From a04e7a21ad151ab3ea365a0839a6fd24b65ba5b5 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Tom Smeding Date: Mon, 12 May 2025 11:47:04 +0200 Subject: natlang/meruhenchikku --- natlang/meruhenchikku.html | 18 ++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 18 insertions(+) create mode 100644 natlang/meruhenchikku.html (limited to 'natlang/meruhenchikku.html') diff --git a/natlang/meruhenchikku.html b/natlang/meruhenchikku.html new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f7fdbd2 --- /dev/null +++ b/natlang/meruhenchikku.html @@ -0,0 +1,18 @@ +

メルヘンチック

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The title is a Japanese word meaning "fairy-tale-like", and can be transcribed as "meruhenchikku". +Notes on pronunciation: both e are roughly the first e in enter; the r is a single-tap "r" as in Spanish "caro"; both u are roughly the stressed sound in English "you" halfway between the initial "i" and the final low "u"; the ch is like an English "ch" but brought closer to "t" while also raising its pitch; and the i is short but with the quality of English "beat", not English "bit". +The double k indicates a small pause.

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The etymology of this word is funny. +In German, there is word Märchen that means "fairy-tale"; its adaptation into Japanese phonology became "meruhen" (メルヘン). +The "-chikku" part, however, comes from English.

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English

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There are a number of adjectives ending in -ic in English: romantic, alcoholic, metallic, etc. +These generally come from Latin -icus (wiktionary) where English dropped the -us/-um ending as usual. +This originally came from Proto-Indo-European -kos (wiktionary). +Some of the -icus words in Latin happen to have a t in front of it, and hence some English words also do: romantic, galactic, etc.

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While -ic is not particularly productive any more in English, it appears in enough words its meaning would be clear if it is added as-is to an existing word. +Adding -tic to a word in English for this purpose would make little sense.

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Japanese

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However, Japanese is not bound by such compunctions and decided that -tic is what the suffix shall be, rendered in Japanese phonology as "chikku" (チック) because they don't naturally have a clean "t", nor a "k" without a following vowel. +Naturally, thus, it makes perfect sense to build the word Märchen-tic, i.e. meruhenchikku: fairy-tale-like.

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That's all I had, hope you considered this a good use of 3 minutes of your time.

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