Let’s take a journey into the world of Japanese grammar. Before you groan too loudly, what I intend to with this series of articles differs from what you may be accustomed to if your exposure to Japanese grammar is limited to the “Japanese for Idjits” ilk of books. I plan to talk about how the Japanese talk about Japanese grammar… in Japanese.

In the spirit of my usual stream-of-consciousness rambling, I’m going to start arbitrarily with prefixes and suffixes.

接頭辞 [せっとうじ] – prefix
接 [セツ・つぐ] – touch; contact
頭 [トウ・あたま] – head
辞 [ジ・やめる] – word; term

Kinda makes sense, doesn’t it? A prefix is a “word” (morpheme*, more precisely) that “contacts the head” (of another word). Now that you know this word, its counterpart should be relatively easy!

接尾辞 [せつびじ] – suffix
接 [セツ・つぐ] – touch; contact
尾 [ビ・お] – tail
辞 [ジ・やめる] – word; term

You’ve probably noticed that the only difference between the two words is the character in the middle: 頭 (head) vs. 尾 (tail).

Keep your 頭 in the game, but watch your 尾! (Sorry… couldn’t resist.)

*形態素 [けいたいそ] – a morpheme is any of the minimal grammatical units of a language, each constituting a word or meaningful part of a word, that cannot be divided into smaller independent grammatical parts. For instance, the verb “walked” comprises 2 morphemes: walk and -ed.

今日の日本語

Today’s Japanese lesson is: 国連安保理 (こくれんあんぽり) – United Nations Security Council

Let’s take a look at how this breaks out into individual characters:

国 country
連 join, gang, clique
安 peaceful, safe
保 preserve, support
理 logic, arrangement

Now, let’s see the characters in compound form:

国連 – United Nations
安保理 – Security Council

麻生首相の「ＫＹ」は「漢字が読めない」の略

確かに漢字は難しい。私自身、初めて目にする地名など、漢字の読みが分からない場合が多々あるし、長年思い込んできた読みの間違いに気が付いて恥ずかしい思いをすることもある。だが、麻生首相の演説を聴いていると、平均的な日本人よりも漢字の読みを知らないのではないかと疑いたくなる。

ビデオニュースでも、麻生首相が「前場（ぜんば）」を「まえば」と言い、「有無（うむ）」を「ゆうむ」と読んだ話が失笑交じりに紹介されていた。私がテレビやネットの麻生演説で気が付いた誤読？だけでも、「詳細（しょうさい）」を「ようさい」、「踏襲（とうしゅう）」を「ふしゅう」と読んでいた。

麻生首相は新聞を読まないらしい。マンガばかり読んでいて、国際政治は「ゴルゴ１３」で勉強しているというジョークも聞いた。が、ひょっとすると、ジョークではないのかもしれない。クレー射撃でオリンピックに出場した経験を持つ麻生首相は、狙撃の名手ゴルゴ１３に自らの姿を投影していたりして。

「ＫＹ（空気を読まない）」と揶揄された首相もいたが、麻生首相の「ＫＹ」は、「漢字が読めない」の略のようだ。ビデオニュースによると、麻生首相の所信表明演説や「文藝春秋」の論文は、朝日の記者が書いたらしいが、漢字の読み方の誤りを教えてあげる人はいないのだろうか。「太郎ちゃん、マンガばかり読んでいないで、少しは勉強もしなさい」と。

http://www.news.janjan.jp/culture/0811/0811081029/1.php

白坂和彦

Vocab list coming (if I ever get around to it)

Prime Minister Aso’s “KY” is an abbreviation for “Kanji ga Yomenai” (cannot read kanji).

Without a doubt, kanji are difficult.  I, myself, run into situations where I cannot read  placenames, etc., the first time I see them.  And I am embarrassed when I realize that I have been misreading characters for a long time.  However, when listening to Prime Minister Aso’s speeches, one gets the idea that perhaps he understands how to read kanji even less than the average Japanese.

Even in televised news, PM Aso read “zenba” (morning trading session) as “maeba” and “umu” (existence) as “yuumu,” resulting in much laughter.  What mistakes did I notice while watching TV and surfing the net?  Everyone misreads “shousai” (details) as “yousai” and “toushuu” (following, as in footsteps) as “fushuu.”

It would seem that PM Aso cannot read a newspaper.  There’s even a joke going around that he only reads Manga, and that he studies international politics by reading “Golgo 13″ [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golgo_13].  But a quick glance makes one wonder whether it really is a joke.  Aso, who has had the experience of competing in the Olympics in clay pigeon shooting, seems to be projecting himself onto the famous sniper “Golgo 13.”

There have been heads of state who have been ridiculed with “KY (kuuki ga yomenai)” [lit: 'can't take a hint']) , but Aso’s abbreviation KY would appear to mean “Kanji ga Yomenai” (can’t read Kanji).  Referring to Aso’s policy speeches and essays in Bungeishunju (a Japanese magazine), an Asahi reporter apparently wrote, “Isn’t there someone who will teach me my mistakes in reading kanji?”  “Tarou… stop reading only Manga and do some studying.”

Shirasaka Kazuhiko