12-05-2017, 05:16 PM | #476 |
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I don't have my kanji etymology reference on me at the moment but my understanding is that all cardinal direction kanji have a similar origin with regards to borrowing, though that's not a particularly unique quality among abstract yet basic kanji.
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12-05-2017, 06:03 PM | #477 |
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I just think it's interesting/strange when more basic concepts' characters are either built upon (or, in this case, are outright thieves of) less basic concepts' characters. For example ...
日 = sunOr like ... 氏 = clanUsually it works the other way around, for which I am grateful. Especially best is when a story is told within, as is the case with characters like 歯, 喜, 薬, and 投. But even if there's not a clear story, even if it's just a case of grabbing a radical for the sake of its reading, it usually makes more sense when more advanced concepts build upon more basic ones. Why do 穴 and 工 come before 空? Why does 各 come before 落? Usually things are fairly evenly matched (like 農 preceding 濃 or 童 preceding 瞳, where honestly I can see the temporal order going either way). Often times the simpler concept wins out, as with 言 getting to be the base of so many other characters. But it's just when the more esoteric or rare-to-hear concepts get the basic radicals for characters that I'm like ... "What!?" Not saying it's bad. It's just interesting, is all. Will be interesting to learn the stories behind these various, seeming peculiarities.
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12-29-2017, 02:19 PM | #478 |
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カチューシャ (n) (named after a character in Tolstoy's novel "Resurrection") Alice band (rus: Katyusha); horseshoe-shaped hairband made of metal or plastic (often covered with cloth)
Kachuusha.
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01-22-2018, 02:53 PM | #479 |
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おもむろに 《徐ろに; 徐に》 (adv) (1) (uk) suddenly; abruptly; (2) (uk) (original meaning) deliberately; slowly; gently
Perhaps what ESL learners feel towards a word like "terrific."
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01-22-2018, 05:53 PM | #480 |
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Most people assume that "peruse" means "to skim through casually" but it actually means "to examine very carefully".
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01-23-2018, 11:48 PM | #481 |
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N2 results are available to those who took the test in Japan and the United States.
Whoops. Well, in brief: I was very confident that I failed. When I took the N3, I was 50/50 on whether I had passed or failed. When I took the N2, I was more like 5/95 or 10/90. Very, very confident I had failed. Primary reasons being:
My metric has always been this: "an N2 is someone who can read a light novel with minimal dictionary use; an N1, someone who can do the same with the newspaper." Right now, I still fall short of that N2 metric. But my plan had always been for 2018 to be the year where I really start to change that, and while I've lost a lot of time over the past four weeks, I made a lot of progress in mid-December and hope to make much more progress this coming month. Still, it's wonderful to have passed -- even if I have to work to fill the shoes, at least I have the shoes. It will be nice to be able to honestly place on my resume that I am N2-certified.
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02-07-2018, 12:35 AM | #482 |
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這 connotes crawling in Japanese but "this" in Chinese. (Contrast with Japanese 之 and 此 for "this".) In either case, it originally meant "to meet" in Chinese, so in both languages it has drifted away from its original meaning. It's a really simple character, consisting of only two radicals and both very basic ones ... yet it's beyond Joyo prescriptions and is attached to a verb that, honestly, while basic in a human experience sense you still won't see used in conversation every day.
Bonus: just realized, I can't think of any verbs off the top of my head that end in ふ. Looking into it, two things. First, it appears that there are few to no verbs in modern Japanese ending in ふ. Second, it appears that a great number of verbs ending in う historically ended in ふ. :o You're probably familiar with the terms ichidan for る verbs and godan for う verbs. Well, apparently once upon a time we had nidan and yodan distinctions -- in the time of Heian-kyo -- and all of the verbs that were previously yodans and today end in う ... back then ended in ふ! Anyway, 這う is one such verb -- it was previously 這ふ, in ancient times. The more you know™!
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02-10-2018, 10:05 AM | #483 |
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Spreading the word in case we happen to have any U.S. federal employees here, present or future, who are also interested in studying abroad in Japan for a year:
The Mansfield Fellowship Program provides up to ten federal employees with one year of professional development and networking opportunities in Japan. It was established by the U.S. Congress in 1994 to build a corps of U.S. federal government employees with proficiency in the Japanese language and practical, firsthand knowledge about Japan and its government.An old friend showed me this and thought I would share. I don't think we do have any active members currently who work for the federal government, let alone are advanced enough in their careers to be considered "mid-career" or in "senior positions", but things can always change (new members show up, old members get new jobs), and I figured I'd spread awareness that this is an actual thing for those who are interested. There may even be similar programs in other countries, so be sure to investigate if you work outside the USA but would have otherwise qualified.
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03-12-2018, 06:32 AM | #484 |
我が名は勇者王!
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Writing a summoning chant for a certain Pokemon. I think this looks right, it's pretty simple. My main reason is to double check if there are more common/easier ways to pronounce it, since there's a lot of alliteration here that I dunno native speakers would use. I also need a second line.
