Memoirs of a Dork

僕の彼女が怒った理由

2007-06-18T14:30:00.000-07:00

My friend Paul from Taipei found this video on youtube and sent it to me. There is very little Japanese in it, but it still requires a bit of a translation. Let's just hope my translation is reliable, since some of it is far more colloquial than to what I'm used.

Introduction: The reason my girlfriend got mad at me.

Woman: What the hell are you doing?!?

Man: Why are you so mad?
Woman: Because of YOU!

寿司の食べ方 (How to eat Sushi)

2007-03-24T01:07:00.000-07:00

久しぶりですね！ After a long while of not having written or posted anything, I came across this video (which I have seen a million times before) and simply had to share it! You might have seen it before, too, but watching it a second (or third, or fourth) time never hurts. どうぞ！

日本から今晩は！

2007-01-14T01:22:00.000-08:00

みんな、日本からこんばんは！！！　今、飛行機が着くのを待ってるので何か書くつもり。でもちょっとの間、日本をでるよ。早く書かなくちゃから。すごく悲しい日だなあ。日本がすこぐ楽しかった！みんな、いろんな面白くて楽しい話あるよ！だれかもみんなに紹介したい！！

じゃあ、またね！

ミニモニの「Ai~nダンスの歌」

2006-12-24T22:33:00.000-08:00

Yesterday a friend in Finland who is also studying Japanese (as well as Spanish and Russian) sent this music video to me. It's called "Ai~n dance no uta" by a girl band named Minimoni. I haven't a clue what their name is supposed to mean, but as Parker summed it up best: Take the worst girl band, put it through Japanese filters, and this is what you have. It's a culmination of the weirdness of Japan, and for that reason, it is horribly awesome. Excuse the poor quality as no one has put any better ones online.

Vinistes, Vistes, Vencistes

2006-12-17T12:43:00.000-08:00

I found this on Museo de los horrores through el Foro Cervantes via La Palabra Del Día from elcastellano.org. This is one of my biggest pet-peeves, and naturally so as I am quite the grammar nut.

*Dijistes, *vinistes

In spoken language, although it is considered a vernacular trait, the use of a final -s on the singular second person of the indefinite preterit (or simple perfect) has been expanding. Many of our visitors to el Museo point it out to us in their letters; but the worst part is that it is beginning to be reflected in the written language as well--especially in the press.

The indefinite preterit is a verbal tense of the indicative mood, that expresses an action in the past in regards to that in which the speaker is, whose end has been consummated. But what we care about now is the paradigm, with a very common example: the verb decir.

Yo dije
Tú dijiste
Él dijo
Nosotros dijimos
Vosotros dijisteis
Ellos dijeron

But by analogy with the rest of the verbal tenses (dices, decías, dirás...), as vernacular a final -s is added to the second person (tú), and so we find the vernacular:

Tú *dijistes

In the southern norm of Spanish and in American linguistic variations, this problem is also found.

Vos *dijistes

La Universidad Estatal De Arizona

2006-12-15T21:58:00.000-08:00

Ha de firmar cada comunicado escrito en una lengua que no sea inglés con una advertencia que dice que no es un documento oficial, según el periodico La Voz.

El 13 de diciembre de 2006, en la página A4:

Conflicto interno en ASU a consecuencia de la 103
Los comunicados que no estén en inglés o que sean traducidos al español deberán contener una aclaración que los hace "no oficiales"

Por Ángel Larreal

Un correo electrónico relacionado con las medidas que la Universidad Estatal de Arizona (ASU) implementará para estar en consonancia con los requerimientos legales de la Proposición 103, la cual designa al inglés como idioma oficial de Arizona, generó un fuerte sentimiento de inconformidad entre miembros de la comunidad universitaria.

El mencionado correo electrónico, enviado a profesores y a los Departamentos de Relaciones con los Medios de Comunicación, Asuntos Públicos, entre otros, señala que de ahora en adelante todas las comunicaciones emanadas de ASU que no estén escritas en inglés deberán de contener una advertencia en su parte final.

El correo indica que "todos los documentos de la universidad, incluyendo páginas electrónicas en Internet, comunicados de prensa, que estén presentados en otros idiomas que no sean inglés ahora deben tener esta advertencia".

La mencionada advertencia es la siguiente: "Este documento es una traducción del texto original escrito en inglés. Esta traducción no es oficial y no representa al estado ni a ninguna subdivisión política estatal". La advertencia debe aparecer en inglés y en el idioma de traducción.

Esta directriz cayó literalmente como una bomba entre los miembros de la comunidad universitaria. Varios profesores hispanos fueron contactados y expresaron su malestar por la directriz de ASU. La gran mayoría de los académicos pidieron no ser identificados.

Expresa frustración
Uno que sí expresó públicamente su frustración fue el profesor Carlos Vélez-Ibáñez, jefe del Departamento de Estudios Chicanos. "Esta gente no sabe lo que está haciendo, estoy muy molesto, enojado y frustrado", dijo el Dr. Vélez-Ibáñez.

El académico expresó: "No voy a escribir esa advertencia, vamos a escribir las cosas en inglés y español, no entiendo por qué no quieren que usemos el español".

Vélez-Ibáñez agregó: "Quizás lo que quieren es prohibirnos el uso de los dos idiomas... ¿Por qué no cierran el Departamento de Español? ... me da vergüenza", sostuvo.

Todas las comunicaciones de ASU tendrán la advertencia, excepto artículos especializados publicados por profesores y personal de investigación.

Actualmente el Departamento Legal de ASU está por determinar cuales otros documentos están exentos de la advertencia.

Contacte al reportero: angel.larreal@lavozpublishing.com

En lo personal, yo creo que sí atacan a la comunidad de habla hispana ya que la mayoría de la gente bilingüe habla español por estas partes, pero hay que notar que en este artículo el reportero escribe que prohíben el español, mientras que en la proposición está escrito que hay que firmar los comunicados traducidos a CUALQUIER idioma que no sea inglés. Entonces no se limita al español. Todavía no sé muy bien lo que pensar de esta ocurrencia. Creo que debemos tener una lengua oficial que todos hablemos para entendernos, pero no es necesario exigir que se escriba esta advertencia al final de cada comunicado. El español forma parte de esta nación, de nuestra historia, y negarlo no es justo. Venga lo que venga, el español sigue y seguirá siendo hablando por mucha gente. Es inevitable.

