Comparing Asian Nationalities | Asian American Poll

COMPARING ASIAN NATIONALITIES
(Updated Tuesday, Apr 1, 2008, 05:20:54 PM to reflect the 100 most recent valid responses.)

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WHAT YOU SAY

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"I have never heard Manchu"
You may be outta luck ... everyone who speaks it is over 80 years old now. There's about 2 million Manchus in PRC and they all speak Mandarin.

The phrases you listed don't sound too close to japanese equivalents even on basic vocabulary - like Japanese "hidari" and "migi" vs. Turkish "saha" and "sola."

"But, unlike Korean and Japanese; Turkish has many words that end in "R" and begin with "L"."
When Japanese assimilated words (mostly sinitic loans) from Korean, words ending in R got changed to ending in RU, then over time the R tended to get dropped, leaving just a U, which is where most of the words with long vowels come from in Japanese ...

"Numbers:"
The native (non-sinitic) Japanese numbers are like this:
1 hitotsu
2 futatsu
3 mittsu
4 yottsu
5 itsutsu
6 muttsu
7 nanatsu
8 yattsu
9 kokonotsu
10 too

Native korean numbers? check out:
http://members.fortunecity.com/mikecolley/langnum/korean.html

T.H. Lien Thursday, May 23, 2002 at 23:55:47 (PDT)

Lemme add something more:

Once again, I know very little about Asian languages in general, so I could be very wrong in some of my assumptions.

Excluding Hamito-Semitic(Afro-Asiatic), Hindi(Urdu), Persian, and some isolated languages on the continent, I came to conclusion that Asian languages can be broadly classified into two separate language sub-families; Ural-Altaic and Sino-Tibetan.

I heard Vietnamese, Cambodian and Laotian before.
As far as I knew they all sounded very similar to Chinese. Very tonal and monosyllabic. And somewhat irritating to be honest with you.

Are SE Asian languages related to Chinese or not? I tend to think they are...

I don't know too much about Manchu and Turko-Mongolian linguistic influences on their neighbors. But, I heard that in
ancient royal courts of Korean dynasty, i.e. Koryo, there were some
adopted Mongolian words that later came to be exclusively used among the elite class.
This is probably true since after Mongols subjugated Korea in early 14th century, Korean princes were forced to take Mongolian princesses as their legal wives. Also some sons of upper class married daughters of high ranking Mongols. There is no doubt that some Mon
golian customs/foods/vocabulary/culture
found their way into Korean society.
This was one of several tactics employed by Yuan Dynasty of China(Mongol Empire) who wanted to make sure that Korea remained under its rule as a loyal vassal state. Obviously Mongols were not the only ones who used this kind of intermarriage method to make Korea friendly towards them.
I'm sure Manchus(Qing Dynasty) did the same thing. Also Han Chinese as well. Therefore, quite a few of old Korean kings/royal families had Mongol, Manchu, or Han Chinese blood in them.

Of course, among the general Korean populous, there are many Koreans today
who trace their ancestral lineage back to some Chinese ancestors, mostly political refugees who were given an asylum after fleeing the mainland China in the aftermath of dynastical change, usurpation of power, etc. One group of
Korean families that I know of trace their Chinese ancestry as far back as to Tang dynasty! This particular Chinese ancestor was some kind of bad-ass royal lordship who got shipwrecked off the southwestern part of ancient Korea. After several failed attempts to go navigate back to China, he decided to settle down in Korea, and eventually married a local Korean woman, etc. So the legend goes. Obviously, he brought along some Chinese friends with him too, who probably married Korean women, and begot many descendants...

And some Korean people trace their origin back to one Japanese general who defected to Korea during one of devastating Japanese invasions in 16th century. And some Koreans trace their roots back to some Turko or Tartar generals, etc...

Not only did Korean men married ethnic Mongol, Manchu, Han Chinese women, many Korean women also married into upper Mongol, Manchu, Han Chinese households. Sometimes they were basically sold as concubines. I heard of one Chinese emperor - I tend to believe he was a Manchu ruler - whose birth-mother was an ethnic Korean. This woman was taken to China to be one of Manchu emperor's concubines at the time, and over the years, through her incredible charms/beauty/talents/whatever, she became the emperor's favorite. That's how her son rose to be an heir to the throne. So the history goes...