Almost all chants like this have a second line that involves "BECOME THE LIGHT", which seems perfect? Just drop the Z-Move in here and case closed? Except, because I have "hikari ni kaeru" which accurately describes what happens, there's some redundancy not present in other chants. NO OTHER chants of this style mention "hikari" in line 1, it's almost always a metaphor for light, like "opening the door" > "become the path light shines on" I can't think of any metaphors that are specific to the game. 「集いし結晶の黒が新たな進化の光に帰る。 (INSERT SOMETHING HERE) ウルトラバースト! 生来せよ、 《ウルトラ・ネクロズマ!!》」
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03-12-2018, 08:09 AM | #485 |
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I don't really know what you're looking for there but it should be noted that this "光に帰る" means "come home to the light", which sounds kind of weird. If you want to say return, 戻る is more appropriate.
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03-12-2018, 10:08 AM | #486 |
我が名は勇者王!
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Thanks! These chants are either metaphorical or describe what's literally happening. So I would use something like
復活の咆吼が宇宙に響く For the second line, although I'm not sure if inochi/fukkatsu, sakebi/hokou or uchuu/sekai or even 都心. Another possibility: 命のメロディが世界に響く ... I like this one: 「集いし結晶の黒が新たな進化の光に戻る。 怪しいのメロディが宇宙に響く ウルトラバースト! 生来せよ、 《ウルトラ・ネクロズマ!!》」 Technically, the roar/scream happens the Ultra Burst, doesn't it? So I'm not sure that fits...
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ふたりの想いが見つけだす希望 今 信じあえる あきらめない 心かさね 永遠を抱きしめて Last edited by Doppleganger; 03-12-2018 at 11:05 AM. |
03-12-2018, 11:18 AM | #487 |
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I'm not really any kind of expert on Japanese poetry or religious chants or anything but from my experience these kinds of things generally echo poetic tropes with regards to language use and unless they're trying to invoke some ridiculous on'yomi compound or a specific Buddhist term (which are almost all borrowings via China) they'll stick mostly to native Japanese words over Chinese borrowings or gairaigo.
For the first one, 命 appears pretty frequently in poetry (it's also got the benefit of being 3 mora and a nice native word for the broad concept of life) so it's probably a more natural choice. If you want to talk about the world broadly, 世の中 is probably one of the more poetic options, but if you want to strictly talk about the universe as in the cosmos, 宇宙 is the most literal option. 世界 exists somewhere in between them both and also kind of implies more of the mortal world in this kind of context, as opposed to 異界 which is roughly the idea of a spirit world. Also I am not familiar with the word 咆吼 and the kanji you've chosen seem to be the less used ones. Just looking at my dictionary, I found a native word that might be more appropriate or at least more stylistically pleasing: http://jisho.org/word/轟き For the second, it'd be a little weird to use a gairaigo word in something that's supposed to be like an ancient spell or summoning chant. It doesn't look like any native words quite hit on this concept and I don't really know of a good word, but my dictionary lists 諧調 with the meaning of "harmonious melody, harmony, euphony". It looks to be a word not really used in Japanese but is a common-ish word in Chinese for this kind of thing. It might be a better fit over メロディー in the second one. |
03-12-2018, 01:42 PM | #489 |
我が名は勇者王!
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The verb is kaeru, but I only had kana so I picked the top result for "most common kanji" usage. But it seems Jeffrey's isn't very good at ranking them by grade level!
I've got an idea to add ambiguity with regard to roar/melody...歌! 「集いし結晶の黒が新たな進化の光に変える。 怪しいの歌が時に響く ウルトラバースト! 生来せよ、 《ウルトラ・ネクロズマ!!》」 I wanted to avoid using both toki and houko because of Palkia. Alternatively, 「集いし結晶の黒が新たな進化の歌に来る。 天焦がす滅亡の光となれ! ウルトラバースト! 生来せよ、 《ウルトラ・ネクロズマ!!》」
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03-12-2018, 02:00 PM | #490 |
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Since you're aiming to say "to change darkness to light", it would be more appropriate to say 変える. However, the whole thing with your choice is that it's returning to its original state, so 帰る also works. Things like this I've often found writers have left ambiguous by using kana only so it's understandable either way. Makes translating a pain in the ass though, but tl;dr you're right either way more or less.
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03-12-2018, 07:04 PM | #491 | ||
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Quote:
Re: kaeru, I think you're glossing over transitive vs. intransitive again, Doppel. If you really want to go with 変 (change / turn into) rather than something like 成 (become), then I think your English sentence indicates you want 変わる rather than 変える. You're asking someone to change into light, i.e. they become light. You're not asking someone to change someone or something else into light, i.e. they effect change outside themselves. "TURN THEM ALL INTO ZOMBIES!" would use something like 変える. "TURN INTO A ZOMBIE!" would use something like 変わる. Quote:
Luckily, we have a native Japanese word that can replace メロディー. And that's 旋律 senritsu. I mean, it isn't pre-Chinese native, but ... Getting to the heart of the matter, though ... None of us here can help you out with an authentic-sounding sutra, Doppel. And that's because: an authentic sutra doesn't follow the conventions of Japanese grammar. So if it's sutras you're after, then this task is probably beyond anyone here's pay grade. If it's simply a Pokémon Sun & Moon-style shounen motto that Doppel-Ash says each time before he does The Thing™, then while you've inched closer in the last 24 hours ... you're still not quite there yet, and with over one hour's investment I think I'm all tapped out.