Sparabic

2006-11-03T20:46:00.000-08:00

I think I've been neglecting this thing a bit too long now, don't you agree? The semester is almost over though, yay! I recently joined the M.E.Ch.A. club on campus, and went to help with a fundraiser sale yesterday. This elderly woman came by and bought one of the pan dulces and some of the Mexican hot chocolate that we were selling, and wow. This woman. That's all I can really say. She asked me what I was studying and I told her that I'm majoring in Japanese and Spanish. She said that she was there taking a Spanish class, a non-credit one, and told me I should study Arabic so that we (America) will know what "those arabs are saying about us." Her words, not mine. It might be fascinating to study Arabic some day, but given the current conditions, I don't think I would want the government calling me here at home asking me if I would be interested in helping translate. Blegh.

The whole "conversation," if you could even call it that because she was mostly talking and I was not wanting to get involved in it, made me realize that I've neglected my whole discussion of Spanish on here (I figured I would pass it up since most people will probably have a superficial knowledge of it, especially if you are from the United States), but I figured that one area with which most people would not be familiar would be the Arabic influence in Spanish. Yes, that is right! Spanish has roughly 4,000 words of Arabic origin, due to the Moor rule of Spain from 711 to 1492. I started to compile a list of some words that I could think of that were of Arabic origin, but of course, I probably won't reach the 4,000 words unless I put my whole effort into it. For now I only have 60 words, but I figured that I would share the list here. So enjoy!

Guadalajara ~ River of Rocks
almohada ~ pillow
tarea ~ task, chore, homework
azúcar ~ sugar
azul ~ blue
azulejo ~ tile
barrio ~ neighborhood, "hood"
alcalde ~ mayor
arroz ~ rice
ojalá ~ (followed by imperfect subjunctive) "If only..." otherwise, "God willing ~!" or "Would God want ~!" or "I hope ~"
hasta ~ until
chupa ~ vest(?)
ajedrez ~ chess
fulano ~ what's-his-face
jirafa ~ giraffe
aceite ~ oil
algodón ~ cotton
toronja ~ grape fruit
café ~ coffee
alcoba ~ alcolve, room
alquiler ~ rent, leasing
cero ~ zero
jaque ~ expression used in chess, "check"
guitarra ~ guitar
rincón ~ corner
adobe ~ adobe
alfalfa ~ alfalfa
alcohol ~ alcohol
aldea ~ village
alfombra ~ carpet, rug
álgebra ~ algebra
azafata ~ flight attendant (female, usually)
espinaca ~ spinache
limón ~ lime
máscara ~ mask
sorbete ~ sherbert
almacén ~ department store, storage
aduana ~ customs
azar ~ chance
sofá ~ sofa
nuca ~ nape of the neck
alfiler ~ common pin; brooch; (plural) pin money
alfil ~ (chess) bishop
alférez ~ second lieutenant; ensign
algoritmo ~ algorithm
alhelí ~ gillyflower
alhaja ~ jewel, gem
alheña ~ henna
alfeñique ~ sugar paste
alfajor ~ name for various pastries with a cream or honey filling
alfarda ~ joist, light beam
alfanje ~ cutlass
alfóncigo ~ pistachio
alforja ~ saddlebag, knapsack, provisions for a journey
alforza ~ hem, tuck
algarrobo ~ carob tree
aldaba ~ door knocker, hasp
cifra ~ cipher, number, code, sum, figure
jarope ~ syrup
alcachofa ~ artichoke
azucena ~ white lilly
laúd ~ lute, catboat
alquimia ~ alchemy
zanahoria ~ carrot
alharaca ~ confusion, fuss, ruckus
alacrán ~ scorpion
alcolba ~ bedroom
jábega ~ seine

You will probably notice that many of these begin with al-. This is because this is the article in Arabic. Essentially, then, you are saying, "the" with each of these words, if you were to use them to a person who spoke Arabic back between the 700s and 1400s. For example, almohada comes from the Arabic al mihaddah, which when broken down means "The small bed for the cheek" (al = the; mi = cheek; hadda = small bed), if I'm not mistaken.

Update

2006-09-07T19:30:00.000-07:00

I must apologize for the lack of a "creative" title, but today was my Friday and we practiced pitch accent quite heavily in Japanese class today, so my brain is a bit fried. It's been a productive couple of weeks (2 and a half, maybe three weeks since school started? I don't remember, because you are tossed directly into the work, which is fine with me, but something's gotta give and that happens to be everyone's sense of time), but it's been worth it. I came into my Japanese class an hour before the class started the other day and found myself with only the teacher (we are to call her Ebanzu-sensei, but in English we could call her Evans, though the title that she is given in Japanese does not show gender or marital status, so it's hard to tell if she is married or not). I put my stuff down and brought up to her in the front of the room a book that I happened to find at Barnes and Noble Bookstore at the Scottsdale 101 which was written by a very famous Japanese author (Kawabata Yasunari, or in English, Yasunari Kawabata), called Yama no oto, which roughly means "The sound of the mountain." She leafed through the pages and started talking to me in Japanese, asking me questions like "Where did you buy it? How much was it? Do you read the book out loud to yourself?" To the last question, I told her that I only read it out loud when I am by myself, and she said, "That is why, then, you have very smooth Japanese, without a thick English accent, and your pitch is quite good, too." That made my day, so I had to share that here. I'm sure it may have been something of an exaggeration, a polite lie, if you will, but it sure has given me the motivation to work harder at it, because our imperfect state as humans will obviously cause me to continue to have a slight accent and trouble with the pitch from time to time, but that won't stop me.

Aside from that, I've been delving into Greek lately and I am seriously considering pursuing the language to fluency, but my dilemma is that I have also considered aiming for fluency in Russian and Chinese. Should I do all three of them? Or should I focus on two or just one? Why? I obviously won't kill myself trying to work at them right now but if I have the time and the motivation, I'll try to learn as much as possible.

Anyway, I'm not dead. I'll be back to post something quite interesting, possibly considering another comparison post of two different languages, looking seriously at Russian and Greek due to a number of similarities in the writing system (no surprise, since the Greek alphabet did influence the current Cyrillic alphabet developed for and used by Russian), as well as cases and their usage. Forgive me for my lack of posts, but keep on checking. You may see it in a few weeks--either a preview or a full post. Who knows. 'Til then.

When in Rome...

2006-08-07T15:15:00.000-07:00

The similarities between Latin and Modern Spanish (as well as other Latin-derived languages) are stunning. Herein I will focus primarily on Spanish, but where I feel fitting, I shall impart my knowledge of shared traits of sister tongues.

LATIN "to be" - esse
Sum / Sumus
Es / Estis
Est / Sunt

ITALIAN "to be" - essere
Sono / Siamo
Sei / Siete
È / Sono

SPANISH "to be" - ser
Soy / Somos
Eres / Sois
Es / Son

BRAZILIAN PORTUGUESE "to be" - ser
Sou / Somos
És / Sois
É / São

Following with pronouns, most comparisons will be between Spanish and Latin, but I may even include pronouns of pronouns of distant languages.

