What's new

"Don't give me a $h!+" ?_?

Thanks for the information, epigene.
Kindaichi Kyosuke's works on Ainu studies are all out of print,
but the titles, ISBNs, and other bibliography can be looked up.
Put a tick before "Kindaichi Kyosuke" and click "Find all (9) books by author."

Ishikawa Takuboku (Kindaichi Kyōsuke zenshū) (Japanese Edition): Kindaichi, Kyōsuke: 9784385408132: Amazon.com: Books

Kindaichi Haruhiko's work "The History of Japanese:"
The Japanese Language: Kindaichi, Haruhiko: 9780804815796: Amazon.com: Books
His obituary indeed tells of his active life, and of his unique humor before death;
http://www.sfs.nphil.uni-tuebingen.de/linguist/issues/15/15-2089.html

One aspect of Japanese nasals: although the nasal N at the end of a word does not distinguish m, n, or ng sounds, the same phoneme N before the voiced b, d, or g will become assimilated and phonologically realized as m, n, or ng. Again Masayoshi Shibatani lists;

/sjoNbori/ 'dejectedly' > [shombori]
/moNdori/ 'somersault' > [mondori]
/koNgari/ 'crisp'......... > [konggari]

One interesting example of 'cigarette' borrowed from Potuguese to Japanese to Korean is noteworthy.

Portuguese tabacco /tabako/ > Japanese '窶堋ス窶堙寂?堋ア /tabako/ > LM. Korean 담바고 /tambago/ > Mod. Korean 담배 /tambe/

The going explanation says that the nasal /m/ developed after ther word was borrowed into Korean because the voiced /b/ which does not exist in Korean was interpreted as an /mb/ which made more sense in the host language.

But if the preceding study by Kindaichi Haruhiko on /g/~/ng/ alternation can be extended to /b/~/mb/ and /d/~/nd/ alternations (can it?) then 16th century Japanese may have nasalized the intervocalic /b/ as /mb/. I wonder if this is the case. One Korean source Jang Yu 장유 窶卍」ヒ??s Kegok Manpil ツ「계곡만필 テヲツョ窶價窶毒ク窶「Mツ」, 1635, says that the Japanese call this /tambakkoi/.
 
Last edited:
Mycernius said:
Once again English proves how varied it is with words......if the forum will astrisk SHITE. Here's one way to find out
Thanks for reminding me about the original topic; English!
Your example of Northern British accent is quite interesting.
I couldn't find an explanation in the books, but found something close.
If the older form was the tense and long /i:/ before the vowel shift in Northern Britain, the other "variant", then it would be quite natural to get the diphthongized /ai/ as in the Yorkshire sample. But I have no proof to support this theory.

Another possibility: J.C.Wells says (Accents of English, book 2, p. 367) that Dales of North Yorkshire has a unique distinction between 'meet' [m@it] vs. 'meat' [mi@t]. I don't know exactly how your sample and Wells' could be related, but /e:/ ~ /@i/ in 'meet' and /i/ ~ /ai/ are nice vowel shifts that may explain your example. (More correspondence that shifts actually

Another example, American humor:
Q: What is the shortest word and the longest word in English?
A: When a white guy says *hit! and when a black guy says *h~~t!

It's only a joke, but it does point out that there are varieties of pronouncing the word's vowel 'i' as either a short i or a long i; I rekon the US southern drawl tends to pronounce the vowels longer and diphthogize them. I don't know if this goes back to the Brithis Isles' speech habits in the 1500's-1600's, but it may also have some bearing.

I find the Yorkshire spelling quite interesting. Does the "shite" spelling also appear in the local papers or other publications?
 
Last edited:
I only used Yorkshire as an example of northern England. This can include areaslike lancashire, Durham and even liverpool. Most British people will use it, normally if their not being to serious. It does sometime appear in magazines, again normally in a humours context. Strangly people seem to think it isn't as offensive as its four letter variant.
Interesting point about the vowel shift. I take it you must study language and have an avid interest in it. Have you ever read 'Mother tongue' by Bill Bryson? Good book if you into English Phrases and their origins
 
This intrigues me - as my father was a North Countryman, from (what was then ...) County Durham. He always used the long vowel in S-H-I-T-E (..that's quite difficult to type, isn't it !)

Actually, I think the roots go back much farther than you suggest.

Northern English (and Scottish English) seems to be much closer, in much pronunciation, to its Nordic or Germanic influence than southern English. I would suggest that "shite" is very close to the German "Scheisse" (Pronounced: "Shaisse") - which has precisely the same meaning and is used in exactly the same way, swearing included.

Humorously, this is frequently confused by English speakers with the German "Schiessen" (V) "To Shoot". There is a story, which I have been told by a German friend, of an escaped POW in WWII who implored of soldiers recapturing him, "Bitte... Nicht Scheissen, Nicht Scheissen !" (Please don't ****, don't ****!")

The German guys almost let him go as they started rolling around the floor, laughing ..... !
 
haha... just to add to the mispronouncations... my mom, yesterday, told my sister and I to "go eat some dumpings." >_<... she meant "dumplings"... but yeah... that was hilarious
 
Regarding "you don't give me a ******", it seems like something is missing or off slightly.
As you know, the asterisks or ($%^@$#%)type of symbols referring to swearing or profanity. So, given that sentance above, I would guess the following possibilities (i will leave off some letters purposely):
- "you don't give a sh**
- "you don't give a fu**, or if a word is missing from the end perhaps:
- "you don't give a fu**ing break"

i think?
:)
 
Back
Top Bottom