The study of the origin of words and the historical development of their meanings.
14
votes
2answers
340 views
Exceptional compounding forms
There are a number of Japanese words which have distinct compounding forms:
-a/-e alternation: 天・雨、酒、上、風、目 — many examples.
-u/-i alternation: 神（[神]{かむ}[集]{つど}ふ）、月（[月]{つく}[読]{よみ}）
-o/-i alternation: ...
15
votes
1answer
405 views
Why is a place that sells さけ a さかや?
Is it known why a さかや normally has a か, rather than a け like in さけ?
Are there many other -や constructions for stores that change the spelling of the word added to?
13
votes
3answers
386 views
Kanji for native Japanese concepts: Kun'yomi spanning multiple morphemes
There are a few words, which are written with Kanji imported from China, but where the intended native Japanese meaning would prefer a different choice of Kanji. My favourite examples are
雷 vs. 神鳴り ...
10
votes
5answers
626 views
Is there an objective source of the origins of kanji?
Is there an authoritative source that explains where the different kanji come from and what the radicals mean? I think it's hard to tell from most of the textbooks/other sources whether a shown ...
17
votes
4answers
382 views
What are the origins of ヶ?
The ヶ in e.g. 一ヶ月 is a bit of an odd character - it looks a lot like a small version of the katakana ケ, but is it derived from that katakana originally? Or is it a normal kanji? Or is it something ...
11
votes
4answers
204 views
History of 十干（じっかん）and modern uses
As I was studying vocabulary today, I happened to come across the titular 十干 which are as follows:
甲（こう）• 乙（おつ）• 丙（へい）• 丁（てい） •戊（ぼ）• 己（き）• 庚（こう）• 辛（しん）• 壬（じん）• 癸（き）
There's a somewhat lengthy ...
6
votes
2answers
375 views
Significance of the kanji 茶 in the set phrase 滅茶滅茶{めちゃめちゃ} / 目茶目茶{めちゃめちゃ}
While having fun looking up random words in my dictionary software, I found out that the phrase "めちゃめちゃ", which is often used in colloquial sentences like "めちゃめちゃかわいい" has two kanji variants:
滅茶滅茶
...
13
votes
3answers
627 views
Historical differences between colors that are i-adjectives and those that are simply nouns
EDIT: Started a bounty with hope of getting more definitive and elaborate answers, e.g. timeline of when color names started being used in Japan.
In Japanese language, there are colors that are ...
9
votes
2answers
261 views
About ご[馳走]{ちそう}: two “runs” would give you “a feast”?
ご[馳走様]{ちそうさま}でした is the greeting that people say after being treat a meal while ご馳走 by itself means “a feast”.
I looked up this word in the dictionary to learn more about the kanji characters. It ...
7
votes
1answer
209 views
Words with metathesis
What common Japanese words underwent metathesis (transposition of sounds)?
Examples.
新{あたら}しい < あらたしい
秋葉原 {あきはばら} < あきばはら
11
votes
2answers
171 views
What are the origins of ド when used as emphasis, and is it always negative?
Sometimes I've seen ド as a prefix that adds emphasis to words. So saying someone is ドバカ is saying that they are much more stupid than just バカ.
I'm wondering what the origin of ド in this context is. ...
7
votes
2answers
162 views
Origin/etymology of こころ～ words
There are three unique words that begin with こころ～:
快い （こころよい）、 試みる （こころみる）、 志 （こころざし）
What is the origin of these words in relation to "heart/spirit/mind", if any??? Or is this just something ...
9
votes
2answers
247 views
What is the correct veritable meaning of 水無月 and 神無月?
This question is the result of a conversation with Chocolate in chat, and also this Japanese calendar I have that lists the months according to the traditional Japanese names.
For some reason, there ...
8
votes
2answers
183 views
Where does the suffix 〜がる come from?
I've read that several bits of Japanese come from contractions with ある:
だ comes from で + ある (source)
なる comes from に + ある (source)
たり comes from て + あり (source)
たり comes from と + あり (source)
...
7
votes
1answer
229 views
Origin of あしからず
Could somebody explain the origin of あしからず , as found in the following expressions?
今回はお断りしますが，どうぞあしからず|
This time I have to say no, I hope you don't mind.
