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
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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
5.5.1 Adjectives
5.5.2 Adverbs
5.6 Numbers, dates and times
5.6.1 Numbers
5.6.2 Dates and times.
Chapter 6: More Advanced Usage
6.1 Politeness and plain forms
6.1.1 General principles of politeness
6.1.2 Plain forms.
6.1.3 Subordinate clauses
6.2 More structures
6.2.1 The useful-te form
6.2.2 Suggesting, probability, and trying
6.2.3 If and when, must and mustn't
6.2.4 Seeming
6.2.5 Purpose and cause
6.2.6 Comparison and ought/should
6.2.7 Potentials, passives, and causatives
6.2.8 Miscellaneous structures
6.3 Respect language
6.4 Some common sayings
PART FOUR SENTENCES INTO SCRIPT
Chapter 7: The Writing System
7.1 Script components and their development
7.1.1 Recap and overview of the writing system
7.1.2 The kana syllabaries