Scrupulous or Graphic? Lost in Translation 03

Tokyo station, the largest terminal station where over 20 lines come in, cross and pass through. Railway system in Japan is famous for its punctuality, efficiency and scrupulousness. Whenever there is a problem in the system causing inconvenience to the passengers, the railway company does its best to follow up, recover and secure the regular operation.

I was in Tokyo station heading back for home. One of the lines passing through Tokyo station seemed not to be in operation at the time. Many passengers were wandering round, looking at notice boards, asking for information from the railway staff. Then, I heard this announcement first in Japanese and then in English. I was taken aback by the words heard in the English announcement:

“The ○○ line will not operate due to ‘a person hit by a train.’”

‘A person hit by a train’!

The image of the scene ran in my head.

It may be necessary to provide a detailed information to the passengers to explain why the service had been suspended, but does it have to be SO graphic?!

Hearty welcome? Cordial reception?

No one would deny,
The English Language has transformed into the most common medium of communication over the world.

Sometimes called a "lingua franca" (a borrowing from Italian), the present state of English suggests that it is no longer a possession of any particular country, but of those who use it.

One of the factors that has pushed English into the status is its copious vocabulary, often characterised as a "cosmopolitan vocabulary." A number of Japanese has been added into the English vocabulary. For example, the latest entry was 焼きそば "yakisoba" in March 2012. (The new entry passage in OED website, after introducing some new words from Australia, says that "More exotically still, we have yakisoba n., a Japanese dish of fried wheat-flour noodles, seeing enough clear usage as an English word to merit inclusion in the dictionary."

The "international" character of the English vocabulary had its origin back even in the earlier time when English came into Britain. Historically speaking, English has mingled with many other languages such as Latin, Celt, Old Norse, French.

In particular, the mixture with French has broadened the potential range of lexicon: As the language of Germanic root, an encounter with French meant that with the so-called "Romance" language, an "etymologically" different line of language.

What's important in considering the lexical richness of English is how differently each word carries meanings/implications, even if the core of the sense is nearly the same.

For instance, how does a phrase "hearty welcome" sound to you, as compared with "cordial reception"? Do these phrases sound differently? Actually, they sound quite differently depending on the context. A close look at the "etymology" leads you to understand why and how they differ. Here is an interesting clip that tells the story behind the phrases.

Accident or intentional? Interrogatives

One of the common mistakes seen in Japanese English learners is the confusion of the interrogatives "How...?" and "Why...?" Of course we know that HOW is asking in what way or manner, and WHY is asking the reason or the purpose, but the confusion pops up when we try to form questions because both words can be translated into Japanese as "どうして？　(DO-SHITE?)"

The mistake is often seen when a Japanese English learner tries to form a sentence in Japanese in his or her head and then tries to translate and say it in English. I once made this mistake so I will never forget it. I was talking to an English friend who told me he had broken his arm some months ago. I asked him,

"Why did you break your arm? "

My friend stared at me in amazement for a while and then said,

"Well, it was such a lovely day, a perfect day for breaking an arm so I thought I'd have a go.... WHY? WHAT are you thinking? I tripped over and broke it, it wasn't intentional!"

Only after his answer did I realize the mistake I had made. I should have asked HOW? and not WHY?, but I think my mind at the time was working in Japanese mode (my mind has two channels, Japanese and English mode).　I was translating

"どうして腕折ったの？"　(DO-SHITE break your arm?)

into English, and made the mistake.

A slip of an interrogative this time makes an accident  an intentional injury by a masochist.

Being "naked," good or bad?

What does "a naked feeling" sound to you?
I don't think it is a natural collocation, but it can sound somewhat positive.

"Naked" is an adjective used to describe the state of being exposed, without clothes, the usual covering, protection, leaves... etc.

Also, it is used to refer to a sort of feelings or behavior, "expressed openly, undisguised," a usage with a rather positive and favourable implication.

"Naked" has its origin in Old English, a native language of English belonging to Germanic roots. In Old English, the spelling was "nacod." (Some might think of "nude," which has its different root, Latin. Germanic and Latin are in a different language category, but ultimately stretching back to the same root, an "Indo-European" family)

A look at the Middle English Dictionary attests to an interesting usage. This dictionary covers the lexicons that appear in the works of the so-called "Middle English" period (approximately 1100~1500).

The definition of section 3 is worth an attention.
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3. (a) Of ground: without fresh vegetation, barren; also, not covered (as with a carpet or blanket); of autumn: devoid of green vegetation, sere; of trees: not covered with leaves, leafless; ~ of leves, stripped of leaves; (b) not covered with tissue or flesh, bare; (c) stripped of sails and rigging; (d) stripped of ornament; despoiled, stripped of possessions; (e) of the heart: lacking human affection, unfeeling.
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The sense of (a)(b)(c)(d) can be expected, but (e) "of the heart: lacking human affection, unfeeling" is interesting because it stands in a stark opposition to the sense the word carries today.

What on earth has happened!?
The language is a creature, so that form, meaning, implication all change over time. I think there must have been a cultural change of perception towards "nakedness" which caused the shift in the meaning.

