Harnessing Chinese morphemes in learning other Sinitic languages - Yi-An Liao | PG 2022

Harnessing Chinese morphemes in learning other Sinitic languages, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese and sometimes even Tibetan vocabulary

This short talk is on the usage of Chinese morphemes in learning other East Asian languages. Classical Chinese has been enjoying an international status in East Asia as Latin in Europe for centuries. In the late 19th century, when the Japanese scholars started to embrace Western knowledge and values, many Western concepts (e.g., democracy, republic, physics) have been translated into Japanese using Chinese characters. Those new words are called Wasei-Kango, meaning that although they are composed of Chinese morphemes, they were invented in Japan, not in China. The new vocabulary has been soon adopted by Korea, China and Vietnam, where scholars from these countries at that time all understood Chinese characters. Hence, knowing the logic of Wasei-Kango (和製漢語) is not only beneficial in learning Chinese languages and Japanese, but also helpful in learning Korean and Vietnamese. On the other hand, the relationship between Tibetan and Chinese is more obscure. Both languages are members from the Sino-Tibetan languages. Some modern Tibetan words echo the words in Old Chinese. In this talk, I will systematically introduce how to harness your knowledge in Chinese characters to learn other East Asian languages.

Website:   / yianlanguage  

This video was recorded at the Polyglot Gathering 2022 (https://www.polyglotgathering.com).