Latin Pronominal System
Nominative
Ego / Nos
Tu / Vos

Accusative
Me / Nos
Te / Vos

Spanish Pronominal System
Nominative
Yo / Nosotros (Nosotras)
Tú / Vosotros (Vosotras)

Accusative
Me / Nos
Te / Vos

In Greek, the first person nominative pronoun, like Latin, is also Ego. The third person pronouns (he, she, it, they) are omitted because there are no similarities between them (though, if you have ever taken a psychology class or are at least familiar with Freud's concept of the Ego and the Id, id is the third person nominative singular equivalent of the English it), since Latin uses either adverbs of location (here, there, over there) or calls the person by a major characteristic respectively (i.e. saying Pater, "Father," instead of "He").

Portuguese's Pronominal System
Nominative
Eu / Nós
Tu / Vocês

Accusative
Me / Nos
Te / Os or As

The pronoun vocês is the plural form of você, the polite second person form of address (informal equivalent is tu in Portuguese), like Spanish's usted (which is actually a contraction of vuestra merced, "your mercy" or "your majesty," that was used as a form of polite address to a stranger or a person whose social status called for it in the 16th century, and also explains why it may be abbreviated to Ud. or Vd.) and the plural ustedes (or vuestras mercedes). There is a vós and vos form, but it is archaic now.

Russian's Pronominal System
Nominative
Я (Ya) / Мы (Mi)
Ты (Ti) / Вы (Vi)

Animate Accusative and Genitive
Меня (Menya) / Нас (Nas)
Тебя (Tebya) / Вас (Vas)

I suspect, keeping in mind that I am only an amateur, however, that the pronouns in these languages probably came from a previous common language, the supposed Proto-Indo-European language. I will probably research it more indepth when I have more reliable sources available to me.

The pronouns in the Latin Genitive Pronominal System act as adjectives since they modify the noun to show possession and therefore are inflected to show gender and number (like Spanish) and case (like Russian).

Compare:

LATIN
Meus (Me-) / Noster (Nostr-)
Tuus (Tu-) / Vester (Vestr-)

SPANISH
Mi or Mío / Nuestro
Tu or Tuyo / Vuestro

The position of these pronouns in Latin in a sentence are the same as in Spanish and even Italian, but rules differ in Portuguese and Russian. You might say to your husband or wife (if you are married) in English I love you, while in Latin you would say Ego te amo ("I you love") or Te amo, since the verbal inflection already shows the person doing the action as "I," and thus using Ego would place contrast or emphasis on the subject (Your enemies hate you, but I love you). The Spanish equivalent follows the same path with Yo te amo, but Te amo will do just fine. Italian joins the crowd, too, using Io ti amo or simply Ti amo. Brazilian Portuguese, on the other hand, places the accusative pronoun te before the verb amo if the nominative pronoun eu is present to yield Eu te amo. Otherwise, it becomes Amo-te. In European Portuguese, the accusative pronoun is suffixed to the verb, nominative pronoun or not: Eu amo-te or Amo-te. The only exception to the rule is an interrogative pronoun, an adverb of negation or any other adverb, or a preposition before the verb.

Finally, Russian usually prefers a fixed Subject-Object-Verb word order, as in Я тебя люблю (Ya tebya lyublyu, "I you love"), but it may also be Я люблю тебя (Ya lyublyu tebya, "I love you"), Тебя я люблю (Tebya ya lyublyu, "You I love"), Люблю тебя я (Lyublyu tebya ya, "Love you I"), Люблю я тебя (Lyublyu ya tebya, "Love I you"), or Тебя люблю я (Tebya lyublyu ya, "You love I").

This is only a preview of what is to come in the future.

Linguistic Lingo

2006-08-02T14:31:00.000-07:00

I don't really know why I didn't think to post this in the first place, but I figure I should share a list of some of the common terms that I'll be using in future blogs from now on.

1. ACCUSATIVE: The case of a direct object of a verb. In English, this is also called the OBJECTIVE. An example of this case would be the word you in the sentence "I see you."

2. ADJECTIVE: Words that modify (thus the other term for them, MODIFIERS) a noun by giving it some tangible or intangible quality, such as a new car or a smart student. New and smart are adjectives.

3. ADVERB: Words that describe the way in which an action is done or modify an adjective. He talks quickly. He is trying to sell you this really nice car. Quickly is an adverb describing the way in which he talks, while really intensifies the condition or the appearance of the car (nice or in other words, in good condition). Unfortunately, Native English-speakers have a tendency to misuse adjectives in place of adverbs--i.e., He talks fast (when it should be he talks quickly).

4. ARTICLE: Short hand for DEFINITE ARTICLE and INDEFINITE ARTICLE.

5. AUXILIARY: Think HELPING VERBS, if you can remember your English classes from your days in public school. These are verbs like be, can (be able + infinitive, could), do, have (+ past participle), must, ought to, should, would, etc.

6. CASE: The form that a word takes in order to determine it's grammatical relation to a sentence. English has only three cases, which are rapidly falling into misuse: the nominative (subjective), the objective, and the genitive (possessive). The best way to illustrate these is through examples of pronouns. I is the first person singular pronoun in the nominative (or subjective) case, while the objective case is me and the genitive (or possessive) becomes mine, my, or of me. In other languages, such as Greek, Russian, or even Latin, the change in case is determined by suffixes added to the noun or pronoun, while others, such as Japanese, use particles after the word to show it's grammatical relation.

7. CLAUSE: One single sentence by itself, or a part of a more complex sentence that can be broken down into smaller sentences. Take the sentence I went to the store. This is an entire sentence (or clause) by itself. Now take the more complex, I went to the store with my friend who is an ex-murderer. I went to the store with my friend is one whole sentence, while who is an ex-murder is another.

8. CONJUNCTION: Words like and, but, because, etc.

9. DATIVE: Also known as the INDIRECT OBJECT, which is basically a noun or a pronoun that, in English, usually comes after the direct object of the verb and takes the preposition to, such as They gave the book to me as a gift. To me is the dative.

10. DEFINITE ARTICLE: This is the word the. It restricts the object under discussion to one specific item. Compare the house to a house. The house refers to a specific house you have in mind, while a house could be any house. Spanish is more selective about it's use of this article as well as the indefinite article, while languages like Chinese, Japanese, and Russian lack both articles.

11. DIRECT OBJECT: See ACCUSATIVE.

12. GENDER: English no longer uses gender, but in Indo-European languages like Spanish or Russian, gender affects nouns, pronouns and adjectives. In Spanish, for example, libro (book) is masculine like mesa (table) is feminine. In Russian, on the other hand, a third gender exists called the neutral (Spanish has a neutral, too, but it is less common), which is distinguished by their endings: -o and -e predominantly, but also -ye (or -ie), -'e, -'yo, or -mya.

