The words for Honey and Bee in Japanese

Continuing with our subject on insects (bugs) - I want to talk a little today on two Japanese words that are basically one and the same word - The words for Bee and the word for Honey are basically one word made up of two kanji that when put in reverse say the same thing - Let me show you what I mean -

Honey - Hachimitsu ( 蜂蜜 )
Bee - Mitsubachi ( 蜜蜂 )

Let us take the words apart - In Japanese the word for Honey is made up of the two parts HACHI + MITSU so that

Honey = HACHI + MITSU 蜂 + 蜜

and the word for Bee is made up of the same two parts with an H being replaced by a B
so that

Bee = MITSU + BACHI 蜜 + 蜂

CLICK HERE to go to some pages that I have made before explaining the grammar of why the H has hardened into its B form - Actually in this case it is the HA syllable which has transformed into its BA equivalent form

Remember that HA は

with the ten ten marks becomes BA ば, and the HA syllable in its next transformation with the degree symbol becomes ぱ, or PA.

There is an natural order it seems as IPA diagrams and charts will show us. These syllable transformations are not singulary a Japanese linguistical feature - This sort of syllable transformation appears in other languages also - Therefore remember this order of Japanese syllable transformation for the HA ( は )syllable -

は (HA)--> ば(BA), and ぱ(PA)

so in the case of the words for Honey and Bee, In Japanese Bee is the word Honey backwards and Honey is the word for Bee backwards. I thought I might share this because it makes Japanese a fun language to learn, it also shows that Japanese isn't too complicated and within reach of any person who seeks earnestly to become fluent in it.

Next time we will take a closer look at the kanji for ant and bee to see what kind of similiarities we may find to help us on our quest towards Better Japanese

Here are some more links for you on the double consonant linguistical feature as found in today's study.

www.scribd.com/doc/4065824/Japanese-Pronunciaton-Guide

hubpages.com/hub/Japanese-Double-Consonants

zimbio.com/member/brettkun/articles/2981667/Japanese+Double+Consonants
Ganbatte ne!
Do Your Best!
Makurasuki

The word for termite in Japanese

So since lately we have been talking about bugs(insects)etc., I just thought everyone would like to know a little thing I learned in Japanese but never made a correlation to it in English. This great discovery is that ants aren't that much different than termites. In fact it is only the color that changes the insect.

In Japanese

ants = ari 蟻 or アリ - in katakana
termites = shiro ari シロアリ - white ant

Since shiroi, or 白い in adjectivial form before the noun takes away the i,or い , then we have "shiroari",白アリ or termite.(In this case it is written in Hiragana without the kanji part for white,白い.)

That is to say that termites are just ants that are white or white ants. Doesn't that make sense? In English we totally get screwed up thinking that termites are an all together different species of insect but really they are just white ants that like to eat wood.


Towards Better Japanese
Ganbatte ne!
Do Your Best!
Makurasuki

The word for ladybug and snail in Japanese

I happened to see a lady bug in my front lawn or yard and since it the season of spring is basically here in my new state of Georgia, I thought about posting the Japanese word which is てんとう虫 for all Japanetics users.

I also was thinking about the word (ladybug) and how it may have came to be etymologically. I mean we have words like dandelion which have the word lion in them - is it because the dandelion looks like the tail of a lion? perhaps... then what about the word - ladybug - Does it look like or act like a lady in some way? perhaps...

I also wanted to post here the word for snail かたつむり since it is so slow and since the French find them appetizing, and used in so many different ways in English, it might also be useful in Japanese.

This much I do find useful - the word mushi 虫 is often used in Japan and I love its kanji which actually looks like a bug - for example the word for rotted tooth or cavity is 虫歯 or mushiba - together that would be bug tooth.

in summary the words for today's Japanese lesson are

1. ladybug - or てんとう虫 tento^ mushi
2. tooth cavity - 虫歯 - mushiba
3. snail - かたつむり - katatsumuri

* saying katatsumuri outloud makes me feel sluggish especially the tsumu part --- yuck!@#$% I can see the snail trail from here! Yikes!



Towards Better Japanese
Ganbatte ne!
Do Your Best!
Makurasuki

Genki?

How are you?
I am fine, thank you.

Genki desu ka?
Hai, genki desu.

How ya doin'?
Genki?




Genki also could mean your general status as in
genki ga nai or I'm down.

Towards Better Japanese
Ganbatte ne!
Do Your Best!
Makurasuki

Japanese sentence

Dochi ga ii ka yoku wakaranai - I don't know which one will be better



Towards Better Japanese
Ganbatte ne!
Do Your Best!
Makurasuki