Japanese

[DrFrag]

This discussion has been moved from http://www.astroboy-online.com/forums/inde...ct=ST&f=1&t=442

Haruka-chan, thanks for the tip on the use of TSU in Katakana. It sounds vaguely familiar so it might have come up in class before. We've really only done Hiragana so far, but I like skipping ahead. I even made Hiragana memory cards and e-mailed them to my whole class.

I'm enjoying talking about the Japanese language with everyone here, I hope this topic doesn't die now that I've moved it!

[DrFrag]

I just had a thought about the word Banzai. And no, it doesn't involve fried chicken.

It's broken down into the Hiragana BA-N-ZA-I, with each of the four chunks being a letter in the Hiragana alphabet. "I" has a long vowel sound, like the double I in Hawaii. So should the word have two sylables (BAN-ZY) or three (BAN-ZY-EE)? I'm guessing two.

[Jarx Xun]

In english you say it in two syllables cause we have crazy dipthongs. Oh and in Japanese if it has 3 kana I assume it is 3 syllables.

[Danny]

The first exposure had (that I remember) to the word Banzai was in relation to a method of growing amazingly small trees. It apparently take YEARS and YEARS to do this. It is not a thing that you do for a year or two, or 12.. it takes GENERATIONS to make a true Banzai Tree.

As such, It would appear that the 'translation' is appropriate.

Seemingly, Banzais that are 'only' say 100 years old, are 'only' worth a few thousand dollars.. but the older they are, the higher the price. It gets to a point where they are in fact priceless, and ironically a LOT of these 'priceless' banzai are owned by common people, as the care of them is handed down thur the family.

The REALLY WIERD bit of all this, is the 'young' banzai trees are sold and used as people to make money and earn a living off the care and attention to them, but the 'pricless ones' (some of which are so old, the age can only be approximated) have no association to monetary gain and are in fact known to be GIVEN AS GIFTS to places such as public parks or monestarys etc.

Guys.. that is like the queen giving the crown jewls to the local library to look after..

The Japaneese certainly have some wierd ways, no?

[Haruka-chan]

*falls over laughing*

Sorry Danny but i think you mean bonzai not banzai ^_^

anyway i already had a Japanese thread in General Chat so i suggest if you are interested to check back to that:

http://www.astroboy-online.com/forums/inde...ct=ST&f=2&t=295

Each symbol in Japanese = one syllable (without regard to tsu and dashes). Banzai gets the seemingly longer i sound because when spoken melds with the a from za.

katakana is essentially hiragana except different symbols (although often quite simillar) and a different purpose ^_^ I still remember all the little images and sayings our teacher associated with each hiragana and katakana symbol easiest way to remember them

[Danny]

Good to see I amuse.

interesting to see the difference of a single letter can cause such hilarity.

I actually did not realise it was two different words. Apparently it is, yet the definition is still appropriate. Go Figure.

[Danny]

ok.. after a quick google, it turns out that it is, indeed a difference of two letters, not one as suggested by Haruka Sensei (<--is that right?).

I will give her the benifit of the doubt and put it down to a typo. Typos are after all T3H 3V1L and strike us all (some more than others *looks embarrassed*) at some time or another.

Here is some information on the history and practise of Bonsai if anyone is interested.

[DrFrag]

Oh and in Japanese if it has 3 kana I assume it is 3 syllables.

It has 4 kana, but I'm pretty sure the BA-N is pronounced as one syllable BAN.

Sorry Danny but i think you mean bonzai not banzai

I was thinking the same thing.

I've tried growing bonsai a couple of times with very poor results. ie. they all died. It seems they need a lot of attention and I can't keep that up for twenty years. I have now settled on a wonderful solution - artificial bonsai.



(excuse the gold butterflies, I don't know who attached them)

They get an old dried vine pruning and stick silk blossom or leaves on it. It looks so real and doesn't need any attention.

[DrFrag]

I've just discovered the new Astroboy series now has a page on Tezuka World, albeit only in Japanese at the moment.
http://ja.tezuka.co.jp/anime/sakuhin/ts/ts024.html

Thought I'd try my hand at translating the character names. *cough*zoran*cough*

A quick refresher for the curious, first. Hiragana is a simple-ish curved alphabet of sounds used for various things. Kind of like our roman alphabet but with different sounds. Katakana is the same sounds but with different symbols made of straighter lines, this is used for imported foreign words, company names, swear words, etc. They don't have a translation like sayonara means goodbye (using Hiragana), they're just pronounced as they are and that's what they mean.
Kanji is the massive alphabet of thousands of really complicated symbols taken from the Chinese alphabet. They represent sounds and words and stuff and it's all over my head for the moment. Babelfish = friend.
All the names on the site linked above are a mix of Katakana and Kanji.

Astroboy is, surprise surprise, Atomu. Meaning "atom".
Zoran is Uran. (argh! It's in Katakana too, which means her name really is Uran and not some other word that happens to be pronounced Uran but has a different meaning! Why did they dub her to Zoran? WHY?)
Dr O'Shay had Kanji letters which are way beyond my skills, but Babelfish translates it as Ochanomizu doctor. Don't know what Ochanomizu means.
Dr Tenma also has Kanji letters. Babelfish translates this as Pegasus doctor curiously enough.
Atlas is Atorasu, which is how they pronounce the word atlas anyway.
Astro's dark-skinned friend (who's dubbed name I don't know yet) is Kenichi. Hang on, that's Kenneth from the 80s series! He's picked up quite a tan! :wacko:
Astro's friend who I think was Theodore from the 80s series is Tamao. I'm pretty sure he was called that back then, too. Tamao means Cartridge if you write it in Hiragana, if that's at all relevant.
Abercrombie (who was Alvin in the 80s series) is Shibagaki, the name used in the Manga I believe.
Skunk is Sukanku, which is how skunk is pronounced in Japanese. In the 80's series his name was Sukanku Kusai. Kusai means "bad smelling".
Yuko has Kanji characters, not all of which Babelfish can translate. It spits out [something] Month Yuuko. Probably her full name, so Yuko is an accurate translation for the dub.
Daddy Walrus (don't know his name in the new series) is Higeoyaji, also true to the Manga IIRC. Note that this is Katakana, so it's kind of a phonetic thing. Using the same sounds with the Hiragana alphabet, Babelfish translates this as self-depreciation father.
Blue Knight has Kanji, Babelfish translates it as Blue Horseman.

[DrFrag]

Originally posted by DrFrag@May 12 2004, 04:18 AM

[b]Oh and in Japanese if it has 3 kana I assume it is 3 syllables.

It has 4 kana, but I'm pretty sure the BA-N is pronounced as one syllable BAN. [/b]

Now I think I was wrong about that.

Still learning!