Chinese is an ancient and most spoken language of the world. More than 1.35 billion people speak this language as their native language. This makes them 16% of the total population. Chinese language is part of the Sintic branch and comes from the Tibetan language family. It has many dialects also often considered ad variants too. Chinese translation and interpretation have been quite common among the people and businesses who want to tap the Chinese market. Not only is this language the most spoken but China is one of the most successful economies of modern times. Chinese products have taken over the global market for a long time now. The Chinese language is centuries old so its impact and influence on the other languages is inevitable. It particularly had a great influence on languages such as Japanese, and Korean among a few others.
Japan is another tiger economy of the Asian region. Japanese translation services are assisting businesses to bridge the language gap for business expansion. However, Japanese being an important and strong language could not avoid the Chinese influence too. Rather the writing system of the Chinese language originated from the Chinese characters. The Japanese language that belongs to the Japonic language family has more than 128 million speakers. It has been the primary language of Japan and also the national language of the country. It is the only official language of Japan. The experts have also tried to make the Japanese language part of the other Austroasiatic languages however the process did not go well with the authorities. There are very few details about the Japanese language known. However, as historians quote, Chinese documents from the 3rd century had a few characters from the Japanese language.
The Japanese writing system is known as Kanji and is made of Chinese characters. It has two distinct syllabaries which are hiragana and katakana.
Here is an overview of the Chinese influence on Japan and its writing system.
Vocabulary
The Chinese language has a profound impact on the Japanese language. The Japanese language has been shaped in the way it is today with the great contribution of the Japanese. Japanese vocabulary has a huge range of Chinese characters which are adopted from this language. These Chinese characters are different from the original and ancient Chinese and these have been modified according to the Japanese language. This has enriched the language and also laid a foundation for a sound writing system for the Japanese people, as for a long period Japanese people had no formulated writing system.
Several words that Japanese people use in their daily lives relevant to the government, religion, and technology have been derived from the Chinese language. These loanwords and the vocabulary that these languages share foster a great understanding and cultural exchange between the two languages and nations. Moreover, Chinese interpreting services can also help to clear ambiguities and misunderstandings. However, a local and professional translation agency with native speakers must be hired for Chinese translation and interpretation. It can help avoid many last-minute hassles.
Grammar
Both languages are different in terms of grammar. However, the Chinese impact is inevitable with a writing system made of Chinese characters. This impact is clear from the Japanese sentence structure and word order. Multiple grammatical particles and sentence constructions have Chinese roots and origins. Chinese is a complex and tonal language with numerous Chinese characters. So this influence adds great complexity and nuances to the Japanese language and grammar and makes the process of Japanese translation services a bit complex. Hence, companies should only consider native speakers and linguists for the tasks.
Writing system
The kanji writing script and adoption of kanji have become the base for the sophisticated writing system for complex concepts and ideas. This combination of scripts helps with a flexible writing of the Japanese language. It also adds an element of expressiveness to it.
Japanese writing has three main scripts.
1) Hiragana
They use hiragana for the native words.
2) Katakana
They use this script for the foreign words.
3) Kanji
They use it for Chinese words due to the similar origin of this writing system.
Philosophy and Culture
Chinese literature is rich and extensive. Not only did Chinese characters help the Japanese people to develop a writing system of their own but the ideology and theories also had a great impact on the Japanese literatures and philosophies. Confucianism and Buddhism have influenced the Japanese social and political system. There are many political practices and social setups that have originated from the Chinese people. This impact stimulated a great association between both languages and cultures. This was quite obvious in literary composition and calligraphy in particular. Many Japanese have to go through Chinese literature to understand the roots and Chinese interpreting services help them to understand the content better.
Conclusion
The Chinese language is an ancient language with a lot of variants. It has a maximum number of speakers. The language is one of the oldest languages and hence has had an impact and influence on many fellow languages including Japanese. The main influence is clear in the Japanese writing system kanji, vocabulary, and grammar. Moreover, it has also affected the philosophical ideology of Japan. For more detail click here.