japanese
n. C / Un. the language that people speak in Japan. It can also mean a person who comes from Japan.
n. the language spoken by the people of Japan; also used to refer to a person of Japanese descent or nationality.
I am learning Japanese because I want to visit Tokyo.
The local community center offers free classes for anyone interested in learning Japanese or calligraphy.
While the grammar of Japanese is distinct from that of Mandarin, the two languages share a significant number of logographic characters known as kanji.
Etymology tree Hokkien 日本 /Ji̍t-púnbor. Malay Jepangbor. Portuguese Japãobor. ▲ Malay Jepangbor. Dutch Japanbor. English Japan Proto-Indo-European *-iskos Proto-Germanic *-iskaz Proto-West Germanic *-iskbor. Late Latin -iscus ▲ Vulgar Latin -iscus Latin -ēnsis Old French -eisbor. Middle English -eys English -ese English Japanese From Japan + -ese after the model of earlier Portuguese japonês, New Latin japonensis, French japonais, etc.
Uncountable when referring to the language; countable when referring to people, though 'Japanese people' is often preferred in plural contexts to avoid sounding overly clinical.
He speaks a Japanese.He speaks Japanese.When referring to a language, the noun is uncountable and does not take an article.