This blog post was brought to you by the generosity of AJATT's patrons!

If you would like to support the continuing production of AJATT content, please consider making a monthly donation through Patreon.

Right there ↑ . Go on. Click on it. Patrons get goodies like early access to content (days, weeks, months and even YEARS before everyone else), mutlimedia stuff and other goodies!


Programming Break

Hello! So…there are a lot of features that need adding on KhatzuMemo, and it’s time at least some of them got added. My time management skills at this point are still at the level of “do one thing at a time” [which, ironically, is about the same level they were at 3 years ago when this Japanese thing started, hence “all Japanese all the time”, because “some Japanese as much as possible” didn’t work for me and now I’m rambling…]. So, I’m planning on devoting the next 2-4 weeks to programming rather than adding any new articles. If nothing seems to come up, I haven’t disappeared; I’m just coding :)…4649ne!

  15 comments for “Programming Break

  1. November 6, 2007 at 00:59

    “4649ne”

    Ha! Is this the word on the streets these days? “よ・ろ・し・く”. Back in the day we used “3-9”. (サンキュウ)

  2. Charles
    November 6, 2007 at 21:15

    Hahaha! Thanks Alex. I would have never figured it out… I was thinking it was 1337. Khatz talking about coding and all:)

  3. Saru
    November 7, 2007 at 06:16

    I still don’t get it. :p

  4. khatzumoto
    November 7, 2007 at 09:10

    You can use numbers to make words by using all or part of the names of the numbers.

    4 – よん、し
    6 – ろく
    4 – し、よん
    9 – く、きゅう

    In this case, we take the first syllable of each one. It’s a tool commonly used to make memorable phone numbers, but also in slang or jokes. Like “作戦ナンバー37564【み・な・ご・ろ・し《皆殺し》】番」!” (Samurai Champloo (Manga version), Vol. 1, p50)

  5. ハイジ
    November 7, 2007 at 11:14

    I look forward to seeing the new features you are adding to KhatzuMemo !
    ヨロシクネ♪
    (。・ω・。)ノ・☆’:*;’:*

  6. quendidil
    November 12, 2007 at 00:06

    Khatz, can I ask you something?
    In an anime called らきすた, there was an opening line with
    さぁ、始まるざますよ
    いくでかんす
    I looked up ざます and Yahoo said [動サ特活]「ある」の意の丁寧語。多く補助動詞として用いる。 with the caveat that it is also part of 女性語.
    What I don’t get is the 2nd line. I’m guessing いく=行く here but what is でかんす?
    Thanks

  7. khatzumoto
    November 12, 2007 at 01:02

    Hmmm…
    Are you sure it’s not “行くでんす”

  8. khatzumoto
    November 12, 2007 at 01:08

    Anyway, assuming it IS 行くでがんす, I’ve never seen らきすた but, this is clearly the dialogue of upper-class “society ladies”. In both cases, I don’t know the full etymology behind it, but, as far as meaning is concerned both ざます and でがんす are essentially contractions/derivatives of (で)御座います, and therefore abbreviated-but-politer ways of saying です. (BTW, in Japan, the general pattern is that high-class women show off their high-classness by speaking politely).

    There’s also ござんす, another (で)御座います derivative. And, AFAIK, で御座います is itself contracted from で御座ります [try saying it quickly and see what happens].

    That’s my call on it. But if anyone has a different view, feel free to chime in :D.

  9. quendidil
    November 12, 2007 at 10:02

    Alright thanks! It probably is でがんす. Still, it isn’t in yahoo’s 国語 dictionaries, but
    ざます is, strange.

  10. quendidil
    November 12, 2007 at 11:57

    そうかな~。やっぱり「行くでがんす」と言った登場人物が上流階級の家に生まれ育った女の子だった。
    「始まるざます」と言ったのはオタク少女なんだけど・・・

  11. quendidil
    November 13, 2007 at 00:00

    Another question if you don’t mind.
    What do you talk about after adding someone on a language exchange site?

  12. khatzumoto
    November 13, 2007 at 00:02

    えっ?何?意味解んない・・・

  13. khatzumoto
    November 13, 2007 at 00:14

    因みにこの前アップしたコメントを少し直したんだけど・・・ご参考までに。

  14. quendidil
    November 13, 2007 at 14:57

    Hmm but Khatz, I’ve seen オタクな before. And on the wikipedia article for らきすた they use オタクな

    Anyway thanks for correcting the sentences, I’ll put them in my deck.

  15. khatzumoto
    November 13, 2007 at 15:16

    Yeah, definitely. I’m not an authority on Japanese itself (yet 8) ), so because of my ignorance, I correct very (too?) strictly, going very conservatively according to what I currently know to to be correct structure, elements and general composition (“sound” and “feel”).

    BTW “オタク少女” gets ~20,000 Google hits versus ~4560 for “オタクな少女”. 約5倍の差。But that doesn’t necessarily prove anything. For what it’s worth, I do feel like “オタクな” is awkward…But like I said, my experience is limited to what I’ve seen, heard and read thus far. Japanesewise, I’m a 3-year-old (who reads grown-up books?) — fluent but not authoritative.

    This reminds me of the time when I wrote でしょ, to a guy (American, Japanese learner), and he goes “no, Khatz, it’s でしょう”, and I had to tell him that でしょ was slang for でしょう…

    Anyway…I’m still on the path, just like you. Just down the road a little bit 😀

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *