-みたく / -みたいに。

Was just reading a forum page about -みたい, and whether it's used adverbially as an い adjective or a な adjective would be. Xみたいもの? Xみたいなもの? Xみたく走る? Xみたいに走る? Still trying to find a consensus on the page, but some people say they've heard other usage that's less than strictly correct, like 大丈夫ない (だいじょうばない, a な adjective ending in -ぶ conjugated as if it were a -ぶ verb) and 好きくない (すきくない, a な adjective conjugated as an い adjective). I guess that's the difference between 教育 (training, official speech) and the living language.

Reminds me of an anecdote that my French teacher related back when I was in school, about grammatical errors she'd heard on the train in Paris. It was comforting; as we all can confirm from experience, real people don't always follow grammatical rules. Recently I've been trying to look at N異本後 from a less "academic" viewpoint, to think of it as a tool to actually communicate with people, to get a message across, even if (as will be the case) my speech is full of errors. Errors can be corrected with time and attention; shyness can keep a person from making any progress at all. 恥ずかしすぎればなりませんね。 Litereally—no becoming.

Someone says daijoubanai may have come from a humorous comeback to the question "Daijoubu?" ("Everything OK?") no, no, DAIJOUBANAI! (instead of だいじょうぶじゃない, daijoubu ja nai). 方言ということは面白いですね。

歌詞：Miyuki Nakajima: "Chijou no Hoshi"

A thing that's great about living now is that you can discover a Nakajima song on your phone, listen to it, and look up all the words you don't know by the time you get home. This one, "Chijou no Hoshi", is much more dramatic than the others I've heard. The title is lit. "Stars Above the Ground", but—because where else would they be?—it may be a colloquial expression. Apparently it's translated as "Unsung Heroes"; the video certainly supports that, essentially a string of images of ordinary folk, with Nakajima先生 interspersed in bubble-world. Wikipedia says it was composed for a TV program, was released in July 2000, hit #1 in Japan, and became the longest-running Oricon Japanese single (since 1968).



中島みゆき：地上の星
nakajima miyuki: chijou no hoshi
Miyuki NAKAJIMA: ?"Unsung Heroes"

風の中のすばる
kaze no naka no subaru
Pleiades among the winds
[Funny that the Subaru corporate logo has six stars rather than seven.]

砂の中の銀河
suna no naka no ginga
Milky Way amid the dust
[All these の constructions are bothering me because I'm seeing them translated as, eg, "In the dust of the Milky Way"—but I don't see why "suna の naka の ginga", sand's center's Milky Way, should read as "ginga の naka の suna", Milky Way's center's sand. I see that I'll probably have to switch them all around, but right now I don't get why.]

みんな何処へ行った　見送られることもなく
minna doko e itta miokurareru koto mo naku
where have they all gone, with no one saying goodbye?
[見送る is "to see someone off", or to say farewell. I'm not getting the られる construction with 送る.]

草原のペガサス
sougen no pegasasu
Pegasus of the grassland/plain

街角のヴィーナス
machikado no vi-nasu
Venus of the street corner

みんな何処へ行った　見守られることもなく
minna doko e itta mimamorareru koto mo naku
where has everyone gone, with no one to look out for them?

地上にある星を誰も覚えていない
chijou ni aru hoshi o daremo oboeteinai
the stars that are above the ground, no one remembers them.

人は空ばかり見てる
hito ha sora bakari mite(i)ru
people see only the sky.

つばめよ高い空から教えてよ　地上の星を
tsubame yo takai sora kara oshiete yo chijou no hoshi o
sparrow, high in the sky, tell me where they are.

つばめよ地上の星は今　何処にあるのだろう
tsubame yo chijou no hoshi ha ima doko ni aru no darou
sparrow, those stars, where can they be?

崖の上のジュピター
gake no ue no jupita-
Jupiter above the cliffs

水底のシリウス
unasoko no shiriusu
Sirius on the sea-floor

みんな何処へ行った　見守られることもなく
minna doko e itta mimamorareru koto mo naku
where have they all gone, with no one to look after them?

名立たるものを追って　輝くものを追って
nadataru mono o otte kagayaku mono o otte
chasing famous things, chasing glittery things,

人は氷ばかり掴む
hito ha koori bakari tsukamu
people catch only ice.

つばめよ高い空から教えてよ　地上の星を
tsubame yo takai sora kara oshiete yo chijou no hoshi o
swallow, high in the sky, show me those stars

つばめよ地上の星は今　何処にあるのだろう
tsubame yo, chijou no hoshi ha ima doko ni aru no darou
swallow, where can those stars be now?