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03-13-2018, 10:08 AM | #492 |
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Some more intransitive & transitive pairs, selected from a song I was just listening to:
染まる 染める / somaru someru / to stain, to dye 止まる 止める / tomaru tomeru / to stop 続く 続ける / tsudzuku tsudzukeru / to continue I don't want to say "every single Japanese verb has a transitive-intransitive pair," as that's demonstrably false, but I often feel like it's true. The number is probably something around 40% to 60% of the five hundred most commonly-used verbs coming with a partner. I can't emphasize enough the importance of studying this topic and understanding when to apply which of the verbs in each pair. To my surprise, this topic was not introduced until my second year of Japanese. I could have sworn it was introduced in the first year. It's that important, that foundational to speaking proper Japanese. Further reading: Tae Kim Wikibooks
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03-13-2018, 10:47 AM | #493 | |
我が名は勇者王!
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Is はじまれ shortened to just はじめ, or are they different things entirely?
Quote:
I'm starting to be more cognizant of this!
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あなたの勇気が切り開く未来
ふたりの想いが見つけだす希望 今 信じあえる あきらめない 心かさね 永遠を抱きしめて Last edited by Doppleganger; 03-13-2018 at 10:56 AM. |
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03-13-2018, 06:49 PM | #494 | |
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Quote:
Side side note: if one googles 運命よ, the top hit is the Japanese localization of a Michael Jordan quote: 「運命よ、そこをどけ、俺が通る。」"Fate, outta my way. I'm comin' through." I can't seem to find the original English quote, although "out of my way" for Michael Jordan gives a lot of returns for this one time he slam dunked against Charles Barkley.
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03-15-2018, 01:51 PM | #495 |
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I had forgotten about this: バイキング Viking is the Japanese term for an all-you-can-eat buffet. バイキング料理, rather than meaning Viking cuisine, refers to a buffet.
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03-20-2018, 06:26 PM | #496 |
我が名は勇者王!
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In the newest Overlord there's a line (taken from the novel, apparently) where Shalltear, I presume, tries to haughtily say われわれわ and it comes out as a timid わららわ and it's just the cutest thing I've ever picked up on in Japanese. I can only assume it's stumbling over her words, but if you had presented this to me academically, I don't think the effect would have been so pronounced.
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ふたりの想いが見つけだす希望 今 信じあえる あきらめない 心かさね 永遠を抱きしめて Last edited by Doppleganger; 03-20-2018 at 07:04 PM. |
03-21-2018, 08:28 PM | #497 |
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This is a really good introduction to くれる / あげる / もらう. It omits politeness levels in favor of keeping things simple and establishing a solid footing for students. I came upon it the other night while trying to look something related up and thought it was a very good resource to share here for anyone who is either self-teaching or who is still really early in their Japanese adventure. Spoiler: show
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08-13-2018, 05:30 PM | #498 |
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09-24-2018, 09:15 AM | #500 |
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Someone on Pixiv wrote そ in such an unusual way that I began to second guess myself and question whether I've been writing the character incorrectly the entire time or not. (It looked like a て with a | fused on top of it!) So I did some light investigation, and while I didn't find anyone else writing そ the way that they did, I did find ...
Top: Heisei; Bottom: Shōwa ... that apparently there's a difference between how Shōwa-educated and Heisei-educated people write their そs! =O Did not know this! It's not too surprising, though, given Heisei more or less equals the Digital Age and with that comes learning to write your characters based on how they appear digitally. Shōwa, meanwhile, follows the more traditional bent of translating brush strokes to graphite on paper. I was taught to write そs the Shōwa way. Again, not surprising: my teachers and the authors of my textbooks were all in their 40s or above when I learned my alphabet in 2003, and the turn of the century would have definitely been that time when digital trends were only just starting to erode at traditional teachings. I'm sure plenty of people were already writing their そs the Heisei way in 2003, but it remained a time when you could expect educators to resist the trend and to reinforce "good, proper" writing habits in their students. It leads me to wonder if we will see changes in how kanji are written as well. Because of my education, I always make sure to look up how a character is written when using graphite (rather than using an inkwell and brush) to ensure that I am not writing things wrong. And sometimes it's written the same way both with graphite and with ink and brush, but it's printed differently in most computer fonts. For example, I write 冷 the way the animation depicts on the left, and not how the character actually appears in digital and print media.
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