Re: why is Japanese (spoken) nothing like Chinese?

>>>>> "Herman" == Herman Rubin <hrubin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:

Colin> What may be confusing you is that Japanese extensively
Colin> borrowed Chinese words, and the way of writing them.=20

>> Doesn't that sound like the relationship between Latin and
>> English?

Herman> Not really. Latin words taken directly into English are
Herman> pronounced much as they are in Latin.

Really? How do people pronounce "fungus"? Or "July"?


Herman> This applies to other languages.

I don't think so. What has "station" become in Spanish and Italian?


Herman> I do not know of anyone who will read "quod erat
Herman> demonstradum" (sp?) as "what was to be demonstrated",

Many people say "cue ee dee". And that sounds like Latin?


Herman> although that is its meaning, or "et cetera" as "and so
Herman> on".

I was taught to pronounce "e.g." as "for example" and "i.e." as "that
is", although I've encountered many native speakers would pronounce
them as "ee jee" and "eye ee". None of these sound like Latin.


Herman> But written Chinese words were used for Japanese words of
Herman> the same or similar meaning, but not similar sounds.

They are, if you're talking about Sino-Japanese words. There are also
frequently used Japanese-native words that are written with Kanji.
But Sino-Japanese words are very numerous.

Of course, "sounding similar" has to take into account of historical
sound changes in both language systems, as well as the sound
adaptations as those Sino-Japanese words entered Japanese. Comparing
Cantonese and Japanese pronunciations reveals more similarities than
comparing Mandarin and Japanese, because Mandarin sound very
differently from Middle Chinese. Words like "denwa" (Japanese) and
[din22 wa35] (Cantonese) sound alike and are written identically.
"loku" (J) and [lUk2] (C) sound alike and are written identically.
"kantan" (J) and [kan35 tan55] (C) sound alike and are written
identically. Even "mama" (J), which has no Kanji's, and [ma22 ma35]
(C) have similar meanings -- perhaps just a coincidence.



--
Lee Sau Dan 李守敦 ~{@nJX6X~}

E-mail: danlee@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Home page: http://www.informatik.uni-freiburg.de/~danlee
.

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