funny coincidence between languages

[Keith]

My understanding is that some pejoratives in Korean have hanja behind it (Chinese characters). I won't get into details though But it's interesting to know that these words have been around at least a few hundred years!

[bialun]

as to this word - it was explained in one of the podcasts, where duyeon is going to get a job in a 서점... as a flshback: it went from germany to japan and then to korea and can now be shortende to alba...
i wonder if there are any other words that have come the same way...

Actually, in Hanbando the movie I think I heard the word MAMA when adressing the empress (여왕 이). I wonder, if it means something like "your highness" for a female ruler?

[austinfd]

as to this word - it was explained in one of the podcasts, where duyeon is going to get a job in a 서점... as a flshback: it went from germany to japan and then to korea and can now be shortende to alba...
i wonder if there are any other words that have come the same way...

Actually, in Hanbando the movie I think I heard the word MAMA when adressing the empress (여왕 이). I wonder, if it means something like "your highness" for a female ruler?

Yep, 마마: http://endic.naver.com/small_endic.nhn?docid=2258430

That was an interesting movie. I learned the word 각하! (translated as Mr. President) And my dictionary calls it "Your Excellency"

[bialun]

각하 made me laugh cause in russian it is a word for kids meaning 똥))))

[austinfd]

각하 made me laugh cause in russian it is a word for kids meaning 똥))))

Yeah, I think that's common in a lot of languages, actually...

[Bouks]

Reviving this thread for another funny language coincidence...

The verb nominalizer "기", which we're just starting to learn now in the Beginner classes, is the same as a nominalizer in Persian which you use with adjectives.

examples:
tired - "khaste"
fatigue - "khastegi"

alive - "zende"
life - "zendegi"


Too bad this doesn't help me understand the Korean nominalizations better

Just more useless but interesting trivia from the little world in my head

[johnkeaney808]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I think both Korean and Japanese have their roots in the Chinese language. So that's why many words in these 3 languages sound similar. In fact, Korean used to be written entirely using Chinese characters (Hanja) although they were pronounced differently. It was only later that the Korean characters as we know them today were used.

A lot of Chinese vocabulary was imported into Japanese and Korean due to the influx of new ideas, culture or technology (such as Buddhism or writing) from China.

The origins of Korean and Japanese are still not certain. They definitely are not related to Chinese (all the borrowed vocabulary is deceptive in that way). Some people believe that they are related to each other, as they share similar grammar.
Some argue that they are related to Altaic languages which cover Mongolian and Turkish, as they have similar structures. Korean is seen as a more likely candidate for an Altaic language than Japanese, although the evidence is still 'iffy' at best for either.

It could be that they are both language isolates, not related to any other languages, or each other.


PS. In Japanese they have 'arubaito' meaning part-time job, I think that comes from German too.

[SiEd]

Here's one that always boggled me

the days of the week in China, Japan, India, Korea, and Europe have the same planets for the days!

It's less obvious in English...but think about French and Korean days of the week.

(my keyboard isn't working very well right now so I can't write in hangeul, sorry!)
Monday- Lundi- Weolyoil (Lundi- lune....even in English Monday= Moon day)
Tuesday- Mardi (mars)- hwayoil (hwa= fire, or fire planet aka mars)
Wednesday- Mercredi (Mercury) - suyoil (su- water, or waterplanet, mercury)
Thursday- Jeudi (Jeuve, Jupiter)- mokyoil (wood planet, jupiter)
Friday- Vendredi (Venus)- geumyoil (the metal/gold planet is...you guessed it, Venus )
Saturday (this one works in English too *Satur*n day)- Samedi - Doyoil
Sunday (*Sun*day)- Ilyoil.

English days are a bit more difficult in terms of teasing out their respective planetary bodies, but they're still there:

Tuesday - Tyr's Day - Tyr was the Norse god of war, cf. Mars
Wednesday - Odin's Day - Odin, Norse god of wisdom and prophecy, also a shapshifter, cf. Mercury
Thursday - Thor's Day - Thor, the Norse god of thunder, cf. Jupiter (wielder of thunderbolts)
Friday - Freya's Day - Freya, the Norse goddess of beauty, love, cf. Venus

Yes, that also occurs in Sanskrit and languages that borrowed the Sanskrit terms, such as Balinese:

Monday - Balinese: Soma (moon)
Tuesday - Balinese: Anggara (Mars)
Wednesday - Balinese: Buda (Mercury)
Thursday - Balinese: Wrespati (Jupiter)
Friday - Balinese: Sukra (Venus)
Saturday - Balinese: Saniscara (Saturn)
Sunday - Balinese: Redite (sun)

It's not surprising in itself that these heavenly bodies should be found cross-linguistically as day markers - these are the most visible to the naked eye. What is surprising, though, is the fact that they reflect the same order across languages.

[SiEd]

That was an interesting movie. I learned the word 각하! (translated as Mr. President) And my dictionary calls it "Your Excellency"

Actually, "kaka" and "kakak" are used as respectful "older sibling" kinterm (usually an older male, but could be for females) in many languages in SE Asia, such as Indonesian, Tagalog, and Javanese. And in Javanese, it seems that it was widely used for royalty with combinations of other kinterms, e.g. princes from the more senior wives were called "kakang mas" (mas = older brother, lit. my older sibling, older brother), and kings were addressed as "kakang prabu" (my older sibling, the king). Very interesting to see that Korean has something similar.

