No-sword http://no-sword.jp/blog/ A blog about Japanese language, literature, culture, and art by Matt Treyvaud. (More) en-US Thu, 10 May 2012 23:19:27 +0900 Thu, 10 May 2012 23:19:27 +0900 <cite>An Introduction to Ryukyuan Languages</cite> http://no-sword.jp/blog/2012/05/an_introduction_to_ryukyuan_languages.html

Here's the full text of An Introduction to Ryukyuan Languages (2010), ed. Thomas Pellard and Shimoji Michinori. From Shimoji's introduction (yo dawg, we heard you like being introduced to things...):...

 Thu, 10 May 2012 12:00:00 +0900 Haniwa monkey http://no-sword.jp/blog/2012/04/haniwa_monkey.html

I've been parenting hard due to the holidays, so all I have today is this 6th-century terracotta (haniwa) monkey....

 Mon, 30 Apr 2012 12:00:00 +0900 Shogakukan http://no-sword.jp/blog/2012/04/shogakukan.html

I just noticed that Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (the unforgivably disencommaed movie adaption of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy has the Japanese title Uragiri no sākasu 裏切りのサーカス, "Circus of betrayal". ...

 Mon, 23 Apr 2012 12:00:00 +0900 Kosake http://no-sword.jp/blog/2012/04/kosake.html

Here's a saibara song called "Inside this mansion" (此殿奥):...

 Mon, 16 Apr 2012 12:00:00 +0900 Zūjago http://no-sword.jp/blog/2012/04/zujago.html

This week's reading is Prosodic Faithfulness and Correspondence: Evidence from a Japanese Argot, by Junko Itō, Yoshihisa Kitagawa, and Armin Mester. The "Japanese Argot" in question is called zūjago, which is itself an example of zūjago: the etymology is zūja "zūjago for 'jazz'" + go "language"....

 Mon, 09 Apr 2012 12:00:00 +0900 Kokkuri http://no-sword.jp/blog/2012/04/kokkuri.html

This has got to be the greatest example of ateji ever: kokkuri, the etymologically onomatopoeic name for a table-turning-style divination game hugely popular in the post-Meiji Restoration period, spelt "狐狗狸": "Kitsune, tengu, tanuki"....

 Thu, 05 Apr 2012 12:00:00 +0900