1

Each of the following sentences seem to be nearly unrelated, however I'm not sure if these sentences are incorporating ~いる in someway or not. I have looked at quite a few resources for each individual sentence but can't come to a conclusive understanding for them. Each of them are from the subtitles of the anime Non Non Biyori.

  1. In Episode 1 ~5:28

Context: Almost none, Renge is talking to Natsumi and says:

朝飯につくしのお味噌汁でた
Translation Attempt: I had horsetail shoot miso soup for breakfast.

While I'm pretty sure my translation is somehow correct I don't understand the でた at the end there. Is it just the past tense/contracted form of 名詞~でいる, in which it means something like, "it was."?

  1. In Episode 4 ~6:35

Context: Renge's oldest sister, Kazuho, is talking to Renge about their other sister Hikage who should be on the way back home. Renge is confused and thinks Kazuho is talking about herself coming back despite her already being there. Kazuho says to clarify:

東京の高校いてるひかげ姉ちゃんね
Translation Attempt: It's your sister Hikage that (is in) (is going to) a Tokyo High School.

With いてる here I don't know if this is the progressive form of いる or the perfect form of 行く. To me, 行く makes more sense but I feel like that isn't correct because whoever wrote the subtitles left the word in all kana and it has no っ between the い and てる. On the other hand if it's いる changed into いてる, then what is even the point of that since いる is already stative?

  1. In Episode 4 ~8:55

Context: Hikage is back and is talking to the new girl Hotaru (and some other girls). Hikage having just come back from Tokyo, is acting pompous. Hotaru was born and raised in Tokyo, but when Hikage asks her if she has ever been on the 新幹線, she says she has never been on it. Hikage then says:

おやおや新幹線をお乗りでない

I'll leave out a translation attempt here.
With my understanding, でない=ではない without は and still roughly means "is not", however, this translation doesn't seem to fit. Although not probable, especially with the お honorific and the general impracticality, is this 乗る(stem form) + でいる (negative)? Is it actually 乗り (the noun) + でない (neg. of である)? If the latter is true, then how is it taking を and how is でない to be translated into English? All in all, I'm quite lost on this one and I'm probably overthinking it.

With these, in order to gain a better understanding, I could really use some assistance on the translations. Any help is certainly appreciated.

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  • Did the first one sound like a question, rather than a statement?
    – aguijonazo
    Feb 17 at 9:09
  • Nah, it sounds like a statement to me. Also, the girl she is talking to, follows up with 「うちはつくしとたまねぎのかきたまじる」after that sentence I have listed.
    – levikara
    Feb 17 at 9:19

1 Answer 1

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They are speaking some dialect. From the second one I thought it was Kansai-ben, but if the first was not a question but a statement, it is unlikely. It must be another dialect, if not fake Kansai-ben.

  1. Either way, this is 出たん. In standard Japanese it would be something like 出たの or 出たんだ. Here it means miso soup was served for breakfast. A Kansai-ben speaker would say 出てん.

  2. いてる simply means いる in Kansai-ben (Osaka-ben). I never use this form though I’m a Kansai-ben native.

  3. This is standard Japanese. As you guessed, でない is a negative form of だ. She could have said お乗りではない, as well. It is an honorific form of 乗らない, or 乗っていない in this context. Actually, を is a bit weird. に would be more common.

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  • I have a few things to follow up with: With the first, I somewhat suspected 出る but didn't seriously consider it because I thought it was odd to leave out the 出 kanji in the subtitles. Also the one who said that sentence (れんげ) says ん、んの、なんの、なん at the end of almost every sentence she says... てか...結局れんげって小学生っ子.
    – levikara
    Feb 17 at 20:34
  • Also, as for the third sentence, I'm not extremely familiar with everything 敬語 but I have definitely never seen でない used in this way before. From what I understand with your explanation「おやおや新幹線をお乗りでない」means, "Oh my... (you don't ride / have not been) on the Shinkansen?" With your explanation I also found ONE other sentence like it:「携帯電話をお持ちでない方」, which I think means, "People who don't have cell phones.". Is it safe to assume this お~でない is always working like a continuous state to mean roughly: "don't do/haven't done... verb"?
    – levikara
    Feb 17 at 20:49
  • @levikara - You can convert pretty much any verb into an honorific form お-[V ます-stem]-になる. With this you can distinguish なる and なっている. お-[V ます-stem]-だ loses this distinction but it’s often used for [V て-form]-いる as in 田中様がお待ちです. There is an old gag where a legendary comedian called 植木等 uses the phrase お呼びでない. You can find a few videos on the Internet.
    – aguijonazo
    Feb 18 at 2:02

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