Throughout its history, Korea endured many many small-scale raids/incursions/invasions(some scholars estimate the number to be in over thousand), excluding the well-publicized/-known military campaigns, by its neighbors, particularly in the northern border and southeastern part. Obviously there were quite a number of prisoners of wars on both sides. Many Koreans were taken to Manchuria or Japan to be hard laborers/slaves/etc.
Also many invaders were taken to be the same by the indigenous Koreans. You can only guess as to the number of descendants spawned by those foreigners...

One last thing; after being on this site for a week or so, I find it very funny/ironic that there are this strong pro-Mongol sentiments among many posters. I bet 99.9999% of those posters are not of Mongol descent albeit some might have a tiny tiny tiny tiny bit of Mongol blood in them. Probably Northern Chinese or Korean. And of course, Koreans are supposed to be more genetically closely related to Mongols than the average Han Chinese.

We live in white-dominated society and it's natural for us yellow race to admire Genghis Khan, Attila the Hun, Tamerlane, Babur of Mogul empire, etc.
They were the great yellow leaders who mightily kicked those white people's sickly pinkish butts, you know.

I tend to think that Moguls actually did quite well in India for most part.
But, Mongols and Huns? Gimme a break!

Yes, Mongols should be given some credit for opening up the East to West, serving as a bridge between the two great civilizations of the world, Marco Polo, silk roads, etc. etc...
After all, they built the greatest empire ever in history of humankind as far as the land mass is concerned, stretching from Korea all the way to the east of Danube river, encompassing China, central Asia, Persia, middle east, southern Russia, Eastern Europe, etc...
But, for most part, Mongols were nothing but cruel cruel savages/marauders/destroyers/killers/plunders/rapists/etc. I know that Mongols were probably no different from earlier Romans or Macedonian Greeks as far as how they killed/ravaged/raped the other nations in order to conquer them. But, after the conquests, the Romans and Greeks did something to contribute/improve the human civilzation to the next level. Mongols? Not whole a lot. That's where my disappoint lies as a member of yellow race. Then again, what would you expect from such lowly, uncivilized Mongols in the first place? Yes, they were fantastic warriors/fighters...but...

Attila the hun? Oh, boy. He's the worst...Oh sure he killed all those Germanic men, and raped their blonde-haired, blue-eyed women over and over, but...

A Koreancentric male
One Korean Man Thursday, May 23, 2002 at 20:54:51 (PDT)

From my observations:

Japanese - Tend to be shorter than Korean or chinese. Yes it's true folks..go to Japan and take a look at the population sure there's tall Japanese but on average the variation is shorter on average. Japanese tend to have finer features though and even more slender frames than most other asians. Also culturally they are the most quiet and reserved. I think a lot of the asian stereotypes come from western impressions of the Japanese. I think deep down Japan is a very decadent and xenophobic country but they try to mask it.

Chinese-Large varying population..i've never seen a single category that you could fit all asians into. It's a total mixed bag..China does have a very nice physically good looking "racial" stock of people. I credit that to centuries of intermixing between mongols, uighurs, and various asian ethnicities into the Chinese stock. You have very handsome tall individuals like Chow Yun Fat. Chinese 'culture' also varies significantly depending on the region you're in.

Koreans-Koreans tend to be very tall..the koreans i've known have usually been 5'10"+ in height. The extremely tall 6'2" asians i've known have all been korean. Korean women tend to be very tall as well. Culturally koreans are an interesting bunch but tend to be very closed off to 'outsiders.'

SE Asians- It's wrong to lump them all together..but they vary so much it's impossible to catelogue each SE asian countries individual characteristics. SE asians tend to be more dark skinned and have very different attitudes than NE asians.

Asian guy Thursday, May 23, 2002 at 17:05:50 (PDT)

no expert on language:

I ain't either, and I wish I got to know better one of my old MIT acquaintances who was a doctoral candidate in linguistics. However, her generally snobbish, standoffish and bitchy attitude somehow turned off many of my friends in wrong way. Why do those female international/Asian students(mostly PhD candidates) overwhelmingly behave like this? PMS can't be the sole reason, you know...

From what I little know, Korean and Japanese languages are related to Turkish along with Mongolian and Manchu. Of course, as you said, K-J are closer to Mongol-Manchu than to Turkish. These are all Altaic languages. And yes, the sample of Turkish phrases that you listed do sound very much Eastern/Altaic. And then there are Uralic languages such as Hungarian(Magyar), Estonian, Finnish, etc., which happen to be remotely related to Altaic languages. I found it very ironic/odd that despite its heavy borrowings in vocabulary (almost 50%) from Chinese, Korean is still more closely related to Hungarian (Magyar) or Finnish than it will ever be to Chinese. Then, again, English borrowed about 40% of its words from Latin, and is closer to Dutch than to Italian...

