Japanese(language) question

[danceswithfire]

Hello,

I made a folder for all my Japanese study stuff and thought it would be fun to put it in hiragana. When I looked up Japanese (Language) in my dictionary, it gave me two words.

Nippongo

Nihongo

Is one more correct than the other? Or does it depend on the sentence?

Thanks for helping
^.^

[furrykef]

"Nihongo" is far more common, but "Nippongo" pops up from time to time. Neither is really more correct than the other, but I'd advise sticking with "Nihongo".

Generally, when you're not sure when to choose between "Nihon" and "Nippon", choose "Nihon". There aren't very many situations where "Nippon" will sound better than "Nihon" (although, if, say, you're cheering for Japan at a sports event, that would be a good time to use "Nippon").

- Kef

[Mike Cash]

We could muddy the waters by pointing out a third word......"Kokugo".

[NileCat]

I am Japanese but, to be honest, I don't know which is good.
Both are correct and as furrykef said, "Nihongo" is much more common.
But when it comes to the name of the country, although both are commonly used, "Nippon" seems to be official.
I personally prefer "Nihon" and always call it Nihon though.

Ah... yes. It's Kokugo class that we have at school.
I thought it meant...'our language' or something like that.

EDITED

[danceswithfire]

Thank you everyone for your help

[astaroth]

Ah... yes. It's Kokugo class that we have at school.
I thought it meant...'our language' or something like that.

Oh yeah kokugo always confuses me (especially when used by non-Japanese) ... for some reason 国語 always rings to me like "our language" with respect to the person who's talking, so in my case that would be Italian.

[NocturnalOcean]

Reminds me of a class at University in Japan. We were learning Japanese history, and in the text(which was written by a Japanese professor), it said 我が国 when talking about Japan. And then one student was supposed to talk about the text, and she(American) used 我が国 as well, but then the teacher interjected with 日本. She was of course not Japanese, and it would not refer to the same.

[Oracle]

...
But when it comes to the name of the country, although both are commonly used, "Nippon" seems to be official.
I personally prefer "Nihon" and always call it Nihon though.

I saw an article about this recently! Nippon definitely has a formal feel to it but apparently にほん and にっぽん are the same officially http://sankei.jp.msn.com/politics/policy/090630/plc0906302226018-n1.htm

[keatonatron]

Oh yeah kokugo always confuses me (especially when used by non-Japanese) ... for some reason 国語 always rings to me like "our language" with respect to the person who's talking, so in my case that would be Italian.

You can just think of it as a shortening of 日本国語 (that would be 日本国 + 語, not 日本 + 国語)