か国語

Japanese

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

Alternative spellings
か國語 (kyūjitai) ヶ国語 カ国語 ヵ国語 ケ国語 箇国語

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ka̠ ko̞kɯ̟ɡo̞]

Counter

か国(こく)語(ご) • (-ka kokugo) 

1. Counter for languages.
   • 1940, 小栗虫太郎, 人外魔境 遊魂境‎^[1], 青空文庫:

     その後(ご)、彼(かれ)とケプナラがイースト・サイドへ出(で)掛(か)けていった。
     そこは、二(に)十(じゅう)七(なな)か国(こく)語(ご)が話(はな)されるという、人(じん)種(しゅ)の坩(るつ)堝(ぼ)。

     Sono go, kare to Kepunara ga Īsuto Saido e dekakete itta.
     Soko wa, nijūnana-ka kokugo ga hanasareru to iu, jinshu no rutsubo.

     Later, he and Kepunara headed out to the East Side.
     It was a crucible of races, where twenty-seven languages were said to be spoken.

Usage notes

Although this counter is very commonly used to count languages, it implicitly carries the assumption that there is a one-to-one relationship between countries and languages. In cases where more precision is required, one can use 言語 (gengo) as a counter or use つ (-tsu) for numbers one to nine and no counter for higher numbers.