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I saw this sentence in an episode of attack on titan the speaker is referencing a power she has and that she doesn't understand how it works unlike the listeners who do

The english sub translation was

Unlike you Im basically clueless (about the power)

My understanding of the sentence goes like this

その辺の仕組みは - "The mechanics\structure\details of this thing (the power)"

あんたらと違って - "You guys (the listeners) are different"

I believe 知らん is short for 知らない so my best translation of the last line would be

よう知らん - In the way in the way in which you dont know

If this translation were correct wouldn't it make more sense to say よう知てる what am I missing here

1 Answer 1

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  • は can indicate an object (in this case, of 知る). Cf. this answer.
  • 知らん is 知らない as you correctly understand
  • よう is よく=well.

So

  • その辺の仕組みは About the mechanism surrounding it
  • あんたら違って Different from you guys (unlike you guys)
  • よう知らん don't know well

The subject of 知らん is the speaker, hence the translation of the sub.


One subtlety: in 関西弁, 'よう ... negative' means stronger negation (a source) and this interpretation would be closer to 'clueless' (but note the accent difference mentioned in the comments.). But in 'standard' Japanese, よう知らん sounds more "I don't know very well".

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  • I didn't know よう could mean "well" I thought it meant "way" in this sentence if its よく then I understand the sentence I also slightly mistranslated と違う that's where I got mixed up I did know however that よく could work in this way though thought thanks this was really helpful
    – k-on fan
    Apr 20, 2022 at 0:24
  • 2
    This よう is not the same as the one explained in the link. This one simply means よく. Therefore, よう知らん means よく分からない. Even the accent is different. This one is よう【HL】. The one in the link is よう【HH】.
    – aguijonazo
    Apr 20, 2022 at 2:53
  • 自分も aguijonazo さんと同じく、関西弁でも「よう知らん」については「到底分からない」ではなく「あまり知らない」でいい気がします。「そんなんようやらんわ」は「そんなこと到底できないよ」って感じですが。
    – naruto
    Apr 20, 2022 at 6:02

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