Subject: Re: [FFML] [FFML] Ranma no Baka -Reply
From: wyrm@mail.utexas.edu (Thomas R Jefferys)
Date: 5/8/1997, 8:15 PM
To: Andrew Huang
CC: fanfic@fanfic.com

Japanese is related to no other language in the world. You would therefore
       Excuse me? A significant portion of Japanese is based off of
Chinese.

I know. It doesn't count. The majority of the lexicon of any language is
very fluid. Languages can (and do) borrow like crazy. The majority of
English words are derived from French and Latin, but that doesn't make
English a Romance language. It's Germanic. English's core lexicon (ie, very
basic words describing everyday living and the function words) is made
almost completely of words of Germanic origin. Also, it's grammar is
distinctly Germanic, most notibly in the syntax of articles, adjectives,
the declining of verbs, and especially the obligatory SV structure (ie, you
must have a named subject, unless it's a command).

Many Japanese words are of Chinese origin, but these are mere borrowings.
The core lexicon of Japanese is very different from the core lexicon of
Chinese. Their grammars are also very different. Chinese is rigidly SVO,
while Japanese leans toward SOV. Japanese uses enclitics to denote
grammatical significance, while Chinese is more positional. Chinese has no
grammatical politeness. Japanese does. Chinese is tonal, Japanese isn't.
Japanese has vowel length, Chinese doesn't.

Sorry, Andrew. Chinese and Japanese have only a borrowing relation.
Japanese is not a Sino-Tibetain Language.

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