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What does a dot over a kana mean? (pic) | ||
Tags: Punctuation | Japanese | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| IronFist Senior Member United States Joined 6436 days ago 663 posts - 941 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Korean | Message 1 of 9 02 January 2010 at 2:59am | IP Logged | ||
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(Note to mods: can you please change the forum settings so the "Subject" field can hold more than 31 characters?)
One of the ways I like to study a language is by reading children's books. There are a few reasons for this: 1. Children's books have pictures, and pictures are awesome 2. Children's books don't have ridiculous and/or rare grammar 3. It's a huge boost to my ego when I can get through a sentence and know every word. 4. Japanese children's books put spaces between the words which is very helpful So, I was reading this little kids' book called "はな" (it's about flowers) and I see that some of the hiragana have a dot over them. Here is a pic. Sorry about the bad quality of the pics... the only camera I have is on my cell phone. What does this mean? Is it some sort of emphasis type of thing (like italics)? On some other pages, different hiragana have a dot over them. You can see on the first real line of text, there's a dot over the せ hiragana.  Edited by IronFist on 02 January 2010 at 3:00am 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 2 of 9 02 January 2010 at 5:05am | IP Logged | ||
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Normally, as you guessed, that dot is an emphasis mark used like italics in English. It seems slightly odd the way
they're using it in the photo you posted, but that's what it means. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| sei Diglot Senior Member Portugal Joined 5940 days ago 178 posts - 191 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, English Studies: German, Japanese | Message 3 of 9 02 January 2010 at 5:12am | IP Logged | ||
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Oh, that is the first time I have seen it. It's nice to know for future reference. I always thought that for emphasis they used katakana.
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| TixhiiDon Tetraglot Senior Member Japan Joined 5463 days ago 772 posts - 1474 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese, German, Russian Studies: Georgian | Message 4 of 9 02 January 2010 at 6:18am | IP Logged | ||
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Although not the case in the present example, dots are often used to indicate irony or sarcasm in subtitled films and TV. For example, if a character says (in English) "Oh, you're so clever", meaning the opposite, the Japanese word for "clever" in the subtitles will often be dotted. I've always thought this to be immensely condescending. I hear plenty of sarcasm and irony from my Japanese friends on a day-to-day basis, but obviously the subtitling powers-that-be assume Japanese audiences aren't smart enough to get irony.
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| IronFist Senior Member United States Joined 6436 days ago 663 posts - 941 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Korean | Message 5 of 9 02 January 2010 at 8:38pm | IP Logged | ||
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Is it used the same way in Korean?
Pic: 
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| ericspinelli Diglot Senior Member Japan Joined 5782 days ago 249 posts - 493 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: Korean, Italian | Message 6 of 9 05 January 2010 at 2:09am | IP Logged | ||
Just wait until you see katakana with dots... You will also occasionally see underlining (and side-lining?) or larger fonts for emphasis as well. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| IronFist Senior Member United States Joined 6436 days ago 663 posts - 941 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Korean | Message 7 of 9 06 January 2010 at 12:00am | IP Logged | ||
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is "side lining" the equivalent of underlining vertical writing?
Does the line go on the right line or the left side 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| sei Diglot Senior Member Portugal Joined 5940 days ago 178 posts - 191 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, English Studies: German, Japanese | Message 8 of 9 06 January 2010 at 12:46am | IP Logged | ||
Haha, thanks for the heads up. Now that you mention it, I have seen larger fonts in children's books, but I never thought it was for emphasis, I always thought it was just to make it cuter or something such. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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