Japanese Language

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12:07 AM

when a question is phrased in the form of "What is the real difference between A and B?", I can't help thinking that there is a fake difference somewhere.

3 to 5 business days

12:17 AM

@snailboat coolhwip

Q: What are the origins of 掘った芋いじるな (hotta imo ijiru na)?

The gag expression 掘った芋いじるな (hotta imo ijiruna) sounds to japanese ears uncannily like "What time is it now?" I'm guessing this is Showa era humour, since English probably sounded more foreign then than now. Does anyone know the origin of this saying, and anything about how popular it was (or wa...

puns

Anonymous

Looks like that answer needs a "furigana" edit!

Anonymous

Q: Difference between using 「の」or 「な」 and 「は」 when asking or describing nouns with です

When asking a question, or describing a noun with another noun, you can use 「の」 or "noun は noun です" The same applies with nouns described with adjectives, except 「な」 is used instead of 「の」 If this is true, then what is the difference between asking someone what the meaning of a name is wi...

grammar

Anonymous

Does this question make sense to anyone?

Darius Jahandarie

1:12 AM

@snailboat I see that you edited it, but as far as I can tell, it didn't actually change.

Anonymous

@DariusJahandarie The romaji was supposed to appear over on the right in 【】 brackets

Anonymous

In some cases that was being parsed as furigana

Anonymous

I broke that by inserting zero-width spaces

Anonymous

Compare to: japanese.stackexchange.com/revisions/1326/1

Darius Jahandarie

Ah, I see. For some reason that didn't show in the side-by-side comparison. I guess because the highlighting was breaking the furigana parsing, hehe.

So I think technically 「名前は何が意味ですか。」 is correct, but I can't really imagine a context where I'd use it. I think the nuance is that you think there must be some meaning, but you can't fathom what it is, so you're emphasizing 何.

Anonymous

1:49 AM

It doesn't seem like something anyone would actually say

broccoli forest

4:24 AM

@DariusJahandarie If there's a chance I say it, it'd mean "What (part) means (something) in the name?" I imagine a philosophical question, or that about names in some polysynthetic languages.

Darius Jahandarie

Ah yes, indeed

broccoli forest

@snailboat Actually, I'm worried because I don't know how to tell it even in Japanese

@DariusJahandarie the second 何が意味の名前ですか。 either be the same or "What's the meaning's name?". more philosophical :)

Darius Jahandarie

Yeah, hehe.

broccoli forest

@snailboat but thank you, for at least I knew there was no weird misunderstanding

@ssb we call this kind of act 飯テロ "food terrorism"

broccoli forest

4:56 AM