>>437 Without Kanji, you can't tell the words apart which have a same pronunciation in common and unlike English, Japanese have tons of them (they were mainly created in Meiji era as translations of western words.)
In Portuguese, we do this with mute letters and accents. So, while sounding the same, "hora" [hour] and "ora" [he/she prays] are still different. "Há" [exists, have], "a" [the, f.] and "à" [to]. This kind of thing can be adapted to Japanese, if the homophones issue is pretty serious...
>>439
>You're an idiot, just like I said. That sentence means:
>"Saying 'It's just... illogical' is the most illogical thing"
Am I the idiot??? Am I?
I think Google Translator is the idiot here :D
>>440
How hard? Depends how messed is Google translation.
"Fuck you"? You've been fucked, liked it and even recommend it, right? LOL. But unlike you, I'm straight.
(BTW, it's funny see serious people discussing seriously and childish retards raging in the same topic...)
>>441
437 here.
Well, you mean"rite" and "write" and "wright" in English, right? (also,"right")
It seems like a good way to avoid homophone confusions, but you're underestimating how much Japanese abounds with homophones.
You know, unlike English, Japanese has a desperately poor phonological system, which consists of 50 kinds of moras, and its insufficiency of phoneme has provided Japanese with infinite homophones.
There is an INFINITE number of them. I don't need to list examples because almost every single word composed of 4 moras has at least one or two homophones.
Your idea may work as far as it is applied to pre-Meiji Japanese, though.
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Anonymous2010-10-18 12:35
Hesitant bump.
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Anonymous2010-10-18 13:52
>>446
Yeah. I'm illiterate in Japanese, no shame in this.
I "only" speak Portuguese, English, French, Latin and bits of Arabic and Russian (Mandarin doesn't count since it's only a tiny bit). And have some Linguistic formal studies, too.
(I'll just pretend you didn't an "argumentum ad hominem" fallacy...)
>>449
This is another reason why I compared with Portuguese and not English... Port's phonotactics [(C)(r)V(s,r,l)are only a bit laxer than Jap's].
I really like Toe's music, and I was wondering what some of the song titles mean in English. I figure there's got to be a good few of you speak the language, so if anyone could translate, I'd be very grateful.
Anyway, here are the song titles.
>Hangyaka Suru Fuukei
>Kodoku No Hatsumei
>Mukougishi Ga Shiru Yume
>Yoru Wa Akeru
Thanks for any help anyone can offer.
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Anonymous2010-10-21 16:08
>>457
As far as I can tell, "hangyaka" isn't a word. It's likely "hangyaku", meaning "treason" or "rebellion".
>Hangyaku Suru Fuukei
反逆する風景
Treasonous Scenery or Rebelling Scenery
>Kodoku No Hatsumei
孤独の発明
The invention of loneliness
>Mukougishi Ga Shiru Yume
向こう岸が知る夢
The Other Side of the River is a Dream I Know
>Yoru Wa Akeru
夜を開ける
Open the night
I'm slowly reading genki and playing with exercises.
Page 145. Exercise B about て form of adjectives.
Task is to form sentence with given words.
classes: long & not intersting
AFAICT this will be クラスは長くて、面白くありません。
Questions:
1) in this case -くありません negates only 面白い and does not negate 長い?
2) how to invert order adjectives to say that classes are not interesting and long? Negate adj-i with -kunai and then change -i in kunai to -kute like クラスは面白くなくて、長いです。?
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Anonymous2010-10-24 12:27
１）If I remember correctly, ありません will not necessarily apply to both 面白い and 長い because the clauses are broken with くて. Although with that construction, you are essentially linking the two adjectives together to say "long and boring", so it could still apply. It be better to create a clear distinction by using a contraction.
クラスは長いけど面白くありません。
The class is long but not interesting.
クラスは長いから面白くあるません。
The class is long so it's not very interesting.
クラスは長いので面白くありません。
Because the class is long, it's not very interesting.
2)I'm pretty sure you're correct.
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Anonymous2010-10-24 14:24
１）you're correct.
2)you're correct.
or you can say ”クラスは面白くないし、長いです。”this is more natural.
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Anonymous2010-10-24 18:14
以下の英訳は正しいかどうか教えてくれませんか？
１a）次の打ち合わせにもっと適当な書類をもって来られませんか？
１b)Can you bring more appropriate documents to the next meeting?
２a)一般のアメリカ人の場合には漢字を暗記するのが複雑な事柄と言われています。
２b)It is said that memorizing kanji is a confusing matter for the average American person.
If anyone likes the video enough to want to help, send me an email--ccriztoff at gmail--and I'll get you a line by line transcript.
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Anonymous2010-10-25 8:35
>>467
Are you talking about an actual audio track or just subtitles.
If it's the latter, I'd be willing to give it a shot. I'll say it now though: much of this just isn't going to translate well.
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Anonymous2010-10-28 22:22
Although it's more /a/ related but I don't think I can get answer there:
In certain episodes of K-on, Mio said "papa" and "mama" but after she said that she looked embarrssed and soon correct her word to "otousan" and "okasan", why? I do know the word "papa" somehow relate to "enjou kousai" and "mama" might has something to do with prositution but isn't calling your parents "papa" and "mama" quite normal these days.
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Anonymous2010-10-29 2:49
>>469
I'm no expert but "papa" and "mama" would be the equivalent of saying Daddy and Mommy. Something only a little kid would say, right? She probably let it slip because that's what she still calls them in private but was afraid that others would see her as immature so she corrected herself.
And if you wanted to you could have posted this in the k-on general. I'm sure you would have gotten an answer because I would have answered you there.
It's from a manga I've been working on translating for a project, but this line has really got me stumped. It's the only one I've really had trouble with. Specifically, the "ほうから" part.
>>472
First, "の ほう から" means "doing something to someone earlier than he/she does it to you."
Then, there must be ellipses after "ほうから."
For example, "なぜ私のほうから（彼を/彼女を）誘わなければならないのですか？"
This means "Are you kidding me? Why do I have to invite him/her first?"
>そんな事言ってたらいつまでたっても仲良くなれないじゃないです。
I think you are misreading.This sentence doesn't make sense.
Aren't you overlooking "か" which is at the end of the sentence? If so, this would translate as follows:
>そんな事言ってたら
If you keep saying such a thing,
>仲良くなれないじゃないですか
you will never be friends with him/her/them
>いつまでたっても
forever, will you?
>>474
I think you mean "だったんだろう."
You can't translate it without context.
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Anonymous2010-11-02 8:29
>>474
>だったん
past tense plain copula
>だろう
"don't you think? right? isn't it that...?"
Depending on the context, it basically means "I know, right?" or "That was the case, wasn't it"? etc.
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Anonymous2010-11-02 8:53
>>472
In this usage, "私のほう" might be thought of literally as "from my side/direction", or generally as "from the way I see it" etc.
なぜ私の方から（彼・女に）そんな事言ってたらいつまでたっても仲良くなれないじゃないです（か？）
then becomes
"Why is it that I feel whenever you say such a thing (to him/her), you'll never be able to get along?"
Hey guys, I've been accepted to study abroad in Sapporo next year and want to beef up my Kanji before I head over. Can any kind anon recommend a Kanji workbook with a respectable amount of characters and readings? Thanks
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Anonymous2010-11-03 7:38
Can anyone explain me what the point of learning several reading of kanji outside of words? So you can brag "I cleva! This word can be read as umashika"?