A few questions about Japanese vocabulary

[JohnDavey]

Need a word or phrase translated? Feel free to ask.

Many bilingual people on this forum would be more than happy to help beginners with questions about Japanese vocabulary. Even grammar questions.

What word or phrase would anyone like translated into Japanese or English?

Hi,

First, I'm not Japanese, and I don't know much at all about the Japanese language, so my apologies on that up front. I study literature and write as well, both prose and poetry. I have a few Japanese words that I'd like to use in an English-language poem I am writing about Japan. So, I'm interested in using their English version. Can you let me know if I have the meanings correct? Or, if I haven't determined the meaning, can you let me know what the meanings of those are?

So, these are the English words I would like to use in a poem and, based on looking up the meanings at different sites on the Internet, this is what I've found so far.

asa, or 'a sa' - can this mean, 'morning'?
ahano, or 'ah ano' - can this mean, 'far away'?
hayo - can this mean, 'early'?
asu, or 'a su' - can this mean, 'tomorrow'?
ahso, or 'ah so'- can this mean, 'that way'?

For these words below, I couldn't find anywhere where these words translate to a Japanese word, but I'd like to use these letter combinations in my poem if they do relate to a Japanese word. If they do have a meaning in Japanese, please let me know. Or if you know of a similar word in English that has almost the same spelling, that information would be appreciated as well.

awa, or 'a wa'
awat, or 'a wat'
ada. or 'a da'
adab, or 'a dab'

Thank you!!

John in the USA

 

[Majestic]

asa (朝) - can mean morning. Splitting it deprives it of that meaning.

ahano - I don't believe this is a word.
hayo - doesn't mean early. "Hayai" is an adjective that can mean early.
asu (明日) - can mean tomorrow
ahso - isn't a word as far as I know.

awa (泡) - means foam or bubbles.
awat - is not a Japanese word. Japanese words cannot end in consonants other than n (apologies to the trolling professor on this sight who famously picked a fight a few years ago insisting this was a myth)
ada (仇) - can mean "enemy" or "hate" (but there are other, more commonly used Japanese words for these concepts).
adab - as above, Japanese words do not end in consonants.

 

[JohnDavey]

Well, first of all, thank you very much. Your response was very, very helpful. Thank you!! I did want to comment on a few of the words to let you know where I came up with the meanings, in case I did not explain myself correctly when asking the question.

1)

ahano, could this be 'ah ano'? I did find a definition of ano at this link - What Does "Ano" Mean in Japanese? All Meanings & Variations | AlexRockinJapanese
and in that article it mentions that ano could mean, or imply, 'far away'. I guess I don't understand how to use the 'ah' correctly. I did read that 'ah' in Japanese means the same thing as 'ah' in English, but not sure if that is correct. I was thinking I could put 'ah' front of the word 'ano'. Would it be possible to say 'ah ano' to mean, or imply. 'far away'?

Here is a screen shot of ANO from that article:

2)

hayo - For this one, I found that it is defined as 'early' at this site, Japanese Meaning of 早よ, 早, はよ, hayo

Here is a screen shot from that link:

3)

AHSO, could this be 'AH SO'? I found a site that said it could mean 'that way' - Is Ah-So Japanese or Chinese? - Tank Functions

Here is a screen shot from that article:

If I spell it as two words - AH SO, could it possibly mean, or imply, 'that way'?

Well, thanks for looking at this once again. I just don't think I explained myself very well with my initial post, so I wanted to double check on these three words above.. Again, thanks. And thanks for the explanation on how consonants don't end Japanese words (other than 'n'). That was very helpful.

John

 

[Majestic]

Yes, "ano" is a word indicating the direction of something. But when you add "ah" onto the front of the word, it becomes a nonsense word with no meaning. If you have "ah, ano..." it becomes a kind of fragment of a sentence.

"Hayo" isn't used in normal Japanese to mean "early". O + hayō (Ohayō) is "good morning" in Japanese, and at its core it means "You are up early", buy "hayo" doesn't mean early except for maybe in some obscure dialects.

Ahso, like above, isn't a word. "Ah, sō" is again an interjection plus sō, meaning "oh really?" or "is that so?". I can't imagine a context where this phrase could take on the meaning of "that way".

 

[mdchachi]

Ahso, like above, isn't a word. "Ah, sō" is again an interjection plus sō, meaning "oh really?" or "is that so?". I can't imagine a context where this phrase could take on the meaning of "that way".

I think it's possible if you don't think of "way" in terms of direction. Then it's just a synonym for what you already pointed out.

Ah, sō? => is that so? => is it so? => is it like that? => is that the way it is? => is it that way?

According to the dictionary at goo, 早お is an alternate pronunciation of 早う. But it seems to be obscure and not in common usage.

 

[JohnDavey]

Hi, Thank you so much. Based on your responses, I now need to figure out how the poem I'm working on is going to work. I need to think how far I want to push the envelope on this in terms of language usage. I want to be accurate. I've been working on it for a while now and I was not sure about the words I asked you about. Sometimes variations to an approach are acceptable based on poetic license. Well, at this point I need to study Japanese more; perhaps I will find another pathway, or be able to adequately justify this one. Your command of the Japanese language is very good. I appreciate your input regarding these words.

Thanks!!