Research article summary

from:

"Japanese language - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 8 Oct. 2008 .

Japanese is a widely spoken language, originating in japan, that consists of characters much unlike those of western languages. there are 4 different main styles:

kanji- modified chinese characters

hiragana- 2 syllable scripts made up of modern chinese characters

katakana- 2 syllable scripts made up of modern chinese characters

Romaji- Latin alphabet (also used in modern japanese for company logos and advertising, and for typing on computers)

Japanese uses western style characters as their numbers, (1, 2, 3,...) but they also have their own characters for numbers. 

While japanese was very isolated when it was developing, and therefore very unique, it has traces of chinese and Indo-European languages. German, Dutch, and Portuguese have also influenced Japanese words. This is because of trade routes between Japan and first portugal in the 16th century, and then between japan and the Netherlands in the 17th century. 

Japanese is still sometimes spoken elsewhere, primarily where there are japanese immigrants. Japanese is also spoken in many countries because in WWII, when Japan occupied Korea, Taiwan, parts of China, the Philippines, and many islands in the pacific islands, citizens were forced to learn the language in empire-building programs.