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Japanese language

   Also found in: Wikipedia, Hutchinson 0.06 sec.

Japanese language

Language spoken by about 125 million people on the islands of Japan, including the Ryukyus. The only other language of the Japanese archipelago is Ainu (see Ainu), now spoken by only a handful of people on Hokkaido, though once much more widespread. Japanese is not closely related to any other language, though a distant genetic kinship to Korean is now thought probable by some scholars, and an even more remote relationship to the Altaic languages is possible. Japanese is first attested in the 8th century AD, when Middle Chinese characters were utilized solely for their phonetic value to write native Japanese words. Japanese retains a huge stock of loanwords from Middle Chinese, long adapted to native phonetics.



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She approached the pastor, who had learned a little of the Japanese language and culture when he was assigned to a Hawaiian church just before coming to Lancaster.
The Japanese language has long taken account of social standing.
IF YOU MISSED OUT on getting a Japanese language domain name back in 2000, your second chance may be coming up.
 
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