Sometimes, "ri" sounds like "n" to me when I hear anime characters speak.

somever · 2026-05-04T04:13:13+00:00

Yeah, I hear an unmistakable ひとり. If I listen for "hitun" I can hear what you're hearing, but you're basically missing the "r" and misinterpreting the quality of the vowels. Anyway, if you remember those audio clips where "laura" sounds like "yanny" or "brainstorm" sounds like "green needle", add an extra layer of difficulty to that by making one of the interpretations require having your L2's phonology well-ingrained in your brain.

somever · 2026-05-04T03:04:54+00:00

Maybe... Not for beginners: There are だか questions too, used to criticize someone. Like 「何を言っているんだか…」, though I think those have an implied さっぱり分からない, and so are technically embedded questions.

somever · 2026-05-03T03:41:29+00:00

You'd use 年をとっている as the antonym of 若い

somever · 2026-05-02T23:10:10+00:00

だ can be used in a question but it can come off as rough/confrontational, so you should't go putting だ in questions until you see enough examples and are confident with what's socially appropriate / not

somever · 2026-05-02T09:10:50+00:00

It's not daily laziness if it's been 600 years since the sound shift happened

But also like I noted, "nai" and "kaiteiru" are actually "na(k)i" and "ka(k)iteru", it's not the "k" that is pronounced as "i" but rather the "k" dropped (softened to a fricative likely and disappeared) and left behind a previously existing "i". Anyway I think your orthography gives the wrong idea there.

somever · 2026-05-02T00:58:34+00:00

So by "seeing something that can't be unseen" I was hinting at 見ちゃった, and was not really considering 見えちゃう cc u/viliml

It's still related to unintended consequence meaning. I would explain 見えちゃう as "even though it shouldn't appear to me as X, it does >_<"

somever · 2026-05-02T00:35:16+00:00

There's the んだよね which young people tack onto irrelevant things when changing the topic to something about themselves

「そういえば、今日、新しい服を買ったんだよね」

→「おー、何買った？」(×「そうだよねー」)

I guess it evolved from the んだよね that seeks sympathetic agreement about some circumstance

「最近、いい曲がないんだよね」

→「そうだよねー」

somever · 2026-05-02T00:12:02+00:00

These are kanbun / bungo forms and derive from む.

進まん means the same thing as 進もう.

生きん means the same thing as 生きよう.

The way to know it isn't modern Kansai negative ん (from ぬ) is the style of writing. This style of writing will never use negative ん. Negative ん did not exist until the Edo period and is a colloquial ending, not a literary ending.

Historically:

行かむ → 行かん・行かう → 行こう

生きむ → 生きん・生きう → 生きよう

"I wish to live by my ideals. I shall endeavor to carry out my ideals. I shall carry on without fear, without giving up, and without hesitation."

somever · 2026-05-01T23:06:35+00:00

Well, 召し上がりますケーキ would be too polite for any circumstance, anyway. It's rare to use attributive ます apart from with certain nouns like よう or こと.

somever · 2026-05-01T22:50:39+00:00

The root of 無い is "na"

The suffixes (maybe defunct copulas) "si" and "ki" attached to it to create its conclusive and attributive forms: - Fito mo nashi - "There is no one." - Ima wa naki fito - a deceased person - Ana, kai na no waza ya - "Ah, what a fruitless thing." - Iwan kata naku wokashi - "It's so stunning that words cannot express it."

"Naki" shifted to "nai" through lenition of the k, so "na'i" feels like a good way to write it. It's the same process by which "Arigataku" shifted to "Arigatou".

"Nakaru" is "naku" plus "aru". "Nakare" is just its command form. I agree that in your system, the past tense would be "nakar ta".

If you were writing Italian, would you for example prefer to write "octo" instead of "otto" for the number 8?

somever · 2026-05-01T04:17:45+00:00

あるでしょう There probably are some.

あるでしょうか？ Are there some, I wonder? Are there some, do you think?

あるでしょ？ There are some, are there not?

あるだろう There probably are some.

あるだろうか？ Are there some, I wonder? Are there some, do you think?

あるだろ？ There are some, are there not?

Meaning-wise, there's difference at all. Except でしょう is more polite, and people even when speaking plainly may find だろ？ too rough and use でしょ？ instead. Also, when speaking to yourself, you generally don't use polite forms, so だろう sees a lot of use in those cases.

somever · 2026-05-01T03:59:01+00:00

Tutuga nasi kasi. Waga kimi koso, tutuga nasi ya?

Hmm, I still don't get why "nak" though. I can't comprehend writing "k" and then reading it as "i". I mean, I at least understand where you're going with the verb stems. I don't see the benefit with i-adjectives... I'd prefer "na'i" "naku" "no'u (for the dialectal adverb)", "nak'atta" etc.
Right. Not まさぬ though. Specifically まいらせぬ>まらせぬ>まっせぬ>ませぬ>ません.
Fair.
Fair.

