Random Linguistics Knowledge...
So, for my friends interested in learning Japanese, here's some pretty useless trivia I learned from my linguistics book.. (btw, I can now say, "he is beating me" in Swahili! I hope that will never come in handy, lol...)
In Japanese, no syllable or word can end with a consonant unless that consonant is 'n'. However, because of the dialects, if the word ends in '-su', then the U is dropped. You know this already, but now I know why... ^.^ If it is pronounced it is considered to be over-articulation, like in a lot of dialects of American English, when you say, 'bottle' or 'little', the 't' isn't pronounced like a t, but almost like a 'd'. (Pointless fact: this sound is called a 'flap'.)
And here are some phrases in Japanese I hope you never have to use, but may amuse you for hours nonetheless... XD
Note: apparently in Japanese, subjects and objects are implied in the main verb.... so in English translations they use X Y and Z to fill the space for the implied nouns/pronouns. (similar to the implied 'you' when we say something like 'Go home.')
Tabeta- X ate Y
Aketa- X opened Y
Tabesaseta- X made Y eat Z (I think someone will have fun with that one!!)
akesaseta- X made Y open Z
taberareta- X was eaten
akerareta- X was opened
tabesaserareta- X was made to eat Y
akesaserareta- X was made to open Y
tabesasenai- X won't make/doesn't make Y eat Z
tabenai- X won't/doesn't eat Y
tabesaserareru- X will be/ is made to eat Y
Uketa- she took a test.
Onomotapoeas:
dog's sound: wanwan
rooster sound- kokekoko
cat sound- niow [pronounced [nee-oww]
cow sound- moh moh [draw out the vowels]
sheep sound- meh meh [draw out vowel]
bird sound- cheet-chee
bomb exploding- Bahn [ryhmes with lawn, I guess you could say....]
laughing- haha [so creative, eh? lol]
sneezing- hakwushon [the IPA for this one was strange; the 'wu' is more of just a glide sound for a U and I don't know how to write that... .:/]
something juicy hitting a hard surface- [like our SPLAT!] -goosha
clock- cheek-taku
Japanese syntax is Subject-object- verb, which means when we say, Taro ate an apple, they will say Taro apple ate, or Taroga ringo tabeta.
You can drop the pronouns of your words in Japanese, like in Spanish, because the way the verb is conjugated tells you who is doing the action.
Writing systems:
Three systems are used.
Two are phonographic [related to the sounds the words make... like English a bit). They are hiragana and katakana, but together are called kana. Kanji is the morphological system, which is based on word meaning, IE there are characters for each unit of meaning instead of for each sound. This system is borrowed and modified from Chinese writing. As tradition, Japanese writing normally uses a combination of hiragana for function words of meaning [like our affixes, suffixes, prefixes....] and kanji for content [like the part of the word with actual MEANING, like 'man' in the word unMANly.] Katakana are normally used for western loan words, sound words, and for emphasis
Phew! All right, I'm gonna get ready for teaching dialogue tomorrow!! SEE YA. <3
In Japanese, no syllable or word can end with a consonant unless that consonant is 'n'. However, because of the dialects, if the word ends in '-su', then the U is dropped. You know this already, but now I know why... ^.^ If it is pronounced it is considered to be over-articulation, like in a lot of dialects of American English, when you say, 'bottle' or 'little', the 't' isn't pronounced like a t, but almost like a 'd'. (Pointless fact: this sound is called a 'flap'.)
And here are some phrases in Japanese I hope you never have to use, but may amuse you for hours nonetheless... XD
Note: apparently in Japanese, subjects and objects are implied in the main verb.... so in English translations they use X Y and Z to fill the space for the implied nouns/pronouns. (similar to the implied 'you' when we say something like 'Go home.')
Tabeta- X ate Y
Aketa- X opened Y
Tabesaseta- X made Y eat Z (I think someone will have fun with that one!!)
akesaseta- X made Y open Z
taberareta- X was eaten
akerareta- X was opened
tabesaserareta- X was made to eat Y
akesaserareta- X was made to open Y
tabesasenai- X won't make/doesn't make Y eat Z
tabenai- X won't/doesn't eat Y
tabesaserareru- X will be/ is made to eat Y
Uketa- she took a test.
Onomotapoeas:
dog's sound: wanwan
rooster sound- kokekoko
cat sound- niow [pronounced [nee-oww]
cow sound- moh moh [draw out the vowels]
sheep sound- meh meh [draw out vowel]
bird sound- cheet-chee
bomb exploding- Bahn [ryhmes with lawn, I guess you could say....]
laughing- haha [so creative, eh? lol]
sneezing- hakwushon [the IPA for this one was strange; the 'wu' is more of just a glide sound for a U and I don't know how to write that... .:/]
something juicy hitting a hard surface- [like our SPLAT!] -goosha
clock- cheek-taku
Japanese syntax is Subject-object- verb, which means when we say, Taro ate an apple, they will say Taro apple ate, or Taroga ringo tabeta.
You can drop the pronouns of your words in Japanese, like in Spanish, because the way the verb is conjugated tells you who is doing the action.
Writing systems:
Three systems are used.
Two are phonographic [related to the sounds the words make... like English a bit). They are hiragana and katakana, but together are called kana. Kanji is the morphological system, which is based on word meaning, IE there are characters for each unit of meaning instead of for each sound. This system is borrowed and modified from Chinese writing. As tradition, Japanese writing normally uses a combination of hiragana for function words of meaning [like our affixes, suffixes, prefixes....] and kanji for content [like the part of the word with actual MEANING, like 'man' in the word unMANly.] Katakana are normally used for western loan words, sound words, and for emphasis
Phew! All right, I'm gonna get ready for teaching dialogue tomorrow!! SEE YA. <3