History of the Japanese Language

A video going through the history and of the Japanese language, with many of the changes in sound and grammar, and the historical context of the language throughout the ages!
0:00 Intro
0:58 Old Japanese
4:32 Early Middle Japanese
7:10 Late Middle Japanese
8:42 Early Modern Japanese
10:20 Modern Japanese
#Japanese #language #languages #linguistics

[@Aoiraider]

Oh my god. I studied Japanese for 15 years and have my N1, and this completely blew my mind. We need like 8 more videos diving into each of these topics please! 😅

[@purpleplays69420]

I’m learning Japanese and hearing people say “I’ve been learning/learned Japanese more than a decade” reinforces my patience in learning because it basically tells me that it doesn’t matter how long it takes to learn a language so long as you’re learning

[@SJ95111]

How did tou start off?

[@Osz6]

@@purpleplays69420 It depends on what your native language is, it should be easy if yours is one of the Ural-Altaic languages for example. I’m Turkish, that’s where I know from :)

[@Garbaz]

That was very interesting! I've been learning Japanese for some years now, but I've never really questioned how the sounds of the language as they are today came to be. I would also love to hear more about the evolution of Japanese grammar, which I am very fond of.

[@ceyhuncv26]

Me too

[@jort93z]

I find the massive spelling reform in 1946 quite notworthy... it introduced small kana (きよ vs きょ) and changed every ゐ (wi), ゑ (we), を (wo) to い (i), え (e), お (o). before 1946, おお was spelled おを(owo)

[@darius684]

Didn't know about this and im half japanese thx

[@cubing7276]

how did を as a particle survived then?

[@jort93z]

@@cubing7276 Like MeChupa says, they made an exception for particles. You can look it up if you want, my comment obviously doesn't give the whole picture.

[@gabiu2429]

@@jort93z Do you know what "me chupa" means in Portuguese...?

[@linxed1345]

@@gabiu2429 hahahaha

[@user-nr8iw6yt9p]

時間があれば日本語のアクセント変遷を解説して頂きたい

[@MarkRosa]

Anyone who enjoyed this great video should also read Bjarke Frellesvig's "The Japanese Language", which covers all these changes in great detail with lots of sample texts. I had the pleasure of taking his class and it was one of the most enjoyable I have ever taken.

[@no.7893]

After reading G.B. Sansom's Japan: A short Cultural History I've gotten a taste for a good non-fiction now and then and so I looked it up on amazon, I can't lie I was startled by the £111.40 hardcover price tag haha. Guess I'll be sticking to paperback😅

[@joshyam4026]

初級から中級に移行する時に、書き言葉に残る文語の表現を理解することは大事ですが、このビデオではその音声的な面が簡潔に解説されていて、秀逸だと思います。

[@ElectrostatiCrow]

That transition to the sponsor was smooth as butter.

[@pyroclastic8924]

the comparison of hiragana and katakana to their original manyougana explains so much, thank you. this is so fascinating

[@user-ec2rc3lr7v]

Beautifully done and appreciated! ありがとうございます。

[@cristianortiz5479]

Something quite similar to the aspiration and latter lost of the Japanese /f/ took place in Spanish as well almost by the same period of time (around 1500) at the beggining of words, for example /farina/ or /ferida/ became /harina/ and /herida/, but the combination of /fu/ remained, like in /fuerte/. Japanese and Spanish vowel system is also quite similar, with the same 5 vowles...perhaps with a slightly different /u/

[@bigscarysteve]

The /u/ is definitely different. I understand how to make the Japanese u, but I can't actually do it correctly. Whenever I try it in front of native Japanese speakers, they always burst out in laughter.

[@gtc239]

@@bigscarysteve The /u/ in Japanese is with the lips compressed rather than protruded, so in IPA they're described as /ɯᵝ/.

