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I have to admit, you do make a good case as to why the claim that 果物 stems from 木+だ+物 is questionable.
If we take the etymology for face value, some reasons as to why we have /ku/ instead of /ko/ or /ki/ could include the following:
Note: Some of the vowel alternation examples are taken from here: https://namakajiri.net/nikki/vowel-alternation-in-japanese/
I do not have a definite answer to your question, but thought I'd leave you with those as food for thought.
Hi Alvaro,
I didn't realize you posted here as well, so I'll quote the response I gave by email in case anyone else reading this forum is curious:
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I am fairly certain that your friend wrote the following:
我んねー御所大切思とぅーいびーん。
wannee unju tiishichi umutuuibin.
The Japanese equivalent would be:
私は貴方を大切に思っています。
watashi wa anata wo taisetsu ni omotteimasu.
In English, you could translate this as "I really cherish you", "I really care about you", "I really value you", "You are really important to me".
Note that the second segment in your original post is just a repetition of the ending in the first, i.e. 'tiishichi umutuuibin' (to cherish, to value).
All the best!
Standard
Non-standard:
All of these terms are pulled from http://www1.tmtv.ne.jp/~kadoya-sogo/ibaraki10-musi.html , though the etymologies were added by me. I didn't find anything for the Ryukyuan languages.
Authors: Ichiro Kuriki; Ryan Lange; Yumiko Muto; Angela M. Brown; Kazuho Fukuda; Rumi Tokunaga; Delwin T. Lindsey; Keiji Uchikawa; Satoshi Shioiri
Abstract:
Despite numerous prior studies, important questions about the Japanese color lexicon persist, particularly about the number of Japanese basic color terms and their deployment across color space. Here, 57 native Japanese speakers provided monolexemic terms for 320 chromatic and 10 achromatic Munsell color samples. Through k-means cluster analysis we revealed 16 statistically distinct Japanese chromatic categories. These included eight chromatic basic color terms (aka/red, ki/yellow, midori/green, ao/blue, pink, orange, cha/brown, and murasaki/purple) plus eight additional terms: mizu (“water”)/light blue, hada (“skin tone”)/peach, kon (“indigo”)/dark blue, matcha (“green tea”)/yellow-green, enji/maroon, oudo (“sand or mud”)/mustard, yamabuki (“globeflower”)/gold, and cream. Of these additional terms, mizu was used by 98% of informants, and emerged as a strong candidate for a 12th Japanese basic color term. Japanese and American English color-naming systems were broadly similar, except for color categories in one language (mizu, kon, teal, lavender, magenta, lime) that had no equivalent in the other. Our analysis revealed two statistically distinct Japanese motifs (or color-naming systems), which differed mainly in the extension of mizu across our color palette. Comparison of the present data with an earlier study by Uchikawa & Boynton (1987) suggests that some changes in the Japanese color lexicon have occurred over the last 30 years.
Full article (open access): http://jov.arvojournals.org/article.aspx?articleid=2608579&resultClick=1
Hi Hollervee!
"ichariba choodee" is indeed an Okinawan expression that can be variously translated in English as "When we meet, we are brothers/sisters", "From the moment we meet, we become family", "If we met before, then we're family", "Once together, friends forever", etc. The idea behind it is that every chance meeting has meaning and every interaction is valuable. Some relate the expression back to the warmth of the Okinawan people and their willingness to welcome others.
The exact expression can be written as follows, depending on the script:
Kanji: 行逢りば兄弟
Hiragana: いちゃりばちょーでー
Katakana: イチャリバチョーデー
Romaji: ichariba choodee
To deconstruct this, "ichariba" (more literally, "if we meet/met [by chance]") comes from the verb "ichain (行逢ん)" which means "to meet by chance" and "choodee (兄弟)" is the word for "siblings" or "brothers and sisters". Note that the sentence literally reads "If we meet/met, siblings" and that it has no verb. This is because the verb is implied, something you also see in Japanese (e.g. "良いお年を" which means "happy (new) year" is one such case, where the implied verb is "お迎えください" "have a/spend a").
For reference, here's the entry on the expression in Ajima Okinawa, a fairly well-known Japanese-Okinawan online dictionary: https://hougen.ajima.jp/e462
I hope this helps!
It appears that the following seven small kana were accepted in UTC-149:
HIRAGANA LETTER SMALL WI
HIRAGANA LETTER SMALL WE
HIRAGANA LETTER SMALL WO
KATAKANA LETTER SMALL WI
KATAKANA LETTER SMALL WE
KATAKANA LETTER SMALL WO
KATAKANA LETTER SMALL N
Essentially, the small forms of the following characters will eventually become available: ゐゑをヰヱヲン. Strangely, small ん was not accepted, further reinforcing the gap between the katakana and hiragana writing systems.
All things considered, I think this is a good step forward, but at the same time, it's hugely disappointing that no further consideration was given to the other characters proposed and that zero consideration was ever given to the Ryukyuan languages. Several of the characters in the L2/16-354 proposal (linked in my first post) would have been beneficial to transcribe the Amami and Miyako languages and their dialects, especially small む to mark an /m/ sound and small す to mark an /s/ sound (personally, I would have also added small ず and maybe small ふ to cover additional characters that are often used in transcriptions of Miyako, but that's an aside).
The extremely slow adoption of small kana reminds me of Unicode's decision to incompletely implement Latin superscript and subscript symbols (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unicode_subscripts_and_superscripts#Latin_and_Greek_tables ). Maybe, just maybe one day we'll get them all.