13. GENITIVE: Also called the POSSESSIVE in English. Usually formed by adding 's after the noun (John's book) or placing of between the pronoun (or other noun) and noun (The book of John). Pronouns in this form in English are "my," "mine," or "of me," "your," "yours," or "of you," "his," "his," or "of him," etc.

14. INDEFINITE ARTICLE: These are the words a and an. It's that simple. For more information, see DEFINITE ARTICLE.

15. INDIRECT OBJECT: This is the "to me" in the sentence, "They gave the book to me as a present."

16. INFINITIVE: This is the unconjugated form of the verb, that is, it has no tense and no number. This in English is the preposition to plus an action. To think, to see, to talk--these are all infinitives. In Spanish these are divided into three classes depending on the suffix: -ar, -er, and -ir. In Japanese, these end with -u, -ku, -gu, -su, -tsu, -nu, -bu, -mu, and -ru. In Russian, these end with -t'.

17. INTRANSITIVE VERB: These are verbs that do not take an direct object, such as walk or die. Only the subject is involved--you cannot say "He died her" (to talk explicitly about giving her the action of dying, you would say he killed her, or if you wish to talk about her dying [expectedly or unexpectedly] in his presence, you would say she died on him. Provided that you don't take it literally, in which case this could also come to mean, she died on top of him, like she was lying on him when she died or fell on him and died).

18. NOMINALIZATION: Using the verb as the subject of a sentence, which is usually done in English by using the gerund (-ing form)--i.e., Reading is good for you. In Spanish, this can be formed by placing el before the infinitive, or by using an equivalent noun--i.e. El leer es bueno para ti or La lectura es bueno para ti. In Japanese, this is formed using no or koto depending upon the context and is used in a very different way from English or Spanish. No sounds less formal and generally refers to a subjective experience, while koto sounds more formal and is a general truth that applies to everyone, not just the speaker. Yomu no ga tanoshii desu or Yomu koto ga tanoshii desu. Likewise, the sentence using no can be fairly ambiguous because the sentence can also mean, "The one [the person] who reads is good."

19. NOMINATIVE: Also called the SUBJECTIVE in English and is the subject of the sentence. In English pronouns, the nominatives are I, you, he, she, it, we, you [all], and they.

20. OBJECT: Short hand for the ACCUSATIVE or DIRECT OBJECT.

21. PARTICIPLE: Usually either the PRESENT PARTICIPLE (or GERUND) or the PAST PARTICIPLE. The present participle is the form of the verb ending with -ing (killing, burying, crying), while the past participle is the form of the verb that usually ends with -ed (killed, buried, cried), but don't forget that there are irregular ones, too, like bought, seen, fallen, etc. The present participle usually follows a conjugation of the auxiliary verb be (I am killing, you are burying, we are crying) while the past participle usually follows a conjugation of the auxiliary verb be (I have killed, you have buried, we have cried).

22. PASSIVE: More common in English. Every verb has an active and a passive voice. Tell is the active while be told is the passive. The active is, well, more involved in the action while the passive causes the subject to receive the action. There is a difference between saying I tell the truth (that is, I am directly involved in telling the truth) versus I am told the truth (or, in other words, someone has told me the truth, so in reality I have only listened to another person tell it to me). In Spanish, this form is usually used only in the third person and is made by placing a reflexive pronoun before the conjugated verb. Perhaps you would be more familiar with it if I told you that the se habla of the expression Se habla español ("Spanish is spoken") is the passive, or possibly even the question ¿Cómo se dice passive en español ("How do you say 'passive' in Spanish?" or even more literally, "How is 'passive' said in Spanish?"). It sounds less direct. Japanese has a passive, too, but its usage is somewhat non-sensical in English. I cannot resist, however, sharing a sample form of the verb. I'll choose my favorite verb in this form: wasureru, which means "to forget" or "to leave behind." Simply drop the -ru and add -rareru to give wasurerareru (be forgotten). Japanese even goes as far as to use a causative passive form of the verb. To make it short, the causative form would be saying "make OR force [someone else] to do someone" or "let OR allow [someone else] to do something." The Causative Passive form is wasuresaserareru, or be made to forget. I feel compelled to also mention that the passive form of this verb is also used in Japanese with this same class of verbs to express a potential.. so wasurerareru also means "can" or "be able to forget," depending on the context.

23. PERSON: The number of people involved in an action, expressed via pronouns. The first person singular is I, me, my, mine; the plural is we, us, our, ours; the second person singular is you, you, your, yours; the plural is identical since English no long distinguishes it; the third person singular is he/she/it, him/her/it, his/her/its, his/her/its; the plural is they, them, their, and theirs.

24. POSTPOSITION: In language that have a SUBJECT-OBJECT-VERB word order, these are what are known as prepositions in English. Where we say in English in Japan in Japanese they say Japan in (日本で, nihon de).

25. PREFIX: Parts of words that cannot be broken down (called MORPHEMES) that are attached to the front of a word, such as the auto in automobile, or even the self in the hyphenated self-esteem. In fact, auto means self, too. Just think about the word automobile, if you break it down you have auto (self) and mobile (moving), or in other words, something that moves by itself. That would make perfect sense for the Sino-Japanese equivalent jidousha (自動車), since "ji" means "self," "dou" means "move," and "sha" means "cart," so literally, a "self-moving cart."

26. PREPOSITION: Words like in, about, around, of, over, on top, inside, outside, etc. See POSTPOSITIONS for rules for other languages.

27. PRONOUN: Words that take place of proper pronouns, or basically, people's names. Instead of having a conversation like, "Veronika is so hot. Isn't Veronika hot? I think Veronika has the hots for me" we could simply use the name Veronika once and replace her name with she. There are also relative and interrogative pronouns, which are the same in form (who, what, where, when, why, how) but used differently. Interrogative pronouns are used as their name suggests: to ask questions--Who are you? What are you doing? From where did you come? When did you get here? Why are you here? How did you come here? Relative pronouns, on the other hand, connect two different clauses. I am the one who killed her! Japanese does not have relative pronouns, but there are other ways to communicate the same idea, usually through placing the relative clause before the main clause (English: the book that I read yesterday was interesting vs. Japanese: yesterday read book interesting was), or as in the example above, koroshita no wa watashi desu ([Her] killed person me is).

28. REFLEXIVE: The agent (doer) of the action does the action to himself. Reflexive pronouns in English are myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, yourselves, and themselves. The neutral is oneself. These, likewise, are misused in English. You are more likely to hear a native English speaker say "I love me" instead of "I love myself," which is technically the grammatically correct way of saying it. These are fairly uncommon in English but far common in Spanish. Where we say in English I brush my teeth in Spanish they say Me cepillo los dientes or literally, "I brush myself the teeth."

