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Popular myths about the Japanese, English, Chinese and other languages
Bashny.Net
Who else govoritIzuchenie foreign languages - some fun, but not easy, it requires patience and determination. Last but not least the motivation of wanting to learn languages affect common misconceptions. In our collection we decided to debunk some of them and tell them how things are in reality.
1. The Japanese language is unique and can not be vyuchitMnogie Japanese have long believed that the Japanese language is unique and truly understand it can not be a foreigner. It's part of the concept Nihondzinron (Nihonjinron - «Theory of Japanese"), emphasizes the special character of the Japanese culture and the Japanese themselves and supposedly distinguish them from other peoples. Nihondzinron argues that Japanese uniform and too closely associated with the Japanese outlook. Most of the foreigners who are trying to understand the Japanese, they say that "anyone who, by incredible efforts will attempt to learn how to speak Japanese, will soon realize how futile were his efforts».
Most of the arguments Nihondzinrona ridiculously wrong. The Japanese language is not homogeneous; it is divided into dozens of different dialects, which is quite logical for the island nation. The dominant national language, hyojungo, was originally based on the Tokyo dialect, but since then, even in the capital now has its own dialect. The idea of the uniqueness of Japanese linked to the practice of comparison with European languages and fear of differences. However, compared with the world's languages as a whole, the linguistic structure of the Japanese language is too complex. Written Japanese may seem complicated because of the use of four different writing systems (kanji, hiragana, katakana and romaji), but conversational Japanese find it relatively easy to learn the language because of consistent rules of conjugation, effective lexicons, and the fact that the Japanese often take long pauses amid talk of trying to recall the right word for wisdom, not timidity.
2. French is the most logichenNa over the past four centuries, the French tried hard to disseminate widely the myth that their language is one of the most clear and logical. In 1647 a famous French scholar Claude Favre de Vozhela said: "In all that we say we follow the exact order of logical thought, which is the order of nature».
The idea was that the French system has a natural logic, grammar and clarity that was missing in other languages, even Latin spoiled ambiguous and confused. Some linguists consider je excellence of French civilization itself a reflection of perfection. However, the problem lies in the fact that any language is linear, which is not the logic and human perception. When we see that the bear eats fish, we perceive its entirety, without reference to the linguistic structure in which a bear (the subject) - eat (verb) - fish (object). In any language can be expressed in a logical and clear, and in any language, including French, you can do so incoherently that can confirm anyone who tried to talk to people selling cheap souvenirs under the Eiffel Tower.
3. Chinese characters - is ideogrammyIdeogrammy - symbols that carry a complete thought, for the understanding of which is not necessarily knowledge of the language. Typical examples are the symbols «No Smoking» or a skull and crossbones. Hundreds of years European thinkers thought that the Chinese characters - is nothing but as ideograms. It was assumed that these letters could be read and understood by anyone who knew its value, bypassing language and causing the images directly in the mind. Although this concept is inspired by linguists and philosophers, it can be called too crude a simplification of Chinese writing.
It is not possible to completely separate from the written speech, retaining the ability to express complex or important concepts. Chinese characters consist of two components - the phonetic and semantic. Phonetic ingredients help to learn correct pronunciation of the word and the semantic contain his sense of himself. Characters that do not have these two components make up only about 15% of the total, and are usually used as components in other phonetic symbols.
As for the idea that the characters can be used as a universal form of communication - is an exaggeration. It is true that the characters can sometimes be used for communication between speakers of different Chinese dialects, but very simplistic.
4. Welch trudnoproiznosim arhaichenValiysky language and has long served as an occasion for jokes the British, claiming that it is a dying language, which lacks the vowel sounds and is almost impossible to pronounce. In 1749, English explorer John Torbakov described the Welsh as "language is not designed for any of the mouth, which can be seen on the example of one of our friend, who tried to say something in Welsh, almost choked consonants, and would have died if we do not pat him on the back ».
