jo said:
Kazubon posting on the BBS, Kazubon having a blog here:
http://kazuto.dyndns.org/blog/
I very much doubt it.
8< snip >8
Why? (Out of curiosity)
While I don't know Japanese either (unfortunately),
I do know that Japanese is normally written with
Chinese characters (called Kanji when used to
write Japanese) which may have multiple conflicting
pronunciations, usually a native Japanese
pronunciation based on a Japanese word that
the Chinese character is used to write, and one
or more pronunciations based on Chinese
pronunciations of the character
(a historical accident, apparently due to
importation and re-importation of the
characters with different pronunciations
at three separate times in history; due to
either dialect differences or linguistic
shift over time; I'm not sure which).
Somehow you're supposed to just "know" which
pronunciation to use when.
(I've heard it isn't that easy, even for native
Japanese speakers.)
(I understand that when a businessman or
politician gets promoted to a higher-status job,
not only does his title change, but the choice
of how to pronounce the Kanji in his name
also changes. Which also affects how his
name is written in Latin characters for
foreigners.
I don't know how the Japanese keep track of
who is who when the name changes.
It's sort of like "the artist formerly known
as ...", except that in Japan it seems it's
accepted as an everyday thing, like the
assumption here in the USA that a woman
loses her last name and takes her
husband's last name when she marries.)
It may be a socially-required alternate
pronunciation of the last character in his name.
[Sort of like the differences in English
between possible first names and when
they might be used:
your formal / full / given / birth name;
a short form you use habitually with
family / friends / coworkers / ...;
one of the traditional nicknames for
your full name, which people _will_
feel they're allowed to use instead
of your formal first name
(think of
Elizabeth ==>
Liz / Beth / Betty / Betsy,
or
Kenneth ==> Ken / Kenny) ].
Mind you, this is just a wild guess.
I think you'd better ask. It might be 'rude'
to use the wrong name. ("Rude" as in
"a mortal insult", but maybe overlooked
when coming from a non-Japanese;
unless you know better, and he knows
you know, and ...)
Aloha --
Kenneth Kawamura
Lansing, Michigan
USA
