have been completed.
Basic Japanese is an extensive revision of Essential Japanese, by Samuel E. Martin, first published in 1957 and long a standard text for learning Japanese. Although Samuel Martin passed away in 2010 and was unable to review and approve the new changes, Basic Japanese maintains all the exciting linguistic insights of Essential Japanese, while incorporating linguistic changes that have taken place over the past several decades in terms of structure, vocabulary, and socio-cultural norms that are essential for communication in Japan today. Furthermore, all Japanese sentences (except those embedded in the English paragraphs) are presented in both kana/kanji and Romanization, and all sections except the Structure Notes and Exercise are recorded in the accompanying audio CD to help users learn the language as a whole. Illustrations, culture notes, and usage tips are provided in sidebars wherever they may help learners to put themselves in the communicative contexts. Here are some tips for getting the most out of Basic Japanese:
The sentences in Basic Sentences are clearly laid out so that Japanese sentences can be seen from their English translations. Some items in each sentence are underlined, showing that they bear grammar/usage points that will be discussed in Structure Notes.
It is advisable that you not write down the answers in Exercises so you can use this section repeatedly for reviewing and reinforcing your understanding. Answers are provided in a smaller font after the questions.
Many vocabulary words are presented outside of the Basic Vocabulary section, and you are advised to learn words from all the sections in each lesson. For example, Structure Note 3.1 lists relative time expressions such as ashita ‘tomorrow,’ kinō ‘yesterday,’ raishū ‘next week,’ and kotoshi ‘this year.’ Furthermore, all Japanese sentences except in Exercise are accompanied by English translations, so you can expand your vocabulary as you work through them. A glossary is provided at the end of the book for the learner’s convenience.
The authors are grateful to Cal Barksdale, Nancy Goh, Tan Cheng Har, and other editors and staff at Tuttle for their dedication and professionalism, as well as Akiko Saito for providing numerous illustrations, Taeko Kamei for her photographs, and Rui Tamura and Azuma Tanaka for helping to record the audio CD.
The Bonus Material from the Enclosed MP3 Audio CD may also be Downloaded.
How to Download the Bonus Material of this Book.
1. You must have an internet connection.
2. Click the link below or copy paste the URL to your web browser.
http://www.tuttlepublishing.com/basic-japanese-downloadable-cd-content
For support, you can email us at [email protected].
About the Japanese Language
The origins of the Japanese language are incompletely known, and multiple theories have been proposed over the past few centuries connecting Japanese to North Asian languages, South Asian Languages, and languages in other areas. Currently, it is thought that the strongest theory among them is one of the North Asian ones, which places Japanese with Altaic languages such as Turkish and Mongolian based on the typological similarities, for example, sequential suffixation (agglutinating morphology), Subject-Object-Verb order, and vowel harmony in native vocabulary. Around the fourth and the fifth centuries AD, Chinese characters and vocabulary started to be brought to Japan. The Japanese developed man’yōgana, in which a limited set of kanji were used to write Japanese words with their phonetic contribution. Eventually, in the Heian Period (794–1185), hiragana and katakana were developed from some of the kanji characters included in man’yōgana. Most content words, such as nouns, adjectives, and verbs, have a Chinese origin due to the strong influence of China in history. However, modern Japanese also includes an increasing number of loan words from English. The Japanese language is obviously extremely complex in terms of its lexicon and writing systems, but its unique structural features also surprise many speakers of English. The following are only some of its unique features.
Word order and particles
The basic word order in English is subject-verb-object, whereas in Japanese it is subject-object-verb. The word order is rigid in English in most cases but can be very flexible in Japanese, so long as the verb is placed at the end of the sentence. For example, the English sentence Ken called Yumi can be either Ken-ga Yumi-o yonda or Yumi-o Ken-ga yonda in Japanese.
Postpositions
English prepositions such as from, in, on, at, and with correspond to postpositions in Japanese. Instead of saying from New York, they say something like New York from, or Nyū Yōku kara. Japanese and English are mirror images in this respect.
Dropping pronouns
The Japanese are not lazy people, but they like to drop personal pronouns such as ‘I,’ ‘you,’ and ‘he.’ The use of the second person pronoun anata ‘you’ is almost forbidden in conversations. To ask, ‘Is it yours?’ in speaking to Ms. Yamada, the Japanese will say, Sore wa Yamada-san no desu ka ‘Ms. Yamada, is it Ms. Yamada’s?’
Verb morphology
Japanese verbs and adjectives can be followed by numerous suffixes, one after another, just as if you are creating a necklace by putting beads together. For example, tabe is the shortest pronounceable form of the verb ‘to eat.’ However, tabe-ru means ‘will eat,’ tabe-sase-ru means ‘will make someone eat,’ tabe-sase-rare-ru means ‘will be made to eat,’ tabe-sase-rare-tai means ‘want to be made to eat,’ and tabe-sase-rare-taku-nai means ‘do not want to be made to eat.’ This feature of language is called agglutination, and it is one of the reasons many scholars think Japanese belongs to the Altaic language family.
Counters
Another feature that exists in Japanese but not in English is a category of suffixes called counters. Counters are placed after numerals in order to express the quantity or amount of people and things, and the choice of counters varies depending on the shape, size, and type of the item. For example, go-nin no hito means ‘the five people’; go-hiki no inu means ‘the five dogs’; go-dai no kuruma means ‘the five cars.’ Nin, hiki, and dai are the counters for these respective types of items.
Honorifics
The Japanese language has rich and extensive honorific systems that express respect, humility, and politeness. These systems govern speech styles through the choices of suffixes, prefixes, (pro)nouns, verbs, adjectives, and phrases that are determined based on the relationship among the speaker, the listener, and a third party with respect to the social grouping and social hierarchy. For example, a simple question like ‘Will you go?’ can be Iku no, Ikimasu ka, or Irasshaimasu ka depending on how close or distant the speaker feels to the person. English does not have such verbal suffixes for expressing politeness or respect. However, this does not mean English speakers are rude. English speakers
