Sino-Japanese vocabulary
It is said that about 60-70% of Japanese words come from Chinese. Like how French and Latin are to English, Chinese loanwords are used to create formal vocabulary and technical terms in Japanese. For example, while the native English words are "moon" and "horse", the Latin terms "luna" and "equus" is used to create technical terms like "lunar calendar", a calendar that is based on the moon, and "equine science", the study of horses. Likewise, the native Japanese word for horse is uma (kanji: 馬, hiragana: うま) while the Chinese term is ba (kanji:馬, hiragana: ば), which is used in terms like basha (kanji:馬車, hiragana: ばしゃ, meaning: horse carriage), jōba (kanji:乗馬, hiragana: じょうば, meaning: horse riding), and gunba (kanji:軍馬, hiragana: ぐんば, meaning: warhorse).