When you learn several languages that are unrelated to each other, i.e. from different language families, do you sometimes stumble upon unexpected similarities that make it easier for you to learn those languages? When I learn languages I always try to compare them to all other languages I know and find something that is similar, something that can maybe help me to tackle a problem I have with my current target language. Here are three examples from my own language learning experience:
1. Arabic vs German
In many languages, the numbers are read in a similar way like in English. 42 is forty-two, quarante-deux, cuarenta y dos, 四十二， 사 십 이 and so on. But in my mother tongue German it's the opposite: zweiundvierzig literally means "two and forty". So, I was very happy to find out that it's the same in Arabic too: إثنان و أربعون (ithnan wa-araba'un = two and forty). At least one thing, I wouldn't have to scratch my head about in Arabic.
2. Arabic vs Chinese
The Arabic consonant ع 'ayn was quite difficult for me to pronounce. Until I found out, that I could just pronounce it like the Chinese third tone (because both sounds are produced deep in the throat) and it works like a charm. So, now I only need to find solutions for ه خ ح ج ق and I'll have the perfect Arabic pronunciation... ;)
3. Serbian vs Chinese
Serbian has pitch accents, i.e. long and short, rising and falling tones, and here too, my knowledge of the Chinese tones proved to be useful to tackle the Serbian pronunciation. The diacritics are different though and being used to the Chinese ones, I found the Serbian ones illogic to me, but still comparing the two languages helped me a lot.
What about you? Do you have any interesting stories about unexpected similarities?
Hi Miriam,
Many ;-). E.g.:
- three way demonstratives in Japanese （こ、そ、あ） and Spanish (este, ese, aquel) vs. 2-way distinction in most IE & Semitic & Chinese languages (this vs. that)
- use of 有 in Chinese and il-y-a / hay in French/Spanish (also German dialect: "do hot's X")
- Similarities between the way Latin/A. Greek use case endings and Japanese uses postpositions (particles), all the way down to specifics like the Latin ablative and Japanese で
- dual in Arabic/Hebrew/A. Egyptian and older IE languages like Ancient Greek
- perfective aspect in Russian verbs (pro-chitatj) and Chinese (-好， -完， etc.)
- inclusive / exclusive "we" in Chinese languages (我们， 咱们) and some Austronesian languages (e.g. Malay - kami/kita or Hawaiian, the latter also sporting a dual)
& many more. I love coincidences like these - actually, I rather think of them as categories: is this a 2-way demonstrative or 3-way demonstrative language? And then I know how that particular aspect works without too many explanations (although some parts can be tricky, e.g. measure words work very differently in Malay, Japanese and Chinese when you look into the details).
Could go on about this for hours, but won't ;-).
Another example of unexpected similarity is that between the Bantu languages and the Romance languages. I find that the system of noun classes in the Bantu languages, with all their concomitant concord prefixes on verbs, adjectives and the like, reminds me of gender/number agreement in the Romance languages (particularly Italian). As an example, here's the same sentence in Xhosa and Italian with the agreement highlighted:
Esi sihlangu esitsha sam ndiza kusicoca ~ Questa nuova scarpa mia la pulirò,
and in the plural:
Ezi zihlangu ezitsha zam ndiza kuzicoca ~ Queste nuove scarpe mie le pulirò.
One difference is that in Bantu agreement is generally shown at the beginning of a word while in Romance it's generally shown at the end, and also the noun classes are much more numerous in Bantu than in Romance (Xhosa has 15 classes, while Italian has 4).@Diana
Spanish and Portuguese were heavily influenced by Arabic. I read a lot about it, but I realized the degree of that influence only after a short comparison of Spanish with other Romance languages and Latin.
With almost only Arabic vocabulary you could write something like this:
¡Ojalá engarzaras todas las zanahorias a la daga en la mazmorra!
Specifically about similarities that help (you know this story, I wrote it before): Arabic has glottal stop (hamza). You dont' mention it and German has it too:) I know what it is, I could pronounce it, but it took certain effort/concentration.
When I realized that this sound is present in Russian in some interjections, it became much easier to use.
Which was really strange, I was sure that I know this sound, know how to make it and so on. Still only when I understood that I was making the same sound for decades it became easier.
So yes, analogies help (save false ones). The problem is, they all to some extent are false:)
P.S. It is also a pleasant thing to see, when Arabs confuse 'arm' and 'hand' when writing in English:)
In Russian "hand in hand" and "arm in arm" would have the same noun, though we have 'palm'. It feel like the Arab making this mistake is a Russian to an extent.
P.P.S. Russian and English have an ENORMOUS number of 'Russian" or "English" idioms that came from... the Bible.
The Bible was known to Europeans first via Greek and Latin, so some idioms may originate form these two.
But even Gospels (only known in Greek) may have calques from "Middle Eastern" languaeges. Old Testament is full of them.
So I wonder... How many of "European" (Russian, English, German, etc) expressions actually belong to classical Middle East (Semitic or not), came via the Bible and can also be found in Middle Eastern lnaguages. I would love to see such a list.
