The "Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, and Mongolian Language Site" (aka cjvlang.com) is an armchair excursion into four fascinating languages of the Orient. CJV stands for Chinese / Japanese / Vietnamese, the original focus of the site, but Mongolian has been added as one of the main areas of interest. (Note: "cjv" is also the ISO code for the Choave language of Papua New Guinea.)
What you will find on this site:
Projects
1. Days of the Week in Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese and Mongolian - Why should three East Asian languages that are often so similar in vocabulary be so different in naming the days of the week? And how is Mongolian related to the rest? At first it all seems rather easy, but the more you look, the more fascinating it becomes.
2. Allusions to Classical Chinese Poetry in Pink Floyd - A surprising link between one of the rock icons of the 20th century and the poetry of an ancient civilisation.
3. Harry Potter in Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, and Mongolian - An international best seller translated into the three CJV languages plus Mongolian. Names of characters, chapter titles, lexical comparisons (comparisons of vocabulary), word play, etc. (Links to Chinese-language site map (Simplified); Chinese-language site map (Traditional), Japanese language site map.)
4. Le Petit Prince (小王子, 星の王子様, Hoàng Tử Bé) -- 'The Little Prince' in Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, and Mongolian. There are far more translations of this book than Harry Potter!
5. CJV Writing Systems - A description of the Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, and Mongolian writing systems which attempts to cover what I consider the essence -- less about the exotic forms of the characters and more about how they are used to write the language.
Quasi-blogs
6. Spicks & Specks - Miscellaneous items that don't belong anywhere else: 'Year of the Sheep or Year of the Goat?', 'Weapons of Mass Destruction', a sign encouraging people to flush the toilet, translation of the Chinese word fengqing, 'Mind the Gap' in Japanese and Cantonese, the perils of translating via a third language (in this case, Chinese), the naming of the Bell Miner, Vinegar Museums around the World, and much else.
7. Different Waters - Miscellaneous articles not written in English. All corrections welcome!
Other
8. Pictorial - Pictures of the Goomeri Pumpkin Festival in Australia, stone lions...
9. A collection of Mongolian-language texts in both traditional and Cyrillic scripts.
10. Listening to Mongolian: A section of audio clips from a popular sitcom allowing you to listen to actual spoken Mongolian and compare it with the written word.
My other site
Formerly here, now at sibagu.com:
Birds of Asia: A Glossary of Bird Species - An exploration of the way Asian languages have tackled the demands of modern science in a part of nature close to daily life -- the naming of bird species. Now covers seven countries:
Birds of Mongolia (Монгол орны шувуу ◊ 蒙古的鸟类 ◊ 蒙古的鳥類 ◊ モンゴルの野鳥 ◊ 몽골어조류 ◊ Moğolistan Kuşları)
Birds of Japan (日本の野鳥 ◊ 日本的鸟类 ◊ 日本的鳥類 ◊ 일본어조류)
Birds of China (中国的鸟类 ◊ 中國的鳥類 ◊ 中国の野鳥 ◊ 중국의조류 ◊ Chim Trung Quốc ◊ Хятад орны шувуу)
Birds of Taiwan (台灣的鳥類 ◊ 台湾的鸟类 ◊ 台湾の野鳥 ◊ 타이완어조류 ◊ Chim Đài Loan)
Birds of Vietnam (Chim Việt Nam ◊ 越南的鸟类 ◊ 越南的鳥類 ◊ ベトナムの野鳥 ◊ นกของเวียดนาม)
Birds of Thailand (นกในเมืองไทย ◊
Chim Thái Lan ◊ Burung di Thailand ◊ 泰国的鸟类 ◊ 泰國的鳥類 ◊ タイの野鳥)
Birds of West Malaysia and Singapore (Burung di Malaysia Barat dan Singapura ◊
นกในมาเลเซียตะวันตกและสิงคโปร์ ◊ Chim Tây Malaysia và Singapore ◊ 西马来西亚和新加坡的鸟类 ◊ 西馬來西亞和新加坡的鳥類 ◊ 西マレーシアとシンガポールの野鳥)
I've done a certain amount of background research for this site, mainly to prevent gross errors of fact. However, my information is neither exhaustive nor authoritative. Much is from dictionaries. I would be delighted to receive corrections or further information.
