L | A (Translated with DeepL)
By Shigehiro Kato
When it comes to endangered languages, some people worry about whether or not the Japanese language is safe.
Although Japanese people are often unaware of it, Japanese is a large language. It has more than 100 million native speakers. Although it is not as large as Chinese, which has more than 1 billion native speakers, it is still in the top 10 among the more than 6,000 languages spoken. In terms of the number of native speakers alone, it is even larger than German or French.
Of course, there are more native speakers of English, Spanish, Arabic, Portuguese, Hindi, and Bengali than native speakers of Japanese. The popularity of Japanese as a foreign language varies from country to country, and while English is by far the most popular language in non-English speaking countries, Japanese is usually ranked in the top 10 in all regions in terms of the number of students and courses offered in foreign language schools and secondary and tertiary education.
Given this situation, it goes without saying that Japanese falls into the category of “major language” and is unlikely to become an “endangered language” in the foreseeable future.
However, it seems that many people are concerned and anxious about the future of the Japanese language. Minae Mizumura's “The Fall of Language in the Age of English” states that the power and presence of the Japanese language as a language of literature is in a phase of decline, bearing in mind the comparison with English.
However, as mentioned above, the majority of the more than 6,000 languages are not even in a situation where literature written in that language is being published, Even if the Japanese language is in a phase of literary decline, this alone does not mean that the Japanese language is in decline from a linguistic perspective.
In addition, Yukio Tsuda's series of books, including “Japanese Defense Theory", point out the problems of making English the official language of the company and of an excessive shift to English language education. Many may think that studying English will not destroy or weaken the Japanese language, but the practical languages used to communicate and record information are in a competing relationship, and in the long run, the impact will be far-reaching.
In the world of endangered languages, it is said that bilingualism is the road to extinction: the ability to speak two languages seems convenient, but there is a cost in terms of time, effort, and money. If one is a dominant language, such as English, and the other is a minor language used only by the elderly in his/her village, the proportion of the dominant language will naturally increase.
If the children's generation leans toward the dominant language, and the minor language is used only in conversation with grandparents, they will not need to be proficient enough in the minor language to use it. As a result, it is a natural progression to shift to the dominant language with each successive generation. The end result is monolingualism in the dominant language.
Once a skill is acquired like a mother tongue, it doesn't easily diminish, but if it is not used, the ability to use it may decline, or it may not be used as skillfully as it once was. However, often when one starts using it again, they can regain their former intuition. Of course, in the case of a foreign language that is only imperfectly mastered, the knowledge may deteriorate over time and not be easily restored.
Similarly, if one has mastered Japanese and English and can read, write, hear, and speak both at a high level, he or she may be inclined toward English because English is more useful in many situations. Of course, if they are overwhelmingly better at their native language, Japanese, or if they will continue to live in Japan and use English only for work, they will eventually lean toward, or perhaps return to, Japanese.
However, there is a possibility that some of them will choose to live without using Japanese as their mother tongue, leaning toward English, and even if only 1% of them do so every 10 years, the cumulative number of those who will abandon Japanese will exceed 10% in 100 years. Moreover, we are in an era of shrinking population.
It is unfortunate that talented people are leaving Japan for other countries, but this does not mean that we should not educate them in foreign languages or help them learn English. At the individual level, the right to learn a foreign language and advance one's career should be guaranteed, but at the level of institutional and communal management, it is not without reason to argue that we should not easily move toward weakening the Japanese language.
Although people cannot choose their own mother tongue, they are guaranteed discretion in what language they learn and use. However, language as a means of communication is useless if it is not understood, so one must use a language that is understandable and acceptable. Guaranteeing the right to freedom is not the same as allowing it to go unchecked.
Language management is necessary somewhere to prevent language confusion. Language management includes both detailed regulations on orthography, characters used, and vocabulary, as well as broader policies on what kind of language to use.
Since this type of policy requires long-term planning, language planning and language policy often go hand in hand, and it is frequently referred to as "Language Policy and Language Planning" (abbreviated as LPLP).
Some countries have implemented “language purification” as a part of their language policy. The main purification measures are to prevent the increase of loan words from foreign languages, or to prohibit the use of loan words that once existed, or to replace them with other words.
