>>> Item number 7484 from WRITERS LOG9301C --- (155 records) ----- <<< Date: Mon, 18 Jan 1993 10:40:06 JST Reply-To: WRITERS Sender: WRITERS From: Mike Barker Subject: Words of the Week Words of the Week - Jan. 18-22, 1993 FORMAT CHANGE! I'm changing the format a little bit this week. I've packaged a set of words for the week, so you only get one message. Don't panic when you don't see a daily word - just re-read this message. Cuts down on transmission and processing costs, number of messages, and probably puts hair on my chest, too. (with my luck, it'll be a hair shirt. I'll take brown, please. Too many white hairs already. Could you put some on top, too?) This will also let us do things such as run through synonyms, homonyms, etc. in little groups for comparison and contrast. (although we'll never be able to do justice to the wonderful written sentence "there are two bows in English" which cannot be read aloud, and its companion vocal version about three words pronounced as "to" which cannot be written [except for people using MIME - I'm jealous, I think]) So, on to the words... ------------------------------------------ First, a little explanation. I've picked out several words that are commonly thought to be English here in Japan. In some cases, they are, but... meanings, pronounciations, etc. have been through a slight warp. I've tried to provide Hepburn spelling (one of the widely used methods of writing the go-ju-on, the 50 sounds, in Romaji - the Roman alphabet). In most cases, foreign words are written in katakana, while native Japanese is written in hiragana and kanji (the result of an early emperor deciding to keep such loanwords recognizable). If you're counting, we have kanji (the little pictures - 2000 basic), hiragana (50 symbols for 50 sounds - "cursive" writing), katakana (a different set of 50 symbols for the same 50 sounds - "printed" writing), and romaji (the roman alphabet you're familiar with). All are in daily use, intermixed heavily. Frankly, spoken Japanese is not so difficult, but written? Even most Japanese do not consider themselves fluent in it. (No invidious comments on American's mistakenly believing they can write, please:-) I've also provided a simple pronounciation guide, and some explanations of the meanings and derivation where known. If you have notions about the derivations, pass them along. It's a popular game here trying to guess where these came from. BTW - this is just a selection. If you like it, let me know and I'll make up another package. enjoy! --------------------------------------------------------- Hepburn spelling: pantsu pronounced: pants You probably feel very comfortable about this word, and will not have trouble with the pronounciation. However, there are stories here about Japanese businessmen visiting hotel cleaners in America and asking for their pants. The cleaners look vainly, and even offer other people's pants, while the Japanese men grow more and more frustrated. Finally, they peal down their "zubon" (what Americans call pants) to show these stupid Americans their pants (what Americans call briefs or underwear). So, remember, always wear clean pants, just in case you have to go to the hospital (didn't your mother teach you anything?) ------------------------------------ Hepburn spelling: echi pronounced: e'tch (funny little halt before the ch) most dictionaries attribute this to "H" and many Japanese expect Americans to recognize it right away. meaning - lustful, having erotic cravings, etc. Often used in expressions such as "he is e'tch, isn't he". derivation - several theories. I lean toward blaming it on WW2 slang, possibly something to do with etchings (as in "no etchings, private!"). other explanations refer to Japanese words (hentai or ha-ren-chi) somehow being rendered in Roman letters, shortened to their first letter, and then being pronounced somewhat oddly (Cockney or something?). Hum - could it be British slang? ------------------------------------------ Hepburn: gurutamin pronounced: grew-ta-mean When I was first married, my wife received "care packages" from Japan (we were living in America). Very nice, except there were several of these fairly heavy (maybe 1 kilogram) plastic bags with white powder in the package. No labels, just sealed clear plastic bags. I very cautiously asked my new wife just what it was (visions of visitations by customs agents pouring through my head). She explained in her careful English (I've cured that:-) that this was an old Japanese spice, used for cooking. She didn't think we would have it in America, but she said the name was English, which puzzled me. She wasn't sure why an old Japanese spice would have an English name. I puzzled over it for days, and suddenly got it. Monosodium glutamate (ancient japanese spice, indeed.) ------------------------------------------ Hepburn: hochikisu pronounced: ho'ch-kiss also written hotchkiss. Very common in offices, and the first time someone asks you to hand it to them, they are very puzzled that you don't understand this English word. You may even be asked what you use in America instead of hotchkiss. meaning: stapler derivation - good question. None of the dictionaries I consulted indicated an origin, yet it is clearly foreign (but I don't think it's English). Probably either another language or a company name. [whoops - one indicates that Hotchkiss is the inventor of the stapler. Bet you didn't know that! Is it true?] --------------------------------------- Hepburn: kanningu pronounciation: kah-n-ing-gu cunning. Simple and easy to recognize, even with the Japanese pronounciation. However, you might not understand what they mean by cunning paper. And you will probably realize something is very odd when they say "He passed by cunning, so the school failed him." cunning - cheating on a test cunning paper - a cheat sheet Neither of these is a compliment to a Japanese student - You must have passed by cunning. That was cunning. Be careful! Derivation: no idea ----------------------------------------- well, that's five - even though I've still got mansion, castella, hot, consent, anket, nighter, OL,... darn, the list just goes on and on. But the moderator is giving the byte counter significant looks, so... bye-bye [that's Japanese for sayonara, by the way:-] mike