・・ですが、 悪しからず。|
I'm sorry ...
4
votes
1answer
183 views
Is たとえば the ば form of a verb?
たとえば looks like it should be the ば form of a verb, but is that true? I know of the word 例える, but the ば form of this would be 例えれば. The phrase 例えるなら also exists, which would be a cousin if it were ...
2
votes
1answer
182 views
The uses & etymology of で
In Japanese, the particle で seems to have multiple uses:
Instrumental: 車{くるま}で大阪{おおさか}に行{い}った。 "I went to Osaka by car."
Locative: 図書館{としょかん}で数学{すうがく}を勉強{べんきょう}している。 "I'm studying math in the ...
12
votes
1answer
202 views
Why did の disappear from 山手, but in 御茶ノ水 it's in katakana?
I realize that very likely the answer to this question is likely to be something along the lines of "that's just the way it is", but I thought it worth asking to see if there were some insights that ...
11
votes
2answers
262 views
What exactly is 「だらし」?
WWWJDIC states that 「だらしない」 can be written with kanji as 「だらし無い」, which suggests that the phrase is a negative construction that uses 「無い」, unlike words like 「すくない」 and 「あぶない」. Furthermore, 「だらしが無い」 ...
10
votes
1answer
177 views
Unifying concept for noun-adjectives of the pattern Xかな
Consider these:
～か：
静か
愚か
厳か
～やか:
穏やか
鮮やか
賑やか
～らか:
柔らか
滑らか
明らか
There are many more that I've not listed.
The か/やか/らか at the end of these words ...
10
votes
3answers
268 views
The etymology of 関手【かんしゅ】
In Japanese mathematics, the word ‘functor’ is translated as 関手【かんしゅ】. What is the etymology of this word?
I suspect that it is a pun on 関数 (function). This leads to two further questions:
Why 関手 ...
9
votes
1answer
250 views
What is the meaning/usage of いざ?
Will someone please explain what this word いざ means? I've found several definitions, but I'm very unclear on what it really means and its usage. I've heard it mostly in the following ways:
...
8
votes
1answer
199 views
Why is 五右衛門 read “goemon”?
Why is the name 五右衛門 read as ごえもん?
How can the three kanji 五右衛 be read with only two syllables?
5
votes
1answer
414 views
Etymology of 出来る dekiru
An entry of Tae Kim's blog suggested that 出来る came from Chinese word 出来 that does have the nuance of potentiality, but the most recent visitor's comment claimed that the usage of 出来 in Chinese to show ...
4
votes
1answer
134 views
“Dive” = “fly into”?
The words 飛ぶ and 跳ぶ are both read as とぶ, the former meaning "to fly" and the latter meaning "to jump" (generally; don't know if they are interchangeable at all).
The compound-verb suffix 〜込【こ】む means ...
3
votes
1answer
127 views
Origin of 信じる, 感じる, etc?
Wikipedia claims that Japanese verbs are a closed class and that loanwords from Chinese always use する. 信じる, 感じる seems to be an exception. Why aren't they 信をする and 感をする? Maybe because one kanji is too ...
9
votes
1answer
368 views
Where does です come from?
I've heard various things about this construction from many different people, a few examples of which are:
It's a verb meaning "to be".
It's a contraction of something like でございます (de gozaimasu) or ...
5
votes
1answer
177 views
Mukashi-banashi. Do they borrow from other current dialects in addition to older Japanese?
At my schools 日本語クラブ, we studied a 昔話 (舌切り雀）, which like most of the others I've read, had some nonstandard grammatical constructions. I've heard that many of these constructions are archaic forms ...
4
votes
1answer
152 views
What is the わ in 忌まわしい and 嘆かわしい?
On chat, Chocolate helped me find some examples of adjectives produced from verbs using the しい suffix. In the following examples, it appears to attach directly to the 未然形:
勇む → 勇ま ＋ しい
悩む ...
4
votes
1answer
516 views
Why is ローマ字 spelt without an ン?
Why is ローマ字 spelt without an ン?
As far as I can tell, it's not because you can't have an ん sound before a じ sound, because 漢字 has an ん sound before 字.
Did early Europeans' term for Roman letters not ...
