Comments on: ゆった Recap

By: Emily

Emily — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 12:38:15 +0000

I really, really, love this blog. It’s so interesting, I’m just getting into the translating business and though I’m a complete novice, finding useful and informative places like this on the ‘web is a godsend! Will definitely utilise it a lot more in the future.

By: Matt

Matt — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 11:53:32 +0000

“Yuku” was definitely more popular in earlier times than “iku”, but “iku” has been around like forever, waiting for its moment to shine. Here’s a sakimori song by Otabe no Aramimi in the Man’yoshu dated to the mid-700s that includes it:

阿米都知乃可美乎伊乃里弖佐都夜奴伎都久之乃之麻乎佐之弖伊久和例波
あめつちのかみをいのりてさつやぬきつくしのしまをさしていくわれは
天地の神を祈りて猟矢貫き筑紫の島を指して行く我れは

“I pray to the gods of heaven and earth, load up on hunting arrows, and it’s Tsukushi island [=Kyushu] ho, boys, fiddle-dee-dee” (partly embellished)

Of course, the author was from Tochigi… but Ono Susumu claims that it was fairly often used to enable a pun with “iku” as in “live” (-> modern “ikiru”).

By: How to Engrish» Blog Archive » 英語の音便

How to Engrish» Blog Archive » 英語の音便 — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 09:35:05 +0000

[...] 月曜日How to Japoneseでは、音便について少し書いたけど、その後英語の音便があるかどうかが気ににった。 [...]

By: Will

Will — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 05:14:14 +0000

This is the second time we’ve both written about something at the same time! Just put up a post a few hours ago about Jonny Greenwood + Norwegian Wood. Weird.

By: Blue Shoe

Blue Shoe — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 10:49:31 +0000

Hopefully they’ll pick up some more. Probably their biggest disadvantage in learning most foreign languages is that Japanese lacks many of the necessary sounds.

By: Andy

Andy — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 05:20:15 +0000

It’s interesting to consider that Japanese lost a lot of sounds, since in a few generations they’ve gotten so many back. Like how “building” used to be katakanized as ビルジング and is now ビリディング.