Arabic is full of little surprises like this. What other words have completely different meanings depending on the your dialect? 😊

One of the reasons I think toddlers learn language quicker is because people constantly try to interact and teach them and correct them when they're young. This happens every moment throughout their life.

But as an adult to learn a new language if it's outside the classroom, other people who speak said language are not actively trying to teach AND may lose patience in trying to communicate which is essentially communicating like speaking to a toddler in an adult body when it comes to the language. Add in the embarrassment of the new speaker to not seem like a toddler and if there is a common language it just saves so much time to switch to the common language so why bother going through hoops.

I think if people like friends were constantly trying to help and are patient as they would be with a little child it would be easier for adults to pick up a language. And ofc the learner needs to be actively trying to speak and not fear embarrassment. But alas the classroom seems like the most strong way at this point.

What do y'all think?

日本・中国等之漢字文化圏使用所謂｢漢字｣。如諸君既知之、漢字乃一種之表意文字也。

In Japan, China, and other parts of the Sinosphere, people use what are known as Sinographs (漢字) or Chinese characters. As you may already know, Sinographs are a type of ideographic writing.

組合漢字而表現複雑文意事、所謂｢漢文｣也。

The practice of combining sinographs to express complex meanings is what we call Sinography (漢文).

表意文字貫通言語之壁故、於東洋、異言語話者間之用漢文意志疎通自古代至現代盛也。所謂｢筆談｣也。

Because ideographic writing can transcend linguistic barriers, people in East Asia have used Sinography to communicate across language boundaries from ancient times to the present day. This practice is known as brush talk (筆談).

所謂｢古典漢文｣乃漢字文化圏之伝統的共通文語也。於日本中国韓国、学生皆之於学校。

What is commonly called Classical Chinese has traditionally served as a shared written language across the Sinosphere. Students in Japan, China, and South Korea all study it at school.

又近年所謂｢偽中国語｣大流行而、特於網上為国際交流多用。偽中国語専用社交網｢対多｣於appli之人気序列記録一位而為話題、又日本国河野外相訪中時以偽中国語発信而集注目等、各国媒体屡報道之。於reddit亦 r/fakechinese 、r/Sinography 等複数偽中国語板存在。

In recent years, so-called Fake Chinese (偽中国語) has also become hugely popular, particularly as a means of international communication online. The dedicated Fake Chinese social networking app Tsuita (対多) made headlines after reaching the top of the app popularity rankings. Japan's Foreign Minister, Taro Kono, also attracted attention by posting in Fake Chinese during a visit to China. Such developments have repeatedly been covered by media outlets in various countries. Reddit, too, hosts several communities devoted to Fake Chinese, including r/fakechinese and r/Sinography.

妾日々与海外之友人等楽筆談。相手之出自乃和人、漢人、朝鮮人、越南人、蒙古人、満州人、独乙人、仏国人等々、多種多様也。妾以和語所作漢文、彼等以彼等之母語読之、彼等以彼等之母語所作之漢文、妾以和語読之。

I enjoy engaging in brush talk with friends overseas every day. They come from a remarkably diverse range of backgrounds: Japanese, Chinese, Taiwanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Mongolian, Manchu, German, French, and more. I compose Sinographic texts based on Japanese, which they read in their respective native languages. Conversely, they compose Sinographic texts based on their own native languages, which I read in Japanese.

如諸賢既知之、日本語与中国語与英語乃語族且違全然異言語也。｢Blue bird tweets｣乃日本語之場合｢Aoi toriga saezuru｣而中国語之場合｢Qing niao zhuan｣也、但以漢文書之則日本語中国語英語全｢青鳥囀｣而、不得区別其外形也。

As you may already know, Japanese, Chinese, and English are entirely different languages belonging to different language families. For example, the English phrase “Blue bird tweets” would be rendered as aoi tori ga saezuru in Japanese and qīng niǎo zhuàn in Chinese. Yet, when written in Sinography, all three can be represented by the same characters: 青鳥囀. Their written forms alone do not reveal which language is being expressed.

実面白事哉。漢文為日本語且中国語且英語乃明白也。

Isn't that fascinating? It seems to demonstrate that Sinography can be Japanese, Chinese, and even English.

於漢文、言語学之所見如何哉？　

But how should we understand Sinography from a linguistic perspective?

待望言語学者諸君之意見！

I eagerly look forward to hearing the opinions of linguists and other interested scholars!

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妾以上記求西洋言語学者友人之意見。

I sought the opinions of a Western linguist friend on the above.

答之西洋言語学者友人応答曰：

In response, my Western linguist friend replied: Generally, in linguistics, spoken language is the main subject of study, and what we're most concerned with. Written language is seen as a technology or a cultural artifact. How you write a language has little impact on the characteristics and properties of the spoken language.

妾曰：

I asked: Is Western linguistics, then, unfamiliar with the study of written ideographic systems, such as Sinography, that are not directly tied to any one spoken language?

西洋言語学者友人応答曰：

My Western linguist friend replied: No. People who study languages that use hansi(Sinograph) are familiar with hansi. That's not the point I made. The point I made is that, in linguistics, the main object of study is spoken language. We do not classify, or build phylogenetic trees of languages based on their alphabet/writing system, but on characteristics of the spoken languages.

I know many people would even argue that the study of writing system doesn't even belong to linguistics as a field. Though I'm not sure that this is an universally accepted view.

Classical Chinese is not Japanese, and writing systems are not languages.

Classical Chinese was a spoken language at some point in time, which got codified using a specific writing system. That writing system has been used to capture other, unrelated languages.

Writing systems are in fact outside the area of expertise of most (though not all) linguists, since they are not particularly relevant to most (though not all) linguistic questions.

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諸君如何以為乎？　待望諸君考察！

What do you all think? I eagerly await your reflections!

The Iberian dialects are technically Italian dialects in the same sense that the Latinic dialects are technically Italic dialects because they have the "made in Italy" origin.