Offtopic about words for love, colours and snow, and the definition of "word"

[Elizabeth]

Well, like undrentide said, ﾆ停?ｰﾆ鍛ﾆ暖 is specifically a lab rat. I'm curious about 窶佚･窶詫, though, as it doesn't show up in 窶佚･ﾅｽﾂｫ窶氾? 窶督ｾ窶ｹﾂｾﾂ坂?佛津ｪﾅｽﾂｫ窶弋, the EXCEED dictionary, or 窶ｰpﾅｽﾂｫﾋ弸. It's in Random House, though, and I'm pretty sure I heard it in Kill Bill

I didn't see the movie but I don't think 窶佚･窶詫 is very commonly used in everyday language at all. For one thing, it could be too easily confused with large mouse or large rat, which is ookina nezumi.

 

[pipokun]

Due to my poor English skill, I always find it difficult to explain Japanese dishes using seaweed to well-educated Europeans. I know kombu is getting popular among veggies, though.

Mozuku
a seaweed of the family Spermatochnaceae

 

[Maciamo]

Due to my poor English skill, I always find it difficult to explain Japanese dishes using seaweed to well-educated Europeans. I know kombu is getting popular among veggies, though.

'Konbu' is simply 'kelp'. 'Mozuku' is not native to Europe or North America, but the proper English word (from Latin) is "cladosiphon okamuranus".

'Nori' is a kind of red alga called 'Porphyra', that has been dried (and salted). So 'nori' is not the name of a plant by of a prepared kind of food. The closest European equivalent to the plant used in Japan is dulse (only really common in Ireland, to the best of my knowledge).

 

[sabro]

... and don't the Inuits have dozens of words for snow? The Lakota seemed to have lacked specific names for many large animals... which is puzzling since they are a hunting culture.

 

[undrentide]

But it is unthinkable for speakers of European languages not to distinguish between a cow and a bull, a stag and a doe, or a rooster and a hen.

窶禿??ｹﾂ (oushi) and 窶ｰﾂｲ窶ｹﾂ (meushi), 窶ｰﾂｲﾅｽﾂｭ (ojika) and ﾅｽ窶愬ｽﾂｭ (mejika), 窶悩ﾅ畜 (ondori) and ﾅｽ窶懌?卍ｹ (mendori) - those words work fine, and we do distinguish male and female.

Talking about horse, in Japanese language we have special words to call certain colour of horse, or the horse with that colour.

ﾂ静や?禿 aoge : deep balck including mane and tail.
ﾅ棚窶禿 kurige : light, yellowish brown. With mane and tail of the same colour.
窶敕ｶ窶ｰﾃ版棚窶禿 obana kurige : same as kurige, but with white mane/tail.
ﾂ静版棚窶禿 akakurige : reddish brown.
ﾅｽﾂｭ窶禿 kage : brown body (like deer), whose mane, tail and lower part of legs are black.
ﾋ?ｯ窶禿 ashige : brown with white hair here and there, or all over.
Young ashige looks kurige or kage at the beginning, but as it ages, portion of white hair increases. Different name is given (such as ﾂ静藩?ｯ窶禿 aka ashige, ﾋ廣窶婁ﾋ?ｯ窶禿 renzen-ashige) depending on the volume of original colour.

The above terms of hair colour are used only for horses, not for other animals.
Apparently different aspect (colour, in this case) of horses was more important than gender in Japan.

 

[Maciamo]

窶禿??ｹﾂ (oushi) and 窶ｰﾂｲ窶ｹﾂ (meushi), 窶ｰﾂｲﾅｽﾂｭ (ojika) and ﾅｽ窶愬ｽﾂｭ (mejika), 窶悩ﾅ畜 (ondori) and ﾅｽ窶懌?卍ｹ (mendori) - those words work fine, and we do distinguish male and female.

But it is just like saying "male cattle" and "female cattle", "male deer" and "female deer", or "male chicken" and "female chicken" in English. Of cours you can always give nuances to nouns by using adjectives. But in this case itjust sounds childish and primitive.

