Questions tagged [archaic-language]
古語. Old words or phrases no longer in general spoken or written use.
78 questions
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Decoding the Use of the と Form in Place of the て Form
I have been playing The Witcher 3 in japanese and encountered this sentence: メエメエ黒ヒツジ、毛糸を少し分けとくれ！ I am curious as to why the form とくれ was used instead of てくれ. I am aware of the famous quote from Son ...
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Mysterious readings and a general question about researching such words
It always intrigued me how some readings came to linguistically and historically. One I've been wondering about is 躑る (たちもとおる). Can't seem to find anything about this specific reading. But how would I ...
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Help reading archaic phrasing in おみくじ
Despite being relatively confident with Japanese, I'm quite flabbergasted trying to translate the full text of a おみくじ. For example, for this fortune here,
my questions include:
Near the top, what ...
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What does '一𢌞轉機' mean in this sentence?
I am reading a translation of Shakespeare's Hamlet, and in the preface, the translator says this:
旧訳は、それによって、國劇のセリフ𢌞しの上に一𢌞轉機を招来しようという副目的があって物したのであったから、勢ひ狂言調などに泥み過ぎたのである。
I gather that the sentence ...
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Hiragana mystifying words and grammar (possibly any sound changes)
The hiragana in this song is throwing me way off... These lines are extremely mysterious...
ゆみよにまひて
あなしあふれり
(おもてをはがして)しいまうや
Well, I reasoned that the ゆみ in ゆみよにまひて was a kagura bow although I ...
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Verb ending in いでし
In Gosick episode 19, a character says this line:
ああ罪なる者よ汚れし血の泉より生まれいでしお前に嘆きの祝福を
which is translated "Oh, sinner. To you, born from a spring of foul blood. I offer lamentable blessings".
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Reading of もつて and であつて in legal texts
While reading the 特許法, I came across the following articles:
第一条 この法律は、発明の保護及び利用を図ることにより、発明を奨励し、もつて産業の発達に寄与することを目的とする。
第六条 法人でない社団又は財団であつて、代表者又は管理人の定めがあるものは、その名において次に掲げる手続をすることができる。
Referring to ...
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Why is いる in いらせらる conjugated いら, in 未然形, instead of 入り?
いらせらる consists of いる and せらる, the passive of suru I think, so why is it in 未然形? Usually, if a verb is and can be paired with する, it'd be in continuative form, so you'd say things like 入りもしない、 or ...
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Use of "かな" in these Bashō/Sora haiku
First: I am a beginner. I don't know much.
So, I am reading おくのほそ道. I am confused by the use of かな in these haiku:
田一枚植えて立ち去る柳かな
and
卯の花をかざしに関のはれぎかな
I have been told かな conveys uncertainty and ...
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Using the verb ござんす ["to be"] in modern Japanese
If I use the verb ござんす
As in
しからばこの身を お疑いでござんすか
So, do you doubt me?
Will it be similar to English "Art thou doubting me" or will it give my speech a refined flavour or perhaps a ...
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Why is the こおんな reading of 小女 considered "sensitive" when meaning a little maid?
I've stumbled on the こおんな ( 小女 ) word, which is labeled as archaic.
However, of the three meanings given (small woman, young woman, young maid), the third one is additionally labeled as "...
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What is the meaning of the inflection 若かりき?
I encountered what I think is an inflection of the adjective 若い and I couldn't find a suitable explanation for it.
Here is the inflection in context:
はにかみて君若かりきさかづきを挙げて銀座に相別れにき…
Any clues would be ...
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Japanese honourifics during the Heian period
I'm just curious about honorifics during the Heian period. I know that "daredare no kimi" was used often in court however I am curious about other honorifics extant during the period. ...
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Is 永い間 read 【ながいま】?
Reading this book
いつまでもいつまでもお元気で
特攻隊員たちが遺した
最後の言葉
知覧特攻平和会館
ISBN-13 : 978-4794218308
I found the sentence
永【なが】い間【ま】、本当【ほんとう】に有難【ありがと】うございました。
Thank you for everything you have done for me over the ...
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Is the をば particle combination an abbreviated version of XはXを? [duplicate]
As far as I know when the topic and the object are the same we drop the object from the sentence to avoid redundancy. For example the following sentence is not correct:
ラーメン は もう ラーメン を 食べました。
...
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Synonym of もちろん?
In Fruits Basket S2E5, around 20:30, Hanajima says something that sounds like "mochi atabou yo", which is subbed as "of course". I guess from this and her character that it's ...