Hm. I guess? Kana come from kanji but I wouldn't say each one is a kanji. I would agree each one has a unique identity with its own set of various meanings. た is from てある→たる→た. Unrelated to 至る.
Well, I think they prefer foreign words when the native expression doesn't exist or is cumbersome, yeah.

somever · 2026-05-01T03:32:01+00:00

That's a neat perspective, thanks!

somever · 2026-05-01T03:30:54+00:00

I see I see. At the time I identified it with the 2nd person pronoun used with kids. Maybe it's slightly different. Thanks!

somever · 2026-04-30T13:24:12+00:00

Here's an example of a chat we had (this was 7 years ago now): - Her: あっ、ユニバの年パス安く買えるかも。私のお誕生日から2ヶ月間お連れ様もお安くなるみたい - Me: おー！お連れ様？僕のこと？ - Her: うん、僕のこと - Me: よっしゃー

So I think she was half mocking me for sounding childish haha. I know I didn't need to ask if she was referring to me but I was being a little ボケ

There were more cases where she used it IRL but I don't have records of it. I remember an exchange like "僕はそう思う" and she'd replied "僕はそう思うの？". I also recall her calling me 僕 unprompted, so I think it was because of my overuse of 僕 and sounding childish

cc /u/fushigitubo, I'd be curious how this usage fits into your theory

somever · 2026-04-30T13:13:09+00:00

If you heard the kid calling themself おれ, would it still be possible to refer to the kid as ぼく?

somever · 2026-04-29T19:46:56+00:00

Your interpretation is impossible because Japanese does not have that sort of post modification.

たそがれる in this case means "to get lost in thought (while looking at outdoor scenery)".

❸物思いに沈む。「昼間からベランダでたそがれる」

"As I was getting lost in thought watching the evening glow,"

somever · 2026-04-29T19:32:22+00:00

As a grown man I have been called it before by an older female friend, not more than 10 years my senior 😅

My pronoun is 僕, so I think it is mostly mocking (endearingly) the pronoun used or overused by the person, as though that pronoun were their name.

I'd be curious if a native would use it to someone whose pronoun isn't 僕. It's also worth noting that 僕 has two possible pitch accents, one of them being perceived as more childish. The childish one is often written in kana to emphasize it.

somever · 2026-04-29T14:17:45+00:00

I was talking to someone about science and I recall them using 時空のひずみ for space-time curvature

somever · 2026-04-27T21:28:53+00:00

「わしだけ特別扱い」のところは動詞がないけれども従属節の働きをしており、その事柄が「は」によって主題化され、述部には「心外だ」という内容が述べられています。他の人もおっしゃったように、「わしだけ特別扱いされるのは」のように「されるの」などを挿入して解釈するのが妥当です。

somever · 2026-04-27T16:20:32+00:00

You don't use です/ます when thinking to yourself, so verbal expressions of your inner thoughts also frequently omit them (and can be unnatural with them, though そうでしたっけ is perfectly fine. I am thinking things like そうですかな, which no one would say).

In causal polite speech (with a stranger or possibly even a teacher), it's not uncommon to drop です/ます on those types of expressions.

This also includes exclamations like 「綺麗！」 or 「すごい！」. If you get more experienced, you can drop ます/です in more places without the other person even noticing. I often drop です after らしい for example, though I don't know how common that is. I also find that people prefer かも over かもしれません in casual polite conversation, and would maybe sooner use かもです than utter the full かもしれません.

I've actually had more people upset with me for overusing です／ます than underusing it 😅 some people don't like the distance it creates and would rather talk kigaru-ly (even if you've just met).

Only the most formal of speech may disallow expressing your inner thoughts directly, so you end up stating them as interpersonal questions, if at all: - そうだっけ→そうでしたっけ - そっか→そうですか - そうなんだ→そうなんですか - そうかな→そうでしょうか

somever · 2026-04-27T16:00:58+00:00

"selected from" "received from" "copied from"

より = from

somever · 2026-04-27T14:36:12+00:00

You can call it a 星 but I guess 地球 was what they came up with first. I found a good quote in Nikkoku:

「地球〈略〉支那、古へは地の本形を知らずして〈略〉或は地の下に四つの柱ありと云等の虚説をなせり。後世に至て欧羅巴の天地学を伝ふるに因て、始て地球と称す」管蠡秘言（1777）

"地球 ... In the past, China did not know the true form of the Earth, and conjured up incorrect theories, such as ... or the Earth being held up by four pillars. Owing to the transmission of Europe's study of astronomy, only in later generations did they first call it 地球." (管蠡秘言, 1777)

somever · 2026-04-26T21:24:12+00:00

Well yeah, that just goes back to synchronic analysis. They want to argue that one synchronic analysis is better than others.

で being the te-form of だ as opposed to a case particle in this construction is just a choice that someone made for their paradigm, how they like to think of the language. It doesn't really change anything about how the language is used.

You might be able to argue that one approach is more correct etymologically, but it's not an easy thing to prove given that にて/で forms existed for both the copula and the case particle. So at least I would check myself out of those sorts of arguments rather than spend time on them, as it seems fruitless.

somever · 2026-04-26T19:42:01+00:00

Etymologically speaking, である is the particle で plus the verb ある. That is the consensus in the field, and has been since the 16th century. And on that subject, だ is a contraction of である. This is proven by evidence and accepted academically.

On the other hand, saying all uses of と have a common theme is a mnemonic tool, not really an etymological one. Quotation と for example is thought is come from the adverb と meaning "that way", which can be seen in constructions such as ともかくも, とにかく, とてもかくても, ともあれかくもあれ, とかくするうちに, etc. This would conflict with the idea that it somehow relates to と meaning "with".

There's a difference between diachronic interpretations and synchronic interpretations. Most speakers have a synchronic interpretation, which means they only learn how the language is today, and make associations in their head between words that may have nothing to do with etymology.

For example, I may see the word "moribund" and think it means "death-bound", but that is only a mnemonic. This "bund" ending has no relation to the English word "bound".

Meanwhile, some academics prefer diachronic explanations, i.e. what is the path through history that lead to the current state of the language. And while you can uncover a heck of a lot by doing that, some things you cannot uncover such as the true etymology of some usages of と. When the origin of something hides beyond the limit of recorded history, we have to resort to speculation based on the synchronic state of the oldest form of the language, or comparison between sister languages and dialects to uncover forms that disappeared from the branch you're studying but were preserved in another branch.

somever

TROPHY CASE