What is Yamato kotoba?
'''Yamato kotoba''' (kanji: 大和言葉, hiragana: やまとことば) are words that are native to the [[Japanese language]]. The word itself is also a native Japanese word, interestingly enough. Yamato kotoba can also be called by its Chinese based name, '''''wago''''' (kanji: 和語, hiragana: わご). It is one of the three main sources of Japanese words, along with ''[[kango]]'' (kanji: 漢語, hiragana: かんご), or [[Chinese language|Chinese]] [[Loanword|loanwords]], and ''[[gairaigo]]'' (kanji: 外来語, hiragana: がいらいご), or loanwords borrowed from languages other than Chinese (especially [[English language|English]] since the post-WWII era). Yamato kotoba in Japanese has much in common with native English words in that most of the everyday [[vocabulary]] comes from yamato kotoba, while Chinese loanwords words (much like [[Latin]] and [[French language|French]] loanwords in English) are used for more formal situations (usually writing) and for specialized terms. == How to write ''yamato kotoba'' == Usually, words with only one kanji are yamato kotoba, such as ''[[katana]]'' (kanji: 刀, hiragana: かたな, meaning: [[sword]]), ''sakana'' (kanji: 魚, hiragana: さかな, meaning: fish), ''kami'' (kanji: 紙, hiragana: かみ, meaning: paper), ''yama'' (kanji: 山, hiragana: やま, meaning: mountain) ''te'' (kanji: 手, hiragana: て, meaning: hand), and ''oyogu'' (kanji and hiragana: 泳ぐ, hiragana only: およぐ, meaning: to swim). Most [[kanji]] (the Japanese version of Chinese characters) have two different kinds of pronunciation, [[Kanji|on'yomi]] (the pronunciation of the kanji borrowed from Chinese) and [[Kanji|kun'yomi]] (the native pronunciation of Japanese words that use the kanji). Yamato kotoba words use the kanji's kun'yomi. Since on'yomi came from Chinese [[Monosyllable|monosyllables]] (words with only one [[syllable]]), they themselves are also only one syllable, and like Chinese, they can have a CV or CVC structure. For example, the on'yomi for the following kanji 刀, 魚, 紙, 山, 手, and 泳 are ''tō, shi, san, shu, and ei.'' However, kun'yomi can have one or multiple s