It's no different from english or probably most other languages if you think every character is a primitive.
Example: word.new("T", "E", "A") would be equivalent to word.new("牛").
Then word.new(word.new("T", "E", "A"), word.new("S", "P", "O", "O", "N")) would be equivalent to word.new(word.new("牛"), word.new("肉")).
Next concept the author mixed is working with the verbs, verb.new(word.new("E", "A", "T")).PastTense() would give you "ate"
Just like verb.new(word.new("食", "べ", "る")).Polite().Past() would output "食べました"
Then working with sentences, ex: Topic.new("me").toString() would be just "meは"...
Put it all together and output everything subject > object > verb, instead of the more familiar subject > verb > object.
The author mixed a lot of those grammar concepts, with the words etymology... and it got confusing.
"2 kanjis becoming 1" is just the radical.
涙 (tear) 汗 (sweat) 泳ぐ (swim) 沈む (sink) 溺れる (drown), they all share the same radical (氵/sanzui/mizu/water). While it's not a rule, they are likely to have some relation to it.
Just like in english waterfall, waterproof, waterspout, watermelon, etc.
I like the fact that the author is fascinated by the Japanese language and wants to share his discoveries. I guess everybody learning a seemingly completely new (unrelated to anything you know), experiences a similar phase.
In his case he found similarities with a programming language. And I guess we all do that, we connect the things we're learning to the things we already know.
Someone learning english would probably be equally amazed by the watermelon. I mean... It's not so surprising if watermelon in your native language is, let's say: Melancia (portuguese). It takes half of the discovery surprise from you, as you already could suppose it's melon related.
I can't deny, "Fire + Mountain = Vulcan" was awesome to me as well.
Learning that "Vulcan = god of fire in ancient roman mythology" does not hit me the same way, I already expect it to be greek/roman/latin.
One of the things I like about Japanese are the particles, but I don't know enough about the language to say if they're completely interchangable in any order. e.g. could you say things in these orders in Japanese? You can't in English, it just doesn't sound right.
ジェームズはダブリンに車で水曜日に行きました。 James-subject Dublin-to car-using Wednesday-on went. James went to Dublin in a car on Wednesday.
ダブリンに水曜日に車でジェームズは行きました。 Dublin-to Wednesday-on car-using James-subject went. To Dublin on Wednesday in a car, James went. In charge of words, Yoda was.
水曜日に車でジェームズはダブリンに行きました。 Wednesday-on car-using James-subject Dublin-to went. On Wednesday, in a car, James went to Dublin.
Similarly, specific to English, there is a definite order in which you have to place adjectives. You can pile up adjectives in front of a noun, but unless they're in the right order, they just don't sound right. "The big red balloon" works, "the red big balloon" is just wrong. As far as I know, Japanese does not have such restrictions.
So something the author has noticed, and as far as I know is correct, is that Japanese is a significantly more composable language than English.
Next concept the author mixed is working with the verbs, verb.new(word.new("E", "A", "T")).PastTense() would give you "ate" Just like verb.new(word.new("食", "べ", "る")).Polite().Past() would output "食べました"
Then working with sentences, ex: Topic.new("me").toString() would be just "meは"... Put it all together and output everything subject > object > verb, instead of the more familiar subject > verb > object.
The author mixed a lot of those grammar concepts, with the words etymology... and it got confusing.
"2 kanjis becoming 1" is just the radical. 涙 (tear) 汗 (sweat) 泳ぐ (swim) 沈む (sink) 溺れる (drown), they all share the same radical (氵/sanzui/mizu/water). While it's not a rule, they are likely to have some relation to it. Just like in english waterfall, waterproof, waterspout, watermelon, etc.
I like the fact that the author is fascinated by the Japanese language and wants to share his discoveries. I guess everybody learning a seemingly completely new (unrelated to anything you know), experiences a similar phase. In his case he found similarities with a programming language. And I guess we all do that, we connect the things we're learning to the things we already know.
Someone learning english would probably be equally amazed by the watermelon. I mean... It's not so surprising if watermelon in your native language is, let's say: Melancia (portuguese). It takes half of the discovery surprise from you, as you already could suppose it's melon related.
I can't deny, "Fire + Mountain = Vulcan" was awesome to me as well. Learning that "Vulcan = god of fire in ancient roman mythology" does not hit me the same way, I already expect it to be greek/roman/latin.