There are a lot of incorrect premises in this comment. > Chinese and Japanese are far more monocultural, and developed somewhat linearly. > it agglomerates Pr

There are a lot of incorrect premises in this comment. > Chinese and Japanese are far more monocultural, and developed somewhat linearly. > it agglomerates Proto-Indo European, Germanic, Celtic, Italic, and others And ultimately, Germanic, Celtic, Italic and others are all PIE languages. By that dime, you will also find in Mandarin words that come from intercourse with the various Chinese dialects (e.g. 尷尬) and its Classical Chinese roots (飲食, vs. 吃 and 喝), as well as its neighbours; e.g. reborrowing (和平 from japanese 平和). Since modernization, you will find calques from European languages, or transliterations. It's also easy to find lots of Buddhist concepts that have entered the language. With Japan not being a regional power for most of its early history, you have even more diverse influences. On the native language you have an extensive and violent borrowing from Chinese in several waves that have completely transformed the language not unlike English's borrowings from Norman, French, and Latin. And of course, the Buddhist vocabulary as well. Then from Portuguese traders you have several borrowings from them, and from its friendship with Germany, more borrowings from them. And these days, you have wasei-eigo, English words reinterpreted into Japanese with somewhat different meanings. Their development only looks "linear" when viewed from a position of ignorance.