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It's really not just a problem with English. I'm learning Japanese currently and its absolutely filled with homophones that only change based on context. For i
by hokumguru 6y ago
It's really not just a problem with English. I'm learning Japanese currently and its absolutely filled with homophones that only change based on context.
For instance 子(child) 古(old) can both pronounced as "ko"
I only have a vocab of ~300 words but I can list at least a dozen or more off the top of my head. Far more than my experience with English.
- bernawil 6y agoI think it's because these languages really like mono and two syllable words. Shorter words make a shorter "namespace" so repetition is more common. It's also the reason rhyming is easier though.
- presentation 6y agoRhyming is not considered aesthetic in Japanese, songs and poetry pretty much never rhyme except by accident.
- tester89 6y agoYeah, Japanese is kinda like French in that there are a lot of homophones which aren't homonyms. The spelling is used for ideographic differentiation.