I have a katana with some kanji as hilt decorations (menuki). I've been trying to figure out exactly what it says, but the wrapping partially obscures the characters, making it difficult. One side is something about life, the other about death. The life side seems to be "生何歓", which would apparently be asking what the happiness of life is. The death side is trickier, it looks like "死何"+something. The last character is particularly frustrating since it doesn't seem to match any Joyo kanji or anything else used in modern Japanese. From what I can see of it, it looks like 催 but with the mountain replaced by two side by side mouths. Is this some kind of hanzi or kyujitai?

Other clues:
The sword is a Hanwei Ronin
The theme of the sword is Chushingura / 47 Ronin
Unwrapping the handle to get a better look isn't really an option
I have looked online for photos of the menuki for this sword outside of the wrap, but no luck

The photos:
http://i356.photobucket.com/albums/oo5/R...rix9kv.jpg
http://i356.photobucket.com/albums/oo5/R...txreqg.jpg

My guess for the second one would be 死何懼, which I would interpret as "What's scary about death?".

Thanks, Taishi. That makes sense and fits well with the other inscription.

I've had no luck puzzling out what I'm hearing in a ~7 second section (from 8:15-8:22) of ItteQ and was hoping someone with a better ear might be able to solve this mystery:

(This time the cast of ItteQ is trying to complete a challenge called Kiiking, Daisuke Miyagawa has already tried and failed. Frustrated, he had a staff member try in hopes that the staff member would succeed and his competitiveness would help force him through his fear. Unfortunately he also failed and you see the end result in the beginning of this section, right before this scene the staff member said he feels that he's up for one more try) If you want to hear it at a slower pace you can play it at .5 speed, if you press the gear at the bottom of the video it will give you options such as speed, quality ect. The one's in *** are the sections I mainly need help puzzling out.

What i think i'm hearing:
1.それあにゃあにゃ　(kansaiben's あない repeated twice I believe)
2.し終わってからその
3. ぐんやってれつ　　＊＊＊
4. そのおれたっぷしてえね　っていうってけど...　＊＊＊

1. basically saying no, I won't let you redo it
2. You've already tried/ your try is over
3. guess: you already gave it your all
(ぐん I keep thinking as something done to the point of straining oneself to do it, though I'm unsure what れつ would be here, completely guessing on everything but やって)
4. Guess: It's as if you're saying you haven't had enough but...
( たっぷ makes me think of たっぷり though its a complete guess　してえね＝してない

pretty eh worthy translations but they cover the gist of what I think I'm hearing

Hotpotato Wrote:3. ぐんやってれつ　　＊＊＊

Sounds more like ぐうやってる奴です.

First part sounded like あんねん、あんねん (name), 試合終わってからその。。。
Can't make out the next bit.

1. それ… あんねん、あんねん
2. 試合、試合終わってからその…
3. 「ぐう」って やってるやつ　(<-- I don't get what he means)
4. その… 「おれ、タップしてへんねん」って ゆうてるけど

Could of smacked myself for missing 試合, of all things! No wonder れつ made absolutely no sense, all this time the accursed thing was やつ; can finally hear it now. Thanks Roketzu, anotherjohn and viharati, greatly appreciate the help.

Hello, I can't figure out what's the meaning of ノリ here.

だいじなのは　リクツじゃねえ！
ノリと　キアイと　イキオイだ！

I thought it's like getting into the mood something, but then I saw this sentence.

しんじられなーいッ！
ノリと　いきおいだけでーッ
ルーキーを　はねのけたァーッ！

Anyone can help?

CK_Byuu Wrote:Hello, I can't figure out what's the meaning of ノリ here.

I believe it's like (2) here, http://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/leaf/jn2/172...%E3%82%8A/
I've run into this kind of 乗り a few times recently and it seems to be along the lines of 'momentum' or 'enthusiasm' (or perhaps as the root verb implies, being carried by momentum or enthusiasm). When an early move in a game or fight goes well, 乗り is the drive with which one follows that up. The word's other meaning include a lot of playing music well or dancing with good rhythm, so there is perhaps and implication of being 'in the rhythm' also in the usage for games and fights.

When a follow up goes badly it's perhaps not a coincidence that that can be called 図に乗る, a different expression from the same root verb.

SomeCallMeChris Wrote:When a follow up goes badly it's perhaps not a coincidence that that can be called 図に乗る, a different expression from the same root verb.