For example, Japan once eliminated English loanwords as an enemy language during the war, but they can still found in Turkey and South Korea. The National Institute of Korean Language is responsible for the policy of banning the use of Japanese loanwords, which were introduced between 1910 and 1945, and replacing them with alternatives. The purpose of the ban is to eliminate the Japanese language of the colonial period, but the words are mainly of Japanese (Yamato) origin, and does not include Chinese words.
Since the Meiji era, the terms created for the purpose of translating Western languages (such as English, French, and German), including those no longer in use, are referred to as "modern Chinese words." A vast number of modern Chinese words have been created. However, in the process of linguistic purification in South Korea, modern Chinese words that were introduced from Japanese have not been eliminated.
This is partly because it is difficult to replace the words “society” and “philosophy” with different words, but it is also probably because the words do not feel Japanese because they are based on Chinese characters. The word “work” was originally created in Japan, but it is also used in China and North Korea.
The Japanese language, on the other hand, borrowed heavily from Chinese until modern times, and in its long history, Chinese and Japanese words have been mixed together in many places. After the modern era, many loanwords were imported from Europe and the United States, and this has continued to the present day.
In Japanese, loanwords are taken in as nouns, and by adding "suru" to them, they become verbs, and by adding "da" and letting them conjugate into the attributive form "na," they become adjectival verbs. Adjectival verbs are functionally equivalent to adjectives, and by adding "ni" to the conjunctive form, they can be used as adverbs.
In other words, if a word is incorporated as a noun, it can be converted into a verb, adjective, or adverb, creating a system with a wide range of uses. Generally, nouns and verbs are needed to make a sentence, and considering that adjectives modify nouns and adverbs modify verbs, it is possible to make sentences using only loanwords.
We don't normally say things like "Happy memories vividly revive", but such sentences can be completed by substituting loanwords for lexical parts and using Japanese words for affixes (suffixes) and prepositions (particles). With this system in place, Japanese is able to easily absorb loanwords, and as a result, many loanwords are easily incorporated into it.
Of course, even if new vocabulary is added, the vocabulary that is actually used and becomes established is limited. Therefore, it seems that most people believe that, for the time being, it won't lead to any serious issues if we leave it to the adjustment capabilities of the language community.
Many people take it for granted that “Japanese is spoken in Japan". Immediately after the end of the war, linguists conducted a survey of literacy rates under the direction of the GHQ. Even though there were people who said they could not read or write because they could not go to school, they could read and write their own names and hiragana, and they did not meet anyone who did not know a single character. Also, no matter where they went throughout Japan, there was no one who did not understand the standard Japanese language. This is partly the result of assimilation policies and standard language education for the Ainu people.
Even today, there are politicians who sometimes say that “Japan is a homogeneous nation,” but linguistic uniformity is not the basis for such a statement. This is because the mother tongue is determined by the environment in which the language is acquired, and bloodlines and genes have almost nothing to do with it. Moreover, there are many non-native speakers of Japanese living in Japan in the 21st century.
On the other hand, there are many people who speak Japanese as their mother tongue even if they are not Japanese citizens. If there are those who think that as long as nationality management and immigration management are in place, the Japanese language is safe and nothing will change without language management, they are mistaken in their understanding of the current situation. However, it is also true that there is a lack of clear language policy and language management in Japan today, including this type of language control.
Language policy also includes the establishment of standards for notation and honorifics. Japan has established the Jōyō Kanji Chart (formerly known as the Tōyō Kanji Chart), which serves as a guideline for the use of Kanji characters. However, it does not prohibit the use of non-Jōkanji characters, but only requires that appropriate consideration be given when using characters outside the Jōkanji Table.
For example, the "碍 (gai)" in "障碍 (shougai) (disability)" is not a common kanji, so the measure of replacing it with "害 (gai) (harm)" is in line with the language policy. The meaning of "害" overlaps with "碍 (hindrance)", so it is substituted, but since the meaning of "害" that does not overlap with "碍" is not desirable, it is sometimes written in a mixed form as "障がい (sawagai)" in hiragana. Determining whether a difference can be ignored or should be disregarded involves a strong element of subjectivity, making scientific discussion challenging in this regard.