[@dl1083]

@@bigscarysteve As @GTC2 said, the Japanese 'u' is compressed, so don't stick your lips out like a duckface

[@oschits-sentai2127]

/ɯ̟ᵝ/

[@laurentbouvier7334]

It's rare to see a youtube video with so much background research and knowledge. Well done!

[@ori5315]

Really interesting video! I enjoyed learning a lot here. I just have one mild criticism, in your attempt to show how a non-affricated /ti/ and /tu/ were pronounced at 1:16 you still affricated these sounds because you do this in your regular English too! Not many people realise that their aspirated /t(ʰ)/ is actually affricated, and it's not widely taught, but once you start noticing it you can't stop hearing it!

[@khelian613]

I feel like there's such a gap between the written and actual phonetic english, especially considering the different varieties that are spoken and how much variation they bring, that it can actually be hard to grasp how different so many phonemes are pronounced compared to the corresponding IPA symbol.

[@aloysiusdevadanderabercrombie8]

This is actually something I've noticed seems common in the Asian-American sociolect. /t/ tends to be affricated when aspirated, as well as often utterance-finally or even word-finally, sort of as a counterpart to the common ejective realization of word-final voiceless stops. Is this a common realization in any other dialects?

[@Unbrutal_Rawr]

@@aloysiusdevadanderabercrombie8 It's virtually ubiquotous, but most noticeable in modern RP English as well as Irish English which contrasts aspirated alveolar and non-aspirated dental T, the former being affricated, and the latter being their pronunciation of the voiceless TH as in _think._ The most well-known accent where it isn't affricated is Italian-American English along with the older New York (Manhattan) accents; as well as Indian English.

[@aloysiusdevadanderabercrombie8]

@@Unbrutal_Rawr Interesting. I don't think it's affricated in General American though, no? At least, mine isn't affricated (though I speak Californian English) and it's not noticeably affricated in most speakers I interact with outside those with a stronger Asian-American accent.

[@Unbrutal_Rawr]

@@aloysiusdevadanderabercrombie8 It's not noticeably affricated to most English speakers because some degree of affrication is a baseline for it in English, necessiated by the place and manner of its articulation. To speakers of languages where /t/ is dental, it sounds halfway like /tʃ/. The farther back you go the more affricated it becomes because it's laminal (articulated with the blade, not the tip). Listen to the way Indians approximate it - using the tip, and likely even further back than in RP, being retroflex. That's the articulation you need to avoid affrication completely. That or it being dental-apical as in Italian(-American). Another language where /t/ is heavily affricated is Danish - which is part of what makes it sound like very drunken English with the German R.

[@fictthecreator7083]

Thanks for putting this info together! It seems all too often people talk about the language as some static monolith, without taking into consideration the history and diversity associated with it. This is a great reference guide for looking at some of that history!

[@ManicEightBall]

Great video, very thorough

[@LinguaPhiliax]

This is very helpful - thank you.

[@yesid17]

great video as always, keep up the great work!

[@gruu]

Been looking a video like this for a long time, finally! Really great stuff dude

[@carloshernandez8150]

Awesome video. Following for one of the smoothest add transitions I’ve experienced. Linus lvl transition

[@urinstein1864]

No frickin' way! I basically asked for this exact video (implicitly) a while ago on one of your videos and you did not disappoint one bit. Super dense and super interesting, thank you so much!

[@appleoxide4489]

didn't know how much i needed this video

[@HBon111]

Very comprehensive!

[@dalubwikaan161]

I like the history. Thank you for the video

[@BloxyMelonio]

oo i’ve been waiting for a video like this on japanese. i’m not too confused on why, but am confused on how to use the sound changes 😂 it’s interesting to see why and how though! i really love the history of languages, especially around asia. your videos are great.

[@jannepeltonen2036]

This was super interesting and also I would've watched a video twice as long with you speaking at a normal speed and keeping the slides there for more than a blink of an eye :D Should probably watch this at half speed :D

[@m.s.5370]

This was fascinating, also I'm really happy with myself for being able to read/understand almost every instance of (modern) Japanese used in the video. Thanks!