29. ROOT: The basic form of a word without any prefixes or suffixes attached to it. The root of the word talked is talk, or killing's root is kill, and so on. Also called STEM.

30. STEM: Usually refers, at least, in my mind, to an adjective, adverb, or verb. Same as ROOT

31. SUBJECT: The agent or doer of the action. Usually in the NOMINATIVE.

32. SUBJUNCTIVE: An almost archaic form of the verb in English that is usually used to express an action that is contrary to the fact. This is often misused in English as well. We might say "I wish I was in another place," but we should actually be saying, "I wish I were in another place," because we are wishing it, but we are not really there and it's currently impossible for us to be in another place. Another example of a subjunctive expression in English would be saying "May [a specific action occur]" as in, well, "May so-and-so rest in peace." The subjunctive is far more common in Romance languages. Spanish technically has three subjunctives, but only two are used in modern Spanish. Portuguese has three. French.. I don't know.. Italian, I believe, has two. So on and so forth. However, the Spanish subjunctive is usually used in a way to express one's desire that another person perform a specific action, that a contrary-to-fact action or condition be real, to directly command another to do something, to express an action that is doubtful, or, even information that is already known to both the speaker and the listener but is not the focus of the subject. I will probably share an article I am currently translating on the matter very soon here.

33. SUFFIX: the -ed and -ing that are added to verbs are examples of suffixes.

34. TENSE: Determines the time in which the action occurs. Spanish has twelve tenses plus four moods (or six if you add the third nearly-extinct subjunctive), while Japanese has only two true tenses plus several other moods. English, well, I'm not exactly sure about, but to provide some examples, the English verb to talk in the present simple tense is I [do] talk or It talks while in the past simple tense is I did talk or I talked. So on and so forth.. I'm not super researched on English grammar, but when it comes time that I might have to (heaven forbid), I'll update this.

35. TRANSITIVE VERB: Verbs that take a direct object, such as see, have, punch, etc.

36. VERB: Action words, like speak, sleep, drink, eat, sing, yell, etc.

37. VOICED: Sounds that are made by the vibration of the vocal cords. Vowels (a, e, i, o, u) are always voiced, while only some consonants are always voiced (b, d, g, j, k, ...).

38. VOICELESS: Consonants that are not produced via vibration of the vocal cords (f, h, p, t, x), etc.

To Know You Is To Love You

2006-07-24T23:11:00.000-07:00

I received the link to this article in the LA Times from a fellow polyglot. Enjoy.

To Know You Is to Love You
A Korean-born reporter's embrace of an egalitarian English pronoun freed her from the hierarchal strictures of her native tongue.
By K. Connie Kang, Times Staff Writer
July 24, 2006

It's all about you.

I fell in love with this English pronoun when I first met it on my father's knees more than half a century ago in Seoul.

Initially, it was the sound that captivated me.

Later, as I continued to study English under my father's tutelage — he was a pioneering scholar of English and German at South Korea's Seoul National University — I began to love this three-letter word for the way it made me feel.

"Good morning to you," I said with emphasis whenever American and Canadian Presbyterian missionaries visited our home.

When they responded with a big smile and "Good morning to you too," I was in heaven.

You was an ally that empowered me.

It freed me from the encumbrances of my mother tongue, which is one of the world's most complicated and nuanced languages, laden with honorifics. You pushed me out of the confines of Confucian-steeped, hierarchal Korean language into a world of egalitarian impulses.

To be sure, Korean is a wonderfully poetic language, full of alliteration and onomatopoeia. And I love listening to well-spoken Korean.

But navigating it is another story.

Korean has no fewer than six speech levels — each with a unique set of verb endings to indicate the degree of formality, ranging from extremely polite to actively impolite — and many gradations in between.

Other languages employ varying degrees of address. For two of the world's more popular languages, two levels suffice — vous and tu in French, usted and tú in Spanish.

But Korean has four words for you. The irony is we go out of our way to find substitutes so we won't have to use them.

This formality — and the impulses to maintain or reject it — colors not just how many Korean Americans speak Korean, but our English. It's a spin on the classic tale of assimilation, when two cultures meet and create something uniquely American.

Sometimes it's an odd blend. Koreans are a communal people who prefer an unassuming "we" over a bold, American "I."

A Korean woman always refers to her husband as "our husband" — oori nampyon. And we say, "our mother, our father."

"In English, you can't imagine saying, 'our husband,' " said Kichung Kim of San Jose, a Korean American scholar and writer.

To the Korean ear, "our mother" creates a "connection to home, family and all that. That feeling is absent in English," Kim said. "The only time we say 'our father' in English is in the Lord's Prayer."

I have a friend who often ends our phone conversation with "Love you." After hearing me repeatedly reply, 'We do too,' my Anglo friend figured it out. "Your reluctance to say 'I' is a Korean thing."

You bet.

In English, birds sing. In Korean, birds cry. Traditional Korean songs are plaintive — played in minor keys. In English, nouns and verbs rule. In Korean, adjectives and adverbs do.

"Korean is so expressive and emotional," said Los Angeles-born Aram Kim, an honor student at Van Nuys High School who is studying at one of the many Korean-language schools in the region.

David Mo, a fellow student, agrees and says he'll take the Korean Ahn-young-ha-sae-yo (Are you well?) to "Hi" any day.

" 'Hi' is so simple," he said, explaining that the Korean greeting has depth.

Still, experts say that Korean, spoken by 79 million people worldwide and more than 1 million in the United States, is one of the most difficult languages to learn. Aram Kim acknowledges that even a routine query, such as "Have you eaten?" can get complicated in Korean.

To navigate this linguistic maze, we use our well-honed sixth sense called nunchi — literally, "measure of the eye" — to size up age, education and social and professional position.

Then, we choose from two types of language within the language: a "respectable" form known as jondae-mal, and informal talk called ban-mal, literally meaning "half-talk."

For me, you helped me bypass all that. The word let me enjoy conversations with people older than me — a rare thing in my culture, where older people talk and younger ones listen unless asked to speak.

I attended an American primary school when I lived in Asia, so I had the rare privilege of using the English you when I was a child, without offending Korean sensibilities.

When I came to the United States in 1961, blending American informality with Korean linguistic tradition wasn't an issue because there were so few Koreans to talk to.

These days in California's Korean community — estimated at 500,000, the largest outside Asia — many Korean Americans share my fondness for the all-too-embraceable you.

"You represents the essence of democracy," said attorney Tong S. Suhr, a community leader. "You liberates us from that [Korean] caste system, and it makes life so much easier."

Korean-born Kay S. Duncan, director of production with Jarrow Formulas in West Hollywood, says you helped transform her from a shy Asian woman who preferred to sit in the back of the room to an assertive executive equal to those around her.

