Posted by husky51 on 09.29.2012, 12:51 AM: Japanese language This kinda got started in a spambot thread and Saddletank suggested that when the spambot thread is eliminated, we'd lose this conversation that had developed. So I am going to try and save the posts as much as possible by adding the consecutive posts here in this one post to start it...
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Posted by arren18 on 09.29.2012, 06:02 AM: Good idea Husky and Saddles! This could be a very useful thread, and as I study Japanese at university I might be able to help people out.
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Posted by Saddletank on 09.29.2012, 08:40 AM: Thanks to Heidi and Saviour as well, who started us off.
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Posted by arren18 on 09.29.2012, 09:18 AM: Yeah, there isn't really an u sound in there; it's just a Japanese spelling convention. The long o is usually written as おう, ou, or in a few cases as おお, oo. And sometimes in speech, especially more casual speech - it seems to me that anime tends not to bother much with the more standard formal speech level - the long vowels don't come across all that clearly, and at the end of words it can disappear somewhat.
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Posted by Roarkiller on 09.29.2012, 11:49 AM: Generally, for those who understand japanese itself, they spell japanese words using a direct copy of the japanese kana itself with minor changes, if at all.
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Posted by foreignfilmfreak on 09.30.2012, 01:57 PM: Yeah, in Japanese class, we have to spell out words like they would be in kana. :B Or something.
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Posted by saviour2012 on 09.30.2012, 02:49 PM:
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Posted by Kazegami on 09.30.2012, 03:26 PM: If it's pronunciation you want to know, that's very easy in Japanese, since the sound of the characters never change no matter how they're combined.
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Posted by foreignfilmfreak on 09.30.2012, 05:05 PM: You just pronounce it as is, softly and without force. Or something like that. :B I know if you pronounce something wrong to my professor, she just closes her eyes and tells you to repeat it. Over and over.
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Posted by arren18 on 09.30.2012, 05:58 PM: For pronunciation it's generally the same sounds the letters would make in most other languages. Roughly, a is as in "hat", i is like the vowel in "beat", u is like the vowel in "soot", e is as in let, and o is as in "note". Maybe sure to keep them short unless they're long vowels (aa, ii, uu, ei/ee, ou/ou). Sometimes keeping them short can make them disappear, especially with u (as well as i in the cases of shi and ki, and sometimes o in to and do).
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Posted by foreignfilmfreak on 09.30.2012, 06:03 PM: I forgot, some people get confused with the "o" or "ou" in spelling, and I forget that since I'm from Canada that America has a different spelling for certain words.
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Posted by arren18 on 09.30.2012, 06:10 PM: Oh, about confusing with o and ou, I just meant the fact that in English and I guess in other languages as well, they can be different sounds. In a lot of languages, ou is an u sound, and then English has words like "hour" and "you". So I think people could still definitely get confused.
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Posted by Kazegami on 10.26.2012, 02:02 PM: Damn, I love languages. The more you learn the more it all makes sense. Those little sudden realisations are great.
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Posted by arren18 on 10.26.2012, 03:30 PM: Yep, じゃない is a more casual じゃありません. ない is the negative short form of ある, while ありません is the negative long form. The forms go by various names, but basically, the short form is what you'll find in a dictionary and usually comes up in casual speech, certain grammatical constructions, and anime and manga (where apparently everybody is already friends with each other?) Long form is a more polite version, and is the standard speech style for use with people you're not familiar with. In this case, there are other long form options: じゃないです and ではありません. The former is pretty common, possibly the most common way of putting it, while the latter is the same as じゃありません but more common in writing.
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Posted by SunshineandLollipops on 10.27.2012, 05:48 PM: I read somewhere that "boku" was only for guys, but I've definitely heard women singing it in some opening themes of animes. Is it that women only use it while singing, or was the website wrong? Explaination anyone?
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Posted by arren18 on 10.28.2012, 07:52 AM: Welcome SunshineandLollipops!
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Posted by Kazegami on 10.28.2012, 11:03 AM: Mm, thanks Arren. That was indeed helpful.
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Posted by Saddletank on 10.28.2012, 04:26 PM: Boku.
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Posted by Kazegami on 03.22.2013, 07:34 PM: Question, I has one.
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Posted by arren18 on 03.22.2013, 09:25 PM: むずかしかったです。
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