複合語. Words formed by putting two or more words or other elements together.
Questions tagged [compounds]
93 questions
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Why is Katakana not pronounced Katagana?
I am a beginner in Japanese and I've noticed that when two words are compounded into one word the first letter of the second word changes.
hira + kana = hiragana
ko + hayashi = kobayashi
ori + kami = origami
This pattern would imply that the word…
Kantura
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Rules or criteria for 連濁: Voiced or unvoiced syllables in compound words
Examples first.
空 {そら}.
Almost all compound nouns for which 空 is the second component pronounce it as ぞら zora:
青空 {あおぞら}
夜空 {よぞら}
星空 {ほしぞら}.
There is at least one exception though: 美空 {みそら}.
蕎麦 {そば}.
All compound nouns I found so far retain…
Lukman
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Are all kanji compounds considered words?
A friend once commented to me that Japanese has a larger vocabulary than English. I said I didn't think it did, because it wasn't really accurate to call all kanji compounds "words". My friend said I was crazy.
Words like 新車【しんしゃ】(new car) and…
Questioner
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What are the pitch-accent rules for compound nouns?
I've been trying to learn the pitch-accent of standard Japanese, but this is more difficult as it should be as it's hard to find good learning resources that provide proper descriptions of how the accent works. For many words, this isn't too much of…
Harith Vasant
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Exceptional compounding forms
There are a number of Japanese words which have distinct compounding forms:
-a/-e alternation: 天・雨、酒、上、風、目 — many examples.
-u/-i alternation: 神（[神]{かむ}[集]{つど}ふ）、月（[月]{つく}[読]{よみ}）
-o/-i alternation: 木（[木]{こ}の[葉]{は}）、火（炎【ほのほ】）
-a/-o alternation:…
Zhen Lin
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What are the nuances between these three terms for intelligence: 知恵 [ちえ], 知能 [ちのう], 知性 [ちせい] ?
In particular which one is closer to the idea of "ability to reason over things" as a quality of someone in particular?
What I believe is that 知識 on the other hand is closer to "knowledge" and "understanding" and 眼識 is more about "discrimination,…
ogerard
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What is the difference in meaning between "husband and wife" 夫婦【ふうふ】 and 夫妻【ふさい】?
I see that those two compounds mean husband and wife, as a married couple. But is there a difference in usage or context?
ogerard
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What is the etymology of [山葵]{わさび}?
I know that "わさび" 'wasabi' can also be written using kanji as "山葵" and that these two characters mean respectively "mountain" and "hollyhock", but hollyhock doesn't seem at first glance to be related.
So are the hollyhock and wasabi plants related…
hippietrail
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What is the difference between 思【おも】い付【つ】く and 思【おも】い浮【う】かぶ?
The words 思い付く and 思い浮かぶ both mean something along the lines of "to come to mind". But I'm not actually sure about the details of when to use one versus the other. Yet, at the same time, they don't feel interchangeable, either.
I get the feeling…
rintaun
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The difference between 辞書 and 字引
My dictionary lists both 辞書{じしょ} and 字引{じびき} as simply, "Dictionary."
On tatoeba.org I can only find example sentences of 字引 where it is used in the phrase:
生き字引 = A walking dictionary
Example:
僕の父は、いわば生き字引だ。
My father is, so to speak, a walking…
coyote
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Was the name for the Shōwa era a voluntary pun?
According to dictionaries, the WA 和 in 昭和 has both the meaning of peace, harmonious and Japan, japanese (although mostly as the first kanji of a compound, such as in 和語). So I wonder how Japanese of those times perceived the announcement and the…
ogerard
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What is the correct reading of 火防女?
I was playing around in the Japanese version of Dark Souls, and i came across the word 火防女 , which in english they translated as "Firekeeper".
I have not been studying japanese for long, but i am aware of the On and Kun readings of Kanjis. So i…
PookieSnooches
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If a compound noun is made from a na-adjective suffix, is it followed by a な particle?
There are a few compound nouns that are made by compounding something with na-adjectives like 好き and 嫌い, for examples:
花見好き
子供好き
水嫌い
人嫌い
負け嫌い
Are these compounds followed by a な particle? Or do they lose the na-adjective status and become 名詞 nouns…
Lukman
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Why isn't 日本料理 written as 日本の料理?
Both 日本 and 料理{りょうり} are nouns but why aren't they concatenated with の? I think it should be written as 日本の料理 rather than 日本料理.
Friendly Ghost
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