"You can say, 'You did this, or you did that,' even if you're addressing the CEO of your company," Duncan said.

By contrast, Ho-min Sohn, professor of Korean linguistics at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, says he has never felt at home with this three-letter word.

Sohn, who came to the U.S. in 1965 from South Korea to work on a doctorate in linguistics, managed to get his degree without once using you when addressing his professors. It seemed so out of place for a student to claim equality with his professor.

Kim, the writer from San Jose, finds you more comfortable in writing than in speech.

Even in English, he said, "you seems a little abrupt. Koreans are careful with you because of our tradition. We are much more culturally and interpersonally civilized in discourses. We may be brutal in real life, but we, at least, have that pretense."

In Korean, you comes in at least four forms: gwiha, dangshin, jahnae and nuh. And yet none is quite like you.

Gwiha is "your excellency" and your honor" rolled into one, used to address a person in a high position.

Dangshin is the formal you, but it can be misconstrued if used carelessly. When a smiling wife calls her husband dangshin and snuggles up to him, it is a term of endearment.*

"But use it with a stranger," Suhr said, "and it becomes a 'fighting word.' " (Think of the classic New Yorkism, "What are you looking at?")

Jahnae is used among school chums or by older people addressing young adults, like a man talking to his son-in-law.

Nuh is for children and younger siblings.

But even with youths, if they're in high school, Koreans prefer to address them with the generic title haksaeng, meaning "student," over nuh.

We love titles. Sonsaeng-nim (honorable teacher) is a respectable title for all professionals over 40. Even journalists get titles. Koreans call me Kang kija-nim ("Honorable reporter Kang").

It gets more complicated speaking to people of high rank. A subordinate would not address his company's president in the second person, even the formal version.

Professor Sohn explains that when the subordinate wants to tell his boss, "It's time for you to go," he'll switch to the third person: "The honorable president should go."

But in Southern California, you pops up in the middle of Korean sentences, like an odd bead in a string of cultured pearls. Listen to Korean Americans talk in Korean restaurants and church gatherings and you witness an evolving Konglish where you plays a key role.

Among friends who are bilingual, one might say: "You-neun-uh-tuk-hae-saeng-gak-hae?"

Translation: "What do you think?"

Then there are those situations that seem to defy you — whether in English or Korean.

Kay Duncan's husband, historian John B. Duncan, is director of UCLA's Center for Korean Studies and a fluent Korean speaker. When they were dating and their two cultures began to clash as well as merge, John and Kay grappled with how they should address each other.

They considered dangshin (formal you) and informal nuh, as well as the English honey and yobo, the Korean equivalent of "dear" or "honey."

"Dangshin sounded cold and distant," he said.

"Honey gave me shivers," she said. It was too touchy-feely.

They settled on the French tu.

More than three decades later, they still start their birthday and Valentine cards with "Dear tu" and end with "Your tu."

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/la-me-you24jul24,1,7513851.story?page=1&cset=true&ctrack=1

* Japanese has a similar pronoun, anata, which is a formal way of saying "you" but generally only women use it in reference to their husbands, roughly equivalent of "dear" or "darling," and to their children. It is appropriate to use with strangers, unlike the Korean dangshin, since it literally means "your side." The Japanese love titles as well and will usually refer to each other by their family name plus -san, or if speaking with a respected professional, may use his or her title OR their family name plus sensei ("teacher"), if the person is very knowledgeable about his or her field of work.

Shanghai Triad

2006-07-20T16:41:00.000-07:00

I swear that I'm attempting to move away from the Japanese scene slowly in order to not turn this into a Japanaholic's blog. So, for a change, I would like to share a Canadian band by the name of the Shanghai Triad whose music is, as they describe it, "Chinese jazz and blues from the 1930's and 40's as well as Chinese folk songs with an eclectic and greasepaint-laden sensibility." Enjoy!

RoboCup 2006

2006-07-09T21:17:00.000-07:00

With the closing of the 2006 FIFA World Cup, I happened to come across this video when I was looking for videos of robots on youtube.com. I think it would be quite appropriate to share it. Enjoy.

The Joys of Japanese: Part III

2006-07-02T13:44:00.000-07:00

In an effort to keep it short, I will attempt to finish the rest of my discussion in this post.

I know nothing of the Chinese counterparts, but in both Chinese and Japanese, there are counting particles. These are used to count particular items based on their physical properties. There are hundreds of them, but the good news is that you don't have to know all of them. You can simple use the native Japanese counting system until you learn the more commonly used ones. The only catch is that they go up to ten. The native system goes 一つ hitotsu, 二つ futatsu, 三つ mittsu, 四つ yottsu, 五つ itsutsu, 六つ muttsu, 七つ nanatsu, 八つ yattsu, 九つ kokonotsu, and 十 too. Otherwise, you would use the correct counting particle. If you wish, for example, to count CDs, you would use the particle 枚 mai, which is used for objects of a thin and flat consistency, and would 'count' as such from one to ten...

一枚 ichimai
二枚 nimai
三枚 sanmai
四枚 yomai or yonmai
五枚 gomai
六枚 rokumai
七枚 shichimai or nanamai
八枚 hachimai
九枚 kumai or kyuumai
十枚 jumai

...All the way into infinity. The only hitch is that these counting particles (or the native numbers, if you chose those) must be prefixed to the CDs that are being counted with the particle の no, as in 十五枚のCD juugomai no CD, fifteen CDs, or they must follow the particle that modifies the word CDs and marks its grammatical function in the sentence, as in CDが十五枚あります CD ga juugomai arimasu, I have fifteen CDs. In the latter sentence, "ga" is a particle that marks CD as the subject of the sentence and is roughly equivalent to "Fifteen CDs exist" (if you translate it literally, you get "CDs--fifteen--exist) but is used to express the idea of having or owning the particular inanimate item. This particular counter may also be used to count things such as paper, plates, computer disks, boards, plywoods, mats, etc.

Before we move on to writing, I would like to quickly cover onomatopoeia in Japanese. If you do not remember from your English classes, onomatopoeia are words that represent sounds, such as BOOM! or woof. These are so widespread in Japanese that entire dictionaries are compiled explaining their usage. If you can think it, Japanese probably has onomatpoeia for it. Some examples of which I can think off of the top of my head are pyon pyon (the sound of jumping or hopping), wan wan (a dog bark, like "woof woof"), nyaa nyaa (a cat's meow, like "meow meow"), boro boro (the sound of a large object rolling; may also be used as an adverb to describe something as old and worn), doshin doshin (the sound of footsteps, heavier in particular), paku paku (eating in big bites or mouthfuls; the "pac" of "pacman" comes from this one), pika pika (the sound of something glittering; "pikachu" [Japanese, "pikachuu"] comes from this onomatopoeia plus the word for mouse, chuu), etc.

