If you know anything about the history of Spain and Japan, you will know that there are few similarities between their cultures and languages. Culturally and linguistically, Spain is heavily influenced by ancient Rome, as well as the country’s long Moorish rule.
In contrast, Japan had its most powerful influences in Asia, mainly in Korea and China. The different forms of Japanese writing have their roots in Chinese writing, although Mandarin Chinese and Japanese are linguistically completely different.
The Mandarin Chinese language is a good example of a language that is in a separate category from Japanese and Spanish. Chinese uses a complex set of tones to communicate meaning. A good example is the word “my”. That word can mean anything from “mom” to “horse” and even a kind of “pronounced question mark” at the end of a sentence to indicate that you’re asking a question. There are 5 different ways (tones) that you can use to pronounce “ma”, and each tone would change the meaning of the word completely.
In contrast, Japanese and Spanish do not use such complex tones to change the meaning of words. Japanese and Spanish are thus in a separate category from Mandarin Chinese and other tonal languages such as Vietnamese and Thai.
We can also separate Japanese and Spanish from languages like English. When a person learns English as a second language, they often have problems with the pronunciation rules of English. English is not one of the languages where one can easily understand the pronunciation of a word as it is written, and there are complicated rules for when things are pronounced in different ways.
In contrast, Spanish and Japanese have consistent pronunciation rules that allow you to see the written word and know how to pronounce it. In Spanish, once you know the sounds of the Spanish alphabet and some simple pronunciation rules, you’ll be ready to see and be able to pronounce Spanish words.
In Japanese, the sounds of the language are represented by a small number of Japanese characters called Kana (Hiragana and Katakana), each of which represents a syllable in the language. If you master the sounds associated with that small number of syllables, you can piece together the pronunciation of any Japanese word.
So, at a high level, Japanese and Spanish share the characteristic that their written forms can be used to easily convey the pronunciation of words clearly and consistently. But even as we dig deeper into the pronunciation, we see more similarities emerging between the two languages.
Vowels in Spanish and Japanese are pronounced more or less the same. The “a” is pronounced like the “a” in father. In Spanish an example is “gracias” (thank you) and in Japanese an example is “asa” (tomorrow). The “i” is pronounced like the “ee” in the English word “meet.” In Spanish an example is the word, “mi” (my) and the Japanese “ichi” (one). In both languages, the “u” is pronounced like the “oo” in “loot.” Examples are “umi” (sea) and “gustar” (to like) in Japanese and Spanish respectively. The “e” is pronounced like the “e” in “bed.” In Japanese it is the initial sound of “ebi” (shrimp) and the initial sound of “el” (el) in Spanish. Finally, “o” is pronounced like the “o” in “hope.” In Spanish an example is “ocho” (eight) and in Japanese “otoko” (man).
Spanish and Japanese consonants are also more or less the same with some well-known exceptions like the Spanish and Japanese pronunciations of “r”.
A word in Spanish consists of a chain of consonants and vowels that we can divide into syllables. The Spanish alphabet is used to join a word like “gustar”, which is basically divided into two syllables, “gu-star”.
As mentioned above, the Japanese pronunciation will break things down into the syllable sounds of the Kana character. Each Kana character will represent a sound in the word and can be written as such. Using one of the examples above, we could break down the Japanese pronunciation into individual Kana characters that sound like this, “o-to-ko.”
So, in both Spanish and Japanese, we have most of the consonants and vowels having basically the same pronunciation, a consistent set of pronunciation rules, and the fact that both languages are not tonal in nature. With these shared elements, we have the ingredients we need to have pronunciation intersections between the two languages.
There is at least one example where a word is pronounced roughly the same in both Spanish and Japanese. In Japanese it is a form of the verb “kaerimasu” (to return, to go home). In Spanish it is a form of the verb “callar” (stop talking or shut up). In both languages the initial sounds of “ca” and “ka” are the same. The verbs simply have to change form to sound the same.
In Japanese, a verb of the type “kaerimasu” changes to one of the Japanese forms called “form -te” thus, “kaette” (ka-eh-te). This verb form is used in sentences like “Chan-san wa Chuugoku ni kaette imasu” (Mr. Chan has returned to China).
In Spanish, a verb of the type “callar”, in imperative conjugation (give an order), results in the word “callate” (Shut up). This can be used in a sentence like, “Callate la boca” (Shut your mouth).
Both the words “kaette” and “callate” are actually pronounced very similarly, due to the effect that the combination “ae” has on “kaette” and the way that some Spanish dialects pronounce the “ll”.
Upon closer analysis, the similarities begin to unravel, but the goal is not to prove that Spanish and Japanese share the exact same pronunciation, just that there is a striking similarity based on the linguistic distance between the two languages.
There may even be other better examples of this. If the reader knows of other similar examples where Japanese and Spanish words share the same or very similar word pronunciations, please feel free to contact me listed on my website at the end of this article.
In conclusion, yes it is strange but true that the languages of Japanese and Spanish can find similarities despite their linguistic roots on opposite sides of the planet.
It is strange but true that the languages of Japanese and Spanish can find pronunciation similarities despite having a completely different linguistic history. Find out why this is so and see an example.