国語

See also: 国语 and 國語

Japanese

Kanji in this term
国	語
こく Grade: 2	ご Grade: 2
on'yomi

Alternative spelling
國語 (kyūjitai)

Etymology

From 国 (koku, “nation”) +‎ 語 (go, “language”). The sense of "Mandarin" is derived from Taiwanese usage of the identical Chinese word 國語／国语 (guóyǔ).

Pronunciation

• (Tokyo) こくご [kòkúgó] (Heiban – [0])
• IPA^(key): [ko̞kɯ̟ɡo̞]

Noun

1. national language

   ２(に)か国(こく)語(ご)放(ほう)送(そう)

   nika kokugo hōsō

   bilingual broadcast

2. (specifically) the Japanese language

   国(こく)語(ご)辞(じ)典(てん)

   kokugo jiten

   dictionary of the national language; Japanese dictionary

3. Mandarin; Standard Mandarin

   (Can we add an example for this sense?)

Synonyms

• 日(に)本(ほん)語(ご) (nihongo, “Japanese”)