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Japanese
日本語
Japanese is a language with a long and rich history that has
undergone many changes in the way it's been written over the
centuries. The most recent major codification was just after WWII
with minor updates since then. The language
uses two syllabaries (kana) and Chinese characters (kanji) all derived
from Chinese, as well as the Latin alphabet (romanji).
Don't be surprised to see sentences like "CDを買います", which
means "I will buy a CD" and combines romanji, kanji and kana.
Kanji
漢字
The Japanese government created a list of "official" kanji in 1923
which has gone through a number of updates. The common Joyo Kanji
list was most recently updated in 2010 to the current list of 2136
kanji, whereas the Jimeiyo Kanji list for names was last updated to
the current list of 863 in 2017. This is similar to the number of
Chinese characters one needs to know to be considered fluent in other
languages that use them, although in total
there are over 50,000 floating around out there. The highest level
test of kanji knowledge in Japan is the Kanji Kentai which tests
over 6000 kanji but is only passed by a few hundred people each year.
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