{"id":4511,"date":"2011-10-24T23:10:09","date_gmt":"2011-10-24T22:10:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.widmann.org.uk\/?p=4511"},"modified":"2024-08-08T20:05:58","modified_gmt":"2024-08-08T18:05:58","slug":"is-chinese-easier-than-esperanto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/widmanniana.org\/blog\/is-chinese-easier-than-esperanto\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Chinese easier than Esperanto?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\"\"<\/a>
\n
\nStreet Seller with fresh melons<\/a>
\nOriginally uploaded by IvanWalsh.com<\/a>
\n<\/span>\n<\/div>\n

In Chinese, many concepts that we tend to have a single monolithic root word for in Western languages are expressed through more or less random compounds.\n<\/p>\n

For instance, watermelon is \u897f\u74dc x\u012b gu\u0101<\/i> \u201cwestern gu\u0101\u201d, cucumber is \u9ec4\u74dc\thu\u00e1ng gu\u0101<\/i> \u201cyellow gu\u0101\u201d, pumpkin is \u5357\u74dc n\u00e1n gu\u0101<\/i> \u201csouthern gu\u0101\u201d, papaya is \u6728\u74dc m\u00f9 gu\u0101<\/i> \u201ctree gu\u0101\u201d, wax gourd is \u51ac\u74dc d\u014dng gu\u0101<\/i> \u201cwinter gu\u0101\u201d, sweet potato is \u5730\u74dc d\u00ec gu\u0101<\/i> \u201cground gu\u0101\u201d, and cantaloupe melon is \u9999\u74dc xi\u0101ng gu\u0101<\/i> \u201cperfume gu\u0101\u201d.\n<\/p>\n

In the same way, wheat is \u5c0f\u9ea6 xi\u01ceo m\u00e0i<\/i> \u201clittle m\u00e0i\u201d, barley is \u5927\u9ea6 d\u00e0 m\u00e0i<\/i> \u201cbig m\u00e0i\u201d, oats is \u71d5\u9ea6 y\u00e0n m\u00e0i<\/i> \u201cswallow m\u00e0i\u201d, rye is \u9ed1\u9ea6 h\u0113i m\u00e0i<\/i> \u201cblack m\u00e0i\u201d, and quinoa is \u85dc\u9ea6 l\u00ed m\u00e0i<\/i> \u201cpigweed m\u00e0i\u201d.\n<\/p>\n

I find it interesting to compare this with a constructed language such as Esperanto which has been created in order to be easy to learn, yet such compounds are generally shunned. For instance, wheat is \u201ctritiko\u201d, barley is \u201chordeo\u201d, oats is \u201caveno\u201d, rye is \u201csekalo\u201d, and quinoa is \u201ckvinoo\u201d.\n<\/p>\n

Perhaps it\u2019s just me, but I personally find the Chinese compounds much easier to memorise than Esperanto\u2019s root words. There\u2019s also the advantage that even if you don\u2019t know a specific compound, so long as you know the last part of it, you can make a qualified guess \u2013 a compound ending in \u9ea6 m\u00e0i<\/i> is probably some kind of cereal.\n<\/p>\n

I do appreciate that the choice of the first part of the compound places the language is a specific cultural context \u2013 English speakers would of course prefer to call watermelons \u201cwater gu\u0101\u201d rather than \u201cwestern gu\u0101\u201d, which is rather meaningless here \u2013 but surely the compounds could be based on a wide variety of languages to alleviate this problem.\n<\/p>\n

Of course Chinese is not in general easier than Esperanto. Apart from the fact that many other areas of learning Chinese are very hard, the compound building isn\u2019t always perfect. For instance, Denmark is called \u4e39\u9ea6 d\u0101n m\u00e0i<\/i> \u201cred m\u00e0i\u201d in Chinese \u2013 the characters have clearly been chosen due to their pronunciation rather than their meaning, but a learner might get terribly confused trying to figure out what this red cereal is and why it\u2019s got a queen.\n<\/p>\n

However, I think Esperanto would have been easier to learn if wheat, barley, oats, rye and quinoa had been called \u201cmajeto\u201d, \u201cmajego\u201d, \u201chirundmajo\u201d, \u201cnigromajo\u201d and \u201camarantmajo\u201d instead of the current unanalysable root words.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Street Seller with fresh melons Originally uploaded by IvanWalsh.com In Chinese, many concepts that we tend to have a single monolithic root word for in Western languages are expressed through more or less random compounds. For instance, watermelon is \u897f\u74dc x\u012b gu\u0101 \u201cwestern gu\u0101\u201d, cucumber is \u9ec4\u74dc hu\u00e1ng gu\u0101 \u201cyellow gu\u0101\u201d, pumpkin is \u5357\u74dc n\u00e1n gu\u0101 \u201csouthern gu\u0101\u201d, papaya is \u6728\u74dc m\u00f9 gu\u0101 \u201ctree gu\u0101\u201d, wax gourd is \u51ac\u74dc d\u014dng gu\u0101 \u201cwinter gu\u0101\u201d, sweet potato is \u5730\u74dc d\u00ec gu\u0101 \u201cground gu\u0101\u201d, and cantaloupe melon is \u9999\u74dc xi\u0101ng […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[159,160,117,154],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-en","category-eo","category-linguistics","category-zh"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/widmanniana.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/widmanniana.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/widmanniana.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/widmanniana.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/widmanniana.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4511"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/widmanniana.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4511\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13652,"href":"https:\/\/widmanniana.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4511\/revisions\/13652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/widmanniana.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/widmanniana.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/widmanniana.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}