Not really related (except perhaps <i>very</i> tangentially?) Just found the following amusing. Something I observed.
You know all those 'question' words - don't know the term for them in English, but I'm talking about the set of { what, where, who, when, why, which, how }. Most of them start with the same sound of "wh" in English. At least one exception I can think of with 'How'.
That's English. And of course it got it from Dutch/German. (English's 'How' is closer to Dutch than German.)
Similarly, you can find in the Romance language of French { qui, quoi, quel, quand }. Exceptions include { comment, ou } and possibly others.
In Japanese, I hear { Nanda, Nani, Naase } and there might be more.
In Tamil there's { Yedde, Yaare, Yenge, Yeppo, Yenniki, Yen }.
Not sure how to use Roman letters for Tamil. But you get the picture.
I am sure there must be other languages of which this is true. Certainly N-Indian languages since they're considered part of the IE club.
Mudy, you know the words in Korean? Do they also follow a similar pattern? Any other examples? I am curious to know, since I'm wondering if it's a peculiar characteristic of human thinking.
You know all those 'question' words - don't know the term for them in English, but I'm talking about the set of { what, where, who, when, why, which, how }. Most of them start with the same sound of "wh" in English. At least one exception I can think of with 'How'.
That's English. And of course it got it from Dutch/German. (English's 'How' is closer to Dutch than German.)
Similarly, you can find in the Romance language of French { qui, quoi, quel, quand }. Exceptions include { comment, ou } and possibly others.
In Japanese, I hear { Nanda, Nani, Naase } and there might be more.
In Tamil there's { Yedde, Yaare, Yenge, Yeppo, Yenniki, Yen }.
Not sure how to use Roman letters for Tamil. But you get the picture.
I am sure there must be other languages of which this is true. Certainly N-Indian languages since they're considered part of the IE club.
Mudy, you know the words in Korean? Do they also follow a similar pattern? Any other examples? I am curious to know, since I'm wondering if it's a peculiar characteristic of human thinking.