Languagesof

Southeast AsiaNomura Toru

Dept. of Policy Management,Keio University

Let us play with Southeast Asian languages!♦Nowadays many Japanese are visiting all

corners of Asia everyday.♦Many Asian peoples come to stay in

Japan for job and higher education.♦ Isn’t it interesting and fun if you can

communicate with them in their own languages?

Let us play with Southeast Asian languages together!

All we need is to practice!

♦Let us stop thinking about grammar and pronunciation.

♦ Just mimic what local people say!♦ It is very important to remove

psychological barrier.♦Let’s start!!

Southeast Asia is a salad bowl of languages

♦They can be divided into following three categories;♦1. Indigenous languages♦2. Immigrants’ languages♦3. Former colonial languages

Southeast Asian scripts

♦Variety of scripts are/were used there.♦They can be divided into four

categories.♦ 1. Indian scripts.♦ 2. Arabic scripts.♦ 3. Chinese characters and its off

springs.♦ 4. Roman scripts.

Language and Scripts

♦Languages and scripts are different matters.

♦For example, Japanese and Korean use Chinese characters together with Hiragana/Katakana and Hangul.

♦But in terms of language family, Japanese, Korean and Chinese belong to entirely different families.

♦This is the case in SEA, too.

Language families of SEA

♦Until a decade ago, Southeast Asian languages had been classified into following three categories;

♦ 1. Sino-Tibetan family.♦ 2. Austroasian family (Mon-Khmer).♦ 3. Austronesian family (Malayo-

Polynesian).♦Due to recent research development, they

are nowadays classified into eight.

Language families of SEA

1. Tibeto-Burman family2. Sinic family3. Karen languages4. Meo-Yao family5. Thai-Kadai family6. Austroasian family7. Austronesian family8. Papuan languages

Languages of Southeast Asia

Let us learn Southeast Asian scripts!

♦Variety of scripts are used in SEA.♦ Isn’t it fun to write your own name in

those Southeast Asian scripts?♦Let us learn together!

Let us tackle Thai scripts.

โน มุระโน -มุ-ระโท-รุ

Let us try to write Thai scripts.

♦ทะนะคะ ；tanaka

♦เเคย โอ ;keio

♦ มะนุแวล ละละ

Let us try Burmese scripts.

♦Unfortunately this PC does not contain Burmese fonts.

Sample of Burmese scripts Tone languages♦ In such continental Southeast Asian

languages as Thai, Burmese and Vietnamese, same syllables has more than one meaning by differentiating musical accents.

♦This type of languages are known as “tonal language”.

♦ “Four tones” or “si sheng” (四声) in Chinese is well known to us.

Do not hesitate or be timid about tone language!

♦Scholarly arguments are no use at all for you.

♦All you have to do is to mimic!

Pha:sa: thai (Thai language)

♦Let us begin with Thai.

Thai has five tones.

♦Five tone patterns;

Varieties of Thai languages.♦Apart from Thai language as a national

language of Thailand based upon languages spoken in Bangkok, there are variety of “Thai” languages including Lao ( national language of Laos), Shanspoken in Eastern Myanmar and number of Thai minorities in Yunnan and Guizhou, Southwestern China.

♦ Let us look at those “Thai” languages.

Spread of “Thai” languages. Thai (above) and Shan (below)

Kodak film in Thailand.Influence of Sanskrit language♦Thailand has been under the strong

influence of classical Indian culture such as Hinduism and Buddhism.

♦Therefore high vocabulary in Thai contain many loan words from Sanskrit and Pali (Canonical language of Theravada Buddhism).

♦ It is parallel to the Chinese vocabulary in Japanese and Korean.

Coining a new word.Sanskrit/

PaliThai Chinese Japanese

Dūradarśņa

thooraathát

電視

diànshíテレビ

terebi

Dūraśabda

thooraasáp 電話

diànhuà電話

denwa

Rathayantra

rótyon 自行車

zìxíngchē

自転車

jitensha

Kingdom of Thailand（Prathe:t Thai）

Basic expressions in Thai.♦ Sawàt dii K.♦ Sabaai dii rěu K?♦ Sabaai dii mâak.♦ Khàwp khun mâak K.♦ Khàw thôht K.♦ Mâi pen rai K.♦ Phôm chêw …..

♦ Greetings! Hallo!♦ How are you?♦ I am fine.♦ Thank you very

much.♦ Excuse me. I am

sorry.♦ Not at all. No

problem.♦ My name is ……

Self introduction in Thai.

♦phŏm chêw Nomura Toru khráp.(m.）.♦di chăn chêw Tanaka Hanako khâa.（f.）.♦phŏm maa chàk Jiîphun khráp .♦di chăn maa chàk Jiîphun khâa.♦ yin dii thîi dâi rúujak K.( I am glad to see you.).♦phŏm /di chăn pen nák seuksaa K.

( I am a student.).

Thai and Lao♦Standard Thai is based upon the

languages spoken in Bangkok.♦Lao is also “Thai” language, but based

upon the languages spoken in Vientiane, the capital city of Laos.