Talking about horse, in Japanese language we have special words to call certain colour of horse, or the horse with that colour.
ﾂ静や?禿 aoge : deep balck including mane and tail.
ﾅ棚窶禿 kurige : light, yellowish brown. With mane and tail of the same colour.
窶敕ｶ窶ｰﾃ版棚窶禿 obana kurige : same as kurige, but with white mane/tail.
ﾂ静版棚窶禿 akakurige : reddish brown.
ﾅｽﾂｭ窶禿 kage : brown body (like deer), whose mane, tail and lower part of legs are black.
ﾋ?ｯ窶禿 ashige : brown with white hair here and there, or all over.
Young ashige looks kurige or kage at the beginning, but as it ages, portion of white hair increases. Different name is given (such as ﾂ静藩?ｯ窶禿 aka ashige, ﾋ廣窶婁ﾋ?ｯ窶禿 renzen-ashige) depending on the volume of original colour.
The above terms of hair colour are used only for horses, not for other animals.
Apparently different aspect (colour, in this case) of horses was more important than gender in Japan.

Are you supposing by saying this that English, or other European languages, do not have special terms to describe hair colour ? Not only there are, but as you are mentioning it, European languages naturally have more adjectives for human hair colours too (normal, Asians all have black hair), with dozens of nuances. I found 43 hair colours on Wikipedia. If we go further, we will also notice that English has at least twice more colour names than Japanese (check the list of colours in English or webcolours in English and the list of colours in Japanese).

But we are going offtopic. The purpose of comparing animal names was to show how much more European cared about animals.


To Sabro, it doesn't matter whether the Inuits have many names for snow, slush or blizzard, because it is not related to this topic. If we go down this road, there could be hundreds of categories of words which we could compare...

 

[caster51]

I think there are many " word " of nature's expression more than other language like komorebi,,,,,so on

maybe more than ten times

 

[caster51]

Even the Japanese have come to use darling, honey, sweetheart or boy/girlfriend frequently (just listen to J-pop) because they didn't have enough words for that.

ﾂ湘ｮﾂ人 ﾂ・ ﾂ湘ｮ窶｢v ﾂ・ ﾂ湘ｮ窶｢w ﾂ・ 窶卩ｾ窶｢P(窶堋ｿ窶堙･窶堋､窶堋ｫ) ﾂ・ ﾅｽv窶堋｢ﾅｽﾃ ﾂ・ 窶堙溪?堋ｩ窶堋ｯ ﾂ・ ﾋ?坂?堋｢ﾂ鞘? ﾂ・ "窶堋｢窶堙ｫ" ﾂ・ (ﾅｽﾃ｡窶堋｢)"ﾆ団ﾆ弛ﾆ陳? ﾂ・ (窶堙ｭ窶堋ｽ窶堋ｵ窶堙?"窶堋｢窶堋｢ﾂ人" ﾂ・ "窶敕楪鞘?? ﾂ・ "窶敕槐ｽﾂ?

 

[Maciamo]

The Spanish vocabulary contains less words than English, now are Spanish less caring of.. Everything?

Every language on earth contain less words than English. For instance there are only 70,000 words in French and 120,000 in German, but 500,000 in English. Yet French is more difficult to learn than English and has quite a few words with no English translation. Total numbers of words do not matter much because a well-educated person rarely knows more than 20 to 30,000 words (even the best writers rarely go above 50,000). It only takes 5000 words to be able to express yourself fluently in a language in most daily situations. What really takes a lot of space in a language are synonyms (with nuances of meaning, e.g. walk, stroll, hike, trek, strut, stride, shuffle...), words with different levels of formality (e.g. kid, child, infant, offspring), and old-fashioned words still used in modern speech through literature (e.g. Shakespearian English or Victorian English). This is where English beats every other languages. If we look at the precision of language regarding nature (plants, animals, landscape feature, rocks, minerals...), European languages beat non-European languages, and this is either the cause or result (or a little bit of both) of an earlier developement of sciences.

The tradition of observing nature and classifying it into categories (biology) goes back to Ancient Greece. Ordinary Europeans (not scientists or philosophers) have distinguished a weasel from a mink from a stoat from a polecat ever since ancient times (as a study of ancient languages proves it). It is "surprising" that the Japanese have never felt the need to do the same, even for animals that they encounter in their everyday life. Naturally there have always been Europeans that didn't care, but at least a portion of the population has always cared enough. In Japan, even the tiny minority required to create new words (even if they were restrained to an educated class) never seems to have existed in this regard.