Here's a data list of how the word "left" (左) is pronounced in a range of Japanese and Ryukyuan varieties. All values are transcribed in the International Phonetics Alphabet (IPA).
Proto-Japonic: *pidari
Origin: Native. It's largely believed to originate from 日出り pi+tari "sun+rising".
Japanese
Ryukyuan
Amami
Okinawa
Miyako
Macro-Yaeyama
Proposal to add Kana small letters
Author: Ryusei Yamaguchi <mandel59@gmail.com>
Extract:
Introduction
Small letters of Kana (a general term for Hiragana and Katakana scripts) are often used to extend the syllabic system to denote exotic or corrupted sounds, such as gemination, diphthong, contraction, and closed syllables. Although Unicode already has 12 Hiragana small letters and 28 Katakana small letters, the following small letters not collected yet remain:
- The Hiragana counterparts of the 16 Katakana phonetic extensions
- Historic letters for labialization
- A letter for nasalization
- Letters for palatalized consonants
PDF: http://www.unicode.org/L2/L2016/16354-kana-small-ltr.pdf
Google Docs: https://goo.gl/r41w2S
JLect's Kumamoto-ben dictionary/Kumamoto dialect dictionary
Thinking of visiting Kumamoto and want to learn a bit of the local dialect? Then you're in the right place to learn!
Kumamoto-ben is a Japanese dialect spoken in the prefecture of Kumamoto, located in the centre of Kyushu island. On a general level, it is more closely aligned with the dialects of Western and Southern Kyushu, such as Fukuoka, Nagasaki and Kagoshima. It can also be further subdivided into a number of smaller dialects; so someone who comes from Kumamoto city won't exactly speak the same way as someone from the district of Kuma or the island of Amakusa.
As with other Kyushu dialects, the traditional Kumamoto dialect is slowly being levelled away as a result of centralized media and standardized education. As a result, younger generations will speak a dialect that is becoming more closely aligned with standard Japanese. However, as it is currently, even their manner of speaking still shows quite a number of traces of the traditional dialect. So if you go to Kumamoto, you will still hear some local expressions, different verb conjugations, new particles, and so on.
Two of the most recognizable verb differences are the negative form and the progressive form.
Negative:
In standard Japanese, verbs are negated by appending -(a)nai at the end. For example, 書く kaku "write" becomes 書かない kakanai "not write". In Kumamoto, as well as much of Western Japan, the ending becomes -(a)n. Consequently, you end up with:
Progressive:
In standard Japanese, the progressive is formed with the ending -teiru (-deiru). In Kumamoto, this becomes -tooru/-toru (-dooru/-doru). You might also hear the variant -chooru/-choru (-jooru/-joru) in some areas as well. For example:
In standard Japanese, true adjectives are those that end in -i and that conjugate like verbs for things like tense. In Kumamoto and many Western Kyushu dialects, the ending is replaced with -ka. For example:
Note that this also includes the negative ending: ない nai → なか naka. That said, the -ka ending isn't always used and can sometimes be in variation with the -i ending.
This probably isn't the right term for it, but, in standard Japanese, you can derive adverbs from true adjectives by changing the -i ending into a -ku. For example, 早い hayai "fast" becomes 早く hayaku "swiftly". This same phenomenon applies to Kumamoto, except that the ending -i/-ka will become -u instead and will trigger a phenomenon known as vowel fusion or vowel coalescence. By this rule, 早い hayai "fast" becomes *はやう *hayau and ultimately はよう hayou "swiftly". Sometimes, the final vowel will simply be shortened, giving はよ hayo instead.
This form is becoming less and less common, but you'll still hear it in some popular expressions like the example provided.
ばい bai
You'll hear bai at the end of tons of utterances. If you're familiar with standard Japanese, it's basically the same thing as the particle よ yo. In other words, it adds emphasis to an otherwise declarative phrase. For example, 眠かばい nemuka bai effectively means "I'm so sleepy" and 本当ばい hontou bai means "Really!".
たい tai
Tai is very similar to bai in how it's used, except that it's considered less strong and can sometimes be encountered in more formal situations.
ばってん batten
The conjunction batten is used to introduce a contrast, like the words "but" or "however" in English. It's still very popular today, so you're sure to hear it at one point or another if you travel to Kumamoto.
けん ken
The conjunction ken is used to mark an explanation, like the words "because" and "since" in English. It's essentially equivalent to the standard Japanese endings から kara and ので node.
と to
When asking non polar questions, that is, questions for which you're seeking an explanation instead of a yes or no answer, you would use the particle の in standard Japanese. In Kumamoto, however, you'll often hear と to instead. For example, どこ行くと? doko iku to? means "Where are you going?".
なんせ nanse, なっせ nasse
Nanse/nasse is used in lieu of the standard ending nasai. It essentially turns a verb into a formal request. For example, きなっせ【来なっせ】 kinasse means "please come".
ばba
The particle ba marks the direct object of a verb, in the same was as を o does in the standard language. You'll often hear it following the word なん nan "what": なんばしょうと? nan ba shou to? "What are you up to?".
しゃんしゃん shanshan
Shanshan is a pretty versatile expression that's often used to affirm something said, kind of like saying "right, right", "yeah, that's right", "mhmm" or "I see". Depending on the exact region, you might hear other variations of this expression like そうやんそうやん souyansouyan or じゃあじゃあ jaajaa.
If you're looking for other Kumamoto words and expressions, then you'll definitely want to check out
JLect's Kumamoto word list or even Wikipedia's article on Kumamoto-ben .
Two quick updates: