Rhymes

[kitamichibi]

This game is basically about rhymes, first there's a word and then someone reply with one that rhymes:

e.g.

すごい
sugoi

私
watashi

and so on, be sure to put up the romaji ( Cause some beginners don't understand kanji ) under the kanji/kana. Ok, I'll start...

便と
べんと
bento

[Gaddo]

wouldn't this game be too easy?

[miho-sempai]

It's mostly about learning vocabulary, I think. And having fun. Not necessarily being challenging.

[kitamichibi]

はい miho-sempaiさん is right, it's just for fun and learning new stuff...

[prep_girl_Nessa]

Do sugoi and watashi rhyme? Maybe I'm just confused...

[tanuki]

1) I don't see how sugoi and watashi could ever rhyme.
2) What if I refuse to put romaji under the kana?
3) "Bento" as in "lunch box" is 弁当 (べんとう). Notice the う at the end.
4) 便と means "stool and...".

[prep_girl_Nessa]

tanuki wrote:
2) What if I refuse to put romaji under the kana?

Then you get shot xP

Kidding. Sorry, PMS talking xD

[Yudan Taiteki]

すごい and 私 have the same final vowel, so in theory they could rhyme.

There are only 5 vowel sounds, though, so that would make a lot of potential rhymes.

[chikara]

Surely rhyming is aural and not visual.

If you applied the すごい, 私 and はい all rhyming because in romaji they all end in "i" rule to English rhymes then Mary Had a Little Lamb isn't a rhyme

snow -> go X
rule -> school X
so -> know X

[Yudan Taiteki]

I read my post again, and I don't see anything about visual or romaji in there.

すごい, わたし, and はい all end in the same vowel sound.

[saraLynne]

In theory, this entire thread would just be "all japanese words that end in ~i"

[Tspoonami]

I remember being told a while ago that Japanese doesn't rhyme and that Japanese people often have a very hard time understanding the concept of rhyming. I thought it was silly to say that things such as おこる and とる don't rhyme, when they certainly do, just maybe not to the Japanese mind. Rhyme is corresponding terminal sounds, so the possibilities for rhyme in Japanese are enormous. That many sentences end in -た, -,す -い, etc. just helps the matter along. But I digress...

[Yudan Taiteki]

I think just due to the small number of sounds in the language, and the fact that they all end in one of 5 vowel sounds (with the exception of ん) makes it hard to do anything interesting with rhyme in the language, which is probably why the concept hasn't really taken hold in any of the literature.

The concept was understood at one time because the nobility composed Chinese poetry, which had to rhyme in certain ways (for which they had special rhyming dictionaries showing the tones -- even Chinese had to use these because of sound changes in the language). But this never transferred to Japanese, I guess.

Even if you look up 押韻 in the Koujien the two definitions given are for Chinese poetry and Western poetry, although the word includes both alliteration and rhyme. 脚韻 seems to have been created as a word to translate the English word "rhyme" (when it means the sound similarity, at least).

[chikara]

Yudan Taiteki wrote:
I read my post again, and I don't see anything about visual or romaji in there.

すごい, わたし, and はい all end in the same vowel sound.

Sorry Chris-san, are you referring to my post because my post wasn't a direct reply to yours but more a general reply. That is why I did not quote your post.

To my ear at least, the ending sound of すごい, わたし, and はい are all different.

[Gundaetiapo]

To my ear at least, the ending sound of すごい, わたし, and はい are all different.

I agree, maybe it's the pitch and intonation of each word that makes it seem different in spite of spelling.