[Keith]

Here's one that always boggled me

the days of the week in China, Japan, India, Korea, and Europe have the same planets for the days!

It's less obvious in English...but think about French and Korean days of the week.

(my keyboard isn't working very well right now so I can't write in hangeul, sorry!)
Monday- Lundi- Weolyoil (Lundi- lune....even in English Monday= Moon day)
Tuesday- Mardi (mars)- hwayoil (hwa= fire, or fire planet aka mars)
Wednesday- Mercredi (Mercury) - suyoil (su- water, or waterplanet, mercury)
Thursday- Jeudi (Jeuve, Jupiter)- mokyoil (wood planet, jupiter)
Friday- Vendredi (Venus)- geumyoil (the metal/gold planet is...you guessed it, Venus )
Saturday (this one works in English too *Satur*n day)- Samedi - Doyoil
Sunday (*Sun*day)- Ilyoil.

English days are a bit more difficult in terms of teasing out their respective planetary bodies, but they're still there:

Tuesday - Tyr's Day - Tyr was the Norse god of war, cf. Mars
Wednesday - Odin's Day - Odin, Norse god of wisdom and prophecy, also a shapshifter, cf. Mercury
Thursday - Thor's Day - Thor, the Norse god of thunder, cf. Jupiter (wielder of thunderbolts)
Friday - Freya's Day - Freya, the Norse goddess of beauty, love, cf. Venus

Yes, that also occurs in Sanskrit and languages that borrowed the Sanskrit terms, such as Balinese:

Monday - Balinese: Soma (moon)
Tuesday - Balinese: Anggara (Mars)
Wednesday - Balinese: Buda (Mercury)
Thursday - Balinese: Wrespati (Jupiter)
Friday - Balinese: Sukra (Venus)
Saturday - Balinese: Saniscara (Saturn)
Sunday - Balinese: Redite (sun)

It's not surprising in itself that these heavenly bodies should be found cross-linguistically as day markers - these are the most visible to the naked eye. What is surprising, though, is the fact that they reflect the same order across languages.

I think this may be because the concept of 7 days in a week were created by...... the Greeks? or Romans? (not sure).... So the days of the week would have came from that. In Korean, Chinese, Balinese, etc

[SiEd]

I think this may be because the concept of 7 days in a week were created by...... the Greeks? or Romans? (not sure).... So the days of the week would have came from that. In Korean, Chinese, Balinese, etc

Upon further investigation, the origins go even earlier - the Babylonians, who got them from the Sumerians.

Another question: are there certain days of the year in Korea (apart from holidays) when you're either highly encouraged or discouraged to engage in an activity?

For example, in Bali, if anyone is born on either May 17 or December 13 of this year (the date(s) change every year since the Balinese year only has 210 days per cycle), these days are known as Tumpek Wayang and are considered unlucky for the child. There's an old tale about a demon named Kala who wanted to eat his younger brother on this day, but their father Siwa intervened and commanded Kumara, the younger brother, to look after children born on this day so that Kala won't eat them...

Anyway, expensive offerings must be made and a special puppeteer must be summoned to perform a special shadow play (not that that would be a bad thing for the kid)...

[sierras3]

각하 made me laugh cause in russian it is a word for kids meaning 똥))))

Yeah, I think that's common in a lot of languages, actually...

It's the same in German... 각하 = 똥 ^_^

Some words in Korean are actually similar to certain words in some Chinese dialects.

Example: 학생 (student) and 책 (book) is also pronounced the same way in Hokkien.

Can't think of anymore at the moment... I may be back to edit ^_^

[Enkiae]

I think this may be because the concept of 7 days in a week were created by...... the Greeks? or Romans? (not sure).... So the days of the week would have came from that. In Korean, Chinese, Balinese, etc

Upon further investigation, the origins go even earlier - the Babylonians, who got them from the Sumerians.

Yeah, the Sumerians and Babylonians gave their ideas to the Egyptians, and Greeks took a lot of religious concepts from Egypt, and the Greeks had lots of cultural exchanges with the Hindu civilizations during the Alexander era (like Pythagoras whose cult had ideas of reincarnation and vegeterianism), and THEN Buddhism spread to China with these ideas, and the Chinese in turn spread them to places like Korea, ect

I think it's very fascinating. Proof of very ancient globalization and cultural exchanges ( history nerd )

[the_haunted_boy]

I one time played a Russian song backwards and it sounded like Korean...

[SiEd]

Just wanted to turn your attention to this coincidence.

My handle here, "SiEd", may look unusual, so I'll break it down. "Ed" is my name, and "si" is a personal article, like "the" but only used for names in several languages of the Philippines and Indonesia, such as Tagalog and Indonesian. This really reminds me of Korean -씨. Like Korean -씨, "si" is typically used with first names, e.g. Si Edi, Si Wati, Si Kardi, Si Hyunwoo .

Additionally, "si" can occur with particular descriptive verbs that can stand in for a name, e.g. Indonesian gundul 'bald' -> Si Gundul 'Baldy'; Tagalog kalbo 'bald' -> Si Kalbo 'Baldy'. Can this happen with -씨?