[@DaniParducci]

I just found your channel and binged watched all your videos. Thank you for sharing all of these information in such an entertaining way!

[@highchamp1]

Impressive research!

[@danmch7325]

Thank you very much, this is exactly the type of content I was looking for considering Japanese language history!!! 😍

[@khalilmekdachi7070]

great job. お疲れ様でした。

[@dariamancini963]

Your sponsorship introduction was A+😁

[@faizyroombaunit908]

I've always had a mild fascination with the history of Japanese, but I rarely find time to dig for good resources on the phonetic details, despite having interest. (KInd of unrelated, but I also briefly had an interest in Old Japanese / 文語). So this was really helpful.

[@mrlaughgas]

I liked the amount of detail you put in this video. Although it seems to move quite quickly. Just my observation, but i will need to re watch and pause many times to fully digest the amount of information you put into this.

[@faymelp826]

This is perfect timing for this video to release, I’m currently doing an essay on this exact topic! This helped a lot, so thanks!

[@NS-kq8bs]

That transition to your sponsor was smooth as butter!😁

[@impendio]

Such a good video, as someone both learning japanese and a world history fan this one is a gem. Will have to rewatch it a couple of times at lower speed tho, too much to process!

[@impendio]

I’ve since rewatched it several times, still too much information to process.

[@RhetoricalLyric]

yesss was waiting for this

[@flaviospadavecchia5126]

Thank you for this! Would have been interested to also know how the pitch system has evolved throughout the centuries

[@doctuspullus]

Loved the video! I was wondering, could you share the sources, please? Not trying to be skeptical, I'd just like to read more about it! Or, if anyone in the comments has any recommendation, that would be appreciated too!

[@user-bo7oi9dy7p]

Great video︎︎👍🏻

[@hienmai705]

Cảm ơn bài nghiên cứu thú vị của bạn về tiếng Nhật trong lúc mà mình đang lười biến học nó. Bài nghiên cứu rất hay, tạo thêm cho mình sự hứng khởi để học tiếng Nhật tiếp 😁 日本語は難しいですが、面白いです。

[@definitelynotshanque]

Very interesting video, I've never heard of those dutch influence so this is a first.

[@andriypredmyrskyy7791]

Hentaigana are really cool for calligraphy, shodou, where they provide multiple ways of writing the same text. It's pretty cool.

[@ohwong102]

Voiceover is like X10 speed and some slides (full of info) changes to the next in one second. Need to pause to watch numerous times. Choke-full useful information certainly!

[@NeonRabies]

Jesus that's a lot of information in short space of time. Well done! Dense and informative.

[@Oler-yx7xj]

I'm just starting to learn the language, but the history of the language is very interesting. I just got to これ/それ/あれ part and I thought: It looks like this part of language didn't change much since earliest times, how it can be that such frequently used words obey such consistent rules. And then I see ko2 and so2 at 2:05 and I like, yeah that was a good guess. IE languages would keep such consistency at best in spelling (like in wh-(qu-) questions, and Russian doesn't even have that). At the other side it's interesting to look at things that are similar to my mother tong (Russian), like u-unrounding, palatalization, short /i/ and /u/ drop and as I see from this video merger of dj and j. Language history is fascinating. P.S. And, yes, on /tu/ not being /tsu/ and pronounced /tʰˢu/ it was pretty funny. Also /ti/ sounded like palatalized Russian ти as well, wile the point was that it's not.

[@kekroneplay4014]

Oh my God, I was literally looking for anything like this a few hours ago. And then I fins this masterpiece

[@mariiris1403]

This is very interesting! 👏👍 Would you please consider slowing down your speech, while making these kinds of videoes? And when you show texts and images, pause a little here and there, to let people digest the content a bit?

