Thread: Some Asian Languages

Hi there, I think it is useful to talk briefly about the language difference in Asia region as sometime we tend to mix them up.
Even though all Asian countries share many cultural customs, they do have their own language, similar in some cases though, that is certainly different nowadays.
Let's take a look to the following list of countries that are having similarities in their language script:

Country	Official Speaking Language	National Language Script
Japan	Japanese	Hiragana, Katagana, Kanji (adaption of Chinese character) and Romanji in some cases.
Korea	Korean	Hangul (Korean alphabet) and hanja (adaption of Chinese character)
China	Chinese Mandarin	Chinese simplified
Hong Kong	Yue Chinese (Cantonese) and English	English and Yue Chinese with its own language rule and wording different from those of traditional Chinese.
Vietnam	Vietnamese	chữ Quốc ngữ (Vietnamese alphabet) and chữ Nôm (adaption of Chinese character)
Taiwan	Chinese Mandarin	Chinese traditional
Singapore	Malayu (also uses English and Chinese)	Malayu, English and Chinese simplified.
Macao	Macaense, English	Chinese simplified, Portuguese, English and Yue Chinese

Thank you for the details, iyuanobi.
Can you explain the difference between Mandarin and Cantonese? Which one should I learn if I want to speak with most people from Mainland China?

Is the language spoken in Macao different from Chinese Mandarin/Cantonese? Or is it kind of like a mix of both?
I always thought the language spoken was Chinese Mandarin....

Hi!
What about Karen? It's mainly a spoken language, right? But it does have a writing system.
How is the script called? It's so beautiful! ♡＾▽＾♡

Karen uses a Brahmic Script. It is mostly spoken in Myanmar, where you can also find similar languages such as Karenni, or Burmese.
This script, and the type of symbols used in those languages make it very dificult to handle or translate using any software or CATTool. Any Poject Manager would tell you to be very careful when starting any translation into Karen.

About Karen... one unique characteristic of the Karen languages includes the use of pitch and tone to distinguish between words that would otherwise seem identical.

Originally Posted by Maximiliano

About Karen... one unique characteristic of the Karen languages includes the use of pitch and tone to distinguish between words that would otherwise seem identical.

Isn't that the same for Chinese? They have different tones too. Though I guess it's not the same, since kanji encompass a whole concept, while Karen has got an alphabet (just guessing here) so context is more important.
Just rambling out loud... kind of...

For what I see in that chart, most of these languages in the chart derive in one way or another from Chinese, because iyuanobi says "adaption of Chinese character". So, iyuanobi, to you, do these languages (at least from a writing perspective) look alien enough to render you completely clueless about what they say? I mean, speakers of languages using the Latin alphabet, even if they don't understand the meaning of the words in another language, can tell you where a word starts and where it ends, whereas, the Arabic alphabet looks completely puzzling.

Is there a similar affinity between those languages you listed there?

Originally Posted by francot

For what I see in that chart, most of these languages in the chart derive in one way or another from Chinese, because iyuanobi says "adaption of Chinese character". So, iyuanobi, to you, do these languages (at least from a writing perspective) look alien enough to render you completely clueless about what they say? I mean, speakers of languages using the Latin alphabet, even if they don't understand the meaning of the words in another language, can tell you where a word starts and where it ends, whereas, the Arabic alphabet looks completely puzzling.

Is there a similar affinity between those languages you listed there?

I'm no expert, but I all my Japanese teachers used to be able to make sense (somewhat) of Chinese writing. They used to say that because the Chinese don't use Kana, it was easier for them to understand Chinese that for a Chinese to understand Japanese.

What do you think iyuanobi?