Written Japanese / Spoken Japanese

[Mike92101]

I googled the question "differences between written Japanese and spoken Japanese," and variations of that search phrase, but I didn't get any useable answers. I get hits for differences in Japanese between females and males, which is a topic I already understand.

The differences between 「である体の日本語」 and 「口五の日本語」 are greater, relatively speaking, than the differences between written English and spoken English.

This is more of a question for discussion than it is a deep, serious research topic, but does anyone have any thoughts about such differences, such as:

ご飯を作き、夕食を食べる/ご飯を作って、夕食を食べる

日本に対する憧れを抱くようになった/日本に対する憧れを持つようになった

ご説明をしていただき、ありがとう/ご説明をしていただいて、ありがとう

東京二住んでいて、東京に働く/東京に住んでおり、東京に働く

etc.

Does anyone know off-hand whether there is a written or online source that explains these differences with some degree of thoroughness?

 

[undrentide]

The differences between 「である体の日本語」 and 「口五の日本語」 are greater, relatively speaking, than the differences between written English and spoken English.

This is more of a question for discussion than it is a deep, serious research topic, but does anyone have any thoughts about such differences, such as:

ご飯を作き、夕食を食べる/ご飯を作って、夕食を食べる

日本に対する憧れを抱くようになった/日本に対する憧れを持つようになった

ご説明をしていただき、ありがとう/ご説明をしていただいて、ありがとう

東京二住んでいて、東京に働く/東京に住んでおり、東京に働く

Tone and style varies greatly depending on the situation both in written Japanese and spoken Japanese, there's no simplistic explanation about the difference of written/spoken Japanese, I'm afraid.

Very general tendency is:
Written Japanese
- だ・である ending
- more kango
Spoken Japanese
- です・ます ending

e.g.
食品を購入する
食べ物を買います

Spoken Japanese is often referred to as 口語体 while written Japanese as 文語体 though 文語体 means classic Japanese and does not always cover the entire written Japanese.
Usually spoken/written Japanese are called 話し言葉 and 書き言葉.

（１） ご飯を作き？？？、夕食を食べる/ご飯を作って、夕食を食べる
The word ごはん itself is colloquial, in written Japanese 食事 would be used.
作き does not exist, maybe you meant to write 作り?
One may use だ・である体 for written Japanese and です・ます体 for spoken Japanese.
To connect the verb to another phrase, te form for spoken Japanese while simple 連体形 for written Japanese.

spoken Japanese
ごはんを作って、夕食を食べます
written Japanese
食事を作り、夕食を食べる

（２）日本に対する憧れを抱くようになった/日本に対する憧れを持つようになった
憧れを持つ is awkward as Japanese, it sounds like literal translation from English.

spoken Japanese
憧れるようになりました
written Japanese
憧れを抱くようになった

（３）ご説明をしていただき、ありがとう/ご説明をしていただいて、ありがとう
ありがとう is too casual and does not match well with していただく

spoken
説明してくださってありがとうございます
written
ご説明いただきありがとうございます

（４）東京に住んでいて、東京で働く/東京に住んでおり、東京で働く
Same as (1)

spoken
東京に住んでいて、東京で働いています ／ 東京に住 んで、東京で働きます
written
東京に住んでおり、東京で働いている ／ 東京に住み 、東京で働く

Hope the above gives you some idea of the difference between spoken Japanese and written Japanese.

 

[Mike92101]

>>>Tone and style varies greatly depending on the situation both in written Japanese and spoken Japanese, there's no simplistic explanation about the difference of written/spoken Japanese, I'm afraid.

I see. But I was thinking in terms of, say, general nonfiction textbooks such as history texts, or newspapers, magazines, etc. I would guess then that one could make few generalizations.

If nothing else, I think it safe to assume that a lot of differences between the written and spoken forms are one vestige of 文語, which flourished from early in the Meiji Restoration until World War II?

>>>作き does not exist, maybe you meant to write 作り?

Exactly. I don't know where I got 作き from. Definitely a mistake on my part, though.


I appreciate your answers and thoughts on the topic, and I really do look forward to learning the answers to the vast bulk of my questions -- largely on my own -- as time goes on.

 

[Toritoribe]

But I was thinking in terms of, say, general nonfiction textbooks such as history texts, or newspapers, magazines, etc. I would guess then that one could make few generalizations.

That's exactly what undrentide-san explained, だ/である ending vs. です/ます ending. In addition to that, the sentence final particles(e.g. ね, よ, わ, の,,,) and the contractions(e.g. てしまう→ちゃう, ている→てる, ておく→とく,,,) could be counted as one of the differences.

If nothing else, I think it safe to assume that a lot of differences between the written and spoken forms are one vestige of 文語, which flourished from early in the Meiji Restoration until World War II?

文語 is more likely used as "Classical Japanese". 書き言葉 is more appropriate for "written Japanese", as undrentide-san wrote. Plus, great authors in Meiji period like 二葉亭四迷, 尾崎紅葉 rather tried to make written Japanese consistent with spoken Japanese(言文一致運動). So it can't be said that the differences are from them.