From : Mish T [misht86@hotmail.com]
Sent : Tuesday, June 8, 2004 9:07 AM
To : AnimeDatabase@hotmail.com
Subject : RE: Common Internet/Japanese Phrases
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| Right,
Before you try to be condescending about others lanuage skills, you might want to check your own site for errors. Firstly Good evening = Konban wa, not "konbonha", whoever told you that, need head checking. And even, "konnichiha", what is that? It isn't good afternoon, you might have wanted to use Konnichi wa, though, that would be correct.
Thats as far as I could be arsed to read, because if you can get common words wrong, how can you be expected to deal with difficult ones?
To be honest, I read around you site, and some I enjoyed, the anime reviews are helpful, if a little flippant, but really, your definition of Hentai, for example, grow up. Please. I mean, how old are you? 12? for someone who seems to believe that they have all the answers you are desperately immature.
As for what you feel about fanfiction, I don't write myself, but I mean, holy shit could you be a little MORE closed minded? once again, grow up, if you must push your shit on the internet, then at least make it polite, accurate and open-minded.
Whatever, clean up you website, because right now its covered in that shit that you call your opinions.
Mike.
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I suppose discrepencies between Kana and Romaji annoy people this much. For those who are genuinely interested in the whole Konbanwa/Konnichiwa issue, here's the most detailed explanation I'm willing to give right now (I'm not going to bother putting up the Kana, since I know 80% of you don't have Japanese encoding and I don't want to upload images for it).
The common word Konnichiwa is written in Hiragana as ko-n-ni-chi-ha (the final part being the particle to mark the subject of the sentence). It's pronounced as Konnichiwa (as the previously mentioned particle is written as "ha" and pronounced "wa"). It literally means:
Kon - This (from the word "kono")
Nichi - Day
Wa - Subject marker
Konnichiwa - This day
The common word Konbanwa is written in Hiragana as ko-n-ba-n-ha (the final part being the same subject marking particle). It's pronounced as Kombanwa. The reason why you pronounce the second syllable "n" as "m" is that whenever you see "n" followed by a labial sound (made with the lips, such as ba, pa and ma), it's pronounced as "m" (a labial sound) to help it flow together more properly. Hence why you hear words such as "sempai", when they're written as "senpai". Konbanwa literally means:
Kon - This (from "kono")
Ban - Evening
Wa - Subject marker
Konbanwa - This evening
Now, why did I spell it as Konbanwa, when that's not how it's written or spelled? Because that's how you commonly see it online, and that's how most people who see Japanese in chat rooms or on other sites will most likely see it. The majority of people merely want to know what Konbanwa roughly translates to, not what it means or why it's spoken/written different ways.
Next, why did I not separate the "wa" when some people do? The reason why I don't is because, when you speak Japanese, it is highly improper to pause between a word and the particle following it. Typing it as "Konnichiwa" helps people pronounce it as one word, rather than bothering to pause. The reason why some people do: "wa" is a particle that marks the subject. Particles are not really part of the word (since removing it will not change the meaning of the word before it). They are added to signify subject (wa), object (ga, although ga is sometimes used as a subject marker, but the instances are so rare, the Japanese won't even care if you use wa), action (written in Kana as "wo", but pronounced "o"), possession (no), question (ka), exclamation/emphasis (yo), direction (ni), from (kara), until (made), also (mo), location (de), and (to and ya), affirmation (ne), as well as numerous other rare ones I haven't learned much of yet.
But wait, why are there two particles for "and"? When you have a list of things (any nouns whatsoever) where you're listing ALL of the nouns, you use "to". This means "blah and blah and nothing else". If there are other things that you aren't listing, you use "ya". This means "blah and blah and some others". Examples:
"My mother and I went shopping yesterday."
Since it was only two of you that went, you use "to". It doesn't matter that there are other people in the store.
"My desk has a pencil and notebook on it."
While that's improper grammar in English (ending in a proposition "on it"), if you have more than just a pencil and notebook on your desk, you use "ya".
If there's any other problems or flames you wish to make, walk outside, take a deep breath, and punch yourself in the face. Repeat as needed until you either pass out or grow up and realize that flames don't solve anything. They only annoy people and cause others to suffer. In summary, the Japanese Vocab Section will be removed until I get around to rewriting the entire thing in the format I wanted to put up over two years ago. Don't hold your breath, since it'll be at least a few months until I even start.
-[Gammler]-