Linguistic Comparison of the English and Japanese Languages: A Summary

Ashley Adams-Jack

Criminology B.S.  Psychology B.S. | Japanese B.A.
Florida State University

        The purpose of this linguistic analysis is to delve into the inherent differences between the Japanese and English languages. Though there are many contrasting points to be explored, the focus shall be upon differences in morphology, phonology, and semantic ideas related to these differences. Though initially daunting, the Japanese language may not be as different in morphology, phonology, and semantic components of these ideas as English second-language learners of the Japanese language may think.

Morphology and the Japanese Equivalent to English Morphological Processes

There are some interesting morphological aspects to the Japanese language that English speakers will encounter upon their attempted acquisition. The one process perhaps considered most difficult and cumbersome is the morphological conjugation of adjectives. When used with the Japanese copula [desu͍̥], it is necessary to conjugate the adjective rather than the copula itself. Although the method of conjugating of the adjectives is very similar to the Japanese method of conjugating verbs other than the copula, that this is an entirely foreign process to English speakers has the potential to create a mentally daunting task.

The one morphological process which many English learners of Japanese find easy is the fact that Japanese does not have a morphological mechanism for pluralizing nouns. Though there is no method of morphological pluralization in the Japanese language, another means of indicating quantity is available. Japanese possesses the unique grammatical point known as “counters” (助数詞). Counters can be a very difficult concept to implement, let alone master. There are numerous Japanese counters for different nouns which are based on a variety of attributes of said nouns. This attributes range from the size and shape of physical objects, abstract nouns and their relationshionship to time (hours, months, weeks, nights, days, et cetera), what sort of animal is being counted, to nouns’ inherent properties. Some additional examples of different classifications of counters include bus stops, guns/violins, paragraphs, kanji strokes, pills, bank accounts, and mirrors, amongst hundreds of other counters. To say that this foreign concept is difficult to English speakers would be an understatement.

Japanese Phonemes Not Present in English (with Semantic Connotations)

The one phoneme most often referenced in the comparison of Japanese and English phonetics is that of the Japanese /r/ (postalveolar flap [ɽ] and the alveolar lateral flap [ɺ]) and the English liquids [r] and [l].

However, there is one Japanese phoneme which is difficult to find information about at all. Some IPA charts of Japanese phonemes fail to illustrate the symbol altogether. This phoneme is known as the voiceless palatal fricative [ç]. The difficulty comes not from the lack of  English equivalent but actually from the lack of information available on this phoneme. Some dialects fail to demonstrate it to begin with. The [ç] is always followed by the vowel [i]. To English speakers, [çi] can sound nearly indistinguishable from [hi]. The more discernable difference is that [çi] has a more “hissing” quality to it in the ears of English speakers.

A similar phoneme to [ç] is that of the voiceless bilabial fricative [ɸ]. Like [ç], [ɸ] can only be followed by one, specific vowel. This particular vowel is [u͍], which is actually a compressed, rounded equivalent of the English [u].

        Relevant to [u͍] is the phoneme [u͍̥], which is nearly, if not, silent. This is present in the words [desu͍̥] and [su͍̥ki], amongst others. Of semantic note: [u͍̥] is used primarily in casual speech and ought to be replaced with [u͍] amongst more formal settings. Another near-silent vowel is [i̥] which, predictably, is the casual equivalent of [i].

        The are a  few more Japanese consonants not present in the English language that are of note. One of which is [w͍], which is equivalent to the English [w], with lip compression,   The three others are roughly related in their English difficulty. [ɕ] is a voiceless alveolo-palatal fricative which can be compared to [ç] in its “hissing” quality to the English ear. It is often romanized as /sh/ and is always followed by either [i] or [i̥]. [tɕ] is also a voiceless alveopalatal fricative always followed by [i]. It is oft romanized as into English /ch/ but may be better represented by /tch/.

        Interestingly, in the Japanese alphabets 平仮名 [çiɽagana] and 片仮名 [katakana] there is a built-in method of indicating whether certain consonants are voiced or voiceless. This two indicators are known as a “voicing mark” (濁点) [daku͍teɴ] and a “half voicing mark” (半濁点) [haɴdaku͍teɴ]. The [daku͍teɴ] looks like the English equivalent of quotation marks ( ﾞ ), whilst the [haɴdaku͍teɴ] is an identically sized circle ( ﾟ ). They are put in the upper-right corner of the symbols they change.

        [daku͍teɴ] are used to turn the voiceless velar stop [k] into the voiced velar stop [g].

か ⇒ が          き ⇒ ぎ         く ⇒ ぐ          け ⇒ げ         こ ⇒ ご

[ka] ⇒ [ga]         [ki] ⇒ [gi]         [ku͍] ⇒ [gu͍]         [ke] ⇒ [ge]         [ko] ⇒ [go]

[daku͍teɴ] are used to turn the voiceless alveolar sibilant [s] into the voiced alveolar sibilant [z].

[sa] ⇒ [za]         [ɕi] ⇒ [zi]         [su͍] ⇒ [zu͍]         [se] ⇒ [ze]         [so] ⇒ [zo]

[daku͍teɴ] are used to turn the voiceless alveolar stop [t] into the voiced alveolar stop [d].

[ta] ⇒ [da]         [tɕi] ⇒ [di]         [tsu͍] ⇒ [dzu͍]         [te] ⇒ [de]         [to] ⇒ [do]

[daku͍teɴ] are used to turn the voiceless glottal fricative [h] into the voiced bilabial stop [b], the voiceless palatal fricative [ç] into the voiced bilabial stop [b], and the voiceless bilabial fricative [ɸ] into the voiced bilabial stop [b].

は ⇒ ば         ひ ⇒ び        ふ ⇒ ぶ        へ ⇒ べ        ほ ⇒        ぼ

                [ha] ⇒ [ba]         [çi] ⇒ [bi]         [ɸu͍] ⇒ [bu͍]         [se] ⇒ [be]         [so] ⇒ [bo]

[haɴdaku͍teɴ] are used to turn the voiceless glottal fricative [h] into the voiced glottal fricative [p], the voiceless palatal fricative [ç] into the voiced glottal fricative [p], and the voiceless bilabial fricative [ɸ] into the voiced glottal fricative [p].

                は ⇒ ぱ         ひ ⇒ ぴ        ふ ⇒ ぷ        へ ⇒ ぺ        ほ ⇒        ぽ

                [ha] ⇒ [pa]         [çi] ⇒ [pi]         [ɸu͍] ⇒ [pu͍]         [se] ⇒ [pe]         [so] ⇒ [po]

Concluding Remarks        

Japanese is considered to be a difficult language to learn for English speakers. Some of the reasonings for this ideology are laid out above. “Difficult” is, of course, a relative term. Perhaps some of the “difficulty” comes not from the inherent differences from English but instead from the way it is taught. This, however, is a subjective idea to be contemplated independent from linguistic analysis. What can be seen is that, although there are innate differences between the language, such as in phonetics and morphology, there are also many similarities. For this season, Japanese may not be as dissimilar to English as second-language learners initially assume.