名立たるものを追って　輝くものを追って
nadataru mono o otte kagayaku mono o otte
chasing famous things, chasing glittery things,

人は氷ばかり掴む
hito ha koori bakari tsukamu
people catch only ice.

風の中のすばる
kaze no naka no subaru
Pleiades in the winds,

砂の中の銀河
suna no naka no ginga
Milky Way in the sand—

みんな何処へ行った　見送られることもなく
minna doko e itta miokurareru koto mo naku
where have they all gone, with no goodbyes?

つばめよ高い空から教えてよ　地上の星を
tsubame yo takai sora kara oshiete yo chijou no hoshi o
swallow, high in the sky, point me to them

つばめよ地上の星は今　何処にあるのだろう
tsubame yo chijou no hoshi ha ima doko ni aru no darou
swallow, where can these stars have gone?

It is a real kick to be able to watch this video and understand her. I'm loving this song.

Note that Nakajima seems to actually sing を as wo. Is this a common idiosyncrasy of pronunciation in singing, like singing ん as ng?

BONUS: The word for "refrain" seems to be 繰り返し kurikaeshi, the same word Nakajima uses in "Jidai" to say that time is cyclical. 「喜び悲しみ繰り返し」

Particles in song lyrics.

I'm liking working with songs, because as I gain understanding of the lyrics I can run around singing them and get a sense of flow and usage. What's baffling me, though, is the use of particles at the ends of lines—I can't yet see the rationale for some of it.  例えば：

凸凹道や、曲がりくねった道
dekoboko michi ya, magarikunetta michi
[it's] an uneven road, winding road

Ya や used that way reminds me of the setting-particle や in poetry, a particle that tends to end the first line of a 俳句 haiku and establishes the setting: 木の陰や ki no kage ya, "[in] a tree's shade". Maybe it's the same idea. The Akiyama grammar book is usually good about laying things out succinctly but includes only the nonspecific-list function of や.

Or this:

そんな時代もあったねと
いつか話せる日が来るわ。
sonna jidai mo atta ne to
itsuka hanaseru hi ga kuru wa
the day will come when you'll be able to say,
"that's happened to me, too."

At first I misread the quotation-marking function of と to, probably because I'm not used to seeing it with 話す hanasu, to speak [with].  I might have been more aware with an 言う or a 伝う, which are more about saying and therefore call a specific quotation.

Or this:

旅を続ける人々は
いつか故郷に出会う日を
たとえ今夜は倒れても
きっと信じてドアを出る
たとえ今日は果てしもなく
冷たい雨が降っていても
tabi o tsuzukeru hitobito ha
itsuka furosato ni deau hi o
tatoe konya ha taorete mo
kitto, shinjite doa o deru.
tatoe kyou ha hateshi mo naku
tsumetai ame ga futteite mo
folks who keep on the journey
someday will see home again
even if tonight [you're] struck down,
if you believe, sure enough you'll find a way out.
even if today you can't see the end of it,
even if cold rain is falling....

Some of the particles make sense there; it's possible that たとえ tatoe, "even if", requires a も mo, which generally means "even [that much, or to such a degree]".  And all the も do work if you think of them as leading up to the next verbs, めぐる　めぐる meguru meguru, "it [time] turns and turns".  So the も give a sense of...despite all trials, a better day will come.

What gets me is that を that ends the second line.  It wants a verb.  But now I'm thinking it may just precede the たとえ。。。も structures, and that the verb it's calling may be めぐる—the day when they see home again will return, even if...even if....  But now I'm thinking that's not possible, because that 出る seems to complete thought, not to lead to anything further.  難しいねー。

今日の漢字: Kanji: 連 (れん、ren)

Exploring 連 (ren) today. It's about continuity, carrying along. Pretty soon in shuuji we'll start learning renmen 連綿, the style of connecting hiragana written with kofude into continuous lines. (綿 is actually わた, cotton.) The 部首 (radicals) are しんにゅう (shinnyuu) again and 車, kuruma, a vehicle, so a (continuously) moving vehicle. Ren. Lots of compounds involving 連 are about alliance or continuity:

- 連濁 れんだく rendaku, voicing the initial consonant of a word when it's used in a compound

- 連合 れんごう rengou, an alliance or union

- 連続 れんぞく renzoku, continuously, consecutively (続 being 続ける　つずける tsuzukeru, to continue doing) (変: although this is adverbial and ends in く, the く seems integral to the 音読み reading, so I assume usage would be 連続に.)

