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Japanese vs Chinese


Chinese vs Japanese


Countries

Countries
Japan  
China, Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, Taiwan  

Total No. Of Countries
1  
14
5  
10

National Language
Japan  
China, Taiwan  

Second Language
Not spoken in any of the countries  
Republic of Brazil  

Speaking Continents
Asia, Pacific  
Asia  

Minority Language
Palau  
Indonesia, Malaysia  

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  

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.
  

Similar To
Korean Language  
Not Available  

Derived From
Not Available  
Not Available  

Alphabets

Alphabets in
Japanese-Alphabets.jpg#200  
Chinese.jpg#200  

Alphabets
99  
40
26  
8

Phonology
  
  

How Many Vowels
5  
2
24  
19

How Many Consonants
14  
4
23  
13

Scripts
Kana  
Chinese Characters and derivatives  

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

Hard to Learn
  
  

Language Levels
5  
4
6  
5

Time Taken to Learn
88 weeks  
13
88 weeks  
13

Greetings

Hello
こんにちは (Kon'nichiwa)  
您好 (Nín hǎo)  

Thank You
ありがとう (Arigatō)  
谢谢 (Xièxiè)  

How Are You?
お元気ですか (O genki desu ka?)  
你好吗? (Nǐ hǎo ma?)  

Good Night
おやすみなさい (Oyasuminasai)  
晚安 (Wǎn'ān)  

Good Evening
こんばんは (Konbanwa)  
晚上好 (Wǎnshàng hǎo)  

Good Afternoon
こんにちは (Konnichiwa!)  
下午好 (Xiàwǔ hǎo)  

Good Morning
おはよう (Ohayō)  
早安 (Zǎo ān)  

Please
お願いします (Onegaishimasu)  
请 (Qǐng)  

Sorry
ごめんなさい (Gomen'nasai)  
遗憾 (Yíhàn)  

Bye
さようなら (Sayōnara)  
再见 (Zàijiàn)  

I Love You
愛しています (Aishiteimasu)  
我爱你 (Wǒ ài nǐ)  

Excuse Me
すみません (Sumimasen)  
劳驾 (Láojià)  

Dialects

Dialect 1
Sanuki  
Mandarin  

Where They Speak
Kagawa  
China, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan  

How Many People Speak
1,000,000.00  
28
960,000,000.00  
1

Dialect 2
Hakata  
Wu  

Where They Speak
Fukuoka  
China, United States of America  

How Many People Speak
Not Available  
80,000,000.00  
1

Dialect 3
Kansai  
Yue  

Where They Speak
kansai  
China, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam  

How Many People Speak
Not Available  
60,000,000.00  
2

Total No. Of Dialects
31  
25
10  
10

How Many People Speak

How Many People Speak?
128.00 million  
14
1,051.00 million  
2

Speaking Population
1.90 %  
10
16.00 %  
2

Native Speakers
128.00 million  
9
873.00 million  
1

Second Language Speakers
Not Available  
178.00 million  
3

Native Name
日本語  
中文 (zhōngwén)  

Alternative Names
Not Available  
Not Available  

French Name
japonais  
chinois  

German Name
Japanisch  
Chinesisch  

Pronunciation
/nihoɴɡo/: [nihõŋɡo], [nihõŋŋo]  
Not Available  

Ethnicity
Japanese (Yamato)  
Han  

History

Origin
1185  
1250 BC  

Language Family
Japonic Family  
Sino-Tibetan Family  

Subgroup
Not Available  
Not Available  

Branch
Not Available  
Not Available  

Language Forms
  
  

Early Forms
Old Japanese, Early Middle Japanese, Late Middle Japanese and Early Modern Japanese  
No early forms  

Standard Forms
Japanese  
Standard Chinese  

Language Position
8  
8
1  
1

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

Scope
Individual  
Individual  

Code

ISO 639 1
ja  
zh  

ISO 639 2
  
  

ISO 639 2/T
jpn  
zho  

ISO 639 2/B
jpn  
chi  

ISO 639 3
jpn  
zho  

ISO 639 6
Not Available  
Not Available  

Glottocode
nucl1643  
sini1245  

Linguasphere
45-CAA-a  
79-AAA  

Types of Language
  
  

Language Type
Living  
Living  

Language Linguistic Typology
Subject-Object-Verb  
Subject-Verb-Object  

Language Morphological Typology
Agglutinative, Synthetic  
Analytic, Isolating  

Countries >>
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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.

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