<p>Japanese is not very tonal, is spoken very fast, and has relatively few phonemes. Consonants are often followed by a vowel. Chinese on the other hand is highly tonal and is spoken relatively slowly, as information is encoded extensively in tone. They are almost complete opposites. There are also various phonemes that occur more often in one language than the other, and emphasis is very rare in Japanese (e.g. it's "wa-ta-shi", never "wa-TA-shi"). It is also very regularly paced, with each syllable usually taking the same amount of time. Chinese varies the syllable lengths considerably.</p>

<p>Compare the following (romanized) Japanese</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>mou ichido itte morae masu ka</p>
</blockquote>

<p>with the equivalent (romanized) Mandarin Chinese</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>qǐng zài shuō yíbiàn</p>
</blockquote>

<p>It's clear that they are different languages, and that one is far more tonal than the other. These both mean the same things, asking the speaker to repeat what they had just said.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-11-11T07:50:01.213Z
2018-11-11T07:50:01.213Z
forest
<p>The only words in Chinese that I know are "Ni How" (hello) and "she she" (thank you). And the only words I know in Japanese are "Domo arigato Mr. Roboto" (thank you very much Mr. Roboto). Yet I am able to tell the difference between when a person is speaking Chinese and when a person is speaking Japanese.</p>

<p>How am I able to do this?</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-01-26T16:57:23.250Z
What answer are you expecting other than "they sound different"?
Seanny123
CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-01-26T17:28:03.123Z
What algorithm does my brain use to determine that they sound different?
Craig Feinstein
CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-01-26T17:28:55.537Z
You might get a more interesting answer at https://linguistics.stackexchange.com/ - I'm certainly not an expert on those languages but I suspect they have different sets of phonemes or at least different phoneme combinations that make them distinct. I suspect different inflection patterns, too.
Bryan Krause
CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-01-26T17:51:57.727Z
@BryanKrause, Certainly the languages have different properties, but I am asking here because I am interested in knowing how my brain is able to recognize this without consciously being aware of the things you mention.
Craig Feinstein
CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-01-26T17:54:20.547Z
Why ask about languages then? Why not any other two entities of a class? You can probably discriminate a cat and a dog, and yet it would take you a lot longer to think about all the characteristics that tell you an animal is a cat versus a dog.
Bryan Krause
CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-01-26T17:57:23.833Z
I'd also add that this isn't how you learn to discriminate cats and dogs; sometime probably when you were young someone showed you a bunch of pictures and called them cats, and a bunch of pictures and called them dogs. They didn't describe different bone structures of cats and dogs and inform you that when you go out into the world you can use those bone structures to discriminate between the two.
Bryan Krause
CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-01-26T17:57:25.643Z
I am interested in languages because they are combinations of sounds and are not visual.
Craig Feinstein
CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-01-26T19:12:18.567Z
Then, again, I direct you back to linguistics. There is no need for an algorithmic difference based on sound versus vision; I used visual analogies because they are typically more accessible to sighted humans.
Bryan Krause
CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-03-28T15:12:48.023Z
I would say it sounds a bit on the over optimistic side to think there are algorithms that people know that are ruining in the brain. A bit mad really. On the other hand you could ask computer linguists might tell you about algorithms they might use. But that's not brain by far. So yeah, what Seanny says is right they sound different and if you have heard some samples of each you will be able to tell.
r0berts
<language-processing>
How am I able to distinguish between Chinese and Japanese when I don't speak either language?
Craig Feinstein
# How am I able to distinguish between Chinese and Japanese when I don't speak either language?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2018-01-26)

The only words in Chinese that I know are "Ni How" (hello) and "she she" (thank you). And the only words I know in Japanese are "Domo arigato Mr. Roboto" (thank you very much Mr. Roboto). Yet I am able to tell the difference between when a person is speaking Chinese and when a person is speaking Japanese.

How am I able to do this?

**Tags:** language-processing

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: What answer are you expecting other than "they sound different"?  
> **username_0**: What algorithm does my brain use to determine that they sound different?  
> **username_2**: You might get a more interesting answer at https://linguistics.stackexchange.com/ - I'm certainly not an expert on those languages but I suspect they have different sets of phonemes or at least different phoneme combinations that make them distinct. I suspect different inflection patterns, too.  
> **username_0**: @BryanKrause, Certainly the languages have different properties, but I am asking here because I am interested in knowing how my brain is able to recognize this without consciously being aware of the things you mention.  
> **username_2**: Why ask about languages then? Why not any other two entities of a class? You can probably discriminate a cat and a dog, and yet it would take you a lot longer to think about all the characteristics that tell you an animal is a cat versus a dog.  
> **username_2**: I'd also add that this isn't how you learn to discriminate cats and dogs; sometime probably when you were young someone showed you a bunch of pictures and called them cats, and a bunch of pictures and called them dogs. They didn't describe different bone structures of cats and dogs and inform you that when you go out into the world you can use those bone structures to discriminate between the two.  
> **username_0**: I am interested in languages because they are combinations of sounds and are not visual.  
> **username_2**: Then, again, I direct you back to linguistics. There is no need for an algorithmic difference based on sound versus vision; I used visual analogies because they are typically more accessible to sighted humans.  
> **username_3**: I would say it sounds a bit on the over optimistic side to think there are algorithms that people know that are ruining in the brain. A bit mad really. On the other hand you could ask computer linguists might tell you about algorithms they might use. But that's not brain by far. So yeah, what Seanny says is right they sound different and if you have heard some samples of each you will be able to tell.  

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_4 on 2018-11-11. Score: 1 | Accepted answer

Japanese is not very tonal, is spoken very fast, and has relatively few phonemes. Consonants are often followed by a vowel. Chinese on the other hand is highly tonal and is spoken relatively slowly, as information is encoded extensively in tone. They are almost complete opposites. There are also various phonemes that occur more often in one language than the other, and emphasis is very rare in Japanese (e.g. it's "wa-ta-shi", never "wa-TA-shi"). It is also very regularly paced, with each syllable usually taking the same amount of time. Chinese varies the syllable lengths considerably.

Compare the following (romanized) Japanese

> mou ichido itte morae masu ka

with the equivalent (romanized) Mandarin Chinese

> qǐng zài shuō yíbiàn

It's clear that they are different languages, and that one is far more tonal than the other. These both mean the same things, asking the speaker to repeat what they had just said.


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