The quick or short Language Questions Thread (not grammar)

Japanese Language Questions
#3042

It’s a light-hearted apology for minor offenses, basically. I found this article:

And while that’s an English lesson for Japanese speakers it does show the context in which you could use 悪いね, which is to say explicitly not for anything halfway serious. I’ve also found some sources saying you can use 悪い/悪かった as “thank you” rather than “I’m sorry” - I guess similarly to how you could use 失礼します to do the same, but less “heavy”.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen 悪い used as an apology so far but it makes sense - I’ve definitely seen 悪かった in that context and 悪い would just apply to something not in the past, so seanblue’s interpretation of apologising for using his ability makes sense to me (“sorry for what I’m about to do”, basically)

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#3043

To add to what’s already been said, I tend to treat it as something like ‘my bad’ or ‘soz’. It’s a fairly casual sort of apology, though it’s not necessarily joking or insincere. I think it overlaps quite a bit with すまない, which can likewise be used for thanking someone for going to the trouble of doing something.

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#3044

Started reading 錆喰(さびく)いビスコ today and barely made it like three sentences before I ran into 日貨 which I’m really not sure how to parse. For context, it’s printed on a wanted poster as part of the bounty listing I think? Here’s the sentence:
一目見(ひとめみ)て危険人物(きけんじんぶつ)とわかる、狂犬(きょうけん)じみた顔(かお)の下(した)には「齢(よわい)十七(じゅうしち) 身長(しんちょう)180cm程(ほど) 捕縛(ほばく)礼金(れいきん)八十万(はちじゅうまん)日貨(にっか)」の書(か)き文字(もじ)と、「群馬県(ぐんまけん)」の印(しるし)が添(そ)えられている。

The furigana given is にっか (or possibly につか, but I’m pretty sure it’s a small っ), but I’m not really sure what to make of it. Any insight would be much appreciated!

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#3045

It’s にっか - it means Japanese exported goods, but in this context I think it might mean something else, like a currency (800,000 Japanese exported goods as a reward doesn’t make much sense). A quick Google search doesn’t tell me much, but 日貨 being a currency is my first instinct - does that make sense within the rest of the story? Is the word mentioned in any other contexts where a currency might be relevant?

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#3046

Ohhh yeah I think you’re probably right, I haven’t gotten far enough to encounter it in another context but it’s set in a like post-apocalyptic society so that makes a lot of sense now that you point it out. Thank you! :grin:

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#3047

image

Does anyone know what the origin of the “さぶ” is? Is it just Nanori used in a regular word?

#3048

Apparently it’s from the San reading

San->sam->samu->Sabu

If you wanna read about why any of those transitions happened

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#3049

Is there any Japanese word/phrase that is equivalent to “academic writing (language)”? I guess 書き言葉 would cover academic writing but I was wondering if there was a specific word/phrase.

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#3050

I think 書き言葉 is just “written language” in general.

Something like 研究言葉 maybe?

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#3051

If I were to go with a fairly literal translation, 学界用語 (‘usage of the academic world’) might work. However, I think the more common terms are 専門日本語 (‘specialist Japanese’) and 専門用語 (‘specialist usage/terms’). The problem is that those words are closer to ‘technical language’ than ‘academic language’, but I don’t think they’re too different to express roughly the same idea. Do you have a particular context in mind?

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#3052

I wanted to tell my Italki teacher that I want to try reading (for fun) some academic articles on psychology to see how academic writing was like in Japanese :thinking:

#3053

For reference if you weren’t aware of it.

アカデミック・ライティング - Wikipedia

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#3054

Thoughts on how to say “to orbit”, like the planets orbit around the sun? Jisho doesn’t provide anything suitable for “to orbit”. TIA!

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#3055

I checked JP Wikipedia, looks like 公転する is what you’re looking for.

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#3056

It’s okay, don’t have a stroke! :slight_smile:

Yes, I looked up what the internet slang meaning is too…

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#3057

There is also 軌道 which not only means “train tracks”, but also “orbit” so one can build something with “following the orbit” or “along the orbit” or some such :slight_smile:

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#3059

The key difference being 軌道 refers to the path a celestial body takes (i.e. the imaginary ellipse you’d draw around a celestial body), and 公転 refers to the orbital motion itself (i.e. the concept of one celestial body orbiting another). So for “to orbit” 公転 is more appropriate (usually - maybe there are exceptions), but when you’re figuring out where the ISS is in its orbit, 軌道 is probably the better term.

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#3060

I think 巡る is used a lot in this context but I don’t know what (if any) difference it makes

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#3061

Makes sense, I see example sentences using 巡る to describe the Earth orbiting the sun for instance.

I guess it’s a bit like the difference between “to orbit” and “to revolve around” in English - exactly the same in most contexts, but you’d use “to orbit” when a more technical term is appropriate. 公転(する) strikes me as roughly the same, with 巡る being a perfectly acceptable (and maybe even more natural/ less stiff-sounding?) substitute in everyday conversation.

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#3062

:joy: :joy: :joy: :joy: :joy:

Thanks, that’s exactly what I’m after :slight_smile: I need to work on rephrasing things, I think. Just because I want to call it “to orbit”, doesn’t mean that Jisho wants to call it that!

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