[@lotgc]

Ooh how fun! Could you do Korean sometime in the future? I think that would be awesome

[@shinisan505]

I would like to have more details about it! Do you have any reference? books or articles? I want to learn more about old japanese

[@blockyboxhead]

that plugin was smoother than my brain(very smooth)

[@exploshaun]

The topic sounds so complicated so I am not surprised nobody makes videos on it.

[@Xnoob545]

6:46 "These obsolete varients are collectively known as Hentaigana!" (with happy cheerful tone)

[@deacudaniel1635]

That's some really interesting and rare content about historical evolution of Japanese.I think it would be awesome if you do a similar video about the historical evolution of Chinese next.

[@vampyricon7026]

Oh boy, now that's gonna be a project and a half. There is no good Proto-Trans-Himalayan reconstruction that exists, and Proto-Sinitic is still being hammered out. You might be able to do one from Middle Chinese to the various non-Min Sinitic languages, but there is honestly not enough data to do it well, imo. Add the possibility of Middle Chinese as traditionally defined may not even exist, and this would be a project worthy of several PhD theses.

[@deacudaniel1635]

@@vampyricon7026 The main difficulty would be that Chinese is rather a language group than a single language, so the author of the video would either have to choose to track the evolution of one specific Sinitic language or dialect, or making an overview on the evolution of the whole Sinitic language group would still be good.

[@martindrew3513]

I like your speaking style

[@kaimichang]

The words ending with -ng in Hanbun (Chinese) were symbolized with う in Japanese, but they were pronounced as “-ŋ” until a consonant change occurred.

[@japaneselessonsfrombasicsw375]

it is nice introduction.

[@hyun-shik7327]

So when did the dialect spoken by the imperial court deviate from the general language? Like the kind Hirohito gave the surrender speech in.

[@johngodbey2365]

I liked the content, but man, it was at a super speed. The speaker should say "proNUNciation" not proNOUNCEiaton, which I admit is a pet peeve. As a student of Japanese, I really would like to see some interesting examples of sentences with native speakers showing how it sounded. I gave the video a Like because it was a brave attempt to explain an ancient language. English only has old, middle, and modern. Japanese has been around at least three times longer.

[@matzekatze7500]

It's so crazy and interesting how languages evolve over time

[@Moses_VII]

I'd love to see a video on Ryukyu languages.

[@EduardQualls]

Extremely well done. It may take a couple of replays to catch all the wealth of information presented. One thing, though, is that there is no word "pronounciation" in English. It's "pronunciation," with a change in vowel between noun and verb forms.

[@nicholazburkinton3856]

Can i have the resources and citation for this video pls, I’d like to read into it. :3

[@lahusa_]

This was eye-opening

[@cheerful_crop_circle]

I can feel the passive racism from your comment

[@_WhyIsEveryHandleTaken.]

@@cheerful_crop_circle何？！ I don't get it

[@cheerful_crop_circle]

@@_WhyIsEveryHandleTaken. He makes fun of Japanese people

[@_WhyIsEveryHandleTaken.]

@@cheerful_crop_circle could you explain it in more detail please?

[@cheerful_crop_circle]

@@_WhyIsEveryHandleTaken. You have to guess yourself.

[@15_heidune72]

I think some of the older kana might've been useful for modern loan words.

[@GobsAlmightyVlogs]

loved this vid! very interesting to see how Japanese developed

[@msruag]

"safe and secure, just like your internet connection will be if yo-" *aggressively skips 1 minute*

[@learnurduwithsara1068]

haven't seen such a comprehensive vidoe about Japanese language so far.

[@ensnaredknight1178]

That was the fastest video to sponsorship transition I've ever seen

[@tribble608]

Amazing video, super interesting! One thing: I'd really appreciate if there were breaks between ideas, just the span of a breath between sentences, because right now the video is hard to follow because all ideas are crammed together. Maybe you could also speak a bit slower. I would appreciate if the video was longer, but therefore easier to understand. As it is, if I want to follow along with what is said I have to pause every 3 seconds 😅 But I don't know how the algorithm works so if this speed is required, so be it^^

[@protondium_8927]

Hmm... for some reason this didn't show up in the subscribed tab. Can't believe I almost missed this!