The sole reason that Japanese and Chinese have something in common would be due to the use of 漢字 kanji (or in modern Chinese, hànzì). It is for this reason, too, that Japanese has a seemingly infinite vocabulary of Chinese words. When the Japanese first began using these characters, they attempted to use the original Chinese pronunciation. However, there were a few problems. For one, Chinese used (as it still does) tones, which were lacking in Japanese. Many of the scholars sent to China to learn these characters ran into another problem because of the diverse dialects and differentiation in not only words but also tones. Secondly, hànzì were not designed for Japanese, and thus could not reflect the inflections on Japanese words and verbs. Finally, many sounds existed in Chinese that do not exist in Japanese (i.e., L, which is often transliterated as an R in Japanese, in accordance with the American English transliteration of the sound as it is often described as being a sound somewhere between the American English L and R sounds).

To compensate, the Japanese preserved the more common original Chinese readings used at the time. These are called 音読み on-yomi (literally, "Sound-readings"). Japanese readings were also assigned, which are called 訓読み kun-yomi (literally, "instructional-readings"). The general rule is that the on-yomi are used for compound nouns, such as 春夏秋冬 shunkashuutou, the four seasons (spring, summer, fall, winter), while the kun-yomi are used for individual native Japanese words, such as 人 hito, person. Many kanji have at least one on-yomi and one kun-yomi, but there are those that may have just an on-yomi but no kun-yomi, or vice-versa.

The general rule for the usage of Chinese words in Japanese is like the use of Latin in English: for formality. Compare:

Native Japanese: 読む yomu, to read
Sino-Japanese (Chinese): 読書する dokusho suru, to read

Native Japanese: 買う kau, to buy
Sino-Japanese (Chinese): 売買する baibai suru to buy, trade

It would be more common to hear the Native Japanese verbs above in colloquial (every day) Japanese, but you may hear the Sino-Japanese ones in more formal spoken Japanese. The Sino-Japanese verbs may be reserved more for literary use, particularly in a formal fashion, but it would not be unheard of to see the Native Japanese equivalents used in writing, albeit in less formal styles.

In some cases, they may also have a second meaning when the alternative Sino-Japanese reading is used, as seen with 売買する baibai suru. If you have ever heard the expression 今日は！konnichi wa!, Hello! or Good Day!, the konnichi (which is often mispronounced by non-native Japanese as if it were three syllables [ko-ni-chi] when it is actually four [ko-n-ni-chi]) is the alternative Sino-Japanese reading of kyou (today), but may also mean "modern" or "now-a-days." If you were to see it written in the context 今日はいいお天気ですね ("Nice weather today, isn't it?"), you would know that it is read kyou because, for one, the sentence-final particle ne is generally used in spoken Japanese, and in colloquial speech kyou is often preferred. If, however, you saw it written as 今日の日本 ("Japan Today") on a newspaper cover, you would know that the more formal konnichi would be required.

Finally, to solve the problem of a writing system that could not accurately show inflections to native words, kanji were arbitrarily used for their phonetic (vs. semantic) meaning. This became strenuous because many kanji are more than just a couple of strokes, and, to make a long story short, they developed 平仮名 hiragana and 片仮名 katakana, which are collectively called 仮名 kana. Originally the use of hiragana was limited to men, while women were only allowed, if even, to use katakana (thus the reason they were once called 女手 onna te, or "women's hand"). In modern times, hiragana are generally used for writing (1) 振り仮名 furigana, small characters that indicate the pronunciation of kanji with which one may not be familiar in a specific writing; (2) 送り仮名 okurigana ("send-out characters"), which are used to write verbal/adjectival suffixes; and (3) Japanese particles as well as native Japanese words that do not have kanji equivalents. Katakana are used to write words and names of foreign origin, and sometimes may be used as a stylistic choice to give emphasis to a word.

So those are some of the notable differences of Japanese. If you wish to know more about something specific, just ask and I'll write more on it.

The Joys of Japanese: Part II

2006-06-29T13:23:00.000-07:00

Probably the first thing that comes to any one's mind when you mention Chinese as a whole is the tonal accent. I do not know about many of the dialects, but Mandarin Chinese, from which the examples are used here, makes use of four tones (1st tone, high and level; 2nd tone, rising; 3rd tone, falling and rising; 4th tone, falling) plus a neutral tone. Cantonese, the second largest dialect, has nine tones. Japanese, conversely, follows a pitch accent. Standard Japanese has two pitches: High [H] and Low [L]. Pitch is far more subtle than tone, and although 80% of Japanese words are classified as flat, or without a pitch, it is the only reason that non-native Japanese speakers stand out. English, to bring it into perspective, has a stress accent. I know nothing of the stress rules in English, but I would imagine that there is no way to classify them since English seems to be one of the most arbitrarily structured languages as a whole that I have ever encountered. Yet I am writing in it. Bizarre.

Verbs. O, verbs. Thou givest us thy power to declare our actions. If you've ever studied Spanish, French, Italian, or some other Indo-European language, you will find Chinese and Japanese simultaneously a blessing and a curse. With European languages you have to memorize not only the tenses but separate suffixes for the different numbers (first person singular, second person singular, third person singular, first person plural, second person plural, and third person plural) and possibly even different forms of address (tú vs. usted), Chinese and Japanese use the exact same form of the verb for every person. That's about as far as my Chinese knowledge goes, but in regards to Japanese, the only thing you have to worry about is recognizing the non-past and past affixes. The rest of the inflections on the verb are merely moods, describing states or conditions.

Let's compare the English verb to speak with the Japanese counterpart 話す hanasu.

English
I speak
You speak
He, She, It speaks
We speak
You (plural) speak
They speak

Japanese
話す hanasu

The Japanese counterpart uses the same form of the verb for the infinitive (or at least, when you look up a verb in a Japanese dictionary [for this reason, they are referred to as the dictionary form], this is the form that you get because infinitives, in reality, do not exist) as well as the conjugations for all persons in neutral Japanese speech. Pronouns are optional, usually for clarification of who is talking, and varying pronouns may be chosen depending on the speaker's sex: i.e., a male speaker may say (in more relaxed situations) 僕が話す boku ga hanasu, while a female may say (again, in more relaxed situations) あたしが話す atashi ga hanasu, and both sexes (in more polite speech, however) わたくしが話す watakushi ga hanasu.. though the verb would require a change in the verbal affix to reflect a more formal tone. It should also be noted that Japanese verbs in this tense are called non-past because these are used to discuss not only present, but also future actions. Thus, the above sentences may be roughly translated either as "I [do] speak" or "I will speak." Context will generally tell you which is correct.

The regular English verb generally ends with -ed (such as talked, walked, etc), though unfortunately, the English equivalent of this verb has an irregular past tense (spoke). Most Japanese verbs in the past are regular except for two (来る kuru, to come and する suru, to do/make) and end with た -ta, with, of course, an exception to three verb types. The past tense of 話す hanasu is 話した hanashita.

These verbs in Japanese also have neutral polite forms. The neutral polite non-past form is 話します hanashimasu and the past form is 話しました hanashimashita. I am not certain on the origin of the suffixes ます -masu and ました -mashita, but I did read somewhere once that it was speculated to have come from the humble verb 参る mairu, meaning 'to go' or 'to come.' I will not discuss honorific and humble verbs herein, at least for now.

Another point of Japanese grammar which may or may not come as to a surprise to those who have never been a student of the Japanese language is that a class of 'true' Japanese adjectives can conjugate just like verbs. This is because originally they are stative verbs in Japanese, or in other words, they automatically have the idea of 'to be' built into them. Thus, the adjective 激しい hageshii, which means violent or intense, can also take the place of a verb and describe a characteristic or condition of someone or something, and may be inflected according to the non-past and past.

激しい雨 hageshii ame "intense rain" or "violent rain"
雨が激しい ame ga hageshii "the rain is [will be] intense" or "the rain is [will be] violent"
雨が激しかった ame ga hageshikatta "the rain was intense" or "the rain was violent"

Adjectives of this type end in -ai (若い wakai, young), -ii (美しい utsukushii, beautiful), -ui (醜い minikui, ugly), and -oi (多い ooi, many, lots), and may be made polite with the addition of desu regardless of tense. Please note that adjectives ending in -ei belong to a different set of adjectives that do not inflect without the help of the copula です desu (or だ da, in its impolite form). This second set of adjectives are originally quantitative compound nouns from Chinese, called quasi-adjectives or "na"-adjectives, though I prefer calling them Sino-Japanese adjectives. This is because in their modifier state (before a noun), they are usually (though not always) followed by な na. A few adjectives of this type may also take の no, and an even rarer few customarily are left without a particle. The reason for the な na, as I speculate, and as you should keep in mind that I am still a student, is because according to my teacher in old Japanese, they used to say なり nari, which is the positive basic stem of the verb なる naru, to become/be, and is probably placed there to make up for the lack of a built in "be" as seen in 'true' Japanese adjectives.

The Joys of Japanese: Part I

2006-06-26T15:56:00.000-07:00

I have to clear up some things that have come to my attention recently. Although I'm only at a Community College and will only graduate with an Associate of Arts degree without having to trouble myself to declare a major until I enter an actual University, as far as I am concerned, I will more than likely major in Japanese and possibly file for a concurrent major in Spanish. My beef doesn't concern Spanish, though, because no one seems to have any trouble discerning Spanish from any other language. It seems, however, that a majority of Westerners seem to think that all Asian languages are the same. Often, when I am asked in what I am majoring, I say Japanese. Later, when it's brought up again in another conversation, it goes, without fail, like this:

Person: "Aren't you majoring in Chinese?"
Me: "No, Japanese."
Person: "Oh, but aren't those the same thing?"
Me: (Rolls eyes) "No."

Let's clarify a few things.

Japanese's linguistic ancestry is widely debated. If classification is necessary, you can be sure to find it either as a Japonic or Altaic language. I'm not that researched since, mind you, I am still a student and do not have enough reliable resources into the scientific writings and theories behind all of this, but as far as my own personal research has gone, it seems that Japanese would more than likely be classified as a Japonic language because its only certain roots are linked to Ryukyuan languages, and those dialects spoken in and around Okinawa. These Ryukyuan languages hold keys to Old Japanese because they have preserved much of its original phonology. The Altaic classification, alternatively, is because grammatical similarities have been identified between Japanese and Korean (Korean's classification here is likewise doubted), but they are not substantial enough to confidently claim a link. However, those in support of such a theory support the argument that Japanese may have originally been a dialect of Ancient Korean.

Mandarin Chinese, in comparison, is said to be a part of the Sino-Tibetan family tree, which includes all major dialects of Chinese.

Grammatically speaking, Japanese and Mandarin Chinese are by no means alike. Japanese follows a Subject-Object-Verb (SOV) word-order, while Mandarin Chinese follows a Subject-Verb-Object (SVO) word-order, much like English. These, obviously, aren't set in stone. English allows for an Object-Subject-Verb structure, and due to its use of enclitics, Japanese may allow for other orders as well, but the general rule is that the main verb of the clause must remain at the end of the sentence for coherency. Compare:

English: I am Chase.
Japanese: Cheisu to moushimasu.
Mandarin Chinese: Wŏ jiào Chase.

I will do my best to avoid an indepth lecture on the grammatical structures of the three languages, but a fairly detailed explanation is required for greater comprehension of the above statements.

The Japanese and Mandarin Chinese both literally mean, "I call myself Chase" as opposed to the English, "I am Chase." You may, however, use the same expression in both languages. Japanese uses the polite copula 'desu' in place of 'to moushimasu' to yield "Cheisu desu." The said expression above uses a verb that belongs to the honorific vocabulary (dubbed keigo) used in Japanese, and literally can be thought of as meaning, "I humbly call myself Chase." Mandarin Chinese calls for the replacement of "jiào" with "shì" (to be), giving "Wŏ shì Chase." Japanese and Mandarin Chinese, in accordance with tradition, however, usually prefer the use of a surname in place of a given name. Given names are generally reserved for family and very close friends. It is only kept herein for the example's sake.

Mandarin Chinese and English also keep the pronoun in the sentence. Though, I'm not studied enough to say that Mandarin Chinese always keeps it. Japanese favors dropping pronouns, or at least if the subject or topic of discussion is understood or you are referring to yourself. This doesn't mean that Japanese doesn't have pronouns; in fact, it has been said that there are thousands of pronouns. The general guideline is to use the surname of the person to or about whom you are talking, plus the suffix -san (roughly equivalent to Mr., Mrs., Ms.), -sama (same as -san but far more polite and even honorific), and a plethora of others.

The Origin of Catastrophe

2006-06-21T20:43:00.000-07:00

If I were to write on my premier post that I'm not one for fads, I would be verbally spanked by my peers. I was once something of a fad whore myself in high school, but as time has passed and pushed those memories farther into the abyss of my mind, I have learned to develop my own identity. It's hard to break habits, however, and I have succumbed to yet another one. I have registered for a blog. What this blog is about and when it will be published, I do not know yet. Putting out this first entry has been quite a mental chore as it is, but I would recommend for now that you either buy a handy Spanish-English and Japanese-English dictionary. You should probably also find a translator, preferably human.

With that, I welcome to you my personal hell! Mwahahahahaha!