Welshman - a Germanic word meaning "foreigner". The Welsh language is quite simple and pronunciation, and writing - enough to learn the basic rules. In contrast, English is notorious for its chaotic spelling. Welch scares English speakers simply because it uses other linguistic principles, but they are no worse than the principles of the English, and even more easy to understand.
The lack of vowels - hypocritical accusation, given that five English and Welsh seven vowels. Extremely long and weird place names associated with the cultural tradition of inventing place descriptive names. The famous village Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch (Лланвайрпуллгвингиллгогерыхверндробуллллантисилйогогого́х) is translated as "The Church of St. Mary in the hollow of white hazel near the rapid whirlpool and the church of St. Tisilio near the red cave." But even this example is far-fetched; the present name of the village was Llanfairpwllgwyngyll (llanfairpwllgwyngyll), meaning "Church of St. Mary in the hollow of white hazel." The longer name was created as a publicity stunt in 1860 to draw attention to the new station.
5. British English - is a real English yazykPrinyato assume that the form of English spoken in the United Kingdom, is a real English, and all other forms, such as American, Australian, New Zealand and South African English, deviate from the norm. In fact, the dialect of English used in the British Isles, in the last three centuries has changed much more than the standard American English.
In the 1700s, the English used in the London and North American colonies was rhotic, which means that the letter «r» after consonants, or end of a word is pronounced. Americans say so until now, but in the 19th century in the UK has become the standard neroticheskoe pronunciation, which lowered the letter «r» in the words as «hard» or «far». This option is used by the upper classes and became part of the British pronunciation, which was considered easy to understand. Through colonialism, mass education and Bi-bi-si nerotichesky English has become the standard in the British Isles and in many British colonies.
Some areas of the United States, which had close ties with the South of England during the colonial period, such as New England and part of the South, also adopted neroticheskuyu habit. The colonists of other parts of the United States often came from Ireland, Scotland and rhotic-speaking regions of England, which led to the preservation of rhotic speech in American pronunciation to date.
6. In primitive cultures primitive yazykiEst common misconception that human cultures have a lower level of development - respectively simpler language systems. This idea is often associated with the idea that the form of language used by groups of people with low income, as defective. This is absolutely wrong. Linguists have proven that all languages are equally well-equipped in order to allow the person to express what he wants to say, and in many cultures, with a low level of material development is amazingly complex and expressive language.
For example, in the Sami have 1000 different words to describe the deer, and although the rumor is that there is a 50 Inuit words for snow is considered a linguistic myth, new evidence suggests that this may be some truth to that. Similarly, in the Italian language has many words to define the types of coffee and pasta. English as an international, suited to cope with everything from scientific papers to the chatter at the bar, but it does not make it linguistically more advanced than the Amazonian language, to discuss highly specialized hunting methods and tactics.
7. edinBolshinstvo Chinese people believe that the Chinese - is a complex language that communicates over 1, 3 billion people. Others, due to the influence of Hong Kong cinema, there are two types of language: Mandarin and Cantonese.
The Chinese government puts forward Mandarin as the standard language, leaving all the other dialects. In fact, there are dozens of different languages spoken in China, and they differ from the common mandarin more than one European language from another.
The most widespread dialect - woo. It is spoken in Shanghai, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Anhui, Jiangxi and Fujian. This dialect is commonly called "Shanghai." Cantonese spoken in Hong Kong, Macao, Guangdong, Guangxi and Hainan - a language with nasal sound, long vowels and nine tones, and are considered, it retains a number of features of classical Chinese. Tang Dynasty poet often write poems in Cantonese, and very rarely - on Mandarin.
