Japanese words and names sound African (2022)

Post by robxorb » Mon, Jun 17, 2024, 1:30 PM UTC

kgeist wrote: post #49

robxorb wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The article seems to say it's random chance, based upon one linguists opinion. Doesn't at all feel right statistically. Seems more likely there would be some kind of missing link. Could someone better informed possibly figure out the odds?

>Doesn't at all feel right statistically Why not? Many unrelated languages steer towards the open syllable rule. It's basically the only similarity between Japanese and African languages. Open syllables without complex consonant clusters are easier to pronounce. Say, Proto-Slavic phonetics mostly allowed only open syllables, although its ancestor and descendants allow more complex clusters. For example, Proto-Indoeur…

Post by ncpa-cpl » Mon, Jun 17, 2024, 5:40 PM UTC

jkuria wrote: post #4

btw, there was once a consular official who worked at the Japanese embassy in Kenya, whose name was Mr. Kuma Moto. Every time he was introduced, it was hard for folks to suppress their laughter as the name literally meant "hot vagina" (in Kiswahili the noun goes first)

Post by euroderf » Mon, Jun 17, 2024, 6:38 PM UTC

RachelF wrote: post #6

retrac wrote: post #2

Because the Bantu languages (most prominently: Swahili) and Japanese have similar sound systems. Finnish is also oddly similar-sounding, or Hawaiian. None of them are actually related. It's because the syllable is restricted in the number of possible forms, in a similar way. (And they all have approximately five vowels. And a pitch accent.) In Hawaiian, nothing but consonant + vowel syllables are possible. Swahili an…

Something amusing about Japanese vs Xhosa (a Bantu language) is that their words for yes and no are reversed: Japanese Hai = yes, Xhosa - Hai is a no Japanese eeye = no, Xhosa - ewe is yes

Post by euroderf » Mon, Jun 17, 2024, 6:41 PM UTC

awesomeideas wrote: post #67

>His lexicostatistical analysis found that less than 30 percent of the similar-sounding words between Plateau State languages and China’s Sino-Tibetan languages share similar meanings. Linguists call these kinds of similarities "accidental evidence." Ok, but that's still a very high percentage. Shouldn't that be surprising?

Post by scotteric » Mon, Jun 17, 2024, 8:46 PM UTC

euroderf wrote: post #105

RachelF wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Something amusing about Japanese vs Xhosa (a Bantu language) is that their words for yes and no are reversed: Japanese Hai = yes, Xhosa - Hai is a no Japanese eeye = no, Xhosa - ewe is yes

The "n" sound denoting negative seems deeply ingrained in English (and also in this native English speaker). So Finnish "niin" for affirmative took a very long time to get used to, and to actually begin using. It just felt wrong.