On Racehorses and Rivalry: Part 1
Friday, August 21st, 2009
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I’ve made an exciting discovery! As you may know, I’ve been collecting exceptions to a rule. If there are back-to-back instances of the same kanji, the repetition symbol 々 typically replaces one (as in 時々, tokidoki: sometimes). Thus far, we’ve seen five anomalies:
夜中中 (yonakajū: throughout the night)
night + middle + middle中城城 (Nakagusukujō: a castle in Okinawa)
inside + castle + castle民主主義 (minshu-shugi: democracy)
people + to play a central role + to play a central role +
righteousnessOne occasionally sees 民主々義, but it’s not common.
直接接触 (chokusetsu-sesshoku: direct contact)
straight + contact + contact + contact東京特許許可局
Tōkyō Tokkyo Kyoka Kyoku
Tokyo Department for Patent AuthorizationFor the breakdown of this tongue twister, see the link.
In the first two examples, the yomi changes with the duplication (e.g., naka versus JŪ for 中 and gusuku versus JŌ for 城).
Anyway, the big news is that I’ve found a sixth exception, and it, too, involves a yomi change:
競馬馬 (keiba-uma: racehorse) to compete + horse + horse
With the repetition of 馬, the word shifts from the on-yomi BA to the kun-yomi uma.
My heart is racing as fast as any racehorse can run!
I found 競馬馬 while investigating three kyōei homonyms. Here’s the first:
胸泳 (kyōei: breaststroke) chest + to swim
We saw this two blogs ago, where I said that Japanese prefer to use 平泳ぎ (hiraoyogi: flat + swimming) or 蛙泳ぎ (kaeruoyogi: frog + swimming) when referring to the breaststroke. (Incidentally, “breaststroke” contains an internal repetition that makes me want to write it as “breast々roke”!) If I were ever discussing the breaststroke in Japanese, I would also opt for 蛙泳ぎ over 胸泳, simply because “frog swimming” is cuter. But the Japanese avoid 胸泳 for a different reason—namely, that it’s homophonous with the following word:
競泳 (kyōei: swimming race) to compete + to swim
Whereas 競泳 is competitive swimming, people often swim the 胸泳 for fun, so they steer clear of a homonym that could mislead people.
Meanwhile, I’ve found another kyōei (which isn’t hard, as there are several):
競映 (kyōei: competitive showing of films)
to compete + to screen (a film)
I’m trying to imagine what this is. A film festival where people vote on the best movie? Or a competition to see who can screen the greatest number of movies? (Ah, one dictionary says it’s a competition to see which film gets the largest crowd. Another dictionary defines it as a competition between films that have identical or similar themes.)
Anyway, these latter kyōei words have aroused my interest in the adorable kanji at the head of both. What’s going on with the twins in 競? And oh my goodness! I just realized that there are two types of duplication in our star word:
競馬馬 (keiba-uma: racehorse) to compete + horse + horse
Do you see it? Two identical components within 競, and two instances of 馬! I was already thinking that 競 reminded me of the “double happiness” character in Chinese: 囍. Now I see this racehorse as embodying quadruple happiness!
To be precise, I should say that the components in 競 are almost identical. Magnification reveals variations in the way each 兄 ends (at the lower right):
競
But never mind about that. This variation is similar to what happens in 林 (RIN, hayashi: forest), where the lower-right limb of the first tree is slightly clipped so it doesn’t crash into the lower-left limb of the second tree.
Here’s the deal with 競 (and I’m sorry it’s taken me so long to get to it!):
競 (KYŌ, KEI, kiso(u), se(ru): to compete with; bid; sell at auction; contest, race)
If you can handle a rapid change in tone, I want to make a confession. I’m attracted to 競 not only for its looks but also because I like words describing base human nature. They make me feel better. If there’s a word for the idea, then obviously other people feel the same churlish, unsociable things that I do from time to time (or most of the time).
In exploring 競 words, I was therefore hoping to discover terms about bitter rivalries, cruel attempts to cut down competitors, and the like. I wasn’t wholly disappointed, but almost. Whereas 競 pops up in a few such words, it appears in many more terms about civilized, organized footraces.
Here’s a word that seems to bridge both worlds:
競い合う (kisoiau: to compete with, vie for)
to compete with + to put side by side
This is a matter-of-fact word about competitions, as you’ll see at the link.
The yomi kisoiau is a kun-kun combination. And if you strip away the hiragana from 競い合う, you end up with an on-on duo:
競合 (kyōgō: contention, competition, rivalry, quarrel)
to compete + to put side by side
This word also seems straightforward and neutral, neither passing judgment on competitions nor taking glee in them.
If you take 競合 and insert different hiragana from those in 競い合う, you get yet another neutral word meaning “competition”:
競り合い (seriai: competition) to compete + reciprocal
Here, we see 競 with the kun-yomi of se(ru). Seri is the adverbial form.
Wow, did you notice how much the yomi changed among three words sharing the same two kanji: kisoiau, kyōgō, and seriai. That’s messed up!
Now, if you preface 競り合い with another kanji, here’s what you produce (with yet another yomi change, thanks to voicing):
小競り合い (kozeriai: skirmish; quarrel)
small + to compete + reciprocal
Ah! Finally some conflict and nastiