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The modern Japanese writing system uses a combination of logographic kanji, which are adopted Chinese characters, and syllabic kana.Kana itself consists of a pair of syllabaries: hiragana, used primarily for native or naturalized Japanese words and grammatical elements; and katakana, used primarily for foreign words and names, loanwords, onomatopoeia, scientific names, and sometimes for emphasis.
At the time, documents were written in kanji and hiragana, derived from Japan. Although generally agreed among linguists to be a distinct language, most Japanese, as well as some Okinawans, tend to think of Okinawan as merely a regional dialect of Japanese, even though it is not intelligible to monolingual Japanese speakers. [1]
The Ainu language is written in a modified version of the Japanese katakana syllabary, although it is possible for Japanese loan words and names to be written in kanji (for example, "mobile phone" can be written ケイタイデンワ or 携帯電話). There is also a Latin-based alphabet in use. The Ainu Times publishes in both.
Written Japanese uses several different scripts: kanji (Chinese characters), 2 sets of kana (phonetic syllabaries) and roman letters. While kana and roman letters can be typed directly into a computer, entering kanji is a more complicated process as there are far more kanji than there are keys on most keyboards.
This is due to claims that the text was written in an original Japanese writing system - in academic circles, the existence of writing in Japan before the use of Chinese characters is denied. Also, the allegedly pre-Chinese Japanese writing system does not match the Old Japanese phonology but rather the phonologies of later stages of Japanese.
Kanbun, literally "Chinese writing," refers to a genre of techniques for making Chinese texts read like Japanese, or for writing in a way imitative of Chinese. For a Japanese, neither of these tasks could be accomplished easily because of the two languages' different structures. As I have mentioned, Chinese is an isolating language.
Taiki (1136–55), written by Fujiwara no Yorinaga; Gyokuyō (1164–1200), written by Fujiwara no Kanezane; Meigetsuki (1180–1235), written by Fujiwara no Teika; Heikoki (1196–1246), written by Taira no Tsunetaka; Sanuki no Suke Nikki, written by Fujiwara no Nagako; Towazugatari (1271–1306), written by Go-Fukakusa In no Nijō
Writing and Literacy in Chinese, Korean and Japanese (Victor Mair uses the acronym WLCKJ [1]) is a 1995 book by Insup Taylor and M. Martin Taylor, published by John Benjamins Publishing Company. Kim Ainsworth-Darnell, in The Journal of the Association of Teachers of Japanese , wrote that the work "is intended as an introduction for the Western ...