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For those curious about the idiom, "It's Chinese to me," here's the directed graph of prevailing "It's X to me" idioms among world languages: http://languagelo

For those curious about the idiom, "It's Chinese to me," here's the directed graph of prevailing "It's X to me" idioms among world languages: http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=1024 http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=1024

dfreidin 16y ago
Interesting. The fact that there are no loops means that there might be something close to a well ordering of language difficulty.
- sliverstorm 16y ago
  Actually, I don't think you can draw such a conclusion. Notice that, generally speaking, the arrows move towards languages of greater age?
  - unavoidable 16y ago
    Or perhaps, 'primitive' or 'legacy' languages simply are more difficult?
    - sliverstorm 16y ago
      It's definitely possible, but I don't think we can rule out the logical possibility that a language will typically only reference another language that came before it. It makes sense, too- Considering a given language, another language that is much newer wouldn't have existed when the phrase was created, and a language of the same age or only a little newer, was probably not widespread enough to be referenced when the phrase was coined.
      - fgf 16y ago
        The notion of two existing languages as differing in age is problematic. They are ever changing. How do you compare the age of contemporary french to that of contemporary chinese? If you look at the list you see that it is always (except for the chinese) different language families meeting.
kqr2 16y ago
Japanese is missing. Does anyone know their equivalent?
- sliverstorm 16y ago
  Allegedly, "The Japanese use a string of nonsense syllables which imitate the sounds of unknown languages, especially Chinese" http://www.omniglot.com/language/idioms/incomprehensible.php http://www.omniglot.com/language/idioms/incomprehensible.php ^ Worth noting that 'chinpunkanpun' is the word; the rest of the phrase is accurate Japanese.
- harisenbon 16y ago
  I thought about that for a whole when that post first came up, but came to the conclusion that there really isn't one. English would be the closest example of what people say they can't speak, but there's no "it's xx to me" that I'm aware of... Except of course for the phrase "it's your mom to me"

dfreidin 16y ago

Interesting. The fact that there are no loops means that there might be something close to a well ordering of language difficulty.

sliverstorm 16y ago
Actually, I don't think you can draw such a conclusion. Notice that, generally speaking, the arrows move towards languages of greater age?
- unavoidable 16y ago
  Or perhaps, 'primitive' or 'legacy' languages simply are more difficult?
  - sliverstorm 16y ago
    It's definitely possible, but I don't think we can rule out the logical possibility that a language will typically only reference another language that came before it. It makes sense, too- Considering a given language, another language that is much newer wouldn't have existed when the phrase was created, and a language of the same age or only a little newer, was probably not widespread enough to be referenced when the phrase was coined.
    - fgf 16y ago
      The notion of two existing languages as differing in age is problematic. They are ever changing. How do you compare the age of contemporary french to that of contemporary chinese? If you look at the list you see that it is always (except for the chinese) different language families meeting.

kqr2 16y ago

Japanese is missing. Does anyone know their equivalent?

sliverstorm 16y ago
Allegedly, "The Japanese use a string of nonsense syllables which imitate the sounds of unknown languages, especially Chinese" http://www.omniglot.com/language/idioms/incomprehensible.php http://www.omniglot.com/language/idioms/incomprehensible.php ^ Worth noting that 'chinpunkanpun' is the word; the rest of the phrase is accurate Japanese.
harisenbon 16y ago
I thought about that for a whole when that post first came up, but came to the conclusion that there really isn't one. English would be the closest example of what people say they can't speak, but there's no "it's xx to me" that I'm aware of... Except of course for the phrase "it's your mom to me"