There was a time when the syllable "ティ(ti)" was not recognized, and "メキシコシチー (Mexicoshichi)" was used as the official spelling, but this was also due to the policies regarding spelling. Other guidelines regarding honorifics are also set by the Council, but these are not mandatory and are merely standards provided for reference. Japan's language policy, if it exists at all, is loose and merely provides guidelines, without any enforcement power.
In addition, Japan has no legal status for the Japanese language, and there are no rules at all regarding official languages. This is the reason why language policy and language planning are largely lacking.
At one time, there was a lot of talk about making English the official language. If the idea was to make English the second official language for the sake of internationalization while preparing for the relative decline of the Japanese language, it would have a certain significance. What is strange, however, is that there is no clear discussion about what the situation would be if Japanese were to become the first official language and English the second.
The biggest change that would occur if English were made the official language and given the same status as Japanese would be in the operations of government offices. Government offices will be required to have bilingual staff, and administrative documents will have to be written in both English and Japanese. As long as it is the official language, citizens and residents must be able to use that language to complete official procedures, and their rights are guaranteed. Trials and police interrogations must be able to be conducted in English as well as Japanese.
In order to do so, it would first be necessary to translate the laws currently in effect into English in their entirety. This is, of course, a matter of principle, but if the principle is to be followed, the workload of government offices will simply double. Even if you gather personnel who can speak both Japanese and English, if the workload is doubled, you would need nearly twice as many people, and that would cost you more.
In practice, it is impossible to immediately position Japanese and English as similar languages, so English may be used only where it is absolutely necessary. In that case, English would become a “quasi-official” language. This is unrealistic, at least in terms of cost performance, but it has not been discussed.
Moreover, even if English is made the official language, there must be a prospect that English will remain in the same position as it is now for the foreseeable future, because it cannot be changed in a short period of time. It is common for people to be forced to take urgent action in unexpected situations, but foresight is the key to success.
Currently, machine translation technology is advancing. If machine translation can be so advanced that even if it lacks naturalness, people will have no trouble understanding the meaning, we will be in a situation where we will have to debate whether it is necessary for everyone to struggle to learn a foreign language.
By Shigehiro Kato
When it comes to endangered languages, some people worry about whether or not the Japanese language is safe.
Although Japanese people are often unaware of it, Japanese is a large language. It has more than 100 million native speakers. Although it is not as large as Chinese, which has more than 1 billion native speakers, it is still in the top 10 among the more than 6,000 languages spoken. In terms of the number of native speakers alone, it is even larger than German or French.
Of course, there are more native speakers of English, Spanish, Arabic, Portuguese, Hindi, and Bengali than native speakers of Japanese. The popularity of Japanese as a foreign language varies from country to country, and while English is by far the most popular language in non-English speaking countries, Japanese is usually ranked in the top 10 in all regions in terms of the number of students and courses offered in foreign language schools and secondary and tertiary education.
Given this situation, it goes without saying that Japanese falls into the category of “major language” and is unlikely to become an “endangered language” in the foreseeable future.
However, it seems that many people are concerned and anxious about the future of the Japanese language. Minae Mizumura's “The Fall of Language in the Age of English” states that the power and presence of the Japanese language as a language of literature is in a phase of decline, bearing in mind the comparison with English.
However, as mentioned above, the majority of the more than 6,000 languages are not even in a situation where literature written in that language is being published, Even if the Japanese language is in a phase of literary decline, this alone does not mean that the Japanese language is in decline from a linguistic perspective.
In addition, Yukio Tsuda's series of books, including “Japanese Defense Theory", point out the problems of making English the official language of the company and of an excessive shift to English language education. Many may think that studying English will not destroy or weaken the Japanese language, but the practical languages used to communicate and record information are in a competing relationship, and in the long run, the impact will be far-reaching.
Bilingualism is the Road to Extinction
In the world of endangered languages, it is said that bilingualism is the road to extinction: the ability to speak two languages seems convenient, but there is a cost in terms of time, effort, and money. If one is a dominant language, such as English, and the other is a minor language used only by the elderly in his/her village, the proportion of the dominant language will naturally increase.
If the children's generation leans toward the dominant language, and the minor language is used only in conversation with grandparents, they will not need to be proficient enough in the minor language to use it. As a result, it is a natural progression to shift to the dominant language with each successive generation. The end result is monolingualism in the dominant language.