♦Majority of the inhabitants in Northeastern Thaiand are virtually Lao people and speak Lao.

♦Let us compare affinity between Thai and Lao.

Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Satharanalat Pasathipatthai Paxaxon Lao)

Mailbox in Laos Let us compare Thai and Lao!♦Thank you very much.♦T: Khàwp khun mâak khráp.♦L: Khàwp jai lãi lãi.

♦How are you?♦T:Sàbaai dii rĕw khráp?♦L:Sábaai dii baw?

Now,Let us look at Burmese, the language of Myanmar.

Union of Myanmar（Pydaunsu Myanma: Naingandaw）

Myanmar language (Burmese)

♦Burmese belongs to Tibeto-Burman family.

♦ Japanese may find it rather easy to learn as the word order is the same as Japanese.

♦Basic order; SOV.

Burmese scripts has 33 basic scripts.Burmese would pronounce the scripts in Japanese eye chart.

Burmese banknote 75 kyat Burmese tones.♦Burmese tones are different in quality

from Chinese and Thai.HL(falling) LLL HLL.

Burmese word order.

♦Burmese word order; SOV type.♦It is the same as Japanese,

Korean, Mongolian, Turkish families and other Altaic languages.

Basic expressions in Burmese.♦ Min găla ba.♦ Ne kàun yéh là?♦ Ne kàun ba deh.♦ Cè zù timba deh.♦ La ba.♦ Wùn nèh ba deh.♦ Keiq sá măshí ba bù.♦ Chănaw ga name

….ba.

♦ Greetings! Hallo!♦ How are you?♦ I am fine.♦ Thank you.♦ You are welcome.♦ Excuse me. I am

sorry.♦ Not at all.♦ My name is …..

Honorific in Burmese.♦ Burmese do not have a family name.♦ Instead of them, they use several honorific

according to gender, age and status.♦ Those honorifics can be used as a second

pronouns.

Burmese numerals.In Myanmar, bus route numbers are indicated in this numerals. So it is very difficult for foreigners to use local bus.

Ti’ ni’ θoun lei nga

Chau’ kuni’ shi’ ko: tase

Self introduction in Burmese.

♦ chănaw chaun:dha: ba.(m.）.♦ chăma chaun:dha: ba.（f.）.

（I am a student.）.♦ chănaw Nomura Toru ló k’aw ba deh.♦ chăma Tanaka Hanako ló k’aw ba deh.

（My name is …….）.

Next,Let us look at Vietnamese!

Socialist Republic of Vietnam.(Nu’ó’c Công Hòa Xã Hôi ChúNghĩa Viêt Nam)

Characteristics of Vietnamese.♦Vietnamese and Chinese do not belong to

the same family, but they share common features as monosyllabic and tone language.

♦Vietnam has nurtured their culture under strong Chinese influence. So we find affinity among Vietnamese and Japanese.

♦ example；đôc láp（独立）, cách mang（革命）.quôc gia（国家）, đai hôc（大学）.

Numerals in Vietnamese and Khmer.

Vietnam Khmer

１ mot muy

２ hai pii

３ ba bei

４ bon buon

５ nam bram

Vietnamese scripts.♦ In pre modern Vietnam, they used their

own scripts known as chu nôm.（字喃）.♦However in the 17th century, French

missionaries invented romanization of Vietnamese, and nowadays all the Vietnamese are written in this scripts.

♦The modern romanized Vietnamese is called “quôc ngũ”.（国語）.

Chu nôm♦Unlike Japanese

hiragana and Korean hangul, Chu nôm has never been used widely among the folks as they are more complicated than Chinese characters.

Vietnamese has six tones.

Vietnamese tones and samples. Basic expressions in Vietnamese.♦Chào ông. Chào bà.♦Ông đang làm gì đó?

♦Cám o’n ông lám.♦Xin lõi ông.♦Tên tôi là …..

♦Greetings! Hallo!♦How are you?♦Thank you very

much.♦Excuse me. I am

sorry.♦My name is …..

Numerals in Vietnamese.

Next,Let us try Khmer!

Cambodia(Preah Reach Ana Pak Kampuchea)

Phiasaa Khme.

♦National language of Cambodia is Khmer.♦Khmer belongs to Austroasian family.♦Khmer does not have tone. But it has a

complicated consonantal clusters. It sounds like German.

♦Khmer scripts originated from Indian scripts and it has a very complicated shapes.

Cambodian cinema theaterin Phnom Pen

Basic expressions in Khmer♦ Johm riab sua.♦ Aw kohn.♦ Sohm toh.♦ Baat/ jaa.♦ Te.♦ Niak sohk sabaay te?♦ Kh’nyohm sohk

sabaay.♦ Kh’nyohm

ch’muah…

♦ Greetings!, Hallo!♦ Thank you.♦ Excuse me. I am

sorry.♦ Yes(m.), Yes(f.).♦ No.♦ How are you?♦ I am fine.♦ My name is……

Khmer numeral is not decimal.It is quinary; five is a unit.

