November 22, 2002
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Language and Culture - A Bridge between Nepal and Japan
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On November 21, Prof. Sueyoshi Toba, Visiting Professor at the Central Department of Linguistics, Tribhuvan University, delivered the lecture on "Language and Culture - A Bridge between Nepal and Japan" at the Embassy hall. Prof. Toba is a renowned specialist in Nepali linguistic and other ethnic languages of Nepal such as Newari, Khaling, Sunwar and Kulung. The following is the extract of his lecture:
For a little over thirty years I have had the privilege of living in this land of the Himalayas.
As I come from a town near Matsumoto, close to the Japan Alps, I felt right at home here from the very beginning.
Especially in the years soon after I arrived with my family, we felt close to nature and Nepalese hospitality helped us to adapt to our new surroundings.
Looking back now, Nepal has always felt like home to us. We have been able to learn enough of the language to communicate with people and enjoy friendships. Our first impression of feeling at home has deepened and continues to grow as we comprehend more of the language and culture.
Let me take Nepali as a representative for the many languages spoken in this country to illustrate why I consider especially language a bridge rather than a barrier. Nepali is a rich language as it has absorbed many words and expressions from other languages. Likewise, Japanese also grew as it adapted Chinese words.
- Similarities
As a linguist, I would like to, first of all, explore how language connects Nepal and Japan. Let us first examine similarities from a linguistic aspect. Although Nepali and Japanese belong to different language families - Nepali is an Indo-European language whilst Japanese is classified as an Altaic language. Still, they have a number of common characteristics.
The word order of the sentence is very similar. Compare for instance Nepali mai-le Ram-lai kitab die ~ with Japanese "watashi-wa Ram-ni hon-wo ageta" (I gave the book to Ram). In both sentences the word order is: Subject (S) + Object (O) + Verb (V). We want to also make it clear that under Object we understand both, the indirect object (here a person) and the direct object (here a thing). Disregarding minor differences of the markings added to the nouns in Japanese we can state that in both languages the word order in the sentence is the same as shown in this formula: S + O + V.
Going down one level, to the sentence part called "phrase", again we can find a similar pattern in Nepali and in Japanese. Compare Nepali Nepal-ma agla parbat-haru chan with Japanese "Neparu-niwa takai yama-ga arimasu". (There are high mountains in Nepal).The word order here is Adjective (A) + Noun (N) and we get the formula A + N. In the same way, the postposition is attached to the noun, that is Nepal-ma and "Nepal-niwa" whereas English and other European languages have prepositions (quite unlike Nepali).
On the word level, both languages have a system of honorific forms for pronouns to which the verb forms correspond. Also on the word level, there is reduplication in both languages. Another commonality is the syllabic writing system, which is characteristic for both Nepali and Japanese.
- Differences
When we leave language and go to the field of culture, some differences become more apparent. We are all familiar with the saying of King Prithivi Narayan Shah: "Nepal is a flower garden with many kinds of flowers" referring to the ethnic composition of the country. For Japan, the opposite is true: it is a "flower garden with many flowers of the same kind". In literature, while Nepali poetry and songs frequently use repetition, Japanese poetry is famous for its brevity as in the haiku which consists of only 17 syllables. Proverbs are constantly used in Nepal to make a point in conversation or in a speech, but in Japan, proverbs are used much less than are idiomatic phrases. The Japanese concept of "Wabi" and "Sabi" permeates literature and visual art, and even architecture, but I wonder if this concept is understood or appreciated to the same level in Nepal.
- Conclusion
While there are cultural differences that might pose a barrier, our languages facilitate comparatively easy communication and understanding due to their similarity in structure. We may therefore conclude that overall, especially language acts as a bridge between our two nations.
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