language. The earliest known examples of
Japanese writing, dating back to the 5th and 6th Centuries A.D., are proper names inscribed with
Chinese characters on a mirror and a sword. But by the 8 th and 9th Centuries A.D., Chinese
characters began to be used to represent the Japanese language. Since the two languages are so
different in their syntax and phonology, Chinese loanwords and characters began to be
"Japanified" for more convenient use (Encyclopædia Britannica 1997).

The earliest known Japanese records of any length are the Kojiki (A.D. 712) and
the Man'y_sh_ (after 771) (Komatsu 1970). These works are valuable in revealing the evolution
of the Japanese writing system from Chinese to a specialized system for recording spoken
Japanese. The Kojiki largely maintains Chinese syntax, while using character combinations
specific to Japanese for their semantic content. The Man'y_sh_, on the other hand, begins to use
Chinese characters for their pronunciations to indicate Japanese words (Encyclopædia
Britannica 1997).

Because of the complex nature of kanji, using them for phonetic purposes is not very
convenient. So the two kana systems developed independently during the 9 th Century, as two
different methods to simplify writing. Hiragana arose as a cursive abbreviation for the kanji, and
was used mostly by women, who were excluded from the study of Chinese characters. They used
it mostly for poetry, diaries and novels. Katakana was the product of priests in Buddhist temples.
As the priests read Chinese works, they translated them into Japanese and inserted these kana
beside the kanji as a mnemonic device to help them with Japanese inflections that were not in the
Chinese (Encyclopædia Britannica 1997).

As a result of this Chinese influence and domestic adaptation, Japanese writing

developed into the threefold system it is today, with incredible complexity. Part of the reason for
its complexity is the incongruity of the Chinese and Japanese spoken languages. Where every
word in Chinese is a single syllable, Japanese is a polysyllabic language and requires open
syllables. Each kanji has at least two pronunciations: one, an imitation of the equivalent Chinese
word (the on reading), forced into the CV phonotactics of Japanese; and the other, a native
Japanese word (the kun reading).
A Brief History of English Language
The Old English (OE) period can be regarded as starting around AD 450, with the arrival
of West Germanic settlers (Angles, Saxons and Jutes) in southern Britain. They brought with
them dialects closely related to the continental language varieties which would produce modern
German, Dutch and Frisian.
Many grammatical features also date back to this time: irregular verbs such
as drink ~ drank ~ drunk (OE drincan ~ dranc ~ (ge)druncen) parallel
German trinken ~ trank ~ getrunken. Similarly, many OE pronunciations are preserved in
modern spellings e.g. knight (OE cniht, German Knecht), in which k would have been
pronounced and gh sounded like ch in Scots loch.
OE, also called Anglo-Saxon, was not heavily influenced by the Celtic languages spoken
by the native inhabitants of the British Isles, borrowing only a few words (e.g. brock, tor)
associated with local wildlife and geography (but many place and river names e.g. Dover, Avon).
However, Latin, introduced to Britain by the Romans, and reinforced in its influence by the
conversion of the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity during the 7 th century, had a significant impact,
providing both vocabulary (e.g. master, mass, school) and the basis for the writing system.
Norse influence may also have contributed to an important grammatical change, which
mainly occurred in English between the 11th and 14th centuries, and which marked the transition
to Middle English (ME) (conventionally dated c.1100-1500). OE had indicated many
grammatical categories and relationships by attaching inflections (endings) to word roots, in a
similar way to Latin or German.
Thus, in the OE clause wolde guman findan ‘he wanted to find the man’, the –
e on wolde indicates a 3rd person singular subject: ‘he wanted’; the –n on guman indicates that
‘the man’ is the object, not the subject of the verb; and the –an on findan indicates an infinitive:
‘to find’.
In ME, changes in the pronunciation of unstressed syllables, mainly occurring at the ends
of words, caused most inflections to merge indistinguishably, or be dropped altogether. This
inflectional breakdown could have created ambiguity (e.g. wanted man find), but speakers
compensated by using more rigid word order (subject – verb – object, usually), among other
strategies.
Modern English (ModE) can be regarded externally as starting with the introduction of printing.
Caxton’s selection of an East Midlands/London variety of English for the first printed books at
the end of the 15th century contributed to the development of a standardised variety of the
language, with fixed spelling and punctuation conventions and accepted vocabulary and
grammatical forms.
The perception of this standard variety as correct, ‘good’ English was also supported by
attempts at codification, notably Johnson’s dictionary and many prescriptive grammars of the
18th century. The vocabulary of English was consciously elaborated as it came to be used for an
increasing variety of purposes, including translations of classical works rediscovered in the
Renaissance, a burgeoning creative literature, and the description of new scientific activities.
Thousands of words were borrowed from Latin and Greek in this period
e.g. education, metamorphosis, critic, conscious.
In the present day, English is used in many parts of the world, as a first, second or
foreign language, having been carried from its country of origin by former colonial and imperial
activity, the slave trade, and recently, economic, cultural and educational prestige.
It continues to change at all linguistic levels, in both standard and non-standard varieties,
in response to external influences (e.g. modern communications technologies; contact with other
world languages) and pressures internal to the language system (e.g. the continuing impulse
towards an efficient, symmetrical sound-system; the avoidance of grammatical ambiguity).
Phonology of English and Japanese Language

Japanese has 5, pure vowel sounds that may be short or long. The syllable structure is
simple, generally with the vowel sound preceded by one of approximately 15 consonant sounds.
There are few complex consonant sound combinations such as in the English
words strength or Christmas. As a result of these differences Japanese ESL students find English
hard to pronounce, often insert short vowels between the consonants (ste-rength. Japanese
learners of English may even have difficulty in correctly perceiving what they hear.

Specific problems with English vowel sounds include the failure to accurately render the
diphthong in words such as caught/coat or bought/boat or the different vowel sound in minimal
pairs such as hat/hut. The most noticeable problem rendering English consonants is seen in the
inability of many learners to differentiate between the /l/ and the /r/ sounds. Words such
as lot/rot or glimmer/glimmer are impossible for some of them to pronounce correctly.
Unsurprisingly, Japanese learners also struggle with struggle with the (/θ/ /ð/) sounds, such as in
the words month, thirteenth and clothes. The /v/ sound is also difficult for some, who
say berry instead of very or ban instead of van.

The intonation patterns of Japanese and English do not have many features in common.
Some of the meaning that the English native speaker conveys by stress and/or a change of pitch
is differently expressed in Japanese (for example, by adverbials). Learners often benefit from
explicit instruction and practice in these areas. In general, however, those learners who have had
significant exposure to English and have become competent in it often acquire much more
natural English prosody than, for example, Spanish or French with comparable levels of English
proficiency.
References:

Lohr, M. (2019, March 1). From old English to modern English. Retrieved April 26, 2020, from
OpenEdu website:
https://www.open.edu/openlearn/history-the-arts/culture/english-
language/old-english-modern-english#

Vogler, D.J. (1998, March 20). An Overview of the History of the Japanese Language. Retrieved
April 26, 2020, from Linguistics ByuEdu website:
https://linguistics.byu.edu/classes/Ling450ch/reports/japanese.htm

Ohata, K. (1996, December 4). Phonological Differences between Japanese and English: Several
Potentially Problematic Areas of Pronunciation for Japanese ESL/EFL Learners.
Retrieved
April 26, 2020, from Asian EFL Journal website: https://asian-efl-
journal.com/Dec_04_ko.pdf