Re: Re[2]: [tied] Languages Evolve in Punctuational Bursts

Thank you, Brian.

Glad you had facts available.

Well, when I wrote my Japanese comparisons, I had outside advice on what or
was not native Japanese. Since we were looking at Uralic also, I guess that
biased the choice of vocabulary we studied.

Based on below, Rick is right. The majority (62%) of Japanese vocabulary is
of non-native origin.

These loans are mostly very old, I think. Correct?


Patrick

----- Original Message -----
From: "Brian M. Scott" <BMScott@...>
To: "Rick McCallister" <gabaroo6958@...>
Cc: <cybalist@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, February 07, 2008 4:40 PM
Subject: Re[2]: [tied] Languages Evolve in Punctuational Bursts


> At 3:56:44 PM on Thursday, February 7, 2008, Rick
> McCallister wrote:
>
> > Read a history of the Japanese language. Japanese
> > professors have told me the majority of Japanese words
> > are "Sino-Japanese." I've read that roughly half or
> > more of Japanese vocabulary is from Chinese. No, I'm
> > not an expert on Japanese and I'm just repeating what
> > I've heard and read. I'm sure someone like Sasha Vovin
> > could tell you the exact number.
>
> According to Masayoshi Shibatani, 'Japanese', in _The
> World's Major Languages_, Bernard Comrie, ed.:
>
> Japanese has borrowed words from neighbouring languages
> such as Ainu and Korean, but by far the most numerous are
> Chinese loanwords. Traditionally, the Japanese lexicon is
> characterised in terms of three strata. The terms _wago_
> 'Japanese words' or _Yamato-kotoba_ 'Yamato (Japanese)
> words' refer to the stratum of the native vocabulary and
> _kango_ 'Chinese words' refers to loanwords of Chinese
> origin (hereafter called Sino-Japanese words). All other
> loanwords from European languages are designated by the
> term _gairaigo_ 'foreign words' (lit. 'foreign coming
> words'). The relative proportions of these loanwords in
> the _Genkai_ dictionary (1859) were: Sino-Japanese words
> -- 60%, foreign words -- 1.4 percent, the rest being
> native words. Although the proportion of foreign words
> has been steadily increasing (see below), that of the
> Sino-Japanese words remains fairly constant.
>
> [...]
>
> The proportion and the status of the Sino-Japanese words
> in Japanese are strikingly similar to those of the
> Latinate words in English. The proportion of Latinate
> words in English vocabulary is estimated to be around 55
> per cent, while that of Germanic (Anglo-Saxon) words and
> of other foreign loans are 35 per cent and 10 per cent,
> respectively. Furthermore, the status of the
> Sino-Japanese words in Japanese is quite similar to that
> of Latinate words in English. As they tend to express
> abstract concepts, Sino-Japanese words make up the great
> majority of learned vocabulary items.
>
> Brian
>
>
>
>
>