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"Whose" language is Japanese ? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Raincrowlee Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 6701 days ago 621 posts - 808 votes  Speaks: English*, Mandarin, Korean, French Studies: Indonesian, Japanese | Message 9 of 17 19 February 2010 at 9:44pm | IP Logged | |||||
I'm not saying if it could or not, I'm talking about usage. I've never heard this turn of phrase to mean the language as a whole, and it surprised me. That's not to say that it's incorrect, but rather unfamiliar. It just seems odd to me, almost provincial to say that the language as a whole belongs to the one writer, even if the writer was on the level of Goethe or Shakespeare. YMMV 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| ericspinelli Diglot Senior Member Japan Joined 5782 days ago 249 posts - 493 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: Korean, Italian | Message 10 of 17 20 February 2010 at 4:54am | IP Logged | |||||
I would add Akutagawa Ryūnosuke. 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 11 of 17 20 February 2010 at 5:08am | IP Logged | |||||
There simply aren't enough Japanese speakers and cultural enthusiasts yet in the West for any such consensus to develop. The only Japanese novelist that seems to be well-known among foreigners is Haruki Murakami. So if you ever need to use the expression "la langue de [quelqu'un]" for Japanese, I suggest him. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| nescafe Senior Member Japan Joined 5408 days ago 137 posts - 227 votes | Message 12 of 17 20 February 2010 at 6:29am | IP Logged | |||||
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I haven't heard someone called Japanese "the language of someone, some author", but I think the most common alternative name for Japanese language used by Japanese themselve would be "言霊の宿る言葉". This is an expression very hard to translate into Western languages.
言霊 means "the spritis of words", here appearently be a Shinto concept of the 8 million dities 八百万の神々. Japanese have Shinto dities for alsmot everything, words, places, and even for toilets. 宿る is "being obssessd" or "always be with" 言葉: language So the above three come together and mean "a language with the word spirits". You may interprete simply this as "a language of sense". "言霊" is still a popular word used to say how language is important, how careful we must be to chose words when saying something to others. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Whisky Triglot Groupie Germany Joined 5944 days ago 63 posts - 64 votes Speaks: German, French*, English Studies: Japanese | Message 13 of 17 20 February 2010 at 7:41am | IP Logged | |||||
Nice ! This sounds like the closest possible match to my query ! And it looks much more in line with Japanese ways of expression than what I was suggesting in my initial post, with the literary references solidly rooted in the French vision of literature. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Whisky Triglot Groupie Germany Joined 5944 days ago 63 posts - 64 votes Speaks: German, French*, English Studies: Japanese | Message 14 of 17 20 February 2010 at 7:43am | IP Logged | |||||
Guilty on this account :D ! 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Sayumi Groupie Japan Joined 5417 days ago 51 posts - 75 votes Speaks: Japanese | Message 15 of 17 20 February 2010 at 2:21pm | IP Logged | |||||
I labored under the impression that the figure of 8 million gods was not meant to be taken literally, but rather that 八百万の神 simply meant "many"; "countless"; "innumerable" deities. Is this not so? P.S.- I recommend the works of Osamu Dazai. Edited by Sayumi on 20 February 2010 at 2:25pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| nescafe Senior Member Japan Joined 5408 days ago 137 posts - 227 votes | Message 16 of 17 20 February 2010 at 4:02pm | IP Logged | |||||
I agree with you. 8 millions would means "countless","as many as you need" etc. 8 millions must be the largest number known to ancient Japanese :P 1 person has voted this message useful |
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