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121 sats \ 17 replies \ @cryotosensei OP 17 Aug 2024 \ parent \ on: Parent’s Corner: 大人 vs 小人 mostly_harmless
Thanks for such a lovely comment.
There’s also 小气鬼 - someone who is petty.
You made me wanna learn some Korean so that I can explore the similarities n differences between these two languages - and how Mandarin might have influenced the development of Korean!
Fun fact: Korean's dictionary is twice the size of most dictionaries as both a native Korean and a Chinese version of words usually exist. The Chinese versions usually make one sound more erudite but are only used in certain formal contexts.
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Electronic dictionaries aren’t in vogue these days?
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Oh they are. Just referring to the number of entries here, regardless of the format. Electronic or paper.
To be fair, Korean in nr 2 (after Tamil) also comes from the inclusion of north Korean dialects.
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What's the story behind so many entries for Tamil?
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A very good question!
Seems like this is because Tamil is one of the oldest, in fact the second oldest after Sanskrit, has so many synonyms for every word.
I'm not from the place is where Tamil is spoken. I'm from North India and Tamil is very specific to South India only.
But, I know one or two things about Sanskrit. Let me tell you. Sanskrit is one of the richest languages in the world, it has more words than in any other language. At present, Sanskrit dictionary has “102.78 billion” 🤷words! This is possible only because there are innumerable synonyms in Sanskrit for every word. So, Sanskrit isn't spoken mother of all languages for nothing. I've studied Sanskrit in my school and I can confirm you this.
I'm surprised that Wikipedia hasn't included Sanskrit dictionary in the list.
You can confirm it here.
https://satyaagrah.com/sanatan/dharm-sanskriti/2315-sanskrit-dictionary
Link of online Sanskrit dictionary:
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Forgot to tag another SN resident Indian (I think).
Most Indians speak Tamil in Singapore. I always thought it is a minor n obscure language - today, I learnt about how influential it actually is!
I asked my Indian colleague.
He told me that in a sense, Sanskrit is actually based on a very limited number of roots (around 2,000) and that the innumerable number of words are just coming from a very systematic application of specific grammar rules to apply "inflections" and "derivations".
But he says it appeals to the nationalistic nature of people to claim it contains several millions of words (he doesn't know where the number of 100 billion words comes from)... but in reality, the actual uniqueness of words lies in the roots rather in the inflections or derivations.
This could be a reason for not including it at nr 1 in that Wikipedia page. At the same time, you are free to add it... maybe it's a simple omission.
In the end, I guess both sides are valid. It's just a disagreement on how to count a word as being truly unique. It's a matter of definition.
I love how you got other stackers to chime in. SN is truly a microcosm of the world!
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