CHFA | Global Languages Senior Colloquium
Academic Level at Time of Presentation
Junior
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Major
Japanese
Minor
Archaeology
List all Project Mentors & Advisor(s)
Professor Yoko Hatakeyama; Dr. Roxane Riegler
Presentation Format
Event
Abstract/Description
Robert D. Howell III
I am a Japanese Major with an Archaeology minor and I hope to be graduating in May of 2025 from Murray State University. Learning about other languages and cultures has always been an interest of mine and learning about cultures of the ancient world interests me even more. What little spare time I have nowadays is spent with my friends or playing video games. I will continue practicing my Japanese through graduation so that I may one day go to the country of Japan.
Correct Japanese: Standard Language, Common Language, and Dialects
The Japanese government intended to unify Japanese into a single, standardized language based on the Tokyo dialect and erase other dialects in the process during the mid-late 1900s. There was an unsuccessful attempt during the Meiji Era (1868-1912), but my primary focus is on the years just prior to and after WWII. This project intends to analyze and explain the methods used to implement the use of unified speech and the loss of prestige of other dialects. I will also create a rough timeline of the attempts to standardize the Japanese language and present the ultimate result. The project will start at the Meiji Era to provide a brief context and then jump to WWII due to a roughly 30 year period of minimal changes. Following the methods used to promote the standard language, it will then go over the pushback from the general populace (1970s-1990s) that the government’s policies received and the changes that came about as a result. This paper will obtain its information from studies written to analyze the changes in the Japanese language. The standardization of the Japanese language after WWII led to a stigma toward Japanese dialects as a whole and pushback from the citizens led to a decline in the stigma. The effects of the standardization has lowered the variation between dialects in Japan today, but the stigma has more or less disappeared through the pushback. As recent as the last big pushbacks were, dialects are unlikely to have any major problems going forward.
Spring Scholars Week 2024 Event
GTL 400 Senior Colloquium
Slide Deck
Correct Japanese: Standard Language, Common Language, and Dialects
Robert D. Howell III
I am a Japanese Major with an Archaeology minor and I hope to be graduating in May of 2025 from Murray State University. Learning about other languages and cultures has always been an interest of mine and learning about cultures of the ancient world interests me even more. What little spare time I have nowadays is spent with my friends or playing video games. I will continue practicing my Japanese through graduation so that I may one day go to the country of Japan.
Correct Japanese: Standard Language, Common Language, and Dialects
The Japanese government intended to unify Japanese into a single, standardized language based on the Tokyo dialect and erase other dialects in the process during the mid-late 1900s. There was an unsuccessful attempt during the Meiji Era (1868-1912), but my primary focus is on the years just prior to and after WWII. This project intends to analyze and explain the methods used to implement the use of unified speech and the loss of prestige of other dialects. I will also create a rough timeline of the attempts to standardize the Japanese language and present the ultimate result. The project will start at the Meiji Era to provide a brief context and then jump to WWII due to a roughly 30 year period of minimal changes. Following the methods used to promote the standard language, it will then go over the pushback from the general populace (1970s-1990s) that the government’s policies received and the changes that came about as a result. This paper will obtain its information from studies written to analyze the changes in the Japanese language. The standardization of the Japanese language after WWII led to a stigma toward Japanese dialects as a whole and pushback from the citizens led to a decline in the stigma. The effects of the standardization has lowered the variation between dialects in Japan today, but the stigma has more or less disappeared through the pushback. As recent as the last big pushbacks were, dialects are unlikely to have any major problems going forward.