図に乗る usually means to be confident or arrogant, doesn't it? (Although I'm not sure I've seen it outside of the phrase 図に乗るな！)

yudantaiteki Wrote:図に乗る usually means to be confident or arrogant, doesn't it? (Although I'm not sure I've seen it outside of the phrase 図に乗るな！)

I've seen 調子に乗るな a lot, though now that you mention it I feel I've seen 図に乗るな too, but 調子に乗る is more like overconfidence, while 図に乗る is more like going too far. In the past tense it indicates failure, and I've seen 図に乗った for that a few times.

According to here, http://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/leaf/jn2/116...%E3%82%8B/ 調子に乗る is also one of the meanings of 図に乗る so it does carry that 'overconfidence' meaning too in some contexts.

The meaning I was thinking of is like the second sentence here, http://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/leaf/je2/383...%E3%82%8B/

Thanks for the help!

Quote:it seems to be along the lines of 'momentum' or 'enthusiasm' (or perhaps as the root verb implies, being carried by momentum or enthusiasm).

So are ノリ and 勢い sharing a similar meaning here?

CK_Byuu Wrote:So are ノリ and 勢い sharing a similar meaning here?

Not very much. They aren't totally unrelated words, but I think 勢い is just meaning straight up 'energy' or 'vigor' in this case. A little hard to be sure without knowing exactly what happened, but that's my impression from that snippet. When 勢い means 'momentum' or 'enthusiasm' that's when it's describing the mood of a group or the pace of a conversation, when it's describing physical activity it's like 'energy' or 'vigor'.

Oh ok, got it. Thanks again

Hey everyone, having some trouble with this sentence.

鹿の黄いろな横っ腹なんぞに、二三発お見舞もうしたら、ずいぶん痛快だろうねえ

The translation given is: Wouldn’t it be nice to put a couple of bullets into the yellow belly of a deer about now

I don't know what なんぞ and お見舞い are.

Thanks.

sparky14 Wrote:Hey everyone, having some trouble with this sentence.

鹿の黄いろな横っ腹なんぞに、二三発お見舞もうしたら、ずいぶん痛快だろうねえ

The translation given is: Wouldn’t it be nice to put a couple of bullets into the yellow belly of a deer about now

I don't know what なんぞ and お見舞い are.

Thanks.

なんぞ is just another way of saying など -- roughly translated to "or something..." but usually not translated into English -- (... into the yellow belly of a deer or something right about now.) The nuance being that it really doesn't have to be a deer- the speaker is just in the mood to shoot something.

お見舞いもうす is being used here as a sarcastic way of saying "shoot." As you may know, お見舞い is usually a good thing (visiting sick people, giving them presents, consoling them, etc) but it's often used like this in a sarcastic way to mean the opposite. For example, giving someone something they really don't want.. like a bullet to the belly or a punch to the face. Usually something physically harming.

なんぞ is the same as など or なんか. お見舞い means visiting a sick person, so I guess it's being used in some sort of ironic or joking way here? Or maybe it's just a specialized meaning I don't know.

Started reading some manga and I come across some words or phrases Rikaisama doesn't define.

でけた
ちゅーやつ
げる in あらったげるからきなさい

Those are the ones I remember atm but I know I'll come across more I'll post here. If more context is needed, let me know.

The second two are just phonetic alterations made to reflect how people actually speak.

ちゅーやつ = というやつ

げる　= あげる

あらったげるからきなさい =　あらってあげるからきなさい

I need some context to identify the first one but if I had to guess I'd say できた/出来た

Ya I think you're right. Thanks.

It's possible that this is a Kansai-ben character...

でけた is Kansai-ben for 出来た (it may be used elsewhere as well but I only know of it being used in Kansai, specifically Osaka).
でけへん／できひん → できない
and, for some reason,
できる → できる

If there's a Kansai-ben character in this manga you may see a lot of things you aren't used to.

EDIT:
Also, with あらったげる, you may see it shortened even further to あらったる. This is also Kansai-ben and quite rough.

Hi everyone. I'm having a trouble with this
堪えがたいほど切ないものを胸に盛れて忍んでいた
Furigana for 盛れて is written いれて in the book but I can't find that pronunciation and meaning anywhere

I guess the author is using the word 入れる but putting the kanji 盛 to suggest the meaning of "fully" or "greatly".

Can somebody tell me how these two sentences are different?

自分の店を持つために、貯金しています。

自分の店が持てるように、貯金しています。

This is the explanation I found on the Minna no Nihongo textbook:

http://i.imgur.com/5wG7eIW.png