Japanese

Chinese

Japanese vs Chinese

Japanese

Chinese

Add ⊕

1 Countries

1.1 Countries

Japan

China, Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, Taiwan

1.2 Total No. Of Countries

0 46

1.3 National Language

Japan

China, Taiwan

1.4 Second Language

Not spoken in any of the countries

Republic of Brazil

1.5 Speaking Continents

Asia, Pacific

Asia

1.6 Minority Language

Palau

Indonesia, Malaysia

1.7 Regulated By

Agency for Cultural Affairs (文化庁) at the Ministry of Education

Chinese Language Standardization Council, National Commission on Language and Script Work, Promote Mandarin Council

1.8 Interesting Facts

In Japanese Language, there are 4 different ways to address people: kun, chan, san and sama.
There are many words in Japanese language which end with vowel letter, which determines the structure and rhythm of Japanese.

Chinese language is tonal, since meaning of a word changes according to its tone.
In Chinese language, there is no grammatical distinction between singular or plural, no declination of verbs according to tense, mood and aspect.

1.9 Similar To

Korean Language

Not Available

1.10 Derived From

Not Available

2 Alphabets

2.1 Alphabets in

2.2 Alphabets

9926

18 247

2.3 Phonology

2.3.1 How Many Vowels

524

0 32

2.3.2 How Many Consonants

1423

9 60

2.4 Scripts

Kana

Chinese Characters and derivatives

2.5 Writing Direction

Left-To-Right, Horizontal, Top-To-Bottom

2.6 Hard to Learn

2.6.1 Language Levels

2 12

2.6.2 Time Taken to Learn

88 weeks88 weeks

3 88

3 Greetings

3.1 Hello

こんにちは (Kon'nichiwa)

您好 (Nín hǎo)

3.2 Thank You

ありがとう (Arigatō)

谢谢 (Xièxiè)

3.3 How Are You?

お元気ですか (O genki desu ka?)

你好吗？ (Nǐ hǎo ma?)

3.4 Good Night

おやすみなさい (Oyasuminasai)

晚安 (Wǎn'ān)

3.5 Good Evening

こんばんは (Konbanwa)

晚上好 (Wǎnshàng hǎo)

3.6 Good Afternoon

こんにちは (Konnichiwa!)

下午好 (Xiàwǔ hǎo)

3.7 Good Morning

おはよう (Ohayō)

早安 (Zǎo ān)

3.8 Please

お願いします (Onegaishimasu)

请 (Qǐng)

3.9 Sorry

ごめんなさい (Gomen'nasai)

遗憾 (Yíhàn)

3.10 Bye

さようなら (Sayōnara)

再见 (Zàijiàn)

3.11 I Love You

愛しています (Aishiteimasu)

我爱你 (Wǒ ài nǐ)

3.12 Excuse Me

すみません (Sumimasen)

劳驾 (Láojià)

4 Dialects

4.1 Dialect 1

Sanuki

Mandarin

4.1.1 Where They Speak

Kagawa

China, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan

4.1.2 How Many People Speak

1,000,000.00960,000,000.00

1.5 960000000

4.2 Dialect 2

Hakata

4.2.1 Where They Speak

Fukuoka

China, United States of America

4.2.2 How Many People Speak

NA80,000,000.00

700 80000000

4.3 Dialect 3

Kansai

Yue

4.3.1 Where They Speak

kansai

China, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam

4.3.2 How Many People Speak

NA60,000,000.00

1400 96000000

4.4 Total No. Of Dialects

3110

0 188

5 How Many People Speak

5.1 How Many People Speak?

128.00 million1,051.00 million

0.13 1200

5.2 Speaking Population

1.90 %16.00 %

0.11 89

5.3 Native Speakers

128.00 million873.00 million

0.13 873

5.3.1 Second Language Speakers

NA178.00 million

0.01 400

5.3.2 Native Name

日本語

中文 (zhōngwén)

5.3.3 Alternative Names

Not Available

5.3.4 French Name

japonais

chinois

5.3.5 German Name

Japanisch

Chinesisch

5.4 Pronunciation

/nihoɴɡo/: [nihõŋɡo], [nihõŋŋo]

Not Available

5.5 Ethnicity

Japanese (Yamato)

Han

6 History

6.1 Origin

1185

1250 BC

6.2 Language Family

Japonic Family

Sino-Tibetan Family

6.2.1 Subgroup

Not Available

6.2.2 Branch

Not Available

6.3 Language Forms

6.3.1 Early Forms

Old Japanese, Early Middle Japanese, Late Middle Japanese and Early Modern Japanese

No early forms

6.3.2 Standard Forms

Japanese

Standard Chinese

6.3.3 Language Position

1 120

6.3.4 Signed Forms

Signed Japanese

Wenfa Shouyu 文法手語 ("Grammatical Sign Language", Signed Mandarin (Taiwan))

6.4 Scope

Individual

7 Code

7.1 ISO 639 1

7.2 ISO 639 2

7.2.1 ISO 639 2/T

jpn

zho

7.2.2 ISO 639 2/B

jpn

chi

7.3 ISO 639 3

jpn

zho

7.4 ISO 639 6

Not Available

7.5 Glottocode

nucl1643

sini1245

7.6 Linguasphere

45-CAA-a

79-AAA

7.7 Types of Language

7.7.1 Language Type

Living

7.7.2 Language Linguistic Typology

Subject-Object-Verb

Subject-Verb-Object

7.7.3 Language Morphological Typology

Agglutinative, Synthetic

Analytic, Isolating

Japanese vs Chinese Speaking Countries

There are plenty of languages spoken around the world. Every country has its own official language. Compare Japanese vs Chinese speaking countries, so that you will have total count of countries that speak Japanese or Chinese language.

Japanese is spoken as a national language in: Japan.
Chinese is spoken as a national language in: China, Taiwan.

You will also get to know the continents where Japanese and Chinese speaking countries lie. Based on the number of people that speak these languages, the position of Japanese language is 8 and position of Chinese language is 1. Find all the information about these languages on Japanese and Chinese.

Japanese and Chinese Language History

Comparison of Japanese vs Chinese language history gives us differences between origin of Japanese and Chinese language. History of Japanese language states that this language originated in 1185 whereas history of Chinese language states that this language originated in 1250 BC. Family of the language also forms a part of history of that language. More on language families of these languages can be found out on Japanese and Chinese Language History.

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Japanese and Chinese Greetings

People around the world use different languages to interact with each other. Even if we cannot communicate fluently in any language, it will always be beneficial to know about some of the common greetings or phrases from that language. This is where Japanese and Chinese greetings helps you to understand basic phrases in Japanese and Chinese language. Japanese word for "Hello" is こんにちは (Kon'nichiwa) or Chinese word for "Thank You" is 谢谢 (Xièxiè). Find more of such common Japanese Greetings and Chinese Greetings. These greetings will help you to be more confident when conversing with natives that speak these languages.

Japanese vs Chinese Difficulty

The Japanese vs Chinese difficulty level basically depends on the number of Japanese Alphabets and Chinese Alphabets. Also the number of vowels and consonants in the language plays an important role in deciding the difficulty level of that language. The important points to be considered when we compare Japanese and Chinese are the origin, speaking countries, language family, different greetings, speaking population of these languages. Want to know in Japanese and Chinese, which language is harder to learn? Time required to learn Japanese is 88 weeks while to learn Chinese time required is 88 weeks.