6

I am currently reading a manga for studying Japanese and encountered something strange. A girl exclaims「な゛?!」

The situation is that she has just had water squirted up her nose, so I am guessing it's a kind of 'gnya' sound?

So my question is, is this a real Japanese language thing, or is it just the artist taking liberties with the language for comic effect?

Cheers

Improve this question
6
  • 1
    perhaps you could attach a small picture?
    – Flaw ♦
    Commented May 16, 2013 at 4:48
  • 1
    You might want to check out this old (2002) thread about this sort of thing: q.hatena.ne.jp/1040004428#a7692 Interesting thread :)
    – summea
    Commented May 16, 2013 at 4:53
  • @Flaw Just to be careful, are there any guidelines about "fair use" (for anything copyright-related) on SE?
    – summea
    Commented May 16, 2013 at 6:12
  • 2
    @summea I don't know about that. But I really doubt part of an image of a comic frame will affect their profits. I guess it's fair use for educational purposes. We can remove the image on request anyway.
    – Flaw ♦
    Commented May 16, 2013 at 7:00
  • 1
    i think it just means the voice is strained.
    – Axe
    Commented May 16, 2013 at 11:27

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
7

We sometimes write 「な!?」,「なっ!?」 or 「なっ・・・!?」 (These three will be pronounced the same way) to mean 「なにっ！？」 or 「何！？」. Probably it's like "Wha...!?" or "What the...!?"

We also sometimes write 「え゛っ！」 in place of 「えっ！」 to add emphasis, but the 「゛」 ([濁点]{だくてん}) won't change/affect the pronunciation, so it'd be impossible to pronounce 「な゛」 or 「え゛」 correctly (I don't know what would be "correct" here though).

However, if I were a voice actress and had to read them, I'd probably read them as...

「え゛っ！」 instead of 「えっ！」

(So... maybe you'd call it a "thick/gruff/husky(?) voice"?? Or, is this what you'd call "strained", as in @ogicu8abruok's comment?)

Improve this answer
6
  • 1
    ナ行の音は鼻音で既に有声です。つまり、声帯の振動を伴った音なので、濁点をつけても更に濁らせたりする事は不可能です。
    – Dono
    Commented May 16, 2013 at 8:24
  • 1
    So writing え゛っ(with the extra ゛) as opposed to えっ denotes added surprise without denoting an actual change in sound? (by the way what are those dots called in Japanese and in English?)
    – yadokari
    Commented May 16, 2013 at 14:17
  • 2
    @yadokari Besides 濁点（だくてん）, they are sometimes called 濁り（にごり） or colloquially てんてん. In English, you can use Japanese terms like "dakuten" or call them "voicing marks" or "voiced sound marks".
    – user1478
    Commented May 16, 2013 at 14:47
  • @Dono そ～ですよねえ。。。もうちょっと考えて書き直そう・・・（しかもまた日本語やし）
    – user1016
    Commented May 16, 2013 at 22:17
  • なるほど、よく分かった。ありがとう
    – DaleyPaley
    Commented May 17, 2013 at 0:17
3

I believe in this instance, the dots are used for emphasis. Since な is only a sound (or partial word), the net effect is basically just a louder exclamation. It's the difference between writing "What!?" and "What!?" in English (note the italics).

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .