I've read that 日本人の知らない日本語 translates to: "Japanese (language) that Japanese (people) don't know". But I don't understand how or what the の does in that sentence. If I'm not mistaken 知らない日本語 could mean "Japanese language that (x) don't know" or "even unknown Japanese". But I don't get how the 日本人の fits into the translation.
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In your example, 日本人の知らない is a relative clause, equivalent in meaning to 日本人が知らない. This clause as a whole modifies 日本語, so it means the Japanese that Japanese people don't know.
In relative clauses, the subject particle が can be replaced with の:
- ジョンが買った本
- ジョンの買った本
The book John bought
This is true in double-subject constructions as well:
- ジョンが背が高い理由
- ジョンが背の高い理由
- ジョンの背が高い理由
- ジョンの背の高い理由
The reason John is tall
But you can't replace が with の if there's a direct object marked with を:
- ジョンが本を買った店
- *ジョンの本を買った店 (ungrammatical)
The store where John bought the book
18
It's just standard GA-NO conversion.
[日本人が知らない]日本語
'Japanese that [Japanese don't know]'

Darius Jahandarie
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9In more precise terms: の can act like a subject (nominative) particle in descriptive (attirbutive/relative) clauses. – ithisa Sep 14 '13 at 23:26
が
can be used in 文語 Japanese where in modern, oral Japanese onlyの
is usually acceptable (我々が心
), as is obvious in a bunch of place names (writtenヶ
-- e.g. 関ケ原, 霞ヶ関 etc). Maybeが
andの
where more broadly interchangeable in different times / regions, but only clearly remained so in the case of relative clauses in modern / standard Japanese ? – desseim Aug 31 '19 at 17:34