[Home]Japanese

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A fairly large number of Japanese terms are used by some of the ToothyWikizens ([I'm turning Japanese-a, I think I'm turning Japanese-a, I really think so]). Some of them are defined in the wiki. MoonShadow has observed that when X is defined, the definition page usually reads something like "X is Japanese for Y." This has the nice side-effect that if you search for the word "Japanese", you should get a fairly comprehensive list of definitions, along with some not uninteresting chaff. So MoonShadow put this page together so one can do this just by clicking on its title, rather than having to scroll all the way down to where the searchbox is and reaching for your keyboard, because MoonShadow is perverted in that particular way and likes clicking on page titles.

For some time now, that won't have worked, as clicking on the title only searches for links to pages. Try [this link]. --B

People may also find [this page] useful in decoding bits of Japanese. StuartFraser found it invaluable when doing his CJJS.

Also see http://www-unix.oit.umass.edu/~thoureau/japanese.html

Also of interest might be the attempts of the Japanese to master the tongue of Shakespeare and Milton (and, it must be admitted, the Spice Girls): http://www.engrish.com/




["Go away, Japanese id! You are scary! I am scared of you!"]
(NB: you might want to make sure no one is reading over you shoulder: includes the titles of some Japanese porn films...)

A good tale of scariness.  What could cause the production of such evilness as fluffy seals that can be dressed up as other marine animals?  --Vitenka

On a similar note (to the article, not Vitenka's comment), I happened across [Carnage's Anime Reviews].  And he reviews a few porn anime there in amongst the regular stuff.  The review of "First Loves" says, in effect, "Wow! A hentai where the main character has morals! If that ain't a reason to buy this, I don't know what is."  ...NoComment... --AC



Did you know that in Japan, all the cool kids want to be American, and it's considered sophisticated to pepper your conversation with English words that you haven't a hope of pronouncing correctly?

Guess you just got to love that greener grass.
Crosslinked to that '[why geeks love anime]' article, which addresses this very issue.  And indeed sugests that to a certain class of people, the green divide is the whole point.  Though I'm not certain that was the article I meant when I first made this request to myself.  --Vitenka



As everyone who's anyone knows, all the best things (indeed, pretty much anything worth bothering about) comes from, or was invented in, Japan. The Japanese are so great!
Consider, for example, the electronic computer. Or banoffee pie. Or punting.
S'funny, I was thinking of banoffee pie just now. Yum.. - SunKitten
And this state of affairs is now preserved forever in the eternal [WikiNow]... MuHaHaHa...  --AC
ChrisHowlett makes a mean BanoffeePie?. He has now posted a recipe.



Subpages include:


Translation Request


The wiki seems to contain a handful of people with decent Japanese - I was wondering if you could assist me with some lines form GilbertAndSullivan?'s Mikado. Firstly,

"O ni! Bikkuri shakkuri to!" - which SF's link seems to imply has something to do with being surprised by hiccups.

and secondly, on greeting the Mikado, the entire chorus sings:

"Miya sama, miya sama,
On n'mma no mayé ni
Pira Pira suru no wa
Nan gia na
Toko tonyaré tonyaré na!" - punctuation and hyphenation (if any) may be wrong, as I'm reading this from the music score.

Thanks, ChrisHowlett

Mjb67's new attempt:

Miya-sama, miya-sama:    O Prince, O Prince.
On-uma no mae ni    :    In front of great horse
Pira pira suru no wa:    fluttering [faffing around]
Nan ja na?          :    Why are you doing that?
Tokoton yare -ton yare na!:  Get on with it (on with it)!

This looks highly plausible from a Gilbertian point of view if the Japanese is reasonable --CH

According to http://math.boisestate.edu/GaS/mikado/html/notes.html#18 this is the first verse of an actual Japanese song written in 1868. Gilbert didn't use the second verse which answers the question. At http://www.qsulis.demon.co.uk/Website_Louise_Gold/MIYA_SAMA.htm you can find an even more detailed translation.

As for "O ni! Bikkuri Shakkuri to!" this is sung to annoy someone, if Google tells the truth?  (I've not seen the Mikado).  Anyway, Bikkuri is surprise, and Shakkuri is hiccup.  It's something like "You're surprised so much you hiccup!".
Context correct. Katisha is attempting to tell the chorus that Nanki-Poo is the son of their Mikado. To prevent this, Nanki-Poo and Yum-Yum convince the chorus to loudly sing "O ni! Bikkuri Shakkuri to!" over the intended word "Mikado".




http://www.worldlingo.com does machine translation from Japanese.
Interestingly, I was trying to tanslate "mouse". I got the Katakana マウス.
Giggle! That'd be because it thought you wanted the word for a computer mouse. "nezumi" (鼠)';' is the furry kind. --AlexChurchill''
Ah, thanks. That allows me a trilingual pun. Excellent. --CH




Japanese [lunches] are cute..
One of those reminds me of Menchi... --Requiem

What is it with this national obsession with cute, anyway? - ChiarkPerson
National obsession? Is it really fair to tar the entire Japanese nation with the subset of its culture that ToothyWikizens find it amusing to link to? - MoonShadow

We don't know, but it's damn scary.  In a fascinating "I can't look away from the Chibi TrainWreck?" kinda way.  --Vitenka
Maybe it's linked to the current, probably worldwide, obsession with growing up later.  (cf WhenWillYouGrowUp).  People getting married before the age of 30 are told that they're "rushing", that they're too young for such commitment, and so on.  Churches' "youth" programs and conferences go up to the age of 25 or more.  And to think that it's not all that long since 21 was the point at which you were considered "grown up".  Anyway, I digress... I think that the 'cute' thing is almost certainly a backlash against something.  Perhaps that something is the Japanese brutality of earlier last century, perhaps it's all the technology of the modern world, or perhaps it's something else. --M-A
It seems to be (South) Korean? too. (e.g. ILoveEgg?) --B


CategoryLanguage
see also Hiragana, Katakana, Kanji, CategoryAnime

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