Message Forum: Re: Weirdo Anime Geeks Should Read This!

Re: Weirdo Anime Geeks Should Read This!

Posted By: Eric Sleator, on host 68.7.40.26
Date: Thursday, November 28, 2002, at 01:30:08
In Reply To: Re: Weirdo Anime Geeks Should Read This! posted by neongrey on Wednesday, November 27, 2002, at 20:37:28:

> Seriously. I'm halfway through Intermediate
> Japanese(2nd year) and halfway through
> Introductory German(1st year). My level of
> comprehension of the two languages is roughly
> equal. I think my German's better, though
> Japanese -is- infinitely easier to pronounce.

And German at least has the virtue of being in some way related to English. You can't say the same thing about Japanese. See, English and German both come from a language called Proto-Germanic, which is admittedly unattested but has been reconstructed by linguists, and Proto-Germanic came from an earlier unattested-but-reconstructed-by-linguists language called Proto-Indo-European. This same language is also an ancestor of most modern European languages and some Indian (from India) languages as well. Japanese, however, ultimately stems from a language that linguists call Proto-Martian, which also produced Klingon, BASIC, and that beeping language R2D2 talks in that C3PO always just responded to in English anyway.

-Eric Sleator
Thu 28 Nov A.D. 2002

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Message:	> > Seriously. I'm halfway through Intermediate > > Japanese(2nd year) and halfway through > > Introductory German(1st year). My level of > > comprehension of the two languages is roughly > > equal. I think my German's better, though > > Japanese -is- infinitely easier to pronounce. > > And German at least has the virtue of being in some way related to English. You can't say the same thing about Japanese. See, English and German both come from a language called Proto-Germanic, which is admittedly unattested but has been reconstructed by linguists, and Proto-Germanic came from an earlier unattested-but-reconstructed-by-linguists language called Proto-Indo-European. This same language is also an ancestor of most modern European languages and some Indian (from India) languages as well. Japanese, however, ultimately stems from a language that linguists call Proto-Martian, which also produced Klingon, BASIC, and that beeping language R2D2 talks in that C3PO always just responded to in English anyway. > > -Eric Sleator > Thu 28 Nov A.D. 2002
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