A Three-for-One Deal
Saturday, August 11th, 2007
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In last week’s blog, we saw how a single 中 can change “deep in the night” (夜中, yonaka) into “all night” (夜中中, yonakajū). Despite its simple shape, 中 packs quite a punch. And with 中, you get three suffixes for the price of one! That is, the suffix -中 has three meanings. As the meaning changes, so might the yomi. Let’s look at each meaning.
1. Period of Time: JŪ
Let’s say you have a compound expressing a period of time (a day, week, month, year, and so on). The suffix -中 (pronounced -JŪ) enables you to convey that something happened throughout that period of time. A few examples:
| 一日 (ichinichi: one day) | 一日中 (ichinichijū: all day long) |
| 今週 (konshū: this week) | 今週中 (konshūjū: throughout this week; konshūchū: within this week) |
| 一年 (ichinen: one year) | 一年中 (ichinenjū: all year round) |
On How Your Days Are Numbered …
For the most part, this table is straightforward. Even the breakdowns are self-explanatory. But there’s an exception to the pattern:
午前 (gozen: morning, 午前中 (gozenchū: all morning)
noon + before)
This compound refers to a period of time but atypically uses the yomi CHŪ. A mnemonic may help with this aberration:
All morning I chew.
2. Place: JŪ
When a word refers to a place, adding -中 (again pronounced -JŪ) indicates “throughout” that place:
| 日本 (Nihon: Japan) Japan + origin |
日本中 (Nihonjū: all over Japan) |
| 世界 (sekai: world) world + world |
世界中 (sekaijū: all over the world) |
| 部屋 (heya: room) section + house |
部屋中 (heyajū: the whole room) |
| 家 (ie: family, house) | 家中 (iejū: all over the house, the whole family) |
3. Activity: CHŪ
By adding -中 (this time read as -CHŪ) to a noun, you indicate that an activity is under way:
| 会議 (kaigi: meeting) to meet + to discuss |
会議中 (kaigichū: meeting in session) |
| 外出 (gaishutsu: trip, going out) out + to go out |
外出中(gaishutsuchū: out of the office, while away/out) |
| 使用 (shiyō: use, application) to use + to prepare |
使用中 (shiyōchū: in use) |
| 工事 (kōji: construction) construction + event |
工事中 (kōjichū: under construction) |
| 考慮 (kōryo: consideration, taking into account) to consider + to show consideration |
考慮中 (kōryochū: under consideration) |
| 貸し出し(kashidashi: lending) to lend + to go out |
貸し出し中 (kashidashichū: out on loan) |
I love the rhyme in kashidashi!
On Pairing Off
Single Kanji with -中 …
An Offensive Mnemonic
With two yomi for the three -中 suffixes, it can be hard to remember which pronunciation goes with which usage. Here are two mnemonics:
There’s a time and a place for Jews.
Chewing is an activity.
I know the first one sounds anti-Semitic, but as I’m Jewish, I think I’m off the hook!
For Another Mnemonic
Involving Jews …
Enough of all this! It’s time for you to have fun with a Verbal Logic Quiz.
Posted by Eve Kushner in Kanji Curiosity |
August 12th, 2007 at 7:45 am
As to the yomi of 午前中, I am not sure if it is atypical. I have not given thought to this, but there seem to be quite a few examples where the yomi of 中 expressing a period of time is CHŪ rather than JŪ. 日中 (NITCHŪ: during the daytime), 喪中 (MOCHŪ: a period after a death in the family), and many other examples. CHŪ and JŪ are really tricky.
August 12th, 2007 at 9:09 am
Thanks for the info., Hiroshi-san. I guess consistency is too much to hope for with Japanese (or any language except Esperanto!).
I’d never seen 喪 before. Cool-looking character. Too small to see well in these comments, so here’s a link to the kanji in its full glory:
http://www.unicode.org/cgi-bin/GetUnihanData.pl?codepoint=55aa
The yomi are SŌ and mo, and the kanji means “mourning” or “to miss.”
Some interesting compounds:
阻喪 (そそう: loss of spirit, dejection). How are you feeling? そそう (So-sō). Perfect! (The 1st kanji is “to separate from,” btw.)
To ramp up the misery a bit, you have 意気阻喪 (いきそそう, ikisosō: depression, rejection). And how are you feeling now? Icky AND so-so.
喪家 (そうか, sōka: mourning + house). This can mean either “family in mourning” (that is, everyone in the house is mourning) or “homeless” (actually mourning or missing a house!!!).
喪神 (そうしん, sōshin: loss of consciousness). I was surprised to see the second kanji here, which can mean “god.” But 神 also means “mind.” So 喪神 is “losing one’s mind”! (Well, only in the sense of passing out.)
Sorry to deviate from your valuable point, Hiroshi-san, but kanji does tend to take me off track….
August 12th, 2007 at 9:34 am
A few more thoughts on 喪中：
–I think “mourning” qualifies as an activity (that is, category #3), which makes the use of CHŪ consistent. When certain words seem to fall into either category, #3 seems to override #1. That is, if we can consider the root as an activity, then we should, because that matches the suffix pattern we tend to see.
–As も (mo) is a kun-yomi and a full word in its own right, 喪中 gives us another example of two things we’ve seen in this blog entry:
1. A word that existed in Japanese before kanji arrived and to which the Japanese then appended a suffix (like 家中, iejū: all over the house, the whole family).
2. A single kanji paired off with 中 (again like 家中 or 話し中, hanashichū: in the midst of speaking).
August 13th, 2007 at 2:48 am
Thanks for the very detailed response. In fact, right after writing my first comment, I realized that 喪中 is close in nature to the group of compounds you already list; 会議中 and 外出中 etc. that you call “activity”. When you think about it, “activity” and “time span” are often hard to distinguish and these compunds can mean both activity and time span depending on the particular situation. I may come up with more “purely time span” compounds with “CHŪ” reading, but that won’t uproot your argument at all: “atypical” doesn’t mean that it is the single exception.
August 19th, 2007 at 10:13 pm
All of a sudden you have so many mnemonics in this issue. Influenced by Miho’s column? How about this:
Did you (di-JŪ) dance all night?
一晩中踊ったの(hitobanJŪ odotta no)？
At least this doesn’t offend anybody.
August 20th, 2007 at 1:06 am
Thanks for the mnemonic! Now I need a new one to remember to read 一晩 as “hitoban,” not “ichiban”! I guess I could think of it this way: PEOPLE (hito) dance all through the night.