Salazar1

George Salazar

Dr. Blackmore

LLCC

2 March 2011
ashita wa
明 日 は :　A Linguistic Study of Japanese

For native English speakers, learning an Asian language like Japanese

may be more difficult in comparison to a Romance language like Spanish, or

a Germanic language like Dutch.

せかい う ま
この世界に生まれた

い み
その意味を

きみ み ゆ
君と見つけに行こう

いた かか
痛みさえも 抱 えながら

あたら げしき
新 しい景色

とお
もっと 遠 くまで

むか ゆ
迎えに行こう

[‘koːno sekai ‘niː u͍ːmaɽetaː

sono ‘iːmi joː

kiːmi to mitsu’͍keː ni ‘ju͍ːkoo

itami sa’eː mo kakae naga’ɹaː

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ataɽa’ɕiː keɕiki

‘motːo ‘tooku͍ madeː

mu’kae ni ju͍koo]

Literal translation:

this world in born was

that meaning of

you and find to go

pain even

hold while

new scenery

more far until

welcome go

Meaning:

I go with you to find the meaning of our birth in this world. While

holding in pain, let us go further and welcome new sights.

This song showcases some of the most notable differences between

Japanese and SAE. Phonologically, Japanese has sounds not found in SAE. For

example, the [ɹ] in nagara is an alveolar lateral flap (“Wikipedia:IPA”), which

does not occur in English. However, the singer appears to use a retroflex flap

[ɽ] when singing the words umareta and atarashii. The apparent difference in

articulation can be explained by the fact that “Japanese does not distinguish

between the liquids [l] and [r]” (Mann 118), and Japanese speakers “have

great difficulty in differentiating the two because they are allophones of one
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phoneme” (Fromkin, Rodman, and Hyams 367). This accounts for the

articulated differences between nagara and atarashii.

The typological system of Japanese is also different from English in that

the basic word order for Japanese is Subject-Object-Verb (SOV), while English

follows a Subject-Verb-Object pattern (SVO). In many language textbooks, as

well as in linguistic publications, a common remark about the Japanese

language is that it is “an SOV language with the strict constraint that verbs

must appear at the end of the sentence” (Kuno 4). In “Tomorrow,” the

chorus line mukae ni yukou (“go meet”) is an example the verb appearing in

the sentence-final position.

However, this “strict constraint” is violated several times in this song.

For example, the first verse of the song is futari de nigebashou sagashite

hashitta tenki-ame no naka. The verb phrase is sagashite hashitta (“run to

find”), and yet it does not appear in the final position. Instead, there is an

adverbial phrase tenki-ame no naka (“inside the sunshower”) at the

sentence-final position. To follow the SOV pattern, the sentence must be

rearranged as Tenki ame no naka, futari de nigebasho [o] sagashite hashitta.

Japanese has a relatively free word order (Kuno 3); in spoken and sung

Japanese, native Japanese speakers often violate the verb-final rule.

One reason for the frequent deviation from the SOV pattern is the

presence of around seventy “particles” in Japanese (Kuno 5). Particles are

postpositional, meaning they come after a phrase, and they can function as

case markers; particles can also “represent the functions that are carried in
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English by prepositions and conjunctions” (Kuno 5). In the song, there are

numerous particles that establish the relationship between words and

phrases. For example, ni in kono sekai ni functions as the preposition in. To

in kimi to mitsuke ni yukou means and. These particles allow speakers to

move nouns and objects freely without changing the meaning, and the

singer makes use of her language’s relatively free word-order in the same

vein English poets and singers use inverted syntax for creative purposes.

Scrambling is also another reason Japanese can have other phrases at

the end a grammatically correct sentence.

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Works Cited

Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman, and Nina M. Hyams. An Introduction to

Language. Boston, MA: Thomson/Wadsworth, 2007. Print.

Kawashima, Sue A. A Dictionary of Japanese Particles. Tokyo: Kodansha

International, 1999. Print.

Kuno, Susumu. The Structure of the Japanese Language. Cambridge, MA:

MIT, 1973. Print.

Mann, Virginia A. "Perception of [l] and [r] by Native Speakers of Japanese: A

Distinction Between Articulatory and Phonetic Perception." Haskins

Laboratories Status Report 79 (1984). Haskins Laboratories. Yale

University. Web. 24 Feb. 2011.

<http://www.haskins.yale.edu/sr/SR079/SR079_09.pdf>

Shimokawa, Mikuni. "Tomorrow." Rec. 20 Feb. 2002. 392: Mikuni Shimokawa

Best Selection. Mikuni Shimokawa. Pony Canyon, 2002. MP3.

"Wikipedia:IPA for Japanese." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 28 Feb.

2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:IPA_for_Japanese>