 

[Maciamo]

ﾂ湘ｮﾂ人 ﾂ・ ﾂ湘ｮ窶｢v ﾂ・ ﾂ湘ｮ窶｢w ﾂ・ 窶卩ｾ窶｢P(窶堋ｿ窶堙･窶堋､窶堋ｫ) ﾂ・ ﾅｽv窶堋｢ﾅｽﾃ ﾂ・ 窶堙溪?堋ｩ窶堋ｯ ﾂ・ ﾋ?坂?堋｢ﾂ鞘? ﾂ・ "窶堋｢窶堙ｫ" ﾂ・ (ﾅｽﾃ｡窶堋｢)"ﾆ団ﾆ弛ﾆ陳? ﾂ・ (窶堙ｭ窶堋ｽ窶堋ｵ窶堙?"窶堋｢窶堋｢ﾂ人" ﾂ・ "窶敕楪鞘?? ﾂ・ "窶敕槐ｽﾂ?

If those words are so common, why do the Japanese feel the need to use English words instead of them ?

Anyway, when we look at the meaning of these words, all of them have English equivalent that I didn't care to mention because they are too informal or just expressions of endearments rather than single words :

- ﾂ湘ｮﾂ人 ﾂ・ ﾂ湘ｮ窶｢v ﾂ・ ﾂ湘ｮ窶｢w (affection person/man/woman) : not really a word but two (affection + person). The nearest English equivalents are "my dear", "dearest", "darling", "sweetheart", "object of my affection", "my affectionate", "my little princess"...

- 窶堙溪?堋ｩ窶堋ｯ : this translates as "kept woman" or "concubine"... This is harly a synonym of "lover", otherwise the Japanese have a seriously perverted conception of love.

- ﾋ?坂?堋｢ﾂ鞘? (lit. "enclosed woman") : again, this translates as "kept woman" or "concubine".

- 窶卩ｾ窶｢P : my dictionary translated this as "one's favourite mistress" ! Do all Japanese men hold harems ? Is the concept of exclusive love too foreign to them ?

- ﾅｽv窶堋｢ﾅｽﾃ (person that I think of) : person of my dreams, object of my desires, person I long/yearn for... Again, not a word but a verb (ﾅｽv窶堋､) + "person"

- (ﾅｽﾃ｡窶堋｢)"ﾆ団ﾆ弛ﾆ陳 ("young swallow") : my little bird, my birdy, my little sparrow, my little dove, or anything else that comes to your mind or that poetry accepts.

- (窶堙ｭ窶堋ｽ窶堋ｵ窶堙?"窶堋｢窶堋｢ﾂ人 ("my good person") : no comment (too simplistic)

- 窶敕楪鞘? ("she") : I never understood why the most common word in Japanese for "girlfriend" was just "she". That is so indirect and ambigous, so impersonal, so unoriginal...

 

[caster51]

- 窶敕楪鞘? ("she") : I never understood why the most common word in Japanese for "girlfriend" was just "she". That is so indirect and ambigous, so impersonal, so unoriginal...

What were you doing in Japan?
☝

 

[Maciamo]

I think there are many " word " of nature's expression more than other language like komorebi,,,,,so on
maybe more than ten times

窶禿侏彝窶堙ｪ窶愿ｺ ﾂ【窶堋ｱ窶堙?窶堙ｪ窶堙堕】 : sunbeams streaming through leaves, sunlight filtering through trees...

If we look at the Japanese word, it is not one word but 3 put together : 窶禿 (tree) + ﾋ彝窶堙ｪ (to leak) + 窶愿ｺ (sun); so "sun-leaking-tree". That is not a single word by my standards, no more than "fishbone" is a single word in English (it is a composed word formed by "fish" and "bone", unlike the "arête" in French which is a unique word).

Do you have other examples of actual single words ?

What were you doing in Japan?
☝

Why is that ? That is offtopic and irrelevant.

 

[caster51]

Why is that ? That is offtopic and irrelevant.

that is the most common word of lover , boy/girlfriend, darling....
you konw that.
why did not you write that word down at first?

 

[caster51]

Do you have other examples of actual single words ?

komorebi is single word.
窶愿ｺ窶怒ﾂ is also a single word.
not sun origin..or sun book

 

[Tsuyoiko]

You, Sabro and others intuitively know that as you have given yourself examples of the Inuits having many words for snow, proving my point that they attached a greater importance to it than most other societies. Now it is not because someone has memorised all the words for snow in the Inuit language that they necessarily give a shi't about snow (as you explained so well yourself). But it does tell us about Inuit society's sensitivity about snow all the way through its evolution to this day.