Once a skill is acquired like a mother tongue, it doesn't easily diminish, but if it is not used, the ability to use it may decline, or it may not be used as skillfully as it once was. However, often when one starts using it again, they can regain their former intuition. Of course, in the case of a foreign language that is only imperfectly mastered, the knowledge may deteriorate over time and not be easily restored.
Similarly, if one has mastered Japanese and English and can read, write, hear, and speak both at a high level, he or she may be inclined toward English because English is more useful in many situations. Of course, if they are overwhelmingly better at their native language, Japanese, or if they will continue to live in Japan and use English only for work, they will eventually lean toward, or perhaps return to, Japanese.
However, there is a possibility that some of them will choose to live without using Japanese as their mother tongue, leaning toward English, and even if only 1% of them do so every 10 years, the cumulative number of those who will abandon Japanese will exceed 10% in 100 years. Moreover, we are in an era of shrinking population.
The Right to Choose the Language One Uses and Language Management Policies
It is unfortunate that talented people are leaving Japan for other countries, but this does not mean that we should not educate them in foreign languages or help them learn English. At the individual level, the right to learn a foreign language and advance one's career should be guaranteed, but at the level of institutional and communal management, it is not without reason to argue that we should not easily move toward weakening the Japanese language.
Although people cannot choose their own mother tongue, they are guaranteed discretion in what language they learn and use. However, language as a means of communication is useless if it is not understood, so one must use a language that is understandable and acceptable. Guaranteeing the right to freedom is not the same as allowing it to go unchecked.
Language management is necessary somewhere to prevent language confusion. Language management includes both detailed regulations on orthography, characters used, and vocabulary, as well as broader policies on what kind of language to use.
Since this type of policy requires long-term planning, language planning and language policy often go hand in hand, and it is frequently referred to as "Language Policy and Language Planning" (abbreviated as LPLP).
Existing “Language Purification"
Some countries have implemented “language purification” as a part of their language policy. The main purification measures are to prevent the increase of loan words from foreign languages, or to prohibit the use of loan words that once existed, or to replace them with other words.
For example, Japan once eliminated English loanwords as an enemy language during the war, but they can still found in Turkey and South Korea. The National Institute of Korean Language is responsible for the policy of banning the use of Japanese loanwords, which were introduced between 1910 and 1945, and replacing them with alternatives. The purpose of the ban is to eliminate the Japanese language of the colonial period, but the words are mainly of Japanese (Yamato) origin, and does not include Chinese words.
Since the Meiji era, the terms created for the purpose of translating Western languages (such as English, French, and German), including those no longer in use, are referred to as "modern Chinese words." A vast number of modern Chinese words have been created. However, in the process of linguistic purification in South Korea, modern Chinese words that were introduced from Japanese have not been eliminated.
This is partly because it is difficult to replace the words “society” and “philosophy” with different words, but it is also probably because the words do not feel Japanese because they are based on Chinese characters. The word “work” was originally created in Japan, but it is also used in China and North Korea.
The Japanese language, on the other hand, borrowed heavily from Chinese until modern times, and in its long history, Chinese and Japanese words have been mixed together in many places. After the modern era, many loanwords were imported from Europe and the United States, and this has continued to the present day.
In Japanese, loanwords are taken in as nouns, and by adding "suru" to them, they become verbs, and by adding "da" and letting them conjugate into the attributive form "na," they become adjectival verbs. Adjectival verbs are functionally equivalent to adjectives, and by adding "ni" to the conjunctive form, they can be used as adverbs.
In other words, if a word is incorporated as a noun, it can be converted into a verb, adjective, or adverb, creating a system with a wide range of uses. Generally, nouns and verbs are needed to make a sentence, and considering that adjectives modify nouns and adverbs modify verbs, it is possible to make sentences using only loanwords.
We don't normally say things like "Happy memories vividly revive", but such sentences can be completed by substituting loanwords for lexical parts and using Japanese words for affixes (suffixes) and prepositions (particles). With this system in place, Japanese is able to easily absorb loanwords, and as a result, many loanwords are easily incorporated into it.
Of course, even if new vocabulary is added, the vocabulary that is actually used and becomes established is limited. Therefore, it seems that most people believe that, for the time being, it won't lead to any serious issues if we leave it to the adjustment capabilities of the language community.
