THe Language pattern and the language family
Should focus on S (subject), V (verb) and O (objective), English, French, German and Chinese fall into SVO language category. On the other hand, Japanese language is SOV which means that verb comes at the end of the sentence. Many of SOV languages require particles after nouns to grammatically connect with verb. Although this grammar pattern is very similar to Ural languages (Finnish, Hungarian) and Altaic languages (Turkish, Mongolian), the language family of Japanese is still unknown.
Phonetic unit
Many languages count phonetic unit by syllable. For instance, "Charlotte" in English has two syllables ("Char-lotte"). However, Japanese phonetic units are counted by so-called mora. "Charlotte" in Japanese sound has five phonetic units (sha-a-ro-t-to). It is considered that each mora has almost the same duration of sound. Japanese mora is basically either a vowel (ア=a) or consonant + vowel (ト=to) or gliding sound (シャ=sha). In addition, double consonant (ッ=tt), longer vowel (ー=aa) and ン="n" are also mora. Japanese and Finnish are one of the few languages in the world which is known as mora language.
Reading and Writing system
Japanese language didn't have its own writing system until 3rd century. During this period, Japanese people started trading with a tribe in China ("Kan") and learned their letters ("zi"). This is what we know today as Kanji. Kanji is a pictograph so it also symbolizes the things in Japan such as mountain (山). Without doubt each kanji has Chinese reading. For example, 山 in Chinese is "san". However, there was a word for mountain in original spoken Japanese language, "yama". Instead of choosing one of the other reading, ancient Japanese people kept the Chinese reading for Kanji. Therefore, the Kanji 山 is read as "san" or "yama". Many of Kanji today still remain Chinese reading and Japanese reading.
By 7th century, Kanji was assigned for each Japanese sound (mora) for phonetic writing. However, it was not logical to write many strokes of Kanji for each sound. So Japanese literatures developed Hiragana from the cursive style of Kanji in order to write faster. Around the same time, Japanese Buddhist monks also developed Katakana from a part of Kanji for the same reason. Japanese writing system changed over the centuries and after World War II, Japanese government governed and generalized the writing system. Today, Hiragana and Kanji are highly used in Japan.
By 7th century, Kanji was assigned for each Japanese sound (mora) for phonetic writing. However, it was not logical to write many strokes of Kanji for each sound. So Japanese literatures developed Hiragana from the cursive style of Kanji in order to write faster. Around the same time, Japanese Buddhist monks also developed Katakana from a part of Kanji for the same reason. Japanese writing system changed over the centuries and after World War II, Japanese government governed and generalized the writing system. Today, Hiragana and Kanji are highly used in Japan.
Vocabulary
Not only Kanji, but Japanese vocabulary has been influenced by Chinese language as well. There are many abstract words from Chinese such as 親切(=kind), 丁寧(=polite) and 機嫌(=mood). This is why people from Japan and China can understand each other in writing. Lately, a lot of words from Europe flew in to Japan and used commonly. Those words are written in Katakana to distinguish from original Japanese words.