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According to this paper https://www.lingref.com/cpp/decemb/5/paper1617.pdf https://www.lingref.com/cpp/decemb/5/paper1617.pdf the natural linguistic evolution t
by bluquark 2y ago
According to this paper https://www.lingref.com/cpp/decemb/5/paper1617.pdf https://www.lingref.com/cpp/decemb/5/paper1617.pdf the natural linguistic evolution towards compounds in Chinese was well under way by the time of Middle Chinese (~800CE). And most of the cultural exchange with Japan happened after that.
- smallnamespace 2y agoThat’s true, but many Japanese terms for describing the modern world were mass-imported into Chinese during the late Qing and Republican eras (think 1900-1930). The Chinese republicans looked towards Japan as a model for how to develop, and part of that was importing new lexicon wholesale, since Japanese scolars had already helpfully transliterated Western concepts into new compounds during the Meiji era.
- qingcharles 2y agoAnd lets not forget the enormous number of English (and other) words imported into Japanese that look crazy to a non-Japanese speaker, but once you spell out the katakana you realize it is just English (e.g. ホテル / hoteru = hotel, シングルルーム / shingururūmu = single room)