Next,Let us look at the languages in the Philippines.

Republika ng Pilipinas. Languages of the Philippines.

♦Most of the languages spoken in this archipelago belong to Austronesianfamily together with Malay-Indonesian.

♦They have no tone and phonetic system is similar to Spanish and Japanese.

♦But Philippine languages has more complicated system of conjugation than Malay-Indonesian.

Filipino and Malay IndonesianFilipino Malay Indon

１ isa satu２ dalawa dua３ tatlo tiga４ apat empat５ lima lima

right kanan kananMoney, silver pera perak

I ako akueye mga mata mata

To read basa baca

Filipino and Tagalog.

♦National language of the Philippines is Filipino.

♦ It has been formed based upon Tagalog, indigenous vernacular of Central Luzon around Metro Manila.

♦Apart from Tagalog, Ilocano in Northern Luzon, Pampango in Central Luzon and Visayan in the Southern islands are major languages.

Verb conjugation in Tagalog.

Verb punta“to go”♦Puntá ；verb root♦Pumuntá ；infinitive, to go, going♦Pumuntá ；imperative, Go!♦Pumuntá ；past tense；went♦Pumupuntá；present tense；go♦Púpuntá ；future tense；will go

Basic expressions in Filipino/Tagalog.♦ Magandang umaga.♦ Mangandang

tanghali.♦ Magandang gabi.♦ Kumusta ho kayo?♦ Mabuti. Salamat.♦ Paalam na po.♦ Ako ay …

♦ Good morning.♦ Good day.

♦ Good evening.♦ How are you?♦ Fine. Thank you.♦ Good bye.♦ My name is ….

Verb conjugation in Filipino.♦Kain ：to eat, infinitive.♦Kumain ; eat, present tense.♦Magkain ; eat often (high frequency)♦Mákain ;eat reluctantly.♦Makain ;eat certain food/thing♦Makakain ; can eat, possibility♦Pakikain ; please eat, imperative♦Pakanin ：have someone eat (causative)♦Kinain ：be eaten by, passive

Republik IndonesiaMalaysia, Brunei darussalam

Basic expressions in Malay-Indonesian♦Selamat pagi.♦Selamat

siang/tengah hari.♦Selamat malam.♦Apa kabar?♦Terima kasih.♦Nama saya ….♦Sampai bertemu

lagi.

♦ Good morning.♦ Good day.

♦ Good evening.♦ How are you?♦ Thank you.♦ My name is …..♦ See you again.

SingaporeSalad bowl of peoples and

languages♦Multi racial society of Singapore is a salad

bowl of ethnicity and languages.♦ 75% of the population is ethnic Chinese.♦Rest of the population consists of Tamil

people from South India and indigenous Malay.

♦Ethnic Chinese is by no means simple.♦They are further subdivided into

Cantonese, Hokkien etc.

Republic of SingaporeStandard language among Chinese is “hua yu”(華語)

What is 華語（hua yu）？

♦Mandarin Chinese(北京官話).♦Pekinese (北京語).♦国語 (guo yu) ；name given by

Kuomintang ( Nationalist Party).♦普通話 (pu tong hua)；name given by

Communist Party.Therefore in SEA, neutral name of 華語

(hua yu) was preferred.

Sample conversation in Chinese.

Bahasa Melayu is language for ethnic Malay. Sample conversation in Malay.

Tamil has been brought from South India by immigrants. Sample conversation in Tamil.

summarylanguage scripts family phonetics characte

risticsThai Indian Thai

Kadaitonal No

conjugationSVO

Burmese indian TibetoBurman

tonal conjugationparticles

SOV

Vietnamese romanized Austroasian? tonal No conjugation

SVO

Summarylanguage script family phonetic

scharacte

risticsMalay

Indonesianroman Austronesia

nSimple

Similar toSpanish

conjugationSVO

FilipinoTagalog

roman Austronesian

SimpleSimilar toSpanish

Complicatedconjugation

Khmer Indian Austroasian No toneComplicatedconsonants

No conjugation

SVO

This is not all！♦This time we have reviewed national or

official languages of Southeast Asia.♦But it is not all.♦There are many more languages spoken

in Southeast Asia.♦For example, in Indonesia, we find 250 or

500 kinds of languages throughout the huge Sunda Archipelago!

Local languagesin Indonesia

“Thank you!”♦Thai ; Khawp khun maak K.♦Lao ;khawp jai lai lai.♦Burmese;Chee Zuu timbadeh.♦Vietnamese;Cam on ong/ba lam.♦Khmer ; Ohkhohn.♦Filipino ; Salamat po.♦Malay Indonesian; Terima kasih.

Thank you!Chee zu:

Timbadeh. Khawp jaiLai lai.

Cam on ong lam

Salamat po

ohkhohn

Terima kasih

Khawp khun maak.

This is not the end, but beginning!♦Now it is YOUR TURN to try the

languages of Southeast Asia!♦Don’t be shay! Try to say a few

word! You will be welcomed!♦Good luck!