Inuit actually have only four words for snow. But I'm not going to stoop so low as to call you ignorant for not knowing that.

 

[caster51]

窶禿侏彝窶堙ｪ窶愿ｺ is three words if it refers to "the action of sunbeams streaming through leaves", but only one word if it refers to a "tree, into which sunbeams are leaking".

Nop.
it is a single word likeﾂ 窶挌窶佚??堋ｿﾂ催崢、窶ｰ窶慊静ｳﾂ、

窶禿侏彝窶堙ｪ窶愿ｺ窶堙娯?｢窶版段
窶禿侏彝窶堙ｪ窶愿ｺ窶堙娯?卍ｬ
窶禿侏彝窶堙ｪ窶愿ｺ窶堙固ｽv窶堋｢ﾂ出
窶禿侏彝窶堙ｪ窶愿ｺ窶堙固ｽﾃ環真
窶禿侏彝窶堙ｪ窶愿ｺ窶堙古｡ﾂｿ窶堋ｵ窶堋ｳ
窶禿侏彝窶堙ｪ窶愿ｺ窶堙娯?ｹi窶卮停?弭
窶禿侏彝窶堙ｪ窶愿ｺ窶堙?.......

 

[undrentide]

窶禿侏彝窶堙ｪ窶愿ｺ is three words if it refers to "the action of sunbeams streaming through leaves", but only one word if it refers to a "tree, into which sunbeams are leaking".
You don't have the choice on this. This is how grammar works and defines "word" in English.

窶禿侏彝窶堙ｪ窶愿ｺ is one word. This kind of word is called 窶｢ﾂ｡ﾂ坂?｡ﾅ津ｪ.
Applying English grammar to analyze Japanese language does not make much sense to me.

 

[Maciamo]

that is the most common word of lover , boy/girlfriend, darling....
you konw that.
why did not you write that word down at first?

Because "kanojo" is not a unique word for "girlfriend" as it also means "she".

(1) First of all I am not talking about colour of people's hair - I did not mention it at all in my message.

Yes, but the colours for people's hair in English can also be used for horses (at least some of them).

(2) What I mentioned is that in Japanese language there are words used only for the colour of horses or the horses with that particular colour. I use the word "hair" because I don't think we call what horses have on their skin as "fur".

There are also colour words used only for horses in English or French, as well as plenty of names for each breed. Let's have look at your examples again :

ﾂ静や?禿 aoge : deep balck including mane and tail.
ﾅ棚窶禿 kurige : light, yellowish brown. With mane and tail of the same colour.
窶敕ｶ窶ｰﾃ版棚窶禿 obana kurige : same as kurige, but with white mane/tail.
ﾂ静版棚窶禿 akakurige : reddish brown.
ﾅｽﾂｭ窶禿 kage : brown body (like deer), whose mane, tail and lower part of legs are black.
ﾋ?ｯ窶禿 ashige : brown with white hair here and there, or all over.

ﾂ静や?禿 : lit. "blue hair"
ﾅ棚窶禿 : lit. "chestnut hair" => same in English (e.g. chestnut-haired horse)
窶敕ｶ窶ｰﾃ版棚窶禿 : lit. "pampas grass-chestnut hair"
ﾂ静版棚窶禿 : lit. "red chestnut hair"
ﾅｽﾂｭ窶禿 : lit. "deer hair" => this may have been copied on the English in Meiji-jidai, because we also talk of "fawn-colored horses" in English.
ﾋ?ｯ窶禿 : lit. "reed/bulrush hair" => this colour is called "dappled grey" in English.
Please check thelist of horse coat colours to see just how diverse is the vocabulary in English in this regard (I counted more than 40 colours for horses), and how many of the Japanese words you mentioned were copied on them.

(3) You stated that having no different words for female/male for animals means the Japanese care less about them. I wanted to say that we may not have different words for gender, but we do have words for colours when it comes to horse.

English has more. Japanese copied most of them.

We are not going off topic - except the comment about human hair colour.
This thread is about nature, not specifically about animals.

Aren't humans animals ?

