39 - Thank you
4649 - よろしく

Please feel free to post any others you know about on this thread...

you may know this one
893 やくざ

stehr Wrote:you may know this one
893 やくざ

It is often thought that the word やくざ comes from these numbers, relating to a bad score in a gambling game. If this is true, could you still call it an 当て字?

Honestly, I'm not sure. I figured if I posted here I would get the answer. Though I'm still assuming that it is 当て字, considering the readings.

4219 is a nice one :B
Reads:しにいく　or 死にいく

What are you guys talking about? I am confused!

smujohnson Wrote:What are you guys talking about? I am confused!

There are many readings for numbers (usually the first kana of one of the readings)
1 = い
2 = に
3 = さ　ざ　さん
4 = し　よ
5 = ご
6 = ろ
7 = な
8 = や
9 = く　きゅう

39 ＝ さんきゅう = Thank you
4649 = よろしく = How do you do
893 = やくざ = Yakuza
4219 = しにいく = About to die

I think these abbreviations originally came about for remembering telephone numbers and for short-hand on mobile phones. Many of them are quite clever...

kfmfe04 Wrote:39 - Thank you

http://www.flickr.com/photos/maynard/2843109512/
893 http://www.flickr.com/photos/spilt-milk/1428543046/

143
This might not be related but, last year I had a Japanese girlfriend that would always say 143 to me. Perhaps this is common for younger people but I had never heard of it (I am 39, she is 21). She refused to tell me what it meant but I finally found out later. It is not related to the Japanese reading. Can you guess?

I heard this a lot in high school.

1 letter, 4 letters, 3 letters = I love you (or, I guess,I hate you, depending on the tone of voice ^_^)

Ah, I guess it is a common young person's phrase

2982194 - にくやにいくよ
37564 - みなごろし

This is called 語呂合わせ

-093 奥さん
-1192 いい国（を作ろう！）
-Every phone number for every business in Japan

Hahaha - I like 093 - nice!

Here are some more from Wikipedia:

1564 人殺し
18782 嫌な奴
0840 おはよう
724106 何をしてる (this one is hard to decipher - apparently 4106 is してる = しTe(n)る?)
14106 愛してる
889 早く
0906 遅れる
3470 さよなら

---------------------------------
A more comprehensive list of mappings from Wikipedia:

1 : いち、い、ひとつ、ひと
2 : に、ふたつ、ふた、ふ、つ（英語から）、じ
3 : さん、さ、みっつ、みつ、み
4 : よん、よ、よっつ、し、ふぉ（英語から）、ほ
5 : ご、こ、い、いつつ、いつ
6 : ろく、ろ、むっつ、むつ、む
7 : しち、ななつ、なな、な
8 : はち、は、ぱあ、やっつ、やつ、や、やあ
9 : きゅう、きゅ、く、ここのつ、ここの、こ
0 : れい、れ、ぜろ、ない、わ（字形から）、まる（字形から）、おー（アルファベットのOから。）

Not very useful, but they used 4523 for the word シゴフミ, in an episode of the series with the same name.