- 関連 かんれん kanren, relevance/connection, both kanji reinforcing

- 連絡　れんらく renraku, contacting (連絡する)

- 国連 こくれん kokuren, the United Nations (国 being a country)

連 seems usually to be read as れん (ren), but it also can be つら (tsura), as in 連ねる (to link or join) and 連れる (つれる、to take/lead someone). The つら uses are sometimes doubled by the kanji 列, also レン, as in 列なる, つらなる, to extend / stretch out. Hmm.

面白い: Per Kotoba, 連 also was a title of high nobility, むらじ (muraji).

Next up will be 残, as in both 残業 and 残念. 面白い漢字だね。

Fun with compound verbs (動詞) .

There's something particularly expressive about compound verbs, something I'm liking. Many of them seem to involve 思う (to think):

- 思う (to think) + 出す (to emerge) = 思い出す (to remember)
- 思う (to think) + がく (? possibly to frame, as in a picture) = 思いがく (to imagine)
- 思う　(to think) + 切る (to cut) = 思い切る (to reach a decision)

Other examples:
- 閉める (to tie/cinch) + 殺す (to kill) = 絞め殺す (to strangle)
- 考える (to consider) + 直す (to correct) = 考え直す (to reconsider)
- 呼ぶ (to call) + 掛ける (to hang or suspend) = 呼び掛ける (to telephone, to address a crowd)
- 選る (to decide) + 分ける (to classify) = 選り分ける (to sort out)
- (just about anything) + 始める (to begin) or 続ける (to continue) or 終わる (to finish) = begin to do / continue doing / finish doing that thing

And, of course, with our friend 付く:

- 思う (to think) + 付く (to connect/attach/stick) = 思い付き （notion/(brainstorm)

This one's puzzling:

- 酔う (to get drunk) + 払う (to pay) = 酔っ払う ("to get drunk", but...to blow money getting drunk? Must be a nuance to the meaning.)

Verbal adjectives "bind" in this way, too:

- 読む (to read) + やすい (easy) = 読みやすい (easy to read)

Here's a really neat one derived from an ichidan verb:

- 耐える (to endure) + 難い (difficult) = 耐え難い (unbearable). There's muzukashii 難 again.

I notice that the first verb is in the base 2 form; is this related to the "continuation form" I mentioned before? そうかも知れないね。。。。 今眠いので考え寝よう。

今日の一番好きな言葉。

飛ばされる, tobasareru. Saw it in the Murray book; he defines it as to be blown away. To・bu (飛ぶ), flying, is a kanji I'm working on in shuuji. It's the third down in the image at right. (The others are kei and un/kumo; 景雲飛 is a group of three that I've been doing, though so far only in kaisho.)

The plethora of syllables in tobasareru makes me think that maybe this is tobu being wrung through a tense or two that I haven't learned yet. Something causative or passive or causative-passive. I've tried manipulating tobu into something that might work, but so far no luck. There's a passive feel to it, like suru/sareru, that suggests being an unwilling participant in flight.

That's something I don't yet understand well, like wataru vs watasu or okiru and okosu—the -ru form meaning acting for oneself and the -su form meaning acting upon someone else. I feel that there's a pattern there that I'll be really glad to know about once I do.

So, I guess,
橋を渡る, cross bridge
橋が渡れる, bridge can be crossed
橋が渡られる, bridge is crossed
橋を渡す, be conveyed across bridge

渡られる, be crossed, 渡す, be carried across

Now I'm confused, because a page I was just reading about the passive form says that you can passivize ichidan verbs by changing the final u to a and adding -reru. But doesn't that create the potential form? Eg, 食べる / 食べられる—am I saying that a thing is edible or that it's eaten (by some unspecified agent)?

Hmm.

More on the -おう form.

Turns out that, whatever it is, the same thing that's happening with 有難い・ありがとう is happening with おめでとう (愛でたい/目出度い) and おはよう (早い). So why don't we say おありがとう?

And now we have めでたい. Per Kotoba, the kanji for めでたい　is 愛! お愛でとうございます。 Kotoba also lists two ateji forms of めでたい, 目出度い　and 芽出度い.

Well, one more: オフレコ, a mash of off the record.　僕は日本語が上手じゃないけど、オフレコだよな。

ありがとう/ 有難う (arigatou).

Yesterday a friend was asking me whether arigatou is written with kanji or kana. I said I'd never seen it in kanji but assumed that at one point kanji were associated with it, whether for meaning or just for pronunciation.

Turns out the old kanji are a good match for meaning: 有難う,　有 being to be or exist and 難 the same kanji as for 難しい, difficult. 有り難い / 有難い is apparently an adjective that involves gratitude, but it's a new one to me. Can anyone explain how 有難い becomes 有難う? Can other -い adjectives use -おう? Eg, does 違おう mean anything? 暖こう? 寒おう？ 若う？食べとう？ Or is there no pattern here?

