Reol's "YoiYoi Kokon" is a super catchy song that nails to fuse the traditional aspect of Japanese culture with modern trends. The lyrics are written in Old Japanese, and from a perspective of an Old Japanese connoisseur, it holds up to a good standard. Having said that, here are the few gripes I have with the Old Japanese language used in the song (and perhaps someone could correct me if I'm wrong):

- If we assume the lyrics on the side of the screen in the MV as the interpretation, the line "俗な答えなどはあらざらむ" does NOT mean "全てを満たせる答えなどは最初からないよ". "俗" meant... "俗" in Old Japanese; but also "世間一般". The second meaning allows for a broader interpretation inside the scope of the meaning "俗", but does not allow for a completely new meaning (like is purported in the side lyrics: "全てを満たせる(ような)" ~ "普遍的").

- "あまりてなどか人ぞ悲しき" is inspired by the 39th poem in 小倉百人一首, spare "恋しき" for "悲しき". It's hard to find a good analysis of haiku, even in Japanese, that would include grammatical nuances. The problem is with the word "あまりてなどか", which is linked to "しのぶれど" that comes before it in the poem, so there it makes sense. In Reol's song, however, it is not clear what gets "あまりて" (what "overflows, grows in excess"), and why it's in 連体形 (why there's semantically a comma after it).

#japanese #language #日本語 #hartree_jp

さえぐさ、さいぐさ、みえだ、さえくさ、さいくさ、みえ、みつえ、みつえだ、さんし

This is an example of a word that, even though it's pretty useless, has unreasonably many readings... But let's go through them.

さえぐさ、さいぐさ、みえだ are the most common readings, さんし - slightly less. These are all uncommon family names. The combination 三枝 is pretty unpopular as a family name, although there is one famous rakugo performer, 桂三枝 (かつらさんし).

The most interesting reading is さきくさ, since it's also a word meaning "three-branched tree or plant". It was used for some kind of plant in the past, but now we don't know which species it was.

But you have to agree, the readings are fascinating. Upon hearing さきくさ, you would imagine 咲草, but not 三枝...

#japanese #language #kanji #familyname #reading #日本語 #漢字 #hartree_jp

There is a story in China, where King Huai of Chu (懐王) saw a dream where he laid with a goddess from the mysterious Wu Mountains (巫山). Now, the character 戯 (as well as ふざける!) can also mean "to have intercourse". Combining "Wu Mountains" and "intercourse" together gives us a story within a single word - 巫山戯る.
As for the reading: the first part, 巫山, is read ふざん. It would be difficult to say ふざんける, so the ん was dropped. The ける part, however, was made up for newer Japanese (the word before was ふざく and didn't have space to house the 戯 character). It could've been ふざかる or something else, for all we know. The point is 戯 doesn't have a reading け・る outside of the word ふざける. And that's pretty curious.

#japanese #language #kanji #etymology #reading #日本語 #漢字 #hartree_jp

There is a story in China, where King Huai of Chu (懐王) saw a dream where he laid with a goddess from the mysterious Wu Mountains (巫山). Now, 戯 (and thus ふざける) can also mean "to have intercourse". Combining "Wu Mountains" and "intercourse" together gives us a story within a single word - 巫山戯る.
As for the reading: the first part, 巫山, is read ふざん. It would be difficult to say ふざんける, so the ん was dropped. The ける part, however, was made up for newer Japanese (the word before was ふざく and didn't have space to house the 戯 character). It could've been ふざかる or something else, for all we know.

#japanese #language #kanji #etymology #reading #日本語 #漢字 #hartree_jp