Need a word or phrase translated?

[Glenn]

Interesting. I get 土 and 古, but 耳 is a bit of a surprise. This must have come from Chinese, although they use 土耳其 nowadays.

[Edit] Yeah, seems to be the case. From Wikipedia: 日本語名のトルコは、ポルトガル語で「トルコの」を意味する形容詞turcoに由来する。漢字土耳古は、この音を中国語で音訳した「Tǔ'ěrgǔ」に由来する。

 

[nancyjo]

Translating a name

How do you translate "Shorma" into Kanji? I have had it translated two different ways and would like to know for sure which is correct.

 

[Elizabeth]

Interesting. I get 土 and 古, but 耳 is a bit of a surprise. This must have come from Chinese, although they use 土耳其 nowadays.
[Edit] Yeah, seems to be the case. From Wikipedia: 日本語名のトルコは、ポルトガル語で「トルコの」を意味する形容詞turcoに由来する。漢字土耳古は、この音を中国語で音訳した「Tǔ'ěrgǔ」に由来する。

Although the kanji ateji for Dutch and Portuguese words were not always copies of the Chinese version. I don't know why that has to be the assumption. :?

 

[Glenn]

Because 耳 is ジ or みみ, not ル, and トジコ isn't a good transliteration of トルコ (or "turco", however you want to look at it).

 

[Elizabeth]

Because 耳 is ジ or みみ, not ル. and トジコ isn't a good transliteration of トルコ (or "turco", however you want to look at it).

So ル is or was a Chinese reading for 耳 ? The pronunciation shifts could be convoluted, but I wonder if 耳 is the ル of the "kanji alphabet" (仮借文字) as it is also apparently stuck in other archaic state names, such as Belgium 白耳義. :?

 

[Toritoribe]

How do you translate "Shorma" into Kanji? I have had it translated two different ways and would like to know for sure which is correct.

Is that a Japanese given name for males "Shouma"/"Shōma"? If so, the ways to write it in kanji are countless. You can basically use any kanji you want as far as they are in the list of the name kanji, even if they are not usually read as "shou/shō", "ma", "sho", "uma".

So ル is or was a Chinese reading for 耳 ? The pronunciation shifts could be convoluted, but I wonder if 耳 is the ル of the "kanji alphabet" (仮借文字) as it is also apparently stuck in other archaic state names, such as Belgium 白耳義. :emoji_thinking:

中国語では耳は「アール」と発音するので中国からきたのかもしれない。

club.japanknowledge.com/jk_blog/nihongo/20100531_009.html

The writer of the blog is an editor-in-chief of the J-J dictionary editorial department in a major publishing company.

 

[Glenn]

白耳義 in modern Madarin is bai2 er3 yi4 (incidentally Belgium appears to be 比利時 (Bi3li4shi2)... go figure). 耳 is ěr (similar to アール), so when I saw that 耳 was in the Japanese word for Turkey (knowing that the reading ジ didn't make sense and みみ was even further off), I figured it must have come from Chinese. I checked the English-Cantonese dictionary too, and it appears to be 土耳其 in Cantonese as well (tou2 ji5 kei4, where "j" is a "y" sound for English speakers), possibly a loan from Mandarin.

In case anyone's interested, the Mandarin reading "er" has a good correspondence with Japanese ジ. For instance, the following characters have that relationship: 児 (兒/儿), 而, 爾, 耳, 二. Of course 二 gets read ニ more commonly than ジ, but there are times when it's read ジ (like in 不二, for instance). I have no idea why the discrepancy took place, though. Maybe Mandarin lost the initial (that seems to be likely).

Finally, I wish this diacritics situation would be resolved.

 

[Toritoribe]

に is a 呉音 and じ is a 漢音. I've read somewhere that 漢音 is widely spread after Meiji Restoration.

 

[Glenn]

I read something similar about the spread of 漢音, saying there was a real movement to spread them and use them officially by someone (or some people). Of course, as we know, they never replaced 呉音, and then 唐音 came along later, and all three are still used.

I guess I'll have to check out what the reconstructions of 耳, for instance, are to get a better idea of how the sound changed, and what the initial supposedly was, how it became what it is in Japanese and Cantonese, and where it went in Mandarin. I'm too tired to do that now, though.

 

[latenight]

Quick translation: I want you to be my teacher.

Also, if someone kind enough. Can someone provide the kanji for "healthy life"?


Thank you very much.

 

[bernikov]

I need your help to translate the title data of this gramophone record that I believe is made in Japan.

Thank you very much!

 

[Glenn]

I'll tell you what I can make out.

"Pop song"

"Breaking up with You"

"Lyrics by Takao Saeki"
"Composed by Shun'ichi Sasaki"
"Arranged by Ohsuke Itoh"

"Ichiro (somebody) and Mariko Ike (I believe)" I assume these are the two singers.

"Accompaniment by Victor Wind and String Ensemble"

And then it looks like "all rights reserved by Japanese Victor Music Company" and I can't really make out the last two characters.

[Edit] Upon further inspection, I believe the last two characters are saying "Yokohama".

 

[bernikov]

Thank you, Glenn!

 

[Toritoribe]

I need your help to translate the title data of this gramophone record that I believe is made in Japan.
Thank you very much!

The male singer is 一色皓一郎[Isshiki Kouichirou].

管弦楽団 generally means simply "an orchestra".
管弦楽団の英語・英訳 - goo辞書 英和和英

 

[Glenn]

I didn't even think of trying to parse the name like that. Ha, I feel kind of stupid now.

