Japanese

Also known as Japanese language, Japanesic

language spoken in East Asia

AI overview

Japanese is a language spoken primarily in Japan and by Japanese communities around the world. It matters because it is the native language of over 125 million people and serves as an important means of communication, culture, and commerce in East Asia.

AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.

Wikidata facts

Image: Nihongo ichiran 01-converted.svg

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Commons category: Japanese language
native label: 日本語
Stack Exchange tag: tex.stackexchange.com/tags/japanese
short name: жопунӣ
Wikimedia language code: ja
number of speakers, writers, or signers: 128000000
exact match: publications.europa.eu/resource/authority/language/JPN
Stack Exchange site URL: japanese.stackexchange.com
P11012: Roio del Sangro
entry in abbreviations table: яп.
hashtag: japanese
P8168: Late Jurassic
P13311: La Vall de Boí
female form of label: la langue japonaise
NCI Thesaurus ID: C123789

Sources (15)

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Article

Japanese (日本語, Nihongo; [ɲihoŋɡo] ) is the principal language of the Japonic language family spoken by the Japanese people. It has around 123 million speakers, primarily in Japan, the only country where it is the national language, and within the Japanese diaspora worldwide.

The Japonic family also includes the Ryukyuan languages and the variously classified Hachijō language. There have been many attempts to group the Japonic languages with other families such as Ainu, Austronesian, Koreanic, and the now discredited Altaic, but none of these proposals have gained any widespread acceptance.