獣の奏者 prologue, part 2 discussion

Oh, crossed it not because it’s wrong, but because it’s the wrong answer to the question :sweat_smile: (I uncrossed it anyway since it might help others, so as they don’t think it’s wrong)

The way I understand it is that the furigana is providing a reading for the text underneath it. So they put the definition in regular text and the made up word, which is how it should be read, in the furigana.

Now that I say that I feel like I saw it the other way around in another book though…

1 Like

So you think he’s asking a different question? I guess I’ll just have to wait for him to clarify.

It’s good I kinda get it. I’m probably seeing thing too much in a english way. I was just thinking that since you are inventing a new word already you don’t need to put furigana on the hiragana.

That’s just me though.

Well, in general the furigana determines the pronunciation, so I think this way around is more consistent with the other uses of furigana. (But I agree that it somehow feels weird, now that I think about it…)

2 Likes

I always get a bit lost when food is involved but apart from that it wasn’t that bad. Just being careful with which words are names or made up.

In this chapter we got to know more about エリン’s mom but at the same time a million other questions opened up. Which I suppose is to be expected since we are barely getting started. I can’t shake the feeling that something really bad is about to happen. Probably just because bad things tend to happen at the beginning of fantasy stories. Maybe Japanese fantasy is different (?)

5 Likes

No, I agree. The grandfather’s comments in the last chapter seemed like a not-so-subtle hint of bad things to come. He sounds like he might even be the one to push it in that direction.

5 Likes

How would you guys translate 戒め in this context?

Also, I have no idea how I’d pronounce アォ versus アオ or ロゥ versus ロウ.

1 Like

I read it as commandment, i.e. they mustn’t repeat…whatever mistake it was that they made in the past.

「戒め?」「……ずっとずっと昔に起きた過ちを、二度とくり返さぬように、という戒めよ。

4 Likes

The main difference as I see it as how many moras each have. アオ is 2 moras whereas アォ is one mora. So they’re pronounced the same (あ.お and ろ.う respectively), but the sound you produce is held shorter or longer. I can’t think of any other explanation, and it serves well to replicate none-native Japanese words that don’t have monotonous syllabary. (Disclaimer: I could be wrong)

4 Likes

On p31, is 心ノ臓 just a slightly fancy version of 心臓?
And is it ノrather than の just to give a literary feel, a bit like the あったろうに from p34?

Or is it just one of those random things like the ケ in 一ヶ月?

1 Like

It’s defined as

しん‐の‐ぞう
心臓のこと。

So it seems yes.

It’s to give an archaic feeling to it.

As to why this is the case. First, most of these Katakana usages still exist in names of places right now (such as 沖ノ島). In the past, 之 (the origin of some Hiragana characters) was used a lot in place names to prevent them from conflicting with Japanese vocabs (especially Chinese imported ones). For example, 沖島 did mean something back then, so they added 之 (phonetically read as the now “の”) in between so that the place becomes “おきのじま”. Now, in the Meiji period some of the old Hiragana characters were being corrected, such as: 之 to し. Obviously, place names needed to change the usages of 之 too. But since 之 was used phonetically, they decided to use Katakana instead (doesn’t make sense to use Hiragana here). Other place names completely dropped 之, such as 山之手線 becoming 山手線 (やまてせん). I think that’s why it sounds archaic when you find ノ in things like 心ノ臓. (I’m trying to find the resource I read this from)

Edit: Found one of them: 江ノ島、中ノ島、沖ノ島、などノの付く地名が多々ありますが、何故漢字に混| OKWAVE

5 Likes

Interestingly, some places still use the old character, e.g. Tokunoshima (徳之島).

Also, during my stay in Singapore noticed that 之 is a valid Chinese character with the same possessive meaning as の、it seems: I saw it being used in the book title 天気の子 ( 天気之子 in Chinese).

EDIT: The correct Chinese spelling is 天气之子, just for the record. (As you may have found out by now, I have no clue about Chinese, sorry!)

5 Likes

Ah yes. I read that not all places were converted, I don’t remember if it was explained.

Ohh interesting

2 Likes

I didn’t realize 之 was used as the possessive. I thought it was just 乃.

Next part is here.

1 Like

This chapter felt much easier! Realising that the stuff in brackets is a definition of the word in front helped a lot as well :sweat_smile:

I reckon 戒め is both “commandment” and “punishment”. Sins being carried by the descendants and all that.

Page 23

従兄弟いとこはとこ 、、、たちも、頻繁に出入りしている。
Anyone know why the furigana for はとこ are commas?

Page 28

甘い実のなる木
I think I get the meaning, but not the sentence structure.
I think it’s “a tree that has a sweet fruit” but I can’t help but read it as something like “a tree that has the attribute of coming from a sweet fruit” or “a tree that becomes a sweet fruit”…

Final question, is there some difference in nuance between 笑み, 微笑み and 微笑?

P.S. I really like how she slipped the descriptions of エリン and ソヨン into エリンs musings on how they were different to the rest of the villagers.

2 Likes

Those dashes emphasize the word. If I remember the context, it’s about how the neighbor is close with her grandparents, her first cousins, and even her second cousins, which is very different from Erin’s extended family situation.

4 Likes

実のなる木 is how you say fruit tree in Japanese.
The なる is actually 生る (to bear fruit), not 成る (to become).

4 Likes

Haaa. Why is this not in any of the dictionaries I’ve search…

Thanks :slight_smile:

1 Like