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Japanese grammar thing... | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Alptraum Newbie United Kingdom Joined 5502 days ago 19 posts - 19 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, French, Mandarin, Japanese, Greek | Message 9 of 14 18 June 2010 at 1:36pm | IP Logged | ||
Ummm... No. It was the first sentence that came into my mind that demonstrated everything I wanted to to ask about. I know it was a little insensitive, but this is a language learning forum, not a forum for eco-warriors or whalers, so I think we'll be fine. Thanks very much for your replies, it's very helpful! Something that's confusing me is why を is used in place of わ or が as an object marker. My grammar books aren't telling me the difference.. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| TixhiiDon Tetraglot Senior Member Japan Joined 5463 days ago 772 posts - 1474 votes  Speaks: English*, Japanese, German, Russian Studies: Georgian | Message 10 of 14 18 June 2010 at 3:12pm | IP Logged | ||
OK, sorry about that - it's just you do get an awful lot of Westerners coming to Japan on some kind of misguided mission to change the entire country, which they appear to believe is populated by racist, xenophobic, whale-slaughtering, environment-destroying, manga-obsessed automatons, and they piss me off no end. About を, there's not really a "why" to it - it's just the way it is. 私は(notわ)サッ カーをやる = I play soccer (where "soccer" is the object, obviously). The difference between は and が is much more subtle and complex, and even after 14 years of study I don't feel confident that I get it right every time. Edited by TixhiiDon on 18 June 2010 at 3:37pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Alptraum Newbie United Kingdom Joined 5502 days ago 19 posts - 19 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, French, Mandarin, Japanese, Greek | Message 11 of 14 22 June 2010 at 5:42pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hold on... in romaji I've always seen written something like 'watashi wa wagamama desu', so why is は used instead of わ?! Is this some sort of writing quirk, or am I completely missing the point?
Oh, and I'm by no means any sort of crazy racist person who hates all Japanese and harbors thousands of stereotypes and believes that he can change the world... I wouldn't be learning Japanese if I was. I'm sorry again about the example I used, I know it was insensitive, but it was just what popped into my mind. Edited by Alptraum on 22 June 2010 at 5:45pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Akalabeth Groupie Canada Joined 5518 days ago 83 posts - 112 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Japanese | Message 12 of 14 22 June 2010 at 8:33pm | IP Logged | ||
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It is a writing quirk. When は is used as a particle it is pronounced わ. Also, I'm pretty
sure the へ particle is pronounced え and the を particle is pronounced お. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Captain Haddock Diglot Senior Member Japan kanjicabinet.tumblr. Joined 6767 days ago 2282 posts - 2814 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, Korean, Ancient Greek | Message 13 of 14 23 June 2010 at 3:53am | IP Logged | ||
This is due to some phonological changes that have occurred in Japanese over the past few centuries. The 'ha', 'he', 'hu' and 'wo' sounds changed to 'wa', 'e', 'u' and 'o' in many or most words (and the 'wo' sound disappeared altogether), and the spelling of Japanese words was changed to reflect the new pronunciation. However, particles are so widely used that they were resistant to spelling changes and thus are still written in a way that reflects their pronunciation from several centuries ago. Occasionally you still see the archaic spelling of other words used, like 思ふ instead of 思う or あを instead of あお (青). Edited by Captain Haddock on 23 June 2010 at 3:55am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Eiji Newbie Singapore Joined 5267 days ago 2 posts - 2 votes Studies: Japanese | Message 14 of 14 23 June 2010 at 1:09pm | IP Logged | ||
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鯨を殺すなんてやめて下さい
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