Re: Rating Languages

laokou scripsit:

> I encountered the Japanese compound (in Chinese) "mu3qin1", "mother", so,
> mentally converting it to "boshin" (onyomi),  I decided to impress the
> natives with my new-found word. Fortunately, I tried it out on a kind woman.
> "Boshin?" she sniggered, and after a few moments of uncontrolable
> tee-hee-heeing, she gently said, "Actually, we read that 'hahaoya'
I'd actually be pretty surprised if the word for "mother" were a borrowing,
and yeah, I know about Finnish äiti < Gothic aiþei, where "ei" is Gothic
spelling for "ii".

--
John Cowan           http://www.ccil.org/~cowan              cowan@ccil.org
Please leave your values        |       Check your assumptions.  In fact,
   at the front desk.           |          check your assumptions at the door.
     --sign in Paris hotel      |            --Miles Vorkosigan

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