[@ssengageisop3952]

Neat video

[@namesurname7332]

It was painful to watch and took me around 30 minutes to finish, thank you, quite educational, now some things start to make sense anew in Japanese

[@skulibaumgardner242]

The we kana looks so cool I wish it was still in use commonly

[@xij3505]

Uh oh this is going to make me try to learn Japanese again. I tried but gave up the two previous attempts but hey, maybe this time will be different

[@hyoukaa123]

Japanese is one of the coolest language and this is not because I'm a weeb but because it has such a cool and fascinating history

[@BloxyMelonio]

absolutely, same. it’s so different, and unique.

[@rvat2003]

If so, maybe you'll also like Korean, the Ryukyuan languages, Ainu, and the Altaic-type languages.

[@gladteer873]

Japanese is one of the coolest language and this is because I'm a weeb.

[@sleuthentertainment5872]

Hmmm...interesting maybe, but not cool at all. I am studying it for two years and is a hell of a nightmare

[@DaniParducci]

@@rvat2003 I'd love to learn those languages too!!!

[@lovestarlightgiver2402]

During the Meiji era, some Japanese people wanted to replace Japanese kana with Romaji (Nihon-shiki), to make writing easier.

[@MBP1918]

Nice

[@Zejgar]

Thank you for talking about old Japanese! I have a question about the Higarana/Katakana tables. The modern depictions of these tables use latin letters to represent the row and column headers, but this does not feel right to me, why would an alphabet of a language use another language as a guide? So my question is, how were these tables depicted and taught before the latin letters were used to denote the rows and coumns?

[@user-qd3rz7fb1t]

I believe originally it was based on Sanskrit, but I may be wrong. Important to note, Sanskrit is also a syllabary script

[@StarDArashi]

​@@user-qd3rz7fb1t interesting gotta look that up!

[@myspleenisbursting4825]

​@@user-qd3rz7fb1t no, Brahmic scripts are abugidas. Not syllabaries.

[@ruedigernassauer]

One interesting thing: For the relatively new found electricity the same one-syllable word is used in three Far Eastern countries: In Vietnam "điện", in China "diàn" and in Japan "den". And in Europe this is a five-syllable monster!! In Germany that word is sometimes circumvented by saying "Strom" (stream), but that word does not nail down the exact meaning.

[@maziicek]

Make a video about Czech and Slovak

[@Yan_Alkovic]

Classical/Old Japanese is generally not talked about enough. Which is a huge shame, it really deserves it!

[@AthanasiosJapan]

I am searching about the order of letters of Hiragana and Katakana. It seems to me that their order has been influenced by Sanskrit. I haven't found anything solid to prove it, so any clue would be helpful.

[@Ladiesman-iw9gc]

this was great, would love a similar video for chinese

[@user-ow2rd9wc9s]

Mind doing a video on Okinawan and how that evolved?

[@coolbrotherf127]

That sounds difficult. Can't imagine there's much information about that.

[@tovarishcheleonora8542]

Or how about Tsugaru-ben? That would be interesting too.

[@chciken]

Handakuten can be used with か btw

[@PhantomKING113]

Ok, correct me if I'm wrong, but... for what I've heard, in some places of Japan zu and dzu (and ji and dzi) are still distinguished. Is this right? Also, o and wo are occasionally distinguished, specially in songs and stuff. This isn't reliable, but it's definitely a tendency. Also, words ending in -ou are sometimes pronounces as "-owo/-owʌ" when singers need to fit two syllables there, which I find kinda fun. This was a very informative video! Although the way it ends seems to imply that only 2000 to 3000 kanji exist, which isn't true at all, as those are just the basic ones; it also seems to imply that hentaigana are dead which... fair enough, mostly yeah, and that man'yogana is dead entirely, which thousands of sushi restaurants around the world would disagree with (in the context of words like sushi, these spellings are called ateji; ateji are pretty absurd).

