Photos from Mongolia and China (2nd series)

[oftheherd]

OT, there are many Chinese influences in the Korean language, more so than Japanese. I don't speak Chinese, but used to be pretty conversant in Vietnamese. When studying Korean, I found many borrow words. Not surprising considering Korea was under the suzerainty of China for a long time. I once heard a word, don't remember what it was now, but it seemed every time I heard it pronounced, it was with tone. Korean doesn't use tone, which was why I was so surprised at that. That one word was the only one I ever heard in Korean that seemed to have tone. Of course, the people didn't know they spoke it with tone. I once read that many people speaking tonal languages don't realize they speak with tones. That always fascinated me.

 

[RML]

Mongolians have a tendency to pronounce their words unaspirated, almost like they're soft whispering. I often have to ask my wife to repeat what she's saying because I just can't hear what she is saying. She doesn't realise it herself.

Languages are very interesting, and the more you encounter and learn, the more intriguing they become. 🙂

Oh, I don't think Mongolian has a dozen words for winter weather. They do, however, recognise 32 types of gov', which is what we call "Gobi". Only a specialist can tell the difference between them. 🙂