Explore the impact of one language on the other language(s) at different levels The impact of the Chinese language on the Japanese language Introduction

One of the most obvious areas in which Chinese characters had an influence is the participle system. Originally, the Japanese did not use participles; instead, they used adjectives and adverbs for the same purpose. The Chinese grammar system included particles, and the Japanese adopted them, thus creating their particle system. For example, in Modern Japanese, ordinal numbers are formed by combining a Chinese character (such as "一") with the Japanese particle "kou", which literally translates to "number". Thus, "Ichikou" (first) is a combination of the Chinese character "一" and the Japanese particle "kou".

Another area where Chinese characters had a major impact on Japanese grammar was the verb system. In Old Japanese, verbs were conjugated on the basis of their meaning, rather than their form. This was due to influence from Chinese grammar, in which verbs were conjugated based on their meaning. Chinese characters were also used to indicate both the meaning and different forms for verbs. For example, the Japanese verb "aru", meaning "to exist", shows the influence of Chinese, as it combines the Chinese character "在" (meaning "to exist") with the Japanese particle "ru".

In addition to its influence on the particle and verb systems, Chinese characters also affected other aspects of Japanese grammar. For example, the Chinese character for different sentence types (such as affirmative, negative, interrogative, or imperative) were adopted by the Japanese language. The Chinese characters for adverbs or conjunctive particles have also been used in Japanese grammar to indicate relationships between different parts of the sentence.

Finally, Chinese characters also had a major influence on the vocabulary of Japanese language. Many words in Modern Japanese are composed of a combination of Chinese characters and Japanese particles or conjugations. Moreover, the Chinese characters for some words are still used in Modern Japanese, even though the original Chinese pronunciation has been forgotten. For example, the Japanese word "kansha", meaning "appreciation", is composed of the Chinese characters "感謝", even though the original pronunciation of these characters has been lost.

Overall, Chinese characters and grammar had a major influence on the development of Japanese language. Chinese characters were used to indicate particles, verbs, and sentence types, and were incorporated into the vocabulary of the language. These characters and grammar systems are still seen in modern Japanese, providing evidence of the lasting influence of Chinese on the language.