[@amazingfireboy1848]

Me: "What an interesting video!" My brain: "Really? I didn't understand anything they discussed." Me: "... right."

[@danieljoybaguio7975]

One thing you forgot to mention is that along with the adjectival suffix ~ki becoming ~i, adverbial suffix ~ku became ~u for a short period of time; and then if it follows ~a~ then it becomes contracted to ~ou, e.g. arigataku - arigatau - arigatou. (omedetou and ohayou also originated from these contractions.) But later on the adverbial ~u reverted back to ~ku as we know today.

[@shinisan505]

in which period was that? do you have a source that explains that, like a book maybe?

[@Marlo_Strannik]

The prenasalized voiced stops (mb, nd, etc) reminds me of Fijian, Kilivila, and other Melanesian languages of the Austronesian family.

[@apotheosis1660]

I really want to know how to specifically pronounce the 3 old vowels ï, ë and ö Does your mouth have to be more flat?

[@SarahCarrico]

本当面白いでも... I found myself really wanting to simmer on pretty much everything.. You're just too darn fast. Could you post a slower version! ❤️

[@ichiroakuma7311]

It helps a lot if you set playback speed to 0.75

[@Syldoriel]

Cool video. I just don't understand why you're going so fast. Especially about important/interesting topics.

[@spaghettiking653]

2:05 What is the "V" supposed to represent in the "degree" row? 3:00 I don't think it can be right that man'yogana were used only for sound, because in the example "hakuhi no umi", the 波久比 kanji should indicate "hakuhi", 能 (modern reading nou) the "no", leaving 海 to mean "umi", which is not a Chinese word, nor is it spelled phonetically using man'yogana. This looks like ideographic usage to me. 5:10 So... how did the Japanese speak without particles? Were they just not in use before they were invented in this period, or did they use some other system to denote what means what in a sentence?

[@gtc239]

Uppercase V is used to represent any vowel.

[@darkblade4340]

So the w glide was only used after the velar plosives k and g?

[@Emot10ns]

You should do a speculation video on how Japanese may evolve in the future. I think the sound ふ fu could disappear and officially become hu, as h eventually took over that whole line originally from a p sound. I would assume some particles like は を will change to get rid of the sound difference of ha/wa and o/wo. And I assume there will be more Western influence, as we see in current slang like words like the ending -なう, which means to be doing something "now." We also could see the い sound dropped from i-adjectives, as many people nowadays do.

[@gtc239]

Wait, why do people drop the -i in the i adjective?

[@ghlscitel6714]

That was fast! 1500 years in not even 12 minutes.

[@IroquoisPliskin42]

9:52 OH MY GOD IT'S THE NASALIZED G EXPLANATION I'VE BEEN LOOKING FOR A GOOD EXPLANATION FOR THIS FOR ACTUAL YEARS

[@DavidSharpMSc]

When did the rule of pronouncing and transliterating ん as “n” in the majority of cases but prior to m, b or p (such as sembei, sempai, semba, sempuki, tempura, etc) it be transliterated and pronounced as “m” occur? I am aware that in some idiomatic place names like Gunma prefecture or when there is a hard semantic gap between two kanji it may still be clearly announciated and transliterated as “n” even prior to m, p or b too though.

[@DavidSharpMSc]

@@gregoryford2532 The modern version hasn’t become “the standard” by any stretch of the imagination. Many public signs, language textbooks and public officials use the original, more accurate Hepburn system. It is far more helpful in ensuring correct pronunciation.

[@win_ini]

i find the fact that the whole sponsor segment is just written as "(Sponsor segment)" in the captions really based.

[@pressxfor7219]

I don’t think I’ve ever heard those words before (at 7:57). I don’t know what they are or how to spell them. Edit: the first one is affricate. Idk about the second one.

[@johnny-yw8ob]

affricatize/affricatise and palatalized/palatalised