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恨なし (恨がない or 恨なす?)
I'm reading a text which uses a lot of classical grammar and there's a sentence which I'm not sure how to translate.
同胞に恨なし、遂に魔の物を統べる魔帝をも討ち負かせり
The text is about a swordsman and the part I'm not ...
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Power words: what are they, and what meanings do they have?
Can someone explain the “power words” in Japanese? I remember learning that it was once thought that Japanese had reached a level of completeness beyond many other languages because of certain words ...
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あわれめ? (“Greetings”)?
Can あわれむ be used as the Sanskrit “hare”? My dictionary gives “enjoy the beauty of” as an obsolete definition. However, compassion, mercy, and sympathize are also listed, so it’s not clear to me. Most ...
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What role do the Siddham characters have in Japanese?
The bonji, 梵字, are somewhat common. Are the only used as germ letters in Japanese, as has been explained to me, or are they used to form words and other higher concepts? Is this a living language ...
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Confusing interchangeability of 汝 and 己
In most cases, 汝 is the formal/archaic second person pronoun, "you/thou", and 己 is a humble and archaic first-person pronoun or a way to refer to oneself.
However, confusingly, in many ...
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Does anyone recognize these characters? [closed]
Does anyone recognize these? I have a hard time recognizing more calligraphy-esque characters. Thanks in advance.
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What is the meaning of 「はあ」 in this excerpt?
日本語
こんにちは。
川上弘美著の「神様」という小説を読んでいます。
「河童玉」という章の以下のくだりに、男河童と女河童と人間のウテナさんの三人がいます。
「ほれご挨拶を」と（男河童に）うながされて、女河童はもじもじしながら頭を下げた。下げるなり、ウテナさんににじり寄って、「うちのひとがはあお世話に。河童玉やらなにやら、できることは全部してみたんですが、いまひとつ効果なしなんですよう、...
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「つきおうて」や「あいおうて」はどういう意味でしょうか？
こんにちは、
川上弘美著の「神様」の小説を読んでいます。
「河童玉」という章で、ある男河童が女河童についてこう言っています。
三百年もつきおうてござりますから、些かのいさかいもありましたし気持ちが行き違うこともありました、つまりはまあ山も谷もあったということでございますが、三百年にしては波瀾は少なかったほうであるように思います。儂と女河童はなんといっても気持ちが寄り添ってござったし、...
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What does "近侍の臣" mean?
I'm reading a story about ancient Japan and I have a problem with what seems to be a title of some kind (?): 近侍の臣. Here's the context:
この年の春、樹々 の芽吹く ころから、クナ国の兵がしきりに国境を侵しはじめた。ここ数年、たえて無かったことである。
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What is the proper way to use 余[よ] as a personal pronoun?
Whenever I play Fate/Grand Order, one thing I often hear when I use that game's version of Nero Claudius is her using 余 when referring to herself. Looking it up shows me that this particular pronoun ...
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Suffixes: らしき versus っぽい
I came across the following sentence recently:
バイトらしき女の子に優しく教えてくれた。
Strangely, it was my first time encountering this form of らしい and I understood the meaning immediately, but it brought to mind ...
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How was the Pacific Ocean named in Japan before Magellan?
The word 太平洋｛たいへいよう} can be translated literally as "peaceful ocean" as somebody noticed in the question Oceans ー Thick or Big?.
But, as far as I know, the name was invented by Ferdinand Magellan: ...
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Meaning of "お戯れを"?
Can someone tell me what "お戯れを" means? I came across this in a Japanese drama. I can't quite figure out if this is almost like a formal and polite request to make somebody stop 'kidding around' or if ...
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Etymology of bateren (伴天連 / 破天連)
The archaic Japanese word bateren 伴天連 / 破天連 (referring to a missionary [Jesuit] priest) is derived from the Portuguese padre.
The Portuguese word notably does not contain or end in a nasal consonant, ...
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What is the usage of these 12 kanjis (彁, 墸,壥,挧,暃,椦,槞,蟐,袮,閠,駲,妛)+18 more in modern Japanese? How to read it?
I read from this interesting article that it's included in 幽霊文字 (yuurei moji/ghost kanji (character). I tried to look up each of those kanjis:
I use these sites to look up those kanjis:
a.jisho.org
...
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Is まはりて an archaic form of 廻って, and how is it broken down grammatically?
I came across a cover version of "Bad Apple", where the singer uses a more traditional style than the original song, including a translation of the (modern) lyrics into more archaic/poetic language.
...
