August 19, 2009
I received a rather odd unsolicited email this morning.
I found your webpage very interesting. can you please tell me about the original english word for these borrowed japanese words?
The email address was hotmail and the user name was strange, sounded middle eastern or something. It has the flavor of one of the weird comment spams going around. But it seemed to be genuine, and so I answered it.
What it mostly consisted of was japanized versions of English. Here's the list, plus what I said about each:
Ooba [kooto] -- no idea
kakuteirudoresu -- cocktail dress
hitto -- hit
geemo setto -- "game" and "set"
naisu iin -- "naisu" is "nice"
shiidii -- no idea
jazuusesshun -- jazz session
uetto na kanji -- I don't think that's borrowed from English
dorai -- probably "dry"
goo sutoppu -- that would be "go" and "stop"
kaa -- no idea
wanman-kaa -- no idea
takushi -- no idea
So that's what I mailed back. For a lot of these, what you have to do is to read them out loud a few times and then use your imagination. That's how I got "cocktail dress".
Posted by: Steven Den Beste in Japanese at
01:02 PM
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Post contains 193 words, total size 1 kb.
kaa -- sounds like "car"
wanman-kaa -- "one-man car"?
takushi -- sounds like "taxi"
Posted by: Jaked at August 19, 2009 01:29 PM (0gBEJ)
Ooba [kooto] -- OVA [cut]?
Also think that "uetto" from "uetto na kanji" could be "wet" but it sounds very strange (wet kanji?).
Posted by: Jaked at August 19, 2009 01:36 PM (0gBEJ)
"kaa" (カー) is car
"shiidii" (シーディー) is CD. Also, as a note to Jaked, the (ディ) katakana compound with the small イ is generally used to represent an actual "di" sound. That's how CD is spelled in katakana, and most Japanese people pronounce it that way, so saying there is "no di in Japanese" is a somewhat misleading statement.
"wanmankaa" (ワンマンカー) is "one-man car". This refers to a bus or a train with only one employee - the driver, who also acts as the ticket collector or conductor.
in "uetto na kanji" (ウエットãªæ„Ÿã˜ï¼‰ is an English loanword, "wet". Although I can't be entirely certain without context, the most likely interpretation is the phrase "a wet feeling" or "wet sensation".
"ooba kooto" (オーãƒã‚³ãƒ¼ãƒˆï¼Ÿï¼‰ I haven't heard before, but it could be "overcoat".
Posted by: 0rion at August 19, 2009 02:29 PM (4qQat)
Oh, yeah, I know about that, but in my experience, and I mean, at least with all the Japanese I've encountered they always pronounce it as ji instead of di. I guess it's due being so accustomed to it. (Thinking about it, there's no di I can remember on anime either, but then again I haven't watched any recent ones or the old ones that do pronounce it, if they do exist. I'm guessing they don't but if they can as you say I wonder if they have guidelines as to how to dub anime in Japan)
Overcoat -- that sounds much better but I wonder about the brackets "[]" around kooto.
Posted by: Jaked at August 19, 2009 02:40 PM (0gBEJ)
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at August 19, 2009 09:33 PM (+rSRq)
Posted by: Jaked at August 20, 2009 12:55 PM (0gBEJ)
Like have him use it in a sentence,
Posted by: Veeshir at August 20, 2009 01:07 PM (TmAo9)
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at August 20, 2009 02:29 PM (+rSRq)
Posted by: Jaked at August 20, 2009 08:59 PM (JlFye)
Ooba Kooto is the new show by Production IG about the Oboe player and the Koto player who, practice together, become an eclectic musical hit, tour the world and fight crime.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at August 21, 2009 12:04 AM (9ha+4)
"Uetto-na kanji" shows up on fashion sites to describe "wet-look" hairstyles (as opposed to "dorai"). There are other uses I didn't track down.
"Goo sutoppu" is a Korean card game, whose rules include a continue/stop condition.
"geemu setto" is from tennis: "game and set".
-j
Posted by: J Greely at August 21, 2009 12:47 AM (2XtN5)
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at August 21, 2009 01:47 AM (9ha+4)
Enclose all spoilers in spoiler tags:
[spoiler]your spoiler here[/spoiler]
Spoilers which are not properly tagged will be ruthlessly deleted on sight.
Also, I hate unsolicited suggestions and advice. (Even when you think you're being funny.)
At Chizumatic, we take pride in being incomplete, incorrect, inconsistent, and unfair. We do all of them deliberately.
How to put links in your comment
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