3 ms·

Well, in the context of language it's a useful term because of the close relationship many east Asian languages have.

numpad0 6y ago
Do those languages really have that relationship? When I scratched surface of Chinese language in university it felt almost English written in Kanji. No resemblance to Japanese, and it even made the classical Chinese interpretation methods taught in Japanese education rather dubious to me.
- _-___________-_ 6y ago
  Although they belong to historically disparate language families, modern Vietnamese and Japanese vocabulary both have significant influence from Chinese languages. I know little about Korean but I imagine it's the case there too. Your comment about Chinese feeling like English written in Kanji is really interesting to me, perhaps it's a case of different perspectives - I tend to focus on grammar when learning a language, and so Chinese feels very different to English from my perspective.
- thaumasiotes 6y ago
  Japanese and Chinese languages are not related by descent. They differ in many very basic ways. But Asian languages are nevertheless related in more mysterious ways. Compare the intro to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mainland_Southeast_Asia_linguistic_area https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mainland_Southeast_Asia_lingui... : > The Mainland Southeast Asia linguistic area is a sprachbund including languages of the Sino-Tibetan, Hmong–Mien (or Miao–Yao), Kra–Dai, Austronesian and Austroasiatic families spoken in an area stretching from Thailand to China. Neighbouring languages across these families, though presumed unrelated, often have similar typological features, which are believed to have spread by diffusion. In a European context, this is similar to the unusual closeness between the "unrelated" English and French, known to be due to intensive contact between the languages post-William-the-Conqueror. (In a world context, English and French are closely related regardless.)

Do those languages really have that relationship? When I scratched surface of Chinese language in university it felt almost English written in Kanji. No resemblance to Japanese, and it even made the classical Chinese interpretation methods taught in Japanese education rather dubious to me.

_-___________-_ 6y ago
Although they belong to historically disparate language families, modern Vietnamese and Japanese vocabulary both have significant influence from Chinese languages. I know little about Korean but I imagine it's the case there too. Your comment about Chinese feeling like English written in Kanji is really interesting to me, perhaps it's a case of different perspectives - I tend to focus on grammar when learning a language, and so Chinese feels very different to English from my perspective.
thaumasiotes 6y ago
Japanese and Chinese languages are not related by descent. They differ in many very basic ways. But Asian languages are nevertheless related in more mysterious ways. Compare the intro to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mainland_Southeast_Asia_linguistic_area https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mainland_Southeast_Asia_lingui... : > The Mainland Southeast Asia linguistic area is a sprachbund including languages of the Sino-Tibetan, Hmong–Mien (or Miao–Yao), Kra–Dai, Austronesian and Austroasiatic families spoken in an area stretching from Thailand to China. Neighbouring languages across these families, though presumed unrelated, often have similar typological features, which are believed to have spread by diffusion. In a European context, this is similar to the unusual closeness between the "unrelated" English and French, known to be due to intensive contact between the languages post-William-the-Conqueror. (In a world context, English and French are closely related regardless.)