Finally,
Let me say that this blog's title "Barefooted Philologist" is in fact inspired by "The Naked Philologist." (https://nakedphilologist.wordpress.com/)

Polyandry? Lost in Translation 02

Another Lost in Translation series.

In the summer of 2000, I was travelling round England, and I found a tabloid "Evening Standard" left on the seat in front of me. I have kept it like a treasure because of this small article I found inside:

It clearly and hilariously shows how we Japanese are poor in English conversation although most people receive at least 6 years of English education in junior and senior high school. Our former leader was a fine example of the result of our "nearly good-for-nothing school English education".

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Lost in translation (Evening Standard  Monday 24th July 2000)

As the G8 leaders convened in Japan over the weekend, I year of a yarn that is too good to be true concerning Bill Clinton and Japanese PC Yoshiro Mori.

Before Mori's first visit to the US, he was lectured by an official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on how to greet the American President. The official advised him to follow the following verbal procedure: "How are you Mr. Clinton?" to which Clinton will say "I am fine, and you?" Then he should reply "Me too." However, matters did not follow such a simple course when Mori did meet Clinton. For Mori slipped at the first hurdle by asking "WHO are you?" To which a mystified Clinton replied: "I am the husband of Hilary Clinton." Mori then reverted to the rehearsed script and replied: "Me too."

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The slip of the interrogative turned the casual greeting into an international polyandry...
Good work Mr. Mori.

Now, I wonder if Mr. Clinton will say more often "I am the husband of Hilary Clinton." after the presidential election...

Yes, English can be weird

English is difficult to pronounce.

Sometimes "notorious" for its gap between the spelling and the pronunciation.
It surely stands out, if compared, for example, to Spanish, where we are almost able to pronounce words just as we follow sounds of Roman alphabets.

The photo below clearly shows the crux of the issue.


  
IT IS weird. (also weird, as the sentence makes perfect sense!)

The sound of "th" / "ou" / "gh" varies, and also there are some mute letters.

It is surprising to see the same spelling having various ways of pronouncing!

Albert C. Baugh and Thomas Cable point out that "the chaotic character of its spelling and the frequent lack of correlation between spelling and pronunciation" are one of the "liabilities" unique in the English Language. They go on to note:

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In English the vowel sound in believe, receive, leave, machine, be, see, is in each case represented by a different spelling. Conversely, the symbol a in father, hate, hat, and many other words has nearly a score of values. The situation is even more confusing in our treatment of the consonants. We have a dozen spellings for the sound of sh: shoe, sugar, issue, nation, suspicion, ocean, nauseous, conscious, chaperon, schist, fuchsia, pshaw. This is an extreme case, but there are many others only less disturbing, and it serves to show how far we are at times from approaching the ideal of simplicity and consistency. (14)
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We are trained to articulates words just as told.
Taking a step back and think, English spelling is really bizzare and tricky, making us almost feel like giving up mastering it.

However, there is a story to tell.

Works Cited:
Baugh, Albert C. and Thomas Cable. A History of the English Language. 5th ed. London: Routledge, 2002.

HEGE-TALE (a weak-kneed coward) and Linguistic Intuition

A TALE tale to tell.

へげたれ /he-ge-ta-le/ is a dialect of west of Japan, and if you are not from that region you would probably have no idea what it means. HEGETALE means a weak-kneed coward.

My great grandfather who was from Shingu, the west part of Japan, wrote this word in his private letter and also drew a little picture of a HEGETALE on the side of the sheet. I love the sound and the picture of this word so much that the word always shows up on my PC as a screen saver.

Now, when a person sees the word HEGETALE on my PC screen, usually they would ask me,
"What does HEGETALE mean?"
And I would tell them the meaning. "It means a weak-kneed coward."

However, Roki, my blog partner, when he saw this word on my PC screen, gave a very different question that nobody had given me.

"What does HEGE mean?"

I was wild with fascination.
He asked only about the HEGE bit, not the TALE bit, and it was perfectly reasonable way to break up the word. I thought,
 "Now! Here is a person who has a very sharp linguistic intuition!"

-TALE is an suffix which is roughly equivalent to -ling as in "duckling"and "changeling" (and although we do not see these words so often without their suffix,  "darling" is "dar (dear) + ling" and "sibling" is "sib + ling") . The Japanese suffix -TALE functions similar to the English suffix -ling, is added to an adjective or a noun to mean a person carrying that characteristics, adding a diminutive sense.

Here are some common Japanese words with -TALE suffix.
ばかたれ BAKA -TALE  : a thick-witted daft
はなたれ HANA -TALE  : a snotty-nosed kid
しみったれ SHIMIT -TALE : a stingy miser

As you can see, the words with -TALE ending tend to be light insults, and used quite casually in conversation. So people are familiar with this suffix -TALE, but strangely nobody, except for Roki, had asked me the meaning of the word breaking it up into root and suffix.

My blog partner, with his very sharp linguistic intuition, is a barefooted philologist.