nature – Together With Japan https://jp.learnoutlive.com 日本と共に Fri, 09 Nov 2018 10:32:22 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.8 48482484 The Language of Nature, Oct. 15 2011 https://jp.learnoutlive.com/the-language-of-nature-oct-15-2011/ Sun, 16 Oct 2011 01:15:44 +0000 https://jp.learnoutlive.com/?p=1249 Continue reading ]]> Changing My Approach

Truth be told, the demand for learning Japanese is pretty anemic in the West. I had hoped for more, but more has simply not materialized. What I will do is use language as a tool, prop, sock puppet, what have you, to show things about Japan, hopefully in an eye-catching way.

The above portrait is the Brooks Mountain Range, in Alaska. In Japanese, a mountain range is called sanmyaku (山脈、さんみゃく), a combination of the kanji for “mountain” and “vein.”  In this sense, the mountains course across the earth, running across its surface like a pathway of stone.

There is a forest, or mori (、もり) shown at the base of the mountains.  The kanji is three instances of the word for tree, which as a stand-alone word is pronounced ki (,  き). Three of anything represents a large number. A grove or small forest would be a hayashi (、はやし) showing only two instances of ki (), indicating a decent but not overwhelming number.

The snow on the surface of the mountains is yuki (、ゆき). Long-time readers may recall my post on Yuki Onna, a supernatural being from Japanese myth and legend.

An individual mountain is pronounced yama (、やま). A mountain priest of Buddhist inclination is known as a yamabushi (山伏、やまぶし). This is a rare example of the “Japanese” reading being used in a compound word. – J

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