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Published by Tuttle Publishing, an imprint of Periplus Editions, with editorial offices at 364 Innovation Drive, North Clarendon, VT 05759 U.S.A. and 61 Tai Seng Avenue #02-12, Singapore 534167.
Copyright ©2004 Periplus Editions (HK) Ltd.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior written permission from the publisher.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2003112844
ISBN: 978-1-4629-0489-1 (ebook)
First Edition 2004
Printed in Singapore
Distributors
North America, Latin America & Europe
Tuttle Publishing
364 Innovation Drive
North Clarendon, VT 05759-9436, USA
Tel: (802) 773 8930 Fax: (802) 773 6993
www.tuttlepublisning.com Email: [email protected]
Japan
Tuttle Publishing
Yaekari Building, 3F
5-4-12 Osaki, Shinagawa-ku
Tokyo 141 0032, Japan
Tel: (03) 5437 0171 Fax: (03) 5437 0755
Email: [email protected]
Asia Pacific
Berkeley Books Pte Ltd
61 Tai Seng Avenue #02-12,
Singapore 534167
Tel: (65) 6280 1330 Fax: (65) 6280 6290
Email: [email protected]
CONTENTS
Introduction
PART ONE AN OVERVIEW OF THE JAPANESE LANGUAGE
Chapter 1:Getting Acquainted with the Language
1.1 In a nutshell, what English speakers can expect
1.1.1 Vocabulary.
1.1.2 Writing system
1.1.3 Grammar
1.1.4 Socio-cultural context
1.2 Who speaks Japanese?
1.2.1 Native speakers
1.2.2 Non-native speakers and students.
1.3 Where did the Japanese language come from?
1.3.1 Where does it belong?
1.3.2 What are its origins?
1.3.3 How has it developed over time?.
1.3.4 What is "standard" Japanese?
Chapter 2: Challenges and Rewards
2.1 The good news
2.1.1 The rewards
2.1.2 The easy bits.
2.2 The not quite so good news
2.2.1 Japanese as ‘‘the Devil's language"
2.2.2 The big written challenge
2.2.3 The strangely worded challenge
2.2.4 The unspoken challenge.
2.2.5 The challenge with a difference
PART TWO THE BUILDING BLOCKS: SOUNDS INTO WORDS
Chapter 3: Making the Right Noises
3.1 The basic sound structure
3.2 Pronunciation.
3.2.1 Vowels.
3.2.2 Consonants and consonant + vowel combinations
3.3 The long and the short of it: vowel length
3.4 Double consonants
3.5 New sounds.
3.6 Pitch accents
Chapter 4: It's Only Words?
4.1 Japanese words in English
4.2 English and other foreign words in Japanese
4.2.1 The range of sources for loan words
4.2.2 Creative adaptation of loan words.
4.3 Native words and Sino-Japanese words
PART THREE WORDS INTO SENTENCES
Chapter 5: The Basic Parts of Speech
5.1 Nouns, pronouns and titles.
5.1.1 Nouns
5.1.2 Pronouns
5.1.3 Titles
5.1.4 Family members
5.2 Main particles.
5.3 The basics of verbs and particle usage
5.3.1 A brief note on politeness levels.
5.3.2 Basic tenses
5.3.3 "To be"
5.4 Postpositions and conjunctions
5.4.1 Postpositions
5.4.2 Conjunctions
5.5 Adjectives and adverbs
