I can hear: この俺に but perhaps “kono” is not right here. Kono is used to say “this” when followed by a noun instead of kore. But why would he say:
This I towards
Then I hear “erasona—something—kunjanai”. I have tried to break “erasona” apart in many ways that would make sense but my Japanese is still limited -.-
Janai at the end means he is saying “do not” and in the middle I’m guessing he is using a vocab for “tone of voice”. I even slowed the audio but still can’t make it out.
It’s kinda strange anime emphasis. That is one of these cases where talking like anime characters in real life would sound a little strange.
You are right that 俺に would suffice on it’s own but この俺に makes it “stronger”.
He makes himself seem more “important” that way. Some characters achieve a similar thing by using honorifics for themselves. 俺様 and such also sound arrogant af… but you will have some characters use that in anime too XD.
I see. Pretty cool! I’m not at a level where I can start watching anime yet. I’m mostly immersing with misa sensei, podcasts, and satori reader (among others).
I see now how putting kono in front of I makes it stronger. It does make sense even if that’s not how one talks in real life. It all started because I’m rewatching dbz. I grew up watching it in Spanish and in that version vegeta says: no me vuelvas a hablar de esa manera insecto verde (do not talk to me that way you green insect).
I sent that to my friends as a short clip in our chat and I got curious as to what he actually says in the English version. He says:
“Do not question my ability namek”
Then he puts the original in Japanese so I had to find out what it was. Basically: do not talk to me that way you pompous!
The Spanish version tried to maintain the insult but the English one was more respectful Lol
口を聞く “listen to that mouth” or listen to those insults. Literally hes saying like "The great I “the great vegeta” does not need to listen to such a great tone. Naturally, dont take that tone of voice with me.
It’s not 聞く, it’s 利く. It’s definitely not “listen to that mouth”. Even if that were a plausible explanation, it wouldn’t be Vegeta doing the listening. きくんじゃない is a negative command, same meaning as きくな！It’s definitely something commanded at the other person.
In this case it just means “to say something”. You’ll sometimes see 口の利き方 too, meaning “the way one talks”, “tone of voice”.
偉そうな口を利くんじゃない overall means “Don’t talk to me arrogantly!” or something along those lines.
It’s like “you don’t talk to me like that” or “nobody talks to me like that” in English, AFAICT (“this arrogantly talking to me is … not a thing”).
Similar English construction is “Nobody moves!” or such, where it’s just phrased as a statement (which implies the person saying it has a lot of authority, at least in the current situation).
Explanatory の followed by the copula often has an imperative effect like this, especially when followed by よ or ぞ (the latter being pretty rude in most cases). I personally have interpreted it as more or less the normal “future tense” usage like in English when you say something like
“You will be there!”
Or
“You will not talk to me that way!”
In other words, it’s like telling the other person what they will or will not be doing.
