Sino-xenic vocabulary 漢字語 / 漢語 / Hán Việt
hanjaeo / kango / Hán Việt · from English
What is Sino-xenic vocabulary?
Sino-xenic vocabulary is the large layer of Chinese-derived words in Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese, pronounced in each language's own way.
Borrowed over centuries through Classical Chinese, these words make up a large share of the lexicon, often estimated at over half of dictionary entries in Korean and Vietnamese. They dominate academic, legal and technical vocabulary. For learners of Chinese, they are a massive head start in the other languages, and vice versa.
Examples
Sino-Korean 학교 hakgyo (學校, school); Sino-Japanese 電話 denwa (telephone); Sino-Vietnamese quốc gia (國家, nation); Mandarin 國家 guójiā
Kungfucius says: Half of Korean and Vietnamese vocabulary is Chinese in disguise. Unmask it and level up.