Skip to main content

Exploring the Japanese Language

This quiz tests your knowledge of the Japanese language, its family, speakers, grammatical features, and historical influences.

#Japanese language #language family #linguistics #Japonic languages #language learning

1 What family does the Japanese language belong to?

2 How many people speak the Japanese language?

3 The Ryūkyūan languages, spoken in Okinawa and ________ that are politically part of Kagoshima, are distinct enough to be considered a separate branch of the Japonic family.

4 の no for the ________, or nominalizing phrases.

5 ________, like hiragana, are a syllabary; katakana are primarily used to write foreign words, plant and animal names, and for emphasis.

6 This began with borrowings from Portuguese in the 16th century, followed by borrowing from Dutch during Japan's long isolation of the ________.

7 Most ________ in the Japanese language may be made polite by the addition of o- or go- as a prefix.

8 The grammatical function of nouns is indicated by ________, also called particles.

9 Japanese words and words derived from Japanese in other languages at ________, Wikipedia's sibling project.

10 By this time, the Japanese language was already distinct from the ________.

💡 Interesting Facts

  • the Onkochishinsho was the first Japanese language dictionary to collate words in the now-standard gojūon order.
  • the Japanese manga Black God was created by a manhwa team of Koreans who do not know the Japanese language.
  • the children's anime series The Littl' Bits has aired in Japanese, English, Spanish, Polish, German, and Italian.
  • the name of Shichirigahama (pictured), a beach in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, means "Seven Ri (approximately 27 km/17 mi) Beach" in Japanese, but it is only about one-tenth of that in length.
  • the titles of the thirteen episodes of the Japanese animated television series Gunslinger Girl were given in Italian as well as Japanese.
  • the Chinese character referring to the mythological sea monster Shen (pictured) is used in Chinese, Korean and Japanese terms for "mirage".
  • as a teenager, Chiri Yukie prepared the first Japanese translations of several of the yukar sagas of the Ainu people.
  • Arishima Ikuma, Japanese novelist, published his new-style poems and short stories as a vehicle to introduce the works of the French impressionist painter Paul Cézanne to the Japanese public.
  • Natsume Sōseki's 1905 novel Kairo-kō is the earliest, and only major, prose treatment of the Arthurian legend in the Japanese language.
  • Broome Pearling Lugger Pidgin is a mixed language based on Malay, Japanese, English and Australian Aboriginal languages.
  • a 1934 survey of Japanese language education in the United States found only thirteen professors in the whole country fluent in Japanese.
  • after the Japanese Supreme Court found Shibusawa Tatsuhiko guilty of obscenity for translating the works of the Marquis de Sade into Japanese, he was outraged by the triviality of his fine.
  • "Kashi", the name of an all natural, seven whole grain food company based in La Jolla, California, means "happy" in Chinese and "energy" in Japanese.
    • Previous Quiz Next Quiz

    Related Quizzes

    Exploring the Arabic Language

    #Arabic language #language learning #linguistics #Middle Eastern studies #cultural studies

    Exploring the Chinese Language

    #Chinese language #language family #linguistics #language speakers #cultural studies

    Exploring the English Language: A Quiz on Its History and Varieties

    #English language #linguistics #education #language history #Commonwealth

    Exploring the French Language

    #French language #language learning #linguistics #dialects #orthography #cultural studies

    Exploring the German Language

    #German language #linguistics #language family #German culture #language history

    Exploring the Greek Language and Its Historical Context

    #Greek language #linguistics #historical languages #language family #European languages #cultural studies

    Exploring the Irish Language and Its Heritage

    #Irish language #Gaeltacht #Celtic languages #Irish culture #Linguistics #Language history

    Exploring the Italian Language

    #Italian language #language learning #linguistics #European culture #Romance languages