Рассказав эту байку друзьям встретили глубокое недоверие нашим лингвистическим способностям. Как это - нет множественного числа? А прошедшего времени? Учитывая, что на японо-китайских я знаю слов 5 в сумме, несмотря на посещение обеих стран за последние 12 месяцев, объяснить феномен на примерах не удалось. Вот сведения из интернета (китайские примеры очень наглядно показывают преимущество индо-европейских языков):
Китайский
Grammatically speaking English and Chinese are very different languages. There is no rule that verbs, nouns, and adjectives must agree with one another in Chinese writing. There is no such thing as singular or plural in the Chinese language. Often a number or word will be added to the sentence to account for plurality. There are no verb tenses in the Chinese writing. Additional words are used to clarify the past and future tenses. These words are usually placed at the beginning of the phase to help indicate time. In a medical setting, it is important to pay particular attention to time indicators. For example: if a provider asks, " Have you been vomiting?" the Chinese patient may answer " No". Actually the patient may mean "not now, but two days ago I did." In this case, the provider is not getting the correct information. It would be clearer to ask the patient a question with a time indicator such as "Have you vomited in the last week?"
Японский
Basic Japanese grammar is relatively simple. Complicating factors such as gender articles and distinctions between plural and singular are missing almost completely. Conjugation rules for verbs and adjectives are simple and almost free of exceptions. Nouns are not declinated at all, but appear always in the same form.