In the early 20th century Shanghai intellectuals advocated the selection of a common language to facilitate communication throughout the vast country. But this desire has caused negative consequences for them, as has been chosen widespread and relatively easy language is Mandarin, which led to the systematic repression of other forms of the Chinese language. However, in these languages still spoken by millions of people in China and overseas Chinese communities around the world.
via listverse.com/2015/04/29/10-myths-and-misconceptions-about-world-languages/
1. The Japanese language is unique and can not be vyuchitMnogie Japanese have long believed that the Japanese language is unique and truly understand it can not be a foreigner. It's part of the concept Nihondzinron (Nihonjinron - «Theory of Japanese"), emphasizes the special character of the Japanese culture and the Japanese themselves and supposedly distinguish them from other peoples. Nihondzinron argues that Japanese uniform and too closely associated with the Japanese outlook. Most of the foreigners who are trying to understand the Japanese, they say that "anyone who, by incredible efforts will attempt to learn how to speak Japanese, will soon realize how futile were his efforts».
Most of the arguments Nihondzinrona ridiculously wrong. The Japanese language is not homogeneous; it is divided into dozens of different dialects, which is quite logical for the island nation. The dominant national language, hyojungo, was originally based on the Tokyo dialect, but since then, even in the capital now has its own dialect. The idea of the uniqueness of Japanese linked to the practice of comparison with European languages and fear of differences. However, compared with the world's languages as a whole, the linguistic structure of the Japanese language is too complex. Written Japanese may seem complicated because of the use of four different writing systems (kanji, hiragana, katakana and romaji), but conversational Japanese find it relatively easy to learn the language because of consistent rules of conjugation, effective lexicons, and the fact that the Japanese often take long pauses amid talk of trying to recall the right word for wisdom, not timidity.
2. French is the most logichenNa over the past four centuries, the French tried hard to disseminate widely the myth that their language is one of the most clear and logical. In 1647 a famous French scholar Claude Favre de Vozhela said: "In all that we say we follow the exact order of logical thought, which is the order of nature».
The idea was that the French system has a natural logic, grammar and clarity that was missing in other languages, even Latin spoiled ambiguous and confused. Some linguists consider je excellence of French civilization itself a reflection of perfection. However, the problem lies in the fact that any language is linear, which is not the logic and human perception. When we see that the bear eats fish, we perceive its entirety, without reference to the linguistic structure in which a bear (the subject) - eat (verb) - fish (object). In any language can be expressed in a logical and clear, and in any language, including French, you can do so incoherently that can confirm anyone who tried to talk to people selling cheap souvenirs under the Eiffel Tower.
3. Chinese characters - is ideogrammyIdeogrammy - symbols that carry a complete thought, for the understanding of which is not necessarily knowledge of the language. Typical examples are the symbols «No Smoking» or a skull and crossbones. Hundreds of years European thinkers thought that the Chinese characters - is nothing but as ideograms. It was assumed that these letters could be read and understood by anyone who knew its value, bypassing language and causing the images directly in the mind. Although this concept is inspired by linguists and philosophers, it can be called too crude a simplification of Chinese writing.
It is not possible to completely separate from the written speech, retaining the ability to express complex or important concepts. Chinese characters consist of two components - the phonetic and semantic. Phonetic ingredients help to learn correct pronunciation of the word and the semantic contain his sense of himself. Characters that do not have these two components make up only about 15% of the total, and are usually used as components in other phonetic symbols.
As for the idea that the characters can be used as a universal form of communication - is an exaggeration. It is true that the characters can sometimes be used for communication between speakers of different Chinese dialects, but very simplistic.
4. Welch trudnoproiznosim arhaichenValiysky language and has long served as an occasion for jokes the British, claiming that it is a dying language, which lacks the vowel sounds and is almost impossible to pronounce. In 1749, English explorer John Torbakov described the Welsh as "language is not designed for any of the mouth, which can be seen on the example of one of our friend, who tried to say something in Welsh, almost choked consonants, and would have died if we do not pat him on the back ».
