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No, they are drastically different. Chinese is a Sino-Tibetan language, while Japanese is either classified as Altaic or isolate. Japanese, however, did import their writing system from China, and was a purely verbal language before.
Also, they are both Asian. If you ask that question around them, will get very upset because China doesn't like Japan.
Wiki User
∙ 11y ago
Wiki User
∙ 12y agoNot at all. The only similarity is that Japanese borrowed the Chinese characters, called Kanji. Those are the complicated looking ones. Hiragana and Katakana are derived from Kanji, but are just sound representation. Spoken, Japanese is much more flat sounding and all the characters are pronounced differently. Chinese uses different tones, which are shown when writen in romanized text. That shows the way the word sounds, and you move your voice all around your vocal scale. Japanese Roomaji is again the romanized version, but does not have any sound changes.
Absolutely not. Even the words for China and Japan are different in the two languages. In Chinese, the word for Japan is Riben, while the Japanese word for Japan is Nihon. The Chinese have only one "alphabet" which contains different symbols for different words. In Japan, they have many alphabets. One alphabet in Japan uses the same Chinese characters that China uses. But Japan also has the Roman alphabet (abcdefg.... z) and another alphabet used for words borrowed from other languages, such as the borrowed English words ice, computer, and wife.
Also, the Chinese language is based on tones. There are five different tones which includes one rising tone, one falling tone, one steady tone, one tone which dips, and one neutral tone. In the Chinese language, one word, such as "ma" can mean completely different things depending on which tone is used. One tonal form of "ma" means mother, another means "horse", another means "scold", and another is the word used at the end of a question. So, you could ask "did your mother scold the horse" by saying ma ma ma ma. This use of tones makes Mandarin Chinese one of the hardest languages for an English speaking person to learn.
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Is Chinese and Japanese language same?
Chinese has different sounds, lettering, and meanings to their writings. Japanese is the same way but Japanese do borrow the Chinese lettering from the Chinese and but the Japanese do have their own pronunciation for it. They are still different languages.
Did the Japanese language develop from Chinese?
While the Chinese writing system was imported into Japan and formed the basis of Japanese writing, the origin of the Japanese language is less certain. Its roots may have been brought to Japan by settlers from continental Asia or from nearby Pacific islands. The Japanese language is not part of the same language family as Chinese, although a large portion of the modern vocabulary is borrowed from Chinese.
Which is the older language Chinese or Japanese?
Chinese
I keep looking but all I can find are Chinese. Where can I look up Japanese characters online?
Japanese language uses 2 alphabets (hiragana and katakana) in addition to more complex characters that are derived from the Chinese written language. Kanji (Japanese characters) are the same as Chinese characters.
Why are your text messages in Chinese or Japanese?
Because, the language set is Chinese or Japanese?
Are Japanese and Chinese the same thing?
No. Japanese people come from Japan and speak the Japanese Language. On the other hand Chinese people come from China and speak a variety of Chinese Languages. If you look at an atlas all will be revealed.
Why are some Japanese characters the same as Chinese characters?
Many Asian cultures were influenced by China. Japan is no exception. Before Japan's introduction to Chinese, they had no writing system. So Japan eventually adapted, as well as changed, the Chinese language, which explains why many Chinese characters are still used in the Japanese language. Also, a section of the modern Japanese language called 'kanji' consists of Chinese characters. == ==
Are there any similarities with the Japanese language and the Chinese language?
Japanese and Chinese written language share some characters known as Han Zi. Japanese also uses Kanji that is not used in Chinese. Modern Chinese is read from left to right and top to bottom (like English). Japanese is not.
Why do Chinese and Japanese look the same?
They have similarities, because Japanese written language is mostly based on Chinese. The Japanese use around 2000 symbolic characters called Kanji, which each represent a full word or concept and are directly borrowed from Chinese. Unlike Chinese though they also have a phonetic text which can be written two ways depending on the exact word. These are called Katakana and Hiragana, and are more of an alphabet-based way of writing things, useful for imported words.
Are Japanese or Korean from Chinese?
Question: Is the Korean language more similar to Japanese or Chinese? Answer: Well Korean sounds like Japanese at times, however i think the language maybe more like Chinese but not necceserily the sound of it.
Which language takes longer to write Japanese or Chinese?
Chinese and Japanese are different and totally unrelated languages. However, they use the same script. So, it wouldn't matter. The Korean language, another unrelated languages used to use the Chinese script but they have their own writing system now.
Whose written language did the Japanese adapt to form their own?
The Japanese adapted Chinese characters to write their own language. The Japanese scholars began using kanji or "Chinese writing," to write Japanese words.
