That reads well to me. The “more” doesn’t mean more than 50%, just “a whole lot more words” i.e. in addition to the words of Chinese origin.
It's ambiguous. 'Many others' would be a whole lot more betterer.
Over 50% of Japanese words are of Chinese origin. A whole lot more are from European languages.
Based on what? Did you look up an academic study for that or just pull it out of your arse?
I took some linguistics classes as an undergraduate, although it wasn't my major. Basically, as a case study, I took a class in Japanese linguistics and also in Japanese language (which is horrific as far as writing and socio-linguistics go). One of the modules in the Japanese linguistics course was concerned with the development of the Japanese writing system (which was adapted from Chinese, of course). That was a long time ago, but from what I remember, corpus analysis (probably of newspaper and magazine articles because they were the easiest source to build a corpus from before the internet) found that over 50% of Japanese words originated from Chinese.
Of course, methodology is really important in studies like that, the specifications of the corpus being the most obvious question (are you counting how many words are commonly used or do you include obscure words like "poltroon" that are still listed in dictionaries but almost never used?) Another question is just settling on a definition of "word". In English, you have a base-word (i.e. the word listed in the dictionary), plus a whole bunch of derived forms, but other languages may have different word formation processes. In counting English words, do you count the entire word family (for example, "ratio", "rational", "rationalization", etc.) as a single word, or as multiple words? What about "run" and "ran", or "paper" and "papers"? Plus you have homonyms that may have originated from the same word family, for example "run the engine", "run a marathon".
This means that comparing the number of words in different languages will always be messy. For example, in Japanese, there are two words for "hot", both pronounced "atsui", but with different Chinese characters. One Chinese character is used for "I am hot", the other for "this thing is hot", even though the spoken word is the same. Do these count as two words or one? With "cold", there are two different words, "samui" and "tsumetai", so these will clearly be counted as two words.
Point is that when people start citing numbers showing some amazing feature of a language, you really have to ask where the numbers came from and how the research was conducted. Languages are amazingly complex and seemingly simple questions like "how many words" often have multiple possible answers.
questions like “how many words” often have multiple possible answers.
Then there are the impossible answers.
Of course you can. But if you said, “English food is wonderful. I like eating pasta in a restaurant in Cardiff”, people would probably be quite amused.
So, you're trying to say that English isn't English because it didn't originate in England? So what? Doesn't make it any less interesting, which was the OP's point and not some nationalistic bollocks.
Then there are the impossible answers.
Well, my personal theory is that there is only one word that describes everything, all the things we think are different words are actually only variations on that single word. Have only succeeded in convincing a single person of that though and he was so drunk that he'd completely forgotten by the next day.
English isn’t English because it didn’t originate in England?
Some parts originated in England. "Synecdoche" didn't, though.
Having never heard of Tom Wolfe
something something drinking the coolaid...
So, you’re trying to say that English isn’t English because it didn’t originate in England? So what?
yeah but the words he used were sufficiently like saying the thing about english is its certain je ne sais quoi that it was quite a funny response.
Having never heard of Tom Wolfe
Auther of The Electric Cool-aid Bonfire of the Right Stuff.
over 50% of Japanese words originated from Chinese
40% of Turkish words originate in Arabic. However Attaturk disapproved of this, and a factory (the TDK) was set up in Ankara systematically to purge these and introduce Turkish replacements. Like replacing the old arabic word for teacher 'hoca' (pronounced hoeja) with a new made up word - - 'öğretmen'.
So I guess what I'm saying to the OP is enjoy your EU import words whilst you can as slapping on WTO tarrifs is definately the zeitgeist. Luckily the over-used anglo saxon parts of my vocab should be let alone.
yeah but the words he used were sufficiently like saying the thing about english is its certain je ne sais quoi that it was quite a funny response.
I didn't get that at all. A bit pretentious maybe but that's all.
Get real guys!!! Its Kool-Aid!
And anyway where did that bullshit Brexiter comment come from? I quite like most of the world I've been to and have felt welcomed there, so why not extend that courtesy back?
Its Kool-Aid!
Bollocks. Thought something looked wrong.
"It's" as we're in a language thread.
Bollocks
or, for those who like their anglo saxon vocab in Anglo-Saxon:
Beallucas
And anyway where did that bullshit Brexiter comment come from?
Because you declared you'd be voting out on the referendum thread (page 6) and then posted this:
https://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/its-brexit-day/
Luckily the over-used anglo saxon parts of my vocab should be let alone.
And where did the angles and saxons come from? Germany and denmark IIRC so you cannot have those bits either. You are left with Gaelic, Welsh, and cornish. What did the ancient britons speak>?
You’ll always be welcomed anywhere if you turn up with a bag of pasta.
That’s probably fortunate, otherwise they’be on their own and feeling cannelloni.
You lot need to stop arguing for a second and give Cougar some credit for this.
That’s probably fortunate, otherwise they’be on their own and feeling cannelloni.
Missed this, but the penne has just dropped...
Because you declared you’d be voting out on the referendum thread (page 6) and then posted this:
It’s Brexit Day!
Good search skills or weird stalking but the first was followed up by an explanation that it was a protest vote (and one that went VERY wrong) and as to the second if you can't see the piss taking in that at that time in UK politics after the endless HoC vote failures then I suspect that English isn't your first language or you have no sense of humour.
Whatever.
English is a fantastic language. As is German. They’re quite different though- German is an algorithm, English is consistent in its inconsistency!
You are left with Gaelic, Welsh, and cornish. What did the ancient britons speak>?
But they're bloody European imports anyway. So you can't use them either. Certainly not post Brexit.
In fact all modern European languages, with (I believe) the exception of Finnish and Basque evolved from proto-Indo-European which was spoken about 6500 years ago in the area north of the Caspian sea. All this borrowing words from Latin, celtic, Viking etc. is beginning to feel a bit incestuous.
Based on what? Did you look up an academic study for that or just pull it out of your arse?
I took some linguistics classes as an undergraduate, although it wasn’t my major. Basically, as a case study, I took a class in Japanese linguistics and also in Japanese language
I'm not sure whether to be amused or saddened that we've reached the point in our development where someone makes a statement on the Internet without providing evidence or citing a source, and the notion that the source might in fact be Actually Knowing Things doesn't occur to the readers.
You lot need to stop arguing for a second and give Cougar some credit for this.
Aw shucks.
That’s probably fortunate, otherwise they’be on their own and feeling cannelloni.
I am out of my chair and applauding, bravo!
The word sky has roots in a norse word for cloud according to the book The Etymologicon, always found that amusing.