Does Japan Have a Language Policy?
Many people take it for granted that “Japanese is spoken in Japan". Immediately after the end of the war, linguists conducted a survey of literacy rates under the direction of the GHQ. Even though there were people who said they could not read or write because they could not go to school, they could read and write their own names and hiragana, and they did not meet anyone who did not know a single character. Also, no matter where they went throughout Japan, there was no one who did not understand the standard Japanese language. This is partly the result of assimilation policies and standard language education for the Ainu people.
Even today, there are politicians who sometimes say that “Japan is a homogeneous nation,” but linguistic uniformity is not the basis for such a statement. This is because the mother tongue is determined by the environment in which the language is acquired, and bloodlines and genes have almost nothing to do with it. Moreover, there are many non-native speakers of Japanese living in Japan in the 21st century.
On the other hand, there are many people who speak Japanese as their mother tongue even if they are not Japanese citizens. If there are those who think that as long as nationality management and immigration management are in place, the Japanese language is safe and nothing will change without language management, they are mistaken in their understanding of the current situation. However, it is also true that there is a lack of clear language policy and language management in Japan today, including this type of language control.
Japan without an official language
Language policy also includes the establishment of standards for notation and honorifics. Japan has established the Jōyō Kanji Chart (formerly known as the Tōyō Kanji Chart), which serves as a guideline for the use of Kanji characters. However, it does not prohibit the use of non-Jōkanji characters, but only requires that appropriate consideration be given when using characters outside the Jōkanji Table.
For example, the "碍 (gai)" in "障碍 (shougai) (disability)" is not a common kanji, so the measure of replacing it with "害 (gai) (harm)" is in line with the language policy. The meaning of "害" overlaps with "碍 (hindrance)", so it is substituted, but since the meaning of "害" that does not overlap with "碍" is not desirable, it is sometimes written in a mixed form as "障がい (sawagai)" in hiragana. Determining whether a difference can be ignored or should be disregarded involves a strong element of subjectivity, making scientific discussion challenging in this regard.
There was a time when the syllable "ティ(ti)" was not recognized, and "メキシコシチー (Mexicoshichi)" was used as the official spelling, but this was also due to the policies regarding spelling. Other guidelines regarding honorifics are also set by the Council, but these are not mandatory and are merely standards provided for reference. Japan's language policy, if it exists at all, is loose and merely provides guidelines, without any enforcement power.
In addition, Japan has no legal status for the Japanese language, and there are no rules at all regarding official languages. This is the reason why language policy and language planning are largely lacking.
What would happen if “English is made the official language”?
At one time, there was a lot of talk about making English the official language. If the idea was to make English the second official language for the sake of internationalization while preparing for the relative decline of the Japanese language, it would have a certain significance. What is strange, however, is that there is no clear discussion about what the situation would be if Japanese were to become the first official language and English the second.
The biggest change that would occur if English were made the official language and given the same status as Japanese would be in the operations of government offices. Government offices will be required to have bilingual staff, and administrative documents will have to be written in both English and Japanese. As long as it is the official language, citizens and residents must be able to use that language to complete official procedures, and their rights are guaranteed. Trials and police interrogations must be able to be conducted in English as well as Japanese.
In order to do so, it would first be necessary to translate the laws currently in effect into English in their entirety. This is, of course, a matter of principle, but if the principle is to be followed, the workload of government offices will simply double. Even if you gather personnel who can speak both Japanese and English, if the workload is doubled, you would need nearly twice as many people, and that would cost you more.
In practice, it is impossible to immediately position Japanese and English as similar languages, so English may be used only where it is absolutely necessary. In that case, English would become a “quasi-official” language. This is unrealistic, at least in terms of cost performance, but it has not been discussed.
Moreover, even if English is made the official language, there must be a prospect that English will remain in the same position as it is now for the foreseeable future, because it cannot be changed in a short period of time. It is common for people to be forced to take urgent action in unexpected situations, but foresight is the key to success.
Currently, machine translation technology is advancing. If machine translation can be so advanced that even if it lacks naturalness, people will have no trouble understanding the meaning, we will be in a situation where we will have to debate whether it is necessary for everyone to struggle to learn a foreign language.