Nop.
it is a single word likeﾂ 窶挌窶佚??堋ｿﾂ催崢、窶ｰ窶慊静ｳﾂ、
窶禿侏彝窶堙ｪ窶愿ｺ窶堙娯?｢窶版段
窶禿侏彝窶堙ｪ窶愿ｺ窶堙娯?卍ｬ
窶禿侏彝窶堙ｪ窶愿ｺ窶堙固ｽv窶堋｢ﾂ出
窶禿侏彝窶堙ｪ窶愿ｺ窶堙固ｽﾃ環真
窶禿侏彝窶堙ｪ窶愿ｺ窶堙古｡ﾂｿ窶堋ｵ窶堋ｳ
窶禿侏彝窶堙ｪ窶愿ｺ窶堙娯?ｹi窶卮停?弭
窶禿侏彝窶堙ｪ窶愿ｺ窶堙?.......

You still didn't tell me which of the two meanings it was for you. When you say 窶禿侏彝窶堙ｪ窶愿ｺ, are you talking about the tree or about the sunbeams ?

窶禿侏彝窶堙ｪ窶愿ｺ is one word. This kind of word is called 窶｢ﾂ｡ﾂ坂?｡ﾅ津ｪ.
Applying English grammar to analyze Japanese language does not make much sense to me.

No need to discuss. It is not a word in English. "Word" is itself an English word, and this discussion is in English, so... 窶｢ﾂ｡ﾂ坂?｡ﾅ津ｪ does not translate as "single word", but "compound word", which is exactly my point.

 

[Elizabeth]

- 窶敕楪鞘? ("she") : I never understood why the most common word in Japanese for "girlfriend" was just "she". That is so indirect and ambigous, so impersonal, so unoriginal...

I think of it as similar to "my girl" or "my guy" ﾂ（窶敕楪） in English which to me sounds extremely intimate or endearing. In the same way, It's HER that I like ; SHE is the one is subtle enough to convey the minimum necessary intonation and emphasis with genuine feeling. Not that lover or girl/boyfriend are particularly original or necessarily unambiguous either....

 

[Maciamo]

Inuit actually have only four words for snow. But I'm not going to stoop so low as to call you ignorant for not knowing that.

I believe it is Sabro who mentioned that. Anyway, I made a quick Google search, and it appeared that your were indeed ignorant, because they have at least a dozen (or hundreds if we count compound words) : Inuit Words for Snow.
What people often forget is that English also has many words for snow, as I tried to hint by mentioning slush and blizzard.

I think of it as similar to "my girl" or "my guy" ﾂ（窶敕楪） in English which to me sounds extremely intimate or endearing. In the same way, It's HER that I like ; SHE is the one is subtle enough to convey the minimum necessary intonation and emphasis with genuine feeling. Not that lover or girl/boyfriend are particularly original or necessarily unambiguous either....

It is ambiguous because there isn't another commonly used term that means girlfriend. For instance, when you say in the middel of a concersation "kanojo wo shitteimaska ?", it could mean "do you know her ?" or "do you know my/his girlfriend ?". Unfortunately, the Japanese are not big fans of possessive pronouns, which only makes it worse.

komorebi is single word.
窶愿ｺ窶怒ﾂ is also a single word.
not sun origin..or sun book

窶愿ｺ窶怒 is a single word if it means "Japan". It is two words if it means "origin of the sun" or "sun book".

窶禿侏彝窶堙ｪ窶愿ｺ is three words if it refers to "the action of sunbeams streaming through leaves", but only one word if it refers to a "tree, into which sunbeams are leaking".

You don't have the choice on this. This is how grammar works and defines "word" in English.

 

[undrentide]

There are also colour words used only for horses in English or French, as well as plenty of names for each breed. Let's have look at your examples again :
ﾂ静や?禿 : lit. "blue hair"
ﾅ棚窶禿 : lit. "chestnut hair" => same in English (e.g. chestnut-haired horse)
窶敕ｶ窶ｰﾃ版棚窶禿 : lit. "pampas grass-chestnut hair"
ﾂ静版棚窶禿 : lit. "red chestnut hair"
ﾅｽﾂｭ窶禿 : lit. "deer hair" => this may have been copied on the English in Meiji-jidai, because we also talk of "fawn-colored horses" in English.
ﾋ?ｯ窶禿 : lit. "reed/bulrush hair" => this colour is called "dappled grey" in English.
Please check thelist of horse coat colours to see just how diverse is the vocabulary in English in this regard (I counted more than 40 colours for horses), and how many of the Japanese words you mentioned were copied on them.

