meet language exchange partners for free or learn at home with convenient online lessons.

言語交換の相手と無料でお会いしたり、

Buy your first lesson and get your second lesson free. Check out the link in the description below.

室内で便利な対話授業で学びましょう。

Quiz time: Are the following words Chinese or Japanese?

初回を支払えば、 第二回の授業は、無料で受けられます。

First.

下の説明をご覧下さい。

Yes it's Japanese.

問題：次の言語はどちらでしょうか？ 中国語と日本語？

Next.

最初。

It's Chinese.

はい、日本語です。

Next.

次。

Actually, this is both Chinese and Japanese.

中国語。

And finally.

次。

Actually this is neither, this is Thai.

はい。中国語と日本語の両方です。

What, you thought all Asian languages are the same? Racist.

そして最後に。

Hello everyone. Welcome to the LangFocus channel, my name is Paul.

両方違います。タイ語です。

Today's topic is: the question how similar are Chinese and Japanese.

アジアの全ての言語が同じだと思っていましたか？それは人種差別主義者ですよ。

A lot of people look at a map of Asia and see how close Japan and China are or they might look

中国語と日本語はどれ程似ているのか？

at a sample of Chinese and Japanese writing and think that something looks

皆さん、こんにちは。 LangFocusチャンネルへようこそ。

similar and they might conclude that the two languages are similar, but are they

私の名前はポールです。

really similar? Well, the short answer is no they are completely different

今日の話題は、 中国語と日本語がどれ程、似ているかという疑問です。

languages but Japanese has been highly influenced by Chinese in its vocabulary

何れ程、日本と中国が近くに位置するのかを見て

and its writing system

中国語、日本語の書かれた幾つかの文を見て、

Chinese and Japanese do not share any common origin and they don't belong to

2つの言語が似ていると結論づけるかもしれない、

the same language family

然し、本当に似ていますか？さて、短く答えると、

Chinese languages belong to the Sino-Tibetan language family and

完全に異なる言語です。

Japanese as far as we know belongs to the Japonic language family.

しかし日本語は、表記体系と語彙は

Phonology: First off, the phonology of the languages is very different

漢語の影響を受けています。

With the most basic difference being that Chinese is a tonal language while Japanese is not.

中国語と日本語は同じ語族、共通の起源では有りません。

A tonal language is one in which there are tones or pitches that help determine the meaning

中国語はシナ・チベット語族に属しており、

of the words you use; if you used the wrong tone then the meaning of the word changes.

知る限り、日本語は日本語族に属しています。

Here's an example: the word for teacher, "lao3shi1"

音韻論：まず音韻論に於いて言語は非常に異なります。

and the word for naive, "lao3shi2"

基本的な大きな違いは、中国語は声調言語であり

and the word for old-fashioned, "lao3shi4".

日本語は違います。

So I'm sure that Chinese teachers get called naive and old-fashioned all the time by mistake

声調言語は、口調の高低は

or maybe not by mistake.

意味の決定に影響を与えます。

In Japanese there are basically no tones like this that determine the meaning of words.

声調が変われば、単語の意味が変わってしまいます。

In Japanese there is something called pitch accent which means that the syllables of a word have

例：先生（老师） "lao3shi1"

either a higher pitch or a lower pitch but they're not like the tones in

素朴（老实） "lao3shi2"

Chinese because they typically don't determine the meaning of the word

そして、旧式（老式） "lao3shi4"

they're more like stress in English.

ですから、声調を誤れば 教師が、素朴で旧式と呼ばれる事になります。

Structure: the structure and grammar of the two languages is completely different

ある意味、間違えていないかも。

at the most basic level Chinese is an SVO language while Japanese is an SOV language

日本語では、基本的に 声調の高低で意味は決まりません。

Here's an example in Chinese: "ta1shuo1zhong1wen2" This means he speaks Chinese and you can see

日本語の音節には、高低語調があります。

SVO: subject verb object.

