In Basque, the third-person singular of the verb “to be” is “da”, which is the same as Japanese informal copula だ. Also, we say “bai” to express agreement, which is very similar to はい.
On another note, this is not about similar vocabulary, but I think it’s a beautiful coincidence too: according to a Basque legend, foxes get married when there’s rain and sun at the same time (sunshower) - we call that atmospheric event “azeriaren ezteia” or “azeri-ezkontza” (literally “fox wedding”). In Japan, there is a legend that tells the same, and they call this kind of rain 狐の嫁入り, “the fox’s wedding”
There are some theories that Ainu-language has same origins than Finno-Ugric subgroup and thus Japanese might have some (super distant) relation to Finnish. As far as I know, there are no words that are the same (except loanwords like サウナ), but both languages have vowel harmony, have no grammatical gender and add suffixes/prefixes/both onto root-words, to name a few.
It is also a often used joke in Finland that Japanese sounds so similar to Finnish (accent, flow, speed, pronounciation) that we could just make up our own japanese words by splitting our words into shorter parts.
An example of these jokes (the answer kinda looks like it is Japanese, right?):
How is Japanese formula driver called? -Kato Siko Takakumi. (literal translation: ”did the back wheel disappear”)
When I lived in Japan and sometimes heard someone talking outside my window so that I could not comprehend exact words, it sounded so similar to Finnish that I almost believed it was
Spanish and Japanese have very similar pronunciation, so there are many connections you can make between the two. Here’s some I can think of right now.
パン (Bread) being exactly the same in Spanish (although I dunno if this counts as it is a Portuguese loanword).
俵（たわら - Sack）meaning some kind of local pub in Venezuelan Spanish (taguara). They both give me some rustic vibe so they pair well in my head.
又（また - Again) meaning either “plant” or “kill”. I don’t have any paring for this but it’s a funny coincidence nonetheless.
外（そと-Outside) Being a common last name.
屈む(かがむ-To bend down) Sounds a little like “to shit” (cagar), which pairs well with bending down lol.
消える（きえる-To vanish) Sounds like quiero (I want). 欲しいものはすべて消えていく
駄目（だめ-No good) is pronounced exactly like “give me” in Spanish but with different accentuation, which makes me think of a child begging for something “DAme, DAme!” while his mom goes “daME, daME!” in return.
In Swiss German “nai” (the German “nein”) means “no”. If I’m asking 「スイスに行ったことがある？」 in Japan I get a 「ない」 if they haven’t. A Swiss German speaking person would answer exactly the same, saying “nai” (meaning 「いえ」). I always found that pretty funny. Though I guess a Swiss person wouldn’t answer that question negatively
Here’s a bad example because it’s out of order but for some reason I always intuitively knew 火曜日 was tuesday and 水曜日 was wednesday without even asking…why? Eventually I realized because in zelda games the second and third temples are often fire and water (and they’re the second and third weekdays)…although that would have made 木曜日 monday instead of thursday if that actually worked.
Yes it’s insane but hey I’ll never have a problem with the days of the week
I made up memorization for the weekdays:
Tuesday comes fire
Wednesday you put out the fire with water
Thursday you plant new trees
Friday you get paid for the work
One I find interesting.
Japanese (and chinese, by the way) : 自(self) + 立(stand) = 自立 (independence)
Swedish (and somewhat norwegian, danish and german): själv (self) + ständig (stand) = självständig (independence)
A bit less interesting:
車両: しゃりょう, railroad car. In french, we could call the thing a “chariot” (thought it might not be the first word to pop in a french person’s mind), which is pronounced the same but with a french accent.
in Hebrew, אתה - “ata” - ‘you(male)’ is really close to あなた - “anata” - ‘you’
also, in hebrew כתב - “katav” - ‘[he] wrote’ is really close to ことば - “kotoba” - ‘word’
Also, you(male) in Arabic is “anta” which actually can sometimes be said so in Japanese as well.
Edit:
in terms of similar sounding words, we have too many:
いしゃ - doctor - isha - woman - אישה
さかな - fish - sakana - danger - סכנה
いま - now - ima - mother - אמא
人 - person - nin - great grandchild - נין
また - again - mata - downwards - מטה
たま - ball - tama - ended - תמה
ほん - book - hon - wealth - הון
ひ - fire - hi - she - היא
て - hand - te - tea - תה
てん - heaven - ten - give - תן
さ - left - sa - carry/drive - שא\סע
た - rice paddy - ta - cell - תא
りつ - stand - ritsu - [they] served(time) - ריצו
しん - heart - shin - shin(a letter in hebrew) - ש
All of those (except a couple at the beginning) are just the kanji from levels 1-3, just imagine how longer this list would become…
This is happening becuase japanese and hebrew are phonologically similar, same as japanese got 5 vowels system. Also, Hebrew have a letter dedicated to the つ sound, צ - tsadi, which can be pronounced as ta, tsi, tsu, tse tso, while tsu is the same as つ.
The only thing that is different(except for a few letters of course), is that in addition of “ん” like n in the end of a word, Hebrew got them for almost every letter and not only “n” sound(which can also be sound as “m” sound sometimes).
well, in certain dialects in my country, a word for ‘sack, bag, backpack,…’ is ‘kaban’. Not in mine though, here it’s ‘kabas’. Still, pretty cool coincidence if you ask me
I’m Finnish and my name is Minna - the same as 皆 (みんな) in Japanese. I didn’t realize this before I started studying the language and my Japanese friend told me she thought my name was very cute
Though I’ve been living in Spain most of my life, my mother tongue is Romanian and sometimes it was helpful
· For example, 里 (home village) is さと in Japanese; and in Romanian “sat” means village
· Another one was volcano 火山 (かざん) - Cazan in Romanian is a cillindrical metal recipient used for heating things (mostly in industries) at very high temperatures - a mini volcano
I know there were some other, and I’m sure there’ll be more
You know, the most obvious things are the ones hardest to notice sometimes.
The hyperactive moe female protagonist’s signature battlecry(With Suzumiya Haruhi as the archetype):
さあ!
Means “Here we go!” according to google translate, but the subbed anime I’ve watched translate it to “let’s go!” Or “come on!”.
And, surprisingly, ヘブライ語 has something that’s almost on the level of 茶 = 茶.
סע
In proper Hebrew, it means “drive”, but with a commanding inflection.
However, slang doesn’t follow proper language laws, and when among friends, you can use it as “come on, get going already.”
