The origin of the Japanese people is controversial with various theories and hypotheses. However, based on the result of genotypic analysis by The Graduate University for Advanced Studies in 2012, proto-Japanese is considered as an admixture of Jomon people and Yayoi people. When looking back over the Japanese history, the proto-Mongoloid in the Japanese archipelago during the Jomon period is called Jomon people, and Yayoi people is the one migrated from southern China. Around the fourth glacial age, also known as Ulm glacial age, the ice sheet covered most of continents in the north hemisphere, and the sea level was about 120m lower than today. The Japan sea and the East China sea then could be crossed by foot. While proto-Mongoloid in the …show more content…
The earliest known Japanese record is the Kojiki dating 712 A.D. by O no Yasumaro. The Kojiki is a collection of myths about the creation of Japan and histories of each emperor which written in Classical Chinese but read as Japanese. The second oldest Japanese record is the Nihon Shoki dated in 720 A.D. This text is written in Kanbun, and mainly about classical Japanese history. Then, the history of Japan could be written down by words. In 794, the Nara period ended with the use of old Japanese. Later on, the Manyogana system was built based on old Japanese. The Manyosho is, where the Manyogana from, the oldest existing Japanese poetry collection. There are total 88 different syllables with one Chinese character, or Kanji, represent a Japanese phonetic as well as the meaning. However, since the complex usage of the Manyagana, Japanese then simplified it into two different writing systems, Hiragana and Katakana, during the 9th century. In the early stage, official articles were in Kanbun, and Katakana was used for Buddhist text while Hiragana was widely used among …show more content…
That period later known as Heian Literature, and a boom in Japanese literature. Many novel, poetry, and narrative tale of that time now are considered as astonishing masterpieces. The most well known is The tale of Genji. It is the first novel of Japan and widely acknowledged until now. Influenced by China and further domestic reformation, Japanese writing then developed into the modern threefold system, Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji. After WWII, Kanji and many loanwords borrowed from other languages are invented. On the other hand, Japanese language has many differences in writing and speaking. The literary Japanese language and the colloquial Japanese language have their own grammar rules and the use of vocabulary. For the spoken Japanese language, besides the standard Japanese, there are varied dialects. As I said before, the Manyosho used Kanji not for their pronunciation but also for the meaning. Experts then noticed the Old Japanese had eight vowel phonemes while we have five vowels of Modern Japanese. However, since the Japanese identity is ambiguous, we can not determine Japanese language is linked to what family. It is a pity that Japanese lost its