Many Hungarians who lived in Japan did observe the similar/peculiar sounding/general tone between Magyar and Japanese. As one Hungarian said, "when I close my eyes, and listen to little Japanese school girls converse in Japanese, I would feel as though I was in the heart of bustling street corner back in Budapest."

When I was in 8th grade, I was sitting in my algebra class waiting for the class to start, and midst of all the noises going around me, I faintly heard this strange sounding language coming from the hallway. It sounded Spanish. Well, it actually turned out to be Korean; my sister and her Korean girlfriend who just came from Korea were just jovially striking up a giggly conversation in that beautiful mother tongue of ours...

From a Koreancentric male

One Korean Man Thursday, May 23, 2002 at 16:02:38 (PDT)

Actually i think the percentage of pure ethnic chinese in vietnam is about 4%, not as high as someone said to be as 10%. Less then 30% of the vietnamese people are part chinese, for sure, how can the entire full ethnic be only 4% and a mix is about 30%? Especially in a country that has always held grudges against the chinese.
Well Thursday, May 23, 2002 at 14:24:45 (PDT)

One thing I could say is that the Turkish NEVER, EVER ruled China. I know that someone here said that a while ago, and I agreed with him or her. I like the Chinese people, because they have one of the most fascinating cultures in the world. I also like their calligrahy, and I'm also learning how to read, write, and speak Chinese. The Chinese have about, if I am not mistaken, 55 different ethnic peoples in 36 provinces (excluding Mongolia). China has two languages: mandarin and cantonese. Since both uses the same Chinese language (characters), they are the official languages, while some throughout the north and south western part of China speak a different language.
chinalova Thursday, May 23, 2002 at 12:41:37 (PDT)

From my observation, viets resemble Southwestern chinese than southeasten chinese.
Won Bin Thursday, May 23, 2002 at 12:22:37 (PDT)

An Nam guy; get your fact straight!! only 3 % of them are ethnic chinese (i mean full chinese). kinh make up 85-87%of the population. 54 other monority ethnic make up 13 % of which chinese 3 %. what i said is based on recent statistics.
gk Thursday, May 23, 2002 at 12:09:34 (PDT)

Nice observation. I�ve noticed that too. a few koreans in the media/entertainment seem to possess caucasoid or indian/dravinian features. Do u know Lee Bon? She has dark skin, big eyes, thick lips, not quite a typical korean face. and some koreans have dark or brown skin.. A few possess caucasian like features although their both their parents are korean. They have wide big eyes, narrow or aquiline shaped nose, narrow and long face. (kim min, hwang shin hye for example). However, they still look predominantly korean. The truth is the popular ones tend to look very typically korean. They outnumber the somewhat exotic looking ones. Some think hwang shin hye is very attractive but i don�t find deep sunken eyes and aquiline nose beautiful.

An nam guy: yeah they look different. I think viets, thai, cambodian, lao, malay look different. Cham and khmer look different too. Actually cham people don�t have flat face or wide nose. They have brown skin and kida look like a mix btw chinese and indian. Some cham girls are cute! Khmer have dark skin w/ more asian features. Some have straight eyebrows, flat nose, forward jaw, big eyes, generally short in stature. But some have proportionate face. And Some look more malay. Thai and lao kinda look like khmer but there are still some differences. Some thais look very indian. Some lao have light skin. Malay seem to possess long and arched eyebrows, bony face, larger and thicker lips.

Hm..in the south of vietnam, some are part khmer. They have round face, round and large eyes (that give them the somewhat mstique look, i dunno how to describe it but there�s something about khmer eyes, some have askew or squint eyes). In the north and central areas, some look like korean or chinese, some look like a mix btw chinese and malay (that looks nice). A few have dominant malay features. One thing i notice is the lighter the skin is the smoother it seems. Interesting, a few viets have a little turkic or indian features. Not like malay. They have wide and round eyes, straight nose, some have brown skin other light. I�ve seen a few guys who look similar to latins w/ dark and thick eyeborws. However those people are the minority.

Well that�s just my observation.

Won Bin Thursday, May 23, 2002 at 11:55:15 (PDT)

no expert on language,

Couldn't find any similarities on the senences you posted with korean, but I've also noticed that the languages you mentioned sound a bit similar. What I find weird is that is korean mom and dad is; "omma", "apa", and in spanish is; "mama", "papa". Odd, isn't it?
kc Thursday, May 23, 2002 at 11:31:56 (PDT)

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