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Japanese has a high information density?
Yes, particularly written Japanese. However the written form is so overly complex that even native speakers can't understand it sometimes. Which means information loss, ergo less efficient to communicate with. It also takes a very long time to write with in the first place. In English you're selecting 26 alphabet characters to spellout/define whatever concept your trying to communicate. In Japanese, there are over 50,000 characters to select and their various combinations. In an attempt to standardize, Japan requires all students to at least learn ~2200 characters (joyo kanji) in addition to the standard ~140 hirigana/katakana characters.
Mandarin and Cantonese have similar issues, only they up the fuckery by being tonal languages, which loosely translates to every word having a different meaning depending on how you pronounce it. Very similar to how english speakers can ask a question in a spoken sentence by raising the pitch on the last word-- without directly phrasing the sentence as a question. (eg: I'm going to work? instead of I'm going to work.)
In Mandarin, 'ma' can mean 'horse', 'mom', 'hemp', or 'scold' depending on how you pronounce it. Now do that for every word in the sentence. Whereas the english words read (same as reed) and read (same as red) both have to do with the concept of reading. In context it's easy to determine if the speaker is talking about reading or color--- or reading or a plant... but english has only a few words that do this-- instead of every word.
I believe Japan produces such good draftsmen because they are all forced to precisely draw these complex characters from an early age.
Being a Boomer, my weeb is weak, but I have heard that spoken Japanese takes shortcuts in conveying information, that it does not really have a method for pluralization and that it only as two tenses.
If that's true, then spoken Japanese could be said to get the gist across quickly by conveying less information, but how would that count for information density? Of course, as vintage Japanese movie dubs demonstrate, and Boomer movies like What's Up, Tiger Lily? parody, a Japanese fella can deliver an entire sonnet's worth of words to say something that equates to a concise single sentence in English.
I've heard Japanese dialogue that is so heavy with borrowed English words that it pretty much was English, that seems like it shouldn't count for info density lol.
Supposedly, the Japanese Ambassador to Pakistan claimed that Japanese is the easiest foreign language to learn, which could also imply a low info density. I'm still trying to come to grips with that.
In Mandarin, 'ma' can mean 'horse', 'mom', 'hemp', or 'scold'
Young Indiana Jones thought that this was ridiculous, and I agree with him. Stereotypical Asian lack of creativity on display: why invent a new word when we can just tack on a completely different meaning to an existing word. The same sort of thinking with the much-memed Indian electric pole that is absurdly draped in wires.
Spoken Japanese absolutely takes shortcuts because it can get very tedious quickly. They often do not specifically specify a plural when talking about something: Eg: Goat is ヤギ (yagi) and Goats is also ヤギ (yagi)--- or more apparent in the word Manga as it can both mean an individual 'comic book' or 'all the comic books'. So they usually depend on context to discern whether it's plural or not. You're more likely to know something is a plural if they use we/our/their instead of I, the rest of the time it'll depend on context. So its definitely not the same as English.
They do heavily borrow English words (and are pronounced close enough to the actual English word), but the way they're identified is a bit unique in writing. Katakana characters are exclusively used for borrowed words (often English). Eg: バスケットボール, which when broken down is this: バ (ba) ス (su) ケッ (ke--) ト (to) ボー (bo-o) ル (ru) aka basketball. Hirigana and Katakana characters are written differently but have the exact same pronunciation, but one is exclusively for foreign words/concepts.
Although some English speakers take shortcuts as well-- particularly in dialects that are commonly spoken more slowly--- like how Southerners use y'all/y'all'd'n't've/etc..
Japanese do occasionally prefer to use English words instead of Japanese words for some things because English can be very concise (or in a lot of cases, faster) to communicate with. Even in a business environment (where you think there'd be more formality) you can hear English words being dropped with regular frequency.
Hī!
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