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

Check out Shibatani;s article in Comrie --if I
remember correctly, the Sino-Japanese loanwords came
in about 3 or 4 waves. The Dutch and Portuguese words
are, obviously, from the 1500 and 1600s. But English
words are rapidly entering Japanese.
On website, I also saw reference to onomatopoeic words
as an important strata. This strata seems very
productive in Japanese


--- Patrick Ryan <proto-language@...> wrote:

> 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
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
>

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