Welshman - a Germanic word meaning "foreigner". The Welsh language is quite simple and pronunciation, and writing - enough to learn the basic rules. In contrast, English is notorious for its chaotic spelling. Welch scares English speakers simply because it uses other linguistic principles, but they are no worse than the principles of the English, and even more easy to understand.
The lack of vowels - hypocritical accusation, given that five English and Welsh seven vowels. Extremely long and weird place names associated with the cultural tradition of inventing place descriptive names. The famous village Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch (Лланвайрпуллгвингиллгогерыхверндробуллллантисилйогогого́х) is translated as "The Church of St. Mary in the hollow of white hazel near the rapid whirlpool and the church of St. Tisilio near the red cave." But even this example is far-fetched; the present name of the village was Llanfairpwllgwyngyll (llanfairpwllgwyngyll), meaning "Church of St. Mary in the hollow of white hazel." The longer name was created as a publicity stunt in 1860 to draw attention to the new station.
5. British English - is a real English yazykPrinyato assume that the form of English spoken in the United Kingdom, is a real English, and all other forms, such as American, Australian, New Zealand and South African English, deviate from the norm. In fact, the dialect of English used in the British Isles, in the last three centuries has changed much more than the standard American English.
In the 1700s, the English used in the London and North American colonies was rhotic, which means that the letter «r» after consonants, or end of a word is pronounced. Americans say so until now, but in the 19th century in the UK has become the standard neroticheskoe pronunciation, which lowered the letter «r» in the words as «hard» or «far». This option is used by the upper classes and became part of the British pronunciation, which was considered easy to understand. Through colonialism, mass education and Bi-bi-si nerotichesky English has become the standard in the British Isles and in many British colonies.
Some areas of the United States, which had close ties with the South of England during the colonial period, such as New England and part of the South, also adopted neroticheskuyu habit. The colonists of other parts of the United States often came from Ireland, Scotland and rhotic-speaking regions of England, which led to the preservation of rhotic speech in American pronunciation to date.
6. In primitive cultures primitive yazykiEst common misconception that human cultures have a lower level of development - respectively simpler language systems. This idea is often associated with the idea that the form of language used by groups of people with low income, as defective. This is absolutely wrong. Linguists have proven that all languages are equally well-equipped in order to allow the person to express what he wants to say, and in many cultures, with a low level of material development is amazingly complex and expressive language.
For example, in the Sami have 1000 different words to describe the deer, and although the rumor is that there is a 50 Inuit words for snow is considered a linguistic myth, new evidence suggests that this may be some truth to that. Similarly, in the Italian language has many words to define the types of coffee and pasta. English as an international, suited to cope with everything from scientific papers to the chatter at the bar, but it does not make it linguistically more advanced than the Amazonian language, to discuss highly specialized hunting methods and tactics.
7. edinBolshinstvo Chinese people believe that the Chinese - is a complex language that communicates over 1, 3 billion people. Others, due to the influence of Hong Kong cinema, there are two types of language: Mandarin and Cantonese.
The Chinese government puts forward Mandarin as the standard language, leaving all the other dialects. In fact, there are dozens of different languages spoken in China, and they differ from the common mandarin more than one European language from another.
The most widespread dialect - woo. It is spoken in Shanghai, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Anhui, Jiangxi and Fujian. This dialect is commonly called "Shanghai." Cantonese spoken in Hong Kong, Macao, Guangdong, Guangxi and Hainan - a language with nasal sound, long vowels and nine tones, and are considered, it retains a number of features of classical Chinese. Tang Dynasty poet often write poems in Cantonese, and very rarely - on Mandarin.
In the early 20th century Shanghai intellectuals advocated the selection of a common language to facilitate communication throughout the vast country. But this desire has caused negative consequences for them, as has been chosen widespread and relatively easy language is Mandarin, which led to the systematic repression of other forms of the Chinese language. However, in these languages still spoken by millions of people in China and overseas Chinese communities around the world.
via listverse.com/2015/04/29/10-myths-and-misconceptions-about-world-languages/
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