As far as 管弦楽団 goes, I swear when I checked goo I only got a Japanese definition. Or, maybe that was because I actually searched for 管絃楽団. Well, whatever.

 

[Elizabeth]

Quick translation: I want you to be my teacher.

もしよろしければ、私の先生になっていただけませんか？

Is it polite enough ?

Also, if someone kind enough. Can someone provide the kanji for "healthy life"?

健康生活 ??

 

[Tind]

Hi!
Could someone please give me a link for a website where I could learn how to read Japanese dates? I tried to find one, without any luck.
I'm trying to figure out what is written here:
nvm, can't post pic.

 

[Toritoribe]

Are you talking about dates in the Japanese calendar system, e.g., 平成二十三年四月十八日? If so, see the wiki pages linked below.

List of Japanese era names - Wikipedia
Japanese calendar - Wikipedia

 

[Tind]

I'm trying to find out how can I read the date that is written here.

 

[jonowill]

Hey, I was attempting to read this complicated article in Japanese but couldn't quite make sense of it all even after studying all the 漢字 in the text. I noticed that in Japanese the subject is quite often absent from a clause and is only implied through context etc. unlike English. I think I get the gist of the entire paragraph but I could be wrong! Can anyone help me translate this?
友人や姉妹から提供された卵子を使う非配偶者間の体外受精を不妊クリニックの団体が計画している問題で、日本産科婦人科学会の倫理委員会（委員長:星合（ほしあい）昊（ひろし）近畿大教授）は、政府の要請を受けて生殖補助医療のルールづくりを検討している日本学術会議が来年1月に結論を出すまで、実施を見送るよう要請する方針を決めた。
Also, does anyone have any useful tips for analysing 日本語の文法と構文? Are there any useful ways to identify 主節, 従属節, 関係節 etc. for translation purposes? I know a good way to locate the 主節 is to find the "main/full" verb. Also I have noticed that particle が is often an indicator for 従属節. But this can be really difficult with the tendency for very long sentences with multiple auxiliary verbs in Japanese. Anyone interested in linguistics out there that can help?

 

[Toritoribe]

I'm trying to find out how can I read the date that is written here.

毎週土曜日27時28分

That's not a date but a time schedule (seemingly an on-air schedule). You need to read the articles I linked below to know how it's pronounced.

毎 - Wiktionary
Japanese calendar - Wikipedia
Japanese numerals - Wikipedia
時 - Wiktionary
分 - Wiktionary

 

[Toritoribe]

Hey, I was attempting to read this complicated article in Japanese but couldn't quite make sense of it all even after studying all the 漢字 in the text. I noticed that in Japanese the subject is quite often absent from a clause and is only implied through context etc. unlike English. I think I get the gist of the entire paragraph but I could be wrong! Can anyone help me translate this?
友人や姉妹から提供された卵子を使う非配偶者間の体外受精を不妊クリニックの団体が計画している問題で、日本産科婦人科学会の倫理委員会 （委員長:星合（ほしあい）昊（ひろし）近畿大教授） は、政府の要請を受けて生殖補助医療のルールづくりを検討している日本学術会議が来年 1月に結論を出すまで、実施を見送るよう要請する方針 を決めた。
Also, does anyone have any useful tips for analysing 日本語の文法と構文? Are there any useful ways to identify 主節, 従属節, 関係節 etc. for translation purposes? I know a good way to locate the 主節 is to find the "main/full" verb. Also I have noticed that particle が is often an indicator for 従属節. But this can be really difficult with the tendency for very long sentences with multiple auxiliary verbs in Japanese. Anyone interested in linguistics out there that can help?

The main clause is almost always put at the sentence end.
The clause preceding a noun can be considered an adjectival/adnominal/attributive clause. (The term 連体節/連体修飾節 is appropriate in Japanese grammar. 関係節 is a term for English grammar, a translation of "relative clause".)
従属節 often ends with particles(e.g. で、まで、から...).

The core of the sentence is ～問題で、倫理委員会は[subject]、～方針を[object]決めた[predicate].

 

[Lotorie]

Hello there.

I'm (trying) to read "The three kingdoms" in Japanese and this one is quite difficult :

皇帝を擁するという大義名分を持ち唯才の方針の下覇道を貫いて中原を制する強国.

It's the description of the Gi people (so the Wei, if I'm right).

I hope you can help me ^^

 

[Tind]

Thank you!
I'm now okay with the first part:
毎 every
週 week
土曜日saturday
But, the other part doesn't make any sense for me:
27時28分
27 hours 28 minutes

 

[Toritoribe]

Hello there.

I'm (trying) to read "The three kingdoms" in Japanese and this one is quite difficult :

皇帝を擁するという大義名分を持ち唯才の方針の下覇道を貫いて中原を制する強国.

It's the description of the Gi people (so the Wei, if I'm right).

I hope you can help me ^^

皇帝を擁する is the matter of 大義名分.
唯才[ゆいざい] is from 唯才是挙[たださいのみこれあげよ] or "ability-ism".(As you might know, it's the motto of 曹操.)
The both clauses "皇帝を擁するという大義名分を持ち" and "唯才の方針の下、覇道を貫いて中原を制する" are modifying 強国.

Thank you!
I'm now okay with the first part:
毎 every
週 week
土曜日saturday
But, the other part doesn't make any sense for me:
27時28分
27 hours 28 minutes

It's not 27時間28分. It's a (on-air) time, not a length of time.

By the way, did you want to know the meaning, not the pronunciation?
every Saturday 27:28 = every Sunday 3:28(AM, of course)