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Word lists/sources for pitch accent in Middle Japanese
Is there anywhere I can find a list of words and what their reconstructed pitches were in Middle Japanese? Or especially what words we have tone dot information on (with a preference for the oldest ...
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Transcribing iteration marks: kunojiten , くの字点
The iteration marks 々, ヽ, ヾ, ゝ, ゞ are slightly smaller than standard kana, and are often seen in print when a contemporary scholar is transcribing text, a printmaker's seal, etc. My question relates ...
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其之 what's the exact meaning of this?
I'm translating a comic and I found this kanji combination on the headers. It's like a counter for pages.
其之一
其之二
etc.
その is the reading. I wanted to get more info about that but I didn't find ...
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The logic behind なくば
だが、主であるそなたの許可なくばそれも許されぬ…！
I understand it pretty much means "However, being our master, we can't even do that without your permission." but I don't get why なく and ば are both together. I would have ...
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Questions About Archaic Japanese
I recently came across this song that I really like, 「神居謡{かむいよう}」.
(Link to the full lyrics here.)
This sparked a few questions about archaic Japanese, which I know little of.
How would you translate 「...
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Grammar of "なかれ"
When I read the story, I found "なかれ"this word occurred several times.
「若い衆、知らない人を信用するでなかれ。」
「お前の持っていたお守りのおかげで命拾いしたのじゃ。望みすぎるなかれ。ここに幸なかれ。」
I looked it up and the sentences my dictionary provide ...
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What happened to original, pre-Kanji, Japanese words?
Some of the most common words in Japanese seem to have their origin in Chinese:
会議、日本、世界、先生、。。。
The evidence for this is, as far as I know, the fact that these words are written with characters, ...
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Meaning of 「かくや（という）」
A quote from 80日間世界一周:
巨大な湖が凍ったらかくやという景色だった。
It seemed like a vast frozen lake.
I'm guessing the 「かく」 is this one, but I don't understand how the 「や」 works. Could this be a set phrase?
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Questions about の→ん contraction, でござる→でございます shift
【原文】Original version
各これらの語の特徴はいつからなの？何時代ですの？
第一、「のです」と「なのです」を書いて「んです」と「なんです」を書かなかったことはいつからなの？
第に、「でござる」を書いて「でございます」を書かなかったこともいつからなの？
私の日本語がよくないですと、すみません！
Edited version
I have two questions ...
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Kun Yomi of Chinese origin, like 竹 (take)
I have came across an English book on Ancient Japanese languages. (Sorry I forgot the book name)
In the book, it says some Kun Yomi of Kanji actually come from early contact of Chinese languages. ...
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The meaning of やわこく in archaic dialog
Reading a novel and there's a part of a sentence that I don't quite understand. For context, the person speaking is at a small party, being completely drunk while speaking to this fit, sober woman.
...
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What is this archaic female honorific form called, and what relationship does it describe?
I stumbled upon this way of referring to women that was apparently used in pre-war Japan。I can't remember where I found it, or what was said about it's name or purpose, just that it went something ...
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Meaning of さすれば as a verb
In the passage,
この救済の光を
さすればここは幸福な場所となる
what is the meaning of さすれば? Is it the kana for 然すれば?
In this context, I would have expected 射せば to be written instead.
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What is the use of 他（ひと）in this sentence?
この間もちょっと畳で爪を磨いだら細君が非常に怒ってそれから容易に座敷へ入れない。
The other day when I happened to be sharpening my claws on some straw floor-matting, the mistress of the house became so unreasonably incensed that now it is ...
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What is つ in 中つ国 and why is it equivalent to の?
According to Wikipedia:
中つ国（なかつくに）とは中間の国、中央の国を意味し、「つ」は現代語の「の」に相当する。中津国、中国とも書く。
I looked for 津 in a dictionary but it seems to be an 当て字 so I did not get new information. But I can't get why の was ...
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Oldest Japanese Pronunciation for "When Is It?"
I'm writing a story with some... very old people, so I'm chasing down some very outdated pronunciations. What's the oldest known pronunciation for the sentence "When is it?"
(I'm not directly asking ...
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Help with understanding a "broken" 手紙文
A letter from a story, where a character (又八) elopes with a woman (お甲), with both writing a letter each to the man's betrothed (お通, who 又八 abandoned with said woman) (お甲's letter quoted full, for ...
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Is なくなく an emphatic negative expression (e.g. in 力なくなく)?
I guess it is an archaic form...
Sometimes I hear an adverbial phrase 力{ちから}なくなく used in context when someone resigned something after an effort. Let's say a warrior was pursuing another one to no ...
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