You are totally missing the point here.

I'm not saying that we have more words about the colours of horses.
What I've been saying is that these words are used specifically for horses.
Chestnut, fawn, dappled grey... these words are not specific for horses, they can be used for other animals, or things as well.
Those words I listed up cannot be used to describe other animals.

And ﾂ静や?禿 is not "blue hair". (I've never seen blue horses except those on carousel.)
ﾂ静や?禿 is used for hoses whose body is deep black, also their mane and tail must be deep black.

Also those terms are not recent ones. They already existed at least in Edo era . Could be older, though I haven't checked it yet.

Horses in Japan and those in Europe should not vary so much. It is quite natural that most of them have similar colours in Japan and in Europe.
Then why do you assume that "the Japanese words you mentioned were copied on them (European words for colour of the horses)"?

 

[Mycernius]

I believe it is Sabro who mentioned that. Anyway, I made a quick Google search, and it appeared that your were indeed ignorant, because they have at least a dozen (or hundreds if we count compound words) : Inuit Words for Snow.
What people often forget is that English also has many words for snow, as I tried to hint by mentioning slush and blizzard.

If you had read the link properly it mentions that the words given are a satirical piece not fact. There are only four word for snow.

Steve,

Thank you so much for your book, The Language Instinct. It's what I am always looking for—something stimulating and a good read at the same time. I'm glad that every time I went to the library it was checked out so when I found the HarperPerennial edition of it at a bookstore recently I snatched it up.

I especially love to read about hoaxes, or what I usually call urban myths. So when I read your debunking of the 400 or so Eskimo words for snow I was delighted.

Imagine my surprise when I read one of the better on-line ezines, Word, the next day and found the article "The Eskimos' Hundred Words for Snow" by someone named Phil James. I attach the text of the article. What do you think about it? Is this just a continuation of the hoax?

Professor Pinker replied:

Dear Rick,

Thanks for sending the list—it's hilarious....it is a work of a witty satirist. Indeed, it makes a serious point—some of the entries on the serious lists of Eskimo snow words are as dubious as "wa-ter" meaning melted snow "tlan-na-na" for oldie snow on the radio.

Best,
Steve Pinker

@Tsuyoiko - You saw Qi as well.

 

[Tsuyoiko]

I believe it is Sabro who mentioned that. Anyway, I made a quick Google search, and it appeared that your were indeed ignorant, because they have at least a dozen (or hundreds if we count compound words) : Inuit Words for Snow.
What people often forget is that English also has many words for snow, as I tried to hint by mentioning slush and blizzard.

Erm, that list is a spoof. Look here: Eskimo words for snow - Wikipedia

Edit: Sorry Mike, you beat me to it!

 

[Elizabeth]

It is ambiguous because there isn't another commonly used term that means girlfriend. For instance, when you say in the middel of a concersation "kanojo wo shitteimaska ?", it could mean "do you know her ?" or "do you know my/his girlfriend ?". Unfortunately, the Japanese are not big fans of possessive pronouns, which only makes it worse.

It is as unclear as "Do you know her?" in English without a prior referent.

ﾂ催遺?堙坂?吮??ﾂ坂?伉人窶堙??堋ｷﾂ。could be my or another man's wife. On the other hand, there are more terms specific to husband and wife in Japanese if that is any consolation.

 

[Maciamo]

If you had read the link properly it mentions that the words given are a satirical piece not fact. There are only four word for snow.
@Tsuyoiko - You saw Qi as well.

Well, this confirms that Sabro and Leonmarino were wrong, and that undrentide and caster51 were also wrong to call "komorebi" as word :

The second error comes from a misconception of what should be considered "words". When it comes to describing snow in Eskimo languages, the words are limitless. And as in other polysynthetic languages, this rule is the same regardless of whether they are describing snow, cheese, trees, cars, or anything at all. This is because their language is structured differently than English. Because Eskimo is polysynthetic, it describes things in words of unlimited length.

Good explanation on the limitless way to form compound words in languages such as Eskimo and Japanese. For actual non-compounded words, Japanese is a fairly poor language in comparison to European languages, and especially comapred to English.