ADDENDUM: Google does show examples of 暖こうございます and 食べとうおざる. If there is an -ou form, maybe it refers to a state that the speaker is or was in.

ADDENDUM 2: According to this,

The "ou" ending comes from the conjunction of the adjectival arigataku with the polite verb gozaimasu.... Other common examples of this type of conjugation include omedetou gozaimasu (congratulations) from medetaku and ohayou gozaimasu (good morning) from hayaku. The word arigatai existed in Japanese long before the Japanese ever encountered Portuguese. It can be found in some of the earliest Japanese literature such as the manyoushuu....

Now, if I can just figure out why a -く form would precede である....

Kanji: 振 (fu・ru/SHIN).

A thing I really like about studying Japanese is that kanji, though maddening, are endlessly intriguing. I'm constantly encountering new kanji that suddenly fit into three or four other spaces and create a kind of resonance, and though it underscores my ignorance it's also exciting and satisfying.

例えば—not to belabor the Meiko Kaji song, but—振り向いたの振の漢字。Turns out it's the same ふり as in 振袖, furisode, the dressy young-woman's kimono with "swinging sleeves" (pictured at right; click to enlarge). To me, swinging and turning/facing are pretty different, but しょがないだろうね.

Similarly, 振り向いたの向の漢字。。。。"muku" is the same "mu" as mukou (向こう), meaning opposite, as on the other side of the street, or meaning beyond, as in right down there past the brick building. Or mukau (向かう), to face (toward) something, and muki (向き), orientation. I hypothesized that 向 might also appear in mukashi, as in a long time ago (like beyond remembering), but not so; that's a single kanji without okurigana, 昔 (むかし). 「言葉」の携帯アップリによると, 「昔」の漢字はたくさん熟語が使う。All have something to do with the distant past. Maybe it's a case of inconsistent assignment of kanji to existing words; maybe "mukashi" and "mukou" are related etymologically in Japanese spoken language but now are expressed in unrelated kanji. Or maybe not. かも知れないね。

会社の自分の「ヘンシャー」が要ると思う。

ADDENDUM: Kotoba says that 振る also carries several other meanings, including that of changing heading or direction. So I guess 振り向いた makes sense as a double-kanji item emphasizing the turning around (to see、川に, the 旅の灯 go off into the distance). If I can assume the subject is inverted again (as in 行く女).（命の道を行っている女は）振り向いた。川に、旅の灯が遠ざかる（のを見た). Not so sure about the tenses there. Hmm.

Grammar: base 2 ending and continuity.

Thinking of 「修羅の花」 again and trying to figure out 身を委ね. The verb is 委ねる, to entrust to or give up to.

恨みの川に身を委ね（て）
女はとうに捨てました
Casting herself into a river of vengeance/enmity/resentment,
the woman is already left behind / abandoned / forgotten.

This makes sense to me as a -て form, because then the verbs 委ねる and 捨てる would sequence:

恨みの川に 身を委ねて、
女は
とうに 捨てました。

I'm thinking the position of 女は can't be just poetic (as is 行く女 earlier in the song); it feels like we're already talking about someone, the someone with the parasol and the geta, and now we're emphasizing the trait of womanliness. She has given herself up to a river of vengeance, and her woman-ness is already / long ago forgotten.

I guess 委ね would correspond to ichidan base 2, no? -- like 食べ. Lampkin先生 discusses bases.... Aha! It must be what Lampkin calls a continuation form, maybe less discrete in sequence than a -て form would be. So, she casts herself into the river of vengeance, and her womanliness is already left behind. The sequence still feels a little weird with とうに, but it's starting to make more sense. I didn't know about that use of base 2.

Grammar: まだ何も書いてあっていない？

So I was trying to create a placeholder introductory post, and I wanted to write that "nothing is written here yet", and I ran into a grammar issue. I was going to try まだ何も書いてあっていない—but can I conjugate 書いてある like that?

• 書く kaku, write


• もう書いた mou kaita, already wrote/written


• まだ書いていない mada kaiteinai, not yet written, still haven't written


• 書いてある kaitearu, written by no one specified


• 何かが書いてある nanika ga kaitearu, something is written [here, by someone unspecified]


• 何も書いてない nanimo kaitenai, nothing is written [here, by anyone]


• もう何か書いてあった　mou nanika kaiteatta, something was already written here


• まだ何も書いてあっていない mada nanimo kaiteatteinai, nothing's been written here yet

正しいかなあああ。。。正しくなければ、直してください。