〈2〉 ◆ chap 1 “ What a strange language Japanese is ! ”
part 1. Order of the sentence is completely reversed ?
Of course, in general, in Western languages and Japanese, the order of the sentences is often reversed, especially in Latin languages such as Spanish, Italian and French. In many cases, how to use adjectives is reversed in English, making it more conspicuous.
For example, “White House (HOWAITO HAUSU)” is “SHIROI IE” in Japanese, the order is exactly the same. But in Spanish, “Casa Blanca”, it will be read as "home white", and "beautiful flower" will be expressed as “flor bonita”, thus being "flower beautiful".
(But when it is announced as "Casa Blanca" on TV, whether it is a white house or a city of Morocco, we can not distinguish it. Spaniards, about "White House", isn’t it better to use English?)
So, except for the subject (though in any language it will basically be placed at the beginning of the sentence), there are some cases where the placement of Japanese and Spanish words is exactly the opposite.
The other day, I was so surprised teaching nursery rhymes in Japanese class!
(The soliloquy of the apple)
『RINGO NO HITORIGOTO』
(El monólogo de la manzana)
(I'm a bright red apple.)
WATASHI WA MAKKANA RINGO DESU.
———————————————————
〈ES〉ー Yo soy una manzana muy roja.
（WATASHI DESU RINGO MAKKANA）
(My country is a cold northern country.)
OKUNI WA SA-MUI KITA NO KUNI
———————————————————
〈ES〉ー Mi país es el país frío del norte
（OKUNI DESU KUNI SA-MUI NO KITA）
(one sunny day in the apple field )
RINGO BATAKE NO HARETA HI NI
———————————————————
〈ES〉ー En el día despejado de campo de manzana
（NI HI HARETA NO BATAKE RINGO）
(Packed in a box, “Choo Choo Train” )
HAKO NI TSUMERARE KISHAPOPPO-
———————————————————
〈ES〉ー POPPO-TREN metiéndose en la caja
（KISHAPOPPO- TSUMERARE NI HAKO）
(I arrived at the town market.)
MACHI NO ICHIBA NI TSUKIMASHITA
———————————————————
〈ES〉ー Llegé al mercado de la ciudad
（TSUKIMASHITA NI ICHIBA NO MACHI）
(Apple - - - , cute soliloquy )
RINGO RINGO RINGO, RI-NGO KAWAII HITORIGOTO
——————————————————————————
〈ES〉ー Manzana Manzana Manzana, Manzana Monólogo Bonito
(RINGO RINGO RINGO, RI-NGO HITORIGOTO KAWAII)
This is a nursery song that is very nostalgic for Japanese people. At each bottom it is written in Japanese which was translated in the order of Spanish, so it is slightly different from an English array.
Even so, comparing the order of the sentences of Japanese and Spanish. Most of them are opposite. Especially "RINGO BATAKE NO HARETA HI NI", "HAKO NI TSUMERARE KISHAPOPPO-", "MACHI NO ICHIBA NI TSUKIMASHITA", are perfectly upside-down, aren’t they?
The exceptions are two sentences: the first and the second, but, except for the subject, others are obvious to each other SAKASAMA(opposite). Especially since the verb changes for each person in Spanish, often omitting the subject (French seems not to leave out subjects as English does). Then, the first sentence should also be completely reversed.
Basically, if the order of Japanese words is “subject + 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5”, in Spanish is “subject + 5 + 4 + 3 + 2 + 1”, so if the subject is omitted, it should be exactly the opposite sentence structure. Therefore, when translating each other's sentences, often it will be best translated if you translate it from the last word in order.
This is such a mess. Spanish and other Latin-speaking people gather every day trying to imagine words on the contrary of Japanese people and trying to speak naturally.
I see students in Japanese classes with distorted faces when they are trying to speak. It is natural that they are embarrassed. Poor things! ! But it is the same with our Japanese. It is very difficult for people to become acquainted with western languages, right?
Even so, why has this happened?
Go back to history and imagine!
One day, a genius boy student who knows everything and can master freely anything from Catalan, Spanish, English, French, German and even Turkish, Hindi, Chinese, Japanese ... he told me like this: "I bet it probably started in Africa where humanity was born, two tribes appeared in them, one group of people said," I ate lion! "Another group of people said," I lion ate! " This discrepancy inevitably spreads more and more with the development of the language. Wasn’t it inevitable that even positions such as adjectives and prepositions had to be reversed?"
Indeed, that possibility may be very high!
When they arrived at the eastern edge of the Eurasian continent "Japan" and the western edge "Spain”, it is no wonder that eventually they see the order of words was completely the opposite. But the Turkish language he learned seems to have the verb coming in last like the Japanese.
Speaking of Turkey, which is between the two countries. Why?
No, Spain has a mysterious language too. It is in the Basque Country located on the north coast of this country. They speak "Basque", which is grammatically and phonetically very similar to Japanese, I mistook a Basque commercial for a Japanese one.
And in Basque, the verb comes at the end of the sentence. Unfortunately, this language is said to be an “illusionary language” whose origin is still unknown in academic terms.
What a mysterious is this language!
Thus, there’s a question that rises. If only we could see and hear this linguistic transition of humanity with our eyes, how fun it would be! I would like to take a look at how, when and who created these new words and changed their order.
Hence this conclusion,
☆ Let's make our brain reversal fun! ☆
Yes, this is the trick for foreigners to learn Japanese and for Japanese to master foreign languages!
ーーー The next post will be
<3> chap 1 “ What a strange language Japanese is ! ”
part 2. The language you speak sounds like you sing !?
This is published ⇩
https://vivasouy.whatisjapanese.com/2020/02/part-2-language-you-speak-like-you-sing.html
See you, soon !!
◎ If you want to read this blog in Japanese,
click here → https://note.com/1020souy1020
・・・The numbers in ( ), are in sync with each other・・・
☆
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