The first time I noticed a coincidental interchange of word meaning was with the word for point (点) meaning a spot, mark, or dot. It seemed coincidental that this was used in many words for keeping score of something. The English word “point” is also used for keeping score and means a spot, mark, or dot on it’s own.
Then I found the same similarities for the word for face (面) being used for a human face and the face of a surface. Just like the English word “face”.
Same thing with the word fruit (果) which is often used in place of the word “result” as well as the actual edible fruit. Well in English sometimes we say “the fruit of your labors” where we use fruit in place of result. What the heck? 一体?
Is this pure coincidence or do they come from the same root somehow?
I think it’s just that these are logical connections to make. I think it would be stranger, as if the Japanese people were aliens or something, if they didn’t have some overlapping similarities in how they conceptualize the world.
Sometimes though, there is just a borrowing from Western language to Japanese. The 4 character idiom 一石二鳥 is not from ancient China like most such words. It’s an adaptation of the English “two birds with one stone.”
It seems too much of a coincidence though. Why Fruit? Why not Rice, or Wheat. They just happened to be the same exact things? Back when these sayings were produced, I expected they were aliens to England.
Agreed. There are plenty that do not match. When they match perfectly like this, its just wild to think two different nations without contact were thinking the exact same thing. I understand for words and saying that came later, its the most basic ones that probably go back thousands of years that get me.
I mean, you don’t have to go far with fruit to see one that doesn’t make much sense at all in English. Another character that means fruit is 実. No connection between fruit and truth in English that comes to mind for me.
EDIT: Fruit of the tree of knowledge is kind of similar, but I’m not sure that it’s the same kind of 1:1 relationship you were referring to above.
I think the weekdays used around the world were all derived from one source, otherwise they wouldn’t all be 7 days right? Monday was always the day of the moon from the very start I am pretty sure.
You see the exact same god/planet=weekday correlation across many Latin-influenced languages. Although for some reason English kept Sunday and Saturday while they got renamed for God (Deus) and Sabbath in other languages…
週の日
星
celestial body
Germanic god
English
Roman god
Latin
Italian
Spanish
French
日曜日
日
Sun
Sunne
Sunday
sol
dies Sōlis
domenica
domingo
dimanche
月曜日
月
Moon
Mōnda
Monday
luna
dies Lūnae
lunedì
lunes
lundi
火曜日
火星
Mars
Tīw
Tuesday
Mārs
dies Martis
martedì
martes
mardi
水曜日
水星
Mercury
Wōden
Wednesday
Mercurius
dies Mercuriī
mercoledì
miércoles
mercredi
木曜日
木星
Jupiter
Thunor
Thursday
Jūpiter
dies Jovis
giovedì
jueves
jeudi
金曜日
金星
Venus
Frige
Friday
Venus
dies Veneris
venerdì
viernes
vendredi
土曜日
土星
Saturn
Saturday
Sāturnus
dies Saturnī
sabato
sabado
samedi
Sources propose that the 7-day week came to Japan from the Egyptians by way of the Greeks, Romans, Indians, and (maybe) Chinese.
Curiously, China has the god=planet associations, but not the weekdays. Days of the week in Chinese are simply numbered 一二三四五六日. (Okay, 日 isn’t a number, but close enough.)
It’s also funny that the days of the week in Japanese are similar to romance languages, while in Portuguese (a romance language), except for Saturday and Sunday they’re all completely different
Because the caloric/sugar content, for humans as well as other primates, finding fruit was a big jackpot. In Hebrew, פְּרִי can mean fruit, labor, profit, result, offspring, gain, etc…
If you look at the source I linked to, these weekday names were on Japanese record well before the Meiji reforms. They were not used for common purposes until then, but that just brought the existing names into common use.
Thanks for the correction but reading carefully the link: they borrowed them form the Chinese who borrow them from India who borrowed them from ? I’d bet on Alexander once ruled everything from Egypt, Greece, etc… His empire was vast and it ended where India starts. The article tells a story of slow diffusion which is quite different from a strange coincidence.
Back to the original topic:
I was surprised at 文字通り ↜ “by the letter” ↝ “literally”. But that seems like a good way to express the concept, so perhaps it shouldn’t be surprising.
There were also a number of familiar words which surprisingly turned out to be loanwords from Japanese to Chinese - the opposite of the usual borrowing direction - such as 図書館 → 圖書館, or 幼稚園 → 幼稚園, which itself is a calque from the German kindergarten.
i totally agree with you , English is not my mother tongue and i do find some similarities between English and my mother tongue language in words meaning and use. there are also some idioms that has the same wordings.
International standard ISO 8601 says weeks start on Mondays
Israel uses Friday-Saturday weekends (Shabbat begins at sundown on Friday by modern reckoning) and weeks starting on Sunday.
But, to make things more confusing: many other Middle Eastern countries used to have Thursday-Friday weekends (Jumu’ah takes place the day before Sabt), leading to weeks starting on Saturday.
An ISO published in 1988 seems younger to me than tradition
That ISO was set up as a way of properly exchange information with time and data in the internet and other applications and it is not adopted by everyone, it has its limits
I agree that everything is a bit confusing… and fascinating at the same time
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