I have a couple of quick questions...

[Yudan Taiteki]

I missed the OP's question about the double consonants -- the best way to explain it is to think about the English pronunciation of certain phrases. If you say "black cat" at normal conversational speed, you will notice that rather than pronouncing the "ck" and "c" distinctly, you sort of run them together and pause. This is the same thing you do for the double-k in "gakkou". Same thing with "flat top" (double-t), "top point" (double-p), "ten nights" (double-n), etc.

[AJBryant]

do they still use that term? IIRC it means living dictionary right?

I've been away from Japan too long to know. It used to be used to refer to the Japanese significant other (usually a girlfriend) of a foreigner (usually a guy), back when gaijin weren't supposed to be able to learn proper Japanese. I think it kinda fell out of style in the late 70s or early 80s, but I'm not sure.

Tony

[PsychoSP]

Weird... if that's what it originally meant, it's been corrupted by foreigners learning Japanese. I used to hear that all the time referring to a student who had an uncannily large Japanese vocabulary.

[two_heads_talking]

we called those students kanji bandits.. lol

[PsychoSP]

two_heads_talking wrote:
we called those students kanji bandits.. lol

Yeah, I heard that one a lot too.

[spin13]

AJBryant wrote:

do they still use that term? IIRC it means living dictionary right?

I've been away from Japan too long to know. It used to be used to refer to the Japanese significant other (usually a girlfriend) of a foreigner (usually a guy), back when gaijin weren't supposed to be able to learn proper Japanese. I think it kinda fell out of style in the late 70s or early 80s, but I'm not sure.

Tony

The current term, in English, is "sleeping dictionary." I'm not sure what the Japanese equivalent is... I don't stay awake long enough to find out. *zing*

[Maple]

日本
Why is that particular word'日本', we should pronounce it as nihon, but the actual on reading 日is nichi and can you help me on how to use kun and on reading because I can't understand a thing about how to use them.. onegai

[Dehitay]

Maple wrote:
日本
Why is that particular word'日本', we should pronounce it as nihon, but the actual on reading 日is nichi and can you help me on how to use kun and on reading because I can't understand a thing about how to use them.. onegai

some words have readings that differ from what you could guess from the kanji that makes them up. 大人 is read as おとな even though that's not the common reading of the kanji.

On the other hand, I don't actually remember all the readings of 日 but に might be one of them

[richvh]

Originally, 日本 was read にっぽん nippon, which follows a general rule that an on-yomi -chi before an h- become -pp- (cf. 一本 ippon, 一方 ippou, 一杯 ippai), but over the centuries it was softened to にほん nihon in common speach (にっぽん survives in formal settings.)

[Yudan Taiteki]

Maple wrote:
can you help me on how to use kun and on reading because I can't understand a thing about how to use them.. onegai

I'm not quite sure what you mean by "I can't understand a thing", but it sounds like you are describing a symptom of a common problem -- studying kanji too early. If you have some basis in the grammar and vocabulary, it shouldn't be such a problem.

The only real answer is that you use an on reading when it's supposed to be used, and a kun reading when it's supposed to be used. How do you know when that is? You learn words.

And by the way, DON'T HIJACK OTHER PEOPLE'S THREADS.

[AJBryant]

[marquis]

He hijacked a thread?

Where?

@_@

[PsychoSP]

麦茶 with little bits of cupcake, Tony. Thanks a lot. :@

[Infidel]

marquis wrote:
He hijacked a thread?

Where?

@_@

The reference is to Maple's post.

[shin1ro]

spin13 wrote:
When asking a native speaking friend what the difference between 辞書, 辞典, and even　字引 thrown in for good measure, I received the following response:

字引 is just an old word for it and she was surprised that it might possibly show up on a JLPT exam. Being in her mid-thirties, she didn't feel quite old enough to justify using it herself; she said she'd just wait until she had grandkids and even then wasn't quite sure if it'd be vogue.

辞書 is your standard dictionary. Words as related to other words. 辞典 seem to overlap with 辞書 but also go far beyond in scope to cover/define specific (or general) topics, ranging from animals to people, not necessarily related to just words. An encyclopedia, if you will. In fact, when checking the dictionary at http://www.nihongoresources.com you'll find these definitions clearly differentiated. EDICT makes less of a distinction.

Yeah, I have the same impression.
字引 sounds oldfashioned and probably a handy and small dictionary.

Perhaps you're right, 辞典 is used when the book covers general topics. But as for an encycropedia, I think 事典 (百科事典) is used as kanji, rather than 辞典 kanji.

So, in my impression, 辞典 is something between 辞書 and 事典, but normally closer to the language than various topics. So, in fact, I don't think people clearly differentiate 辞書 and 辞典.

-shin1ro