いくあよ?

julian_s · 24 Jul 2019

Hi! I'm watching this show (Monster) and one of the characters says what I'm hearing as いくあよ ('iku a yo') which is translated as 'let's go.'

I know 'iku' is go, and 'yo' is an affirmative/assertive particle, so I'm wondering what the 'a' sound functions as here. I'm assuming just 'iku yo' would be extremely direct and so 'a' softens it a tiny bit but can someone explain this to me?

For context: the character (Eva) is kind of a cold woman who was saying this to someone she had just met. It sounded firm and direct but not impolite.

Sorry if this is really simple but I just started learning yesterday and I can't find an explanation anywhere.

OoTmaster · 24 Jul 2019

I've never heard it used that way. Are you sure you did not mishear it? いくよ is a common enough expression and means basically what it's been translated into.

Jisho.org: Japanese Dictionary

jisho.org

In the given example it would likely be used for emphasis.

julian_s · 25 Jul 2019

Pretty positive! I just found the episode on YouTube so here is the timestamp of when she says this:

diligentcircle · 25 Jul 2019

I'm not familiar with the show, but was the third syllable you heard わ, perhaps?

OoTmaster · 25 Jul 2019

Sounds like わ to me. Which is much more likely since she is female. It does have a sort of softening effect making the speech sound more feminine.

julian_s · 25 Jul 2019

Thank you, that makes sense! I will have to listen more closely for the difference from now on. To clarify--wa and yo are each things you can add at the end of a sentence, and both together are very feminine?
Is 'wa' in this case the same word as the common particle (as in wa/desu) or is it a homophone (different word but sounds the same)?

OoTmaster · 25 Jul 2019

It's different than wa/desu. It's simply something females use in their speech to sound more feminine. It doesn't have an added meaning. It's not so much as a word as it is a pattern of speech.

Toritoribe · 25 Jul 2019

julian_s said:
To clarify--wa and yo are each things you can add at the end of a sentence, and both together are very feminine?

わ gives the feminine tone. You can think that わよ is a feminine version of よ there.

When only わ is added at the end, it loses the meaning "let's" which よ provides, so 行くわ means "I'll go" with a feminine tone.

julian_s said:
Is 'wa' in this case the same word as the common particle (as in wa/desu) or is it a homophone (different word but sounds the same)?

Although the etymology of the sentence final particle わ is actually the topic particle は, you can think they are different anymore, as already explained.

julian_s · 25 Jul 2019

Toritoribe said:
わ gives the feminine tone. You can think that わよ is a feminine version of よ there.

When only わ is added at the end, it loses the meaning "let's" which よ provides, so 行くわ means "I'll go" with a feminine tone.

Although the etymology of the sentence final particle わ is actually the topic particle は, you can think they are different anymore, as already explained.

Thank you!! (すみません )

nice gaijin · 26 Jul 2019

EXCUSE ME I use わ all the time and I'm SUPER MASCULINE

OoTmaster · 30 Jul 2019

nice gaijin said:
EXCUSE ME I use わ all the time and I'm SUPER MASCULINE

I've always been told it comes off as more feminine. I could be wrong though. I never claim to be an expert.

nice gaijin · 30 Jul 2019

OoTmaster said:
I've always been told it comes off as more feminine. I could be wrong though. I never claim to be an expert.

You aren't wrong, although I definitely know guys that use it. I was mostly joking, but since most of my teachers were female I'm pretty sure my Japanese is relatively feminine.

いくあよ?

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