How Similar Are Chinese, Japanese, and Korean?
This question came to mind after some variation of it (Can Chinese, Japanese, and Korean people understand each other?) was asked in Information Theory Maxi at HCSSiM. Although at the time, I flamed the person who asked this question (and I’m really sorry), I realized I somewhat misinterpreted it as a yes-or-no question when I was told it was asked as a “to what degree” question. So to further delve into this question, we will define a K₃ (complete graph with 3 vertices, essentially a triangle) with the set of vertices V = {Chinese, Japanese, Korean}, and we’ll look in-depth at each element of 𝔍(V), pronounced “the James of V” (the set of all subsets of V).
{∅}
My knowledge on Japanese and Korean is somewhat limited, but if I were to answer the question, then overall, no, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean people cannot understand each other’s native languages. Chinese is a leaf of the Sino-Tibetian language tree, Japanese is in the Japonic language family, and Korean is part of the Koreanic language family. However, similar to two romance languages, it’s reasonable to assume that they can make out a few words here and there, which is nowhere near enough to comprehend anything in conversation.
{Chinese}
The oldest written Chinese can be traced back to the 13th century BCE, and all dialects of modern Chinese are derived from Old and Middle Chinese. Modern Chinese only started to develop around 1100 CD, and 官话 (guānhuà), which was derived from the Nanjing dialect, was the lingua franca used in China until around 1900. The modern Chinese we still use today, 普通话 (pǔtōnghuà), was derived from the Beijing dialect, but although it’s taught in schools across China and Taiwan, many speakers still use their local varieties in day-to-day life.
{Japanese}
Old Japanese started to form around 700 CE, or the beginning of the Nara period. Texts during this period, such as Kojiki, were written entirely in Chinese characters, or 漢字 (kanji). The Heian period, around 800 CE, was when Early Middle Japanese began to see use, especially in literature. ひらがな (hiragana) and カタカナ (katakana) were developed around this period, and Chinese loanwords began to make their way into the language. Late Middle Japanese, during the Kamakura and Muromachi periods from 1200 to 1600, was when many of the modern aspects of Japanese began to develop. Additionally, loanwords from European languages such as Portuguese began to see usage; パン (pan, from Portuguese pão, meaning bread) and ボタン (botan, from Portuguese botão, meaning button). During the Edo Period, the standard changed from the Kansai dialect to the Edo dialect, which eventually turned into the modern Tokyo dialect that’s used today. However, similar to Chinese, many regions of Japan still use their local dialect every day.
{Korean}
The oldest attested form of Korean is Old Korean, which was spoken in the Korean Peninsula until the fall of the Unified Silla in 935 CE. It was written entirely using Chinese characters, or 漢字 (hanja), as can be found in the 향가 (hyangga, or poems written during the rule of the Unified Silla). Middle Korean began to develop in 918 CE, when the Goryeo dynasty was formed. At this point, Korean was still written in hanja, and it was a tonal language. In 1443, King Sejong the Great wrote the 훈민정음 (Hunminjeongeum), which created the modern writing system used in Korea, called 한글 (hangul). Modern Korean, which developed around 1600, is somewhat different; a few vowels were dropped along with the intonations, and consonants were simplified. Now, there exists differences in dialects by region, especially between North Korea and South Korea.
{Chinese, Japanese}
There are some fundamental differences between Chinese and Japanese. For one, Chinese is a logographic/morphographic language, meaning each character represents a word or a meaningful unit, or a morphograph. Japanese also uses Chinese characters, which in Japanese are also morphographic, and a significant amount of kanji preserve their meaning in Chinese which makes Japanese writing somewhat understandable to Chinese speakers, and vice-versa. But Japanese also uses kana, which are phonographic, meaning each of the ninety-two kana represent one of forty-six sounds. These aren’t found anywhere in Chinese so without prior knowledge, a Chinese speaker wouldn’t understand anything written in kana.
