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