より高音、より低音があります。

And here's that sentence translated into Japanese:

しかし中国語の声調とは異なります。 単語の意味までは決定しません。

"kare wa chūgokugo wo hanashimasu".

それらは英語の「強調」に似ています。

Here we can see SOV: subject object verb.

句法：二言語の構造と文法は全く異なります。

And you can see there are some extra little words in Japanese that don't exist in the Chinese sentence

基本的に

for example Japanese has the topic marker "wa" which doesn't exist in Chinese

中国語はSVO言語 主語 - 動詞 - 目的語

and Japanese also has the object marker "wo" which doesn't exist in Chinese.

日本語はSOV言語 主語 - 目的語 - 動詞

Chinese is an analytic language which basically means that you create a

中国語の例です。

sentence by placing independent elements side-by-side. Analytic languages like

他説中文 （彼は中国語を話します。）

Chinese do not use inflection: inflection means modifying words to indicate some

SVO：主語 - 動詞 - 目的語

kind of grammatical meaning like plural, gender, tense or case

そして、文章を日本語に翻訳します。

You don't change any part of a word in order to change its meaning

「彼は中国語を話します。」

Instead you can add to the meaning of that word by adding an extra word next to it

主語 - 目的語 - 動詞ですね。

Japanese on the other hand is an agglutinative language that uses inflection.

そして、中国語の文には存在しない、

Agglutinative languages use a lot of affixes:

いくつか加えられた語が観られます。

Rather than just placing independent words side-by-side you attach additional pieces to words to

例えば、日本語は 中国語には存在しない助詞「は」

add or modify meaning: this kind of inflection in Japanese means that

中国語には目的語の助詞「を」が無い。

Japanese words are often longer than Chinese words and that it may take a few

中国語は総合的言語です

words in Chinese to translate one Japanese word.

総合的言語 基本的に独立要素を並べる事により文章を構成します。

In these Chinese sentences we can see that there's no inflection

中国語の様な総合的言語では、語形変化が存在しません。

"wo3qu4xue2xiao4"

「語形変化」とは、性別、時制、格などの

this sentence means I go to school

文法的な事を示す役割をします。

"wo3qu4xue2xiao4"

中国語では単語の意味を変える際に言葉を変化させません。

this sentence means I went to school

単語の隣に、単語を置く事で新たな意味を加える事が可能なのです。

so no part of the verb is changed indicate the past tense

一方、日本語は、語形変化がある「膠着語」に属します。

We can show the past tense by just adding a time expression.

膠着語は多くの接辞を使用します。

Now these similar sentences in Japanese show inflection

独立した単語をただ並べるのではなく 単語に付加的な部分を付けます。

This sentence means I go to school "watashi wa gakkou e iku"

意味を追加または変更します。 日本語に於いてこの種の語形変化の為に、

I went to school "watashi wa gakkou e itta"

日本語の言葉は、中国語の言葉よりも長い場合が多いのです。

And the polite form of "I go to school": "watashi wa gakkou e ikimasu"

1つの日本語の言葉の翻訳には、中国語で数語程度です。

I want to go to school: "watashi wa gakkou e ikitai".

中国語の例文では、 語形変化がない事が判ります。

In this Japanese example we use inflection changing the word "iku" to the "iki" form

（我去学校） "wo3qu4xue2xiao4"

and then we use agglutination to attach a form that shows intention: "tai".

この文は「私は学校に行く」

In Chinese though there's no inflection or agglutination: you just add an extra word like this.

（我去学校） "wo3qu4xue2xiao4"

That's just a brief sample of how different the grammar is in Japanese and Chinese

この文章は 「私が学校に行った」を意味します。

basically they're completely different languages when it comes to their grammatical structure

過去時制を示すのに

The one area which there is some similarity between Chinese and Japanese is in vocabulary

同じ部分が変化していません。

and in the use of Chinese characters. During a period of great Chinese

過去の時制の 時間表現を追加するだけです。

influence between the 5th and 9th centuries CE there was a huge amount

日本語で似た様な意味の変化に語形変化が観られます。

of borrowing from early Middle Chinese into Japanese.

文は「私は学校に行く」の意味

Japanese originally had no written form so Chinese began to be used as the literary language

「私は学校へ行った」

and as the language of science and of religion.

「私は学校へ行く」公式文 →「私は学校へ行きます」

Chinese vocabulary began to be borrowed into

「私は学校へ行きたい」

Japanese and the Chinese writing system was gradually adapted to fit the

この日本語の例では、 「行く」を「行き」の語形変化が起きる。

Japanese language so not only were vocabulary borrowed

意図を示す形「たい」を接続させます。

But the Chinese characters that represent them were also adopted.

中国語の語形変化や膠着への対応は

60% of the words used in Japanese are of Chinese origin but that includes all of the

この様な文字を追加します。

words in the dictionary and that includes a lot of very specialized, academic

これは、文法が日本語と中国語で

and formal vocabulary that's mainly used in writing.

どの様に異なっているかの簡単な例です。

In spoken Japanese the number of Chinese loan words used as much lower,

文法構造的に完全に異なる言語です

At about 18%. The borrowed words

語彙と漢字

were almost all Chinese nouns; even though in Japanese they might be used as verbs or as adjectives

いくつか類似がある点は、中国語と日本語の語彙です。

that's just one way in which the vocabulary is used differently

それと漢字の使用です。

but also the pronunciation of those Chinese words that were borrowed into

中華文化の巨大な影響力があった

Japanese changed to match the Japanese phonological system and that included

五世紀と九世紀の間に、

the loss of the tones of those words. And also these words were borrowed a long time ago,

膨大な量の早期中古音漢語の借用語が 日本語に導入されました。

which means that the words have also changed in pronunciation in Chinese

日本語は元々表記文字が存在しませんでした。

so the pronunciation has diverged quite a bit,

漢語は文学、科学、宗教の言語として使われ始めました。

meaning that modern Japanese pronunciation and

漢語の語彙が借用され始めました。

modern Chinese pronunciation of similar characters or words is quite different.

日本語体系に漢字は徐々に適合されていきました。

And it's also important to point out that Mandarin was not the standard form of Chinese back in those days

語彙だけを借用しただけでなく、 漢字も採用されたのです。

when those vocabulary words were borrowed into Japanese, so

日本語で使用される言葉の60％は漢語由来です。

Even at the time they were borrowed the pronunciation was different from standard Chinese today

非常に専門的、学術的な文章で使用されている形式的な言葉です。

And from what I understand the modern Japanese pronunciation of those loanwords

これらの言葉は主に

Is often more similar to modern Cantonese than it is to Mandarin

文章において使用されます。

These examples show how the same words are pronounced very differently in Japanese and Mandarin

口語の語彙は約18％程度が借用語です。

The word for family: In Japanese it's "katei"

口語の日本語では漢字語はさらに少なくなります。

and actually in Japanese the meaning is more like household or home

借用語の大半の漢語は名詞でした。

And in Mandarin: "jia1ting2".

日本語では動詞や形容詞として使用可能です。

Next, the word for death: In Japanese: "shibou"

これは語彙は別々に異なる使用方式の為です。

And in Mandarin: "si3wang2"

そして漢字の発音は、日本に借用された際

Next, the word for season: In Japanese, "kisetsu"

日本語の音韻体系に変更され適合されました。

And in Mandarin: "ji4jie2"

この過程で単語の声調は消失しました。

And the word for home country: "In Japanese: bokoku"

大昔に、これらの単語は日本語に導入されたからです。

And in Mandarin: "mu3guo2"

現在、中国語も発音は変化しています。

So you can see that these words look the same and they have basically

その為、両言語の発音は大きく異なりました。

the same meaning but they sound very different

だから、同じ漢字でも、現代日本語と現代中国語において

So Chinese vocabulary represented by Chinese characters were borrowed into Japanese

二つの言語間の発音は大きく異なります。

but those Chinese characters were also then applied to native Japanese vocabulary

当時日本語に借用された漢字の発音は

that had a related meaning to those Chinese loan words

標準中国語の発音ではありませんでした。

That means that a Chinese speaker can often look at a native Japanese word and

当時、標準中国語とは異なった言葉が借用されたものです。

understand its core meaning without knowing that Japanese word because

また、私が知る限り、漢語の現代日本の発音は

the Chinese character is used to represent it

標準中国語ではなく、

So Chinese people can often read a text in Japanese and they can make sense

広東語に似ている場合が有ります。

of the basic meaning of it based on the Chinese characters but they won't understand all the details

この例は、日本語と標準中国語の同じ単語の発音の比較を示しています、

And the same is true in reverse: Japanese people can look at a Chinese text

日本語では「家庭「かてい」　です。

and kind of make sense of the meaning of it

日本語で実際には「家族」より「家」に 近い意味です。

based on the Chinese characters that they know.

家庭 標準中国語 "jia1ting2"。

But it is easy to misunderstand the details of what's written

次に、

especially if they have zero knowledge of the other language

死亡 日本語「しぼう」

Here are some Japanese example sentences that have the same Chinese characters

死亡 標準中国語　"si3wang2"

but the meaning is very different because of the inflection that's used

季節 日本語「きせつ」

"Neko wa sakana wo taberu". That means, The cat eats fish.

季节 標準中国語 "ji4jie2"

"Neko wa sakana wo tabenai". That means, The cat doesn't eat fish.

母国 日本語「ぼこく」

"Neko wa sakana wo tabeta". That means, The cat ate fish, in the past tense.

母国 標準中国語： "mu3guo2"

"Neko wa sakana wo taberutsumori" the cat plans to eat fish

ですから、基本的に同様の単語に見えますね。

"Neko wa sakana ni teberareta", that means The cat was eaten by a fish

基本的には同じ意味です

So a Chinese character reading these sentences would

但し発音は非常に異なります。

get the core meaning of the Chinese characters

漢語の語彙が日本語へ借用されました。

But they would miss something in the inflection

それらの漢字はまた、日本語の語彙にも適用されました

For example the negative, or the past tense, or intention or the passive form

その漢字と似た様な意味を持つ言葉を表現の為に使用されます。

especially the last example could be highly misunderstood

つまり、中国語話者は日本語を知らなくても

So imagine you're an English speaker reading something with English loanwords

日本語の文を観て

it might look something like this

一通りの意味を把握できる場合があります。

Cat bla fish blah food blah blah

漢字が表記されているからです。

Of course even after just a little bit of studying Japanese a Chinese speaker could probably

だから中国人は日本語の文章を読んで

learn enough to understand basic Japanese sentences like that

漢字を通して、基本的な意味の把握が可能です。

For me, as someone who studied Japanese to a relatively advanced level the same is true in reverse:

しかし、詳細は分からないでしょう。

when I was in Taiwan last year on the subway for example I could read a lot of the advertisements

逆も然りです。日本人も中国語の文を読んで

and I would get most of the meaning; I wouldn't understand all of the Chinese characters

自分が知ってる漢字を元に

but I would get usually 3 out of 4 of them and the fourth one would be new to me

全体的な意味は把握出来るでしょう。

because in Chinese there are a lot of characters that actually aren't used in Japanese at all

しかし文の詳細は誤って理解しがちです。

But just getting 3 out of 4 of them was often enough to understand the basic meaning

外国語の知識が全く無い人には、尚更です。

of that advertising but of course I had no idea how to pronounce those Chinese

この例は日本語の文で同じ漢字を含んでいます。

characters and if I tried to read them out loud like the Japanese I would hear

然し、語形変化に応じて

laughter from both my girlfriend and from local bystanders.

意味は千差万別です。

It might seem strange that I can look at a Chinese character in Chinese and understand what

「猫は魚を食べる」

it means without knowing how to say it but think of it as a symbol like a number

「猫は魚を食べない」

the number seven right here is pronounced differently in different languages

「猫は魚を食べた」は過去形です。

but when you see it you know what it means no matter how you pronounce it

「猫は魚を食べるつもり。」

Chinese characters are kind of like that except that they represent a much wider range of meanings

「猫は魚に食べられた」

The Chinese characters used in any particular sentence can be

中国語話者は漢字のみを読めば

very different from those used in the other language for a sentence of similar meaning

漢字部分の意味は理解出来ますが、

and in Japanese there are a lot of compound words that were created from

語形変化の部分で、意味を誤解するかもしれません。

Chinese characters but those compound words don't actually exist in Chinese

それは不定形、過去自制、意図、受動態などの言葉です。

these are called "wasei kango" which means something like Chinese vocabulary created in Japan

特に最後の受動態は完全に誤解するかもしれません。

Here are some examples of "wasei kango": some were created to represent things

英語話者は、想像してみて下さい

unique to Japan like "ninja" "geisha"

英語の借用語で何かを見た時 、恐らくこの様に映るでしょう。

and others were created during the Meiji period to represent Western concepts

猫◯◯魚◯◯食◯◯

like democracy, "minshu".

勿論、中国語話者は

So even though you might recognize a lot of characters when you look at

日本語を少し勉強するだけで

some text in the other language they might be used in a very different way

基本的な文章は理解可能でしょう。

so the meeting will be unclear

比較的高度な水準で

A Chinese speaker might be confused by "wasei kango" when they try to read some Japanese

日本語を学習した人も同じです。 一年前に台湾に行きましたが

and Japanese people might be confused when they read Chinese because

地下鉄で多くの広告を理解可能でした。

there are a lot of Chinese characters that were never borrowed into Japanese in the first place

ほぼ理解出来ました。

or they're not used in modern Japanese

全漢字を網羅していませんが

But in either case, even basic knowledge of the other language

４分の３程度は理解できました。残りは不明です。

would help in reading comprehension quite a bit

そして、中国と台湾の漢字は

Japanese "returned loan words" in Chinese so as we've discussed already

日本語では使用されていない字が多い為です。

lots of Chinese vocabulary was borrowed into Japanese

然し、４分の３程度でも

but some Japanese vocabulary has also been borrowed into Chinese.

広告の大まかの意味の把握には十分でした。

A moment ago I mentioned "wasei kango" Japanese vocabulary created from Chinese roots

勿論、その漢字がどう発音するのか全く知らなかった。

vocabulary that didn't exist in Chinese but some of those "wasei kango"

私が日本式発音で読もうとした場合

have actually been borrowed from Japanese into Chinese

妻と台湾の地元の人々は笑っていました。

Some sources say that such vocabulary accounts for around 30% of modern Chinese vocabulary.

中国の漢字をどう読むか知らず、意味を理解するのは 奇妙に映るでしょう。

Of course the way those returned loan words are pronounced

ですが数字などの記号を思い浮かべて下さい。

is based on the modern Chinese pronunciation of the Chinese characters

数字の７は言語ごとに発音は異なります。

Here are some examples:

発音を知らずとも、何を意味するかは解りますよね？

The word for history in Japanese, "rekishi" and Mandarin, "li4shi3"

漢字もそうです。それらより遥かに多くを表現する点を除けば。

The word for industry, in Japanese, "kōgyō" In Mandarin, "gong1ye4"

一言語の文章で使用された漢字と

The word for electron or electronic in Japanese "denshi" In Mandarin "dian4zi3"

似た意味の漢字が、

The word for injection, in Japanese "chūsha" In Mandarin "zhu4she4"

もう片方の言語で意味が、

The word for philosophy in Japanese "tetsugaku" In Mandarin "zhe2xue2"

非常に異なる場合が有ります。

The word for system in Japanese "keitō" And in Mandarin "xi4tong2"

日本語には漢字で構成された合成語が多いですが、