Furthermore, Chinese sentences, as well as English sentences, follow a subject-verb-object (SVO) sentence structure while Japanese sentences follow a subject-object-verb (SOV) sentence structure. (The subject performs the action, the verb is the action, and the object receives the action.) For example, in the sentence “她留了言”, “她” (she) is the subject, “留” (to leave behind) is the verb, and “言” (speech/words, but closer to “message” in the context of the sentence) is the object, while in the sentence “彼女はメッセージを残しました”, “彼女” (she) is the subject, “メッセージ” (message) is the object, and “残しました” (left behind) is the verb.
Kanji typically have two pronunciations; on’yomi readings are based on Chinese pronunciation of kanji while kun’yomi readings are based on the native Japanese word that matches the meaning of the character. “伝” can be read “でん” (den) in words such as “伝統” (dentou, meaning tradition), but it can also be read “つた” (tsuta) in words such as “伝える” (tsutaeru, meaning to convey/transmit). Because of the on’yomi readings, some words sound similar in Chinese and Japanese:
- 新 (xin/shin, meaning new)
- 手段 (shǒuduàn/shudan, meaning method or procedure)
- 水 (shui/sui, meaning water)
- 出版 (chūbǎn/shuppan, meaning publishing)
So yes, some words sound similar and thus might be picked up in speech, and quite a few words are written the same and have almost identical meanings, but overall, no, Chinese and Japanese speakers are not likely to understand each other.
{Chinese, Korean}
There are several differences between Chinese and Korean too. Compared to Chinese, Korean, specifically hangul, is phonographic, and Korean follows an SOV sentence structure, similar to Japanese. Additionally, hanja is rarely used in modern Korean, but it’s still found in legal documents, ancient literature, and it’s sometimes used to clarify homophones (words with the same pronunciation but different meanings).
However, due to Chinese influence, many Korean words sound similar to their Chinese counterparts:
- 会议/회의 (huìyì/hoeui, meaning meeting)
- 東/동 (dōng/dong, meaning east)
- 快乐/쾌락 (kuaile/kwaerag, meaning happy/delight)
- 韩国/한국 (hánguó/hangug, meaning Korea)
Despite these similar sounding words, the grammar, the majority of vocabulary, and the writing system are so different that Chinese and Korean speakers cannot understand each other in conversation.
{Japanese, Korean}
The Korean language has some Japanese influence because it was under Japanese rule for a few decades due to the Russo-Japanese War and the Japan-Korea Treaty of 1910. Japanese and Korean both use completely different writing systems, but they at least have the same sentence structure (SOV). For example, in “お客様にお菓子を頂いた” and “고객님께 과자를 받았습니다”, お客様 (okyakusama) and 고객님 (gogaeknim) mean customer, お菓子 (okashi) and 과자 (gwaja) mean sweets, and 頂いた (itadaita) and 받았습니다 (badatseumnida) mean to receive.
Just for fun, here are a few cognates:
- 料理/요리 (ryōri/yori, meaning cooking)
- 簡単/간단 (kantan/gandan, meaning simple)
- 注意/주의 (chūi/juui, meaning attention)
- 記憶/기억 (kioku/gieog, meaning memory)
However, again, Japanese and Korean speakers aren’t likely to understand each other.
{Chinese, Japanese, Korean}
All three of the languages are vastly different, even though they come from around the same region and share similar origins. Purely for fun, here are a few cognates between all three languages:
- 參加/參加/참가 (cānjiā/sanka/chamga, meaning participation)
- 本/本/본 (běn/hon/bon, meaning book)
- 时间/時間/시간 (shíjiān/jikan/sigan, meaning time)
- 图书馆/図書館/도서관 (túshūguǎn/toshokan/doseogwan, meaning library)
- 安/安/안 (an/an/an, meaning calm or peaceful)
That makes 17 examples of cognates throughout the entire post, which seems like a good place to stop. However, returning to the original question, “Can Chinese, Japanese, and Korean people understand each other?”, I think it’s safe to say that the answer is a definitive no.
Life Update!
Yes, I’m procrastinating on my college applications. It’s not a big deal for now, but sometimes it feels like I’ve taken on so many responsibilities or activities that I don’t even make time for. I need to spend more time on things that actually matter instead of wasting it. On another note, writing something more informative and a bit less personal was quite fun for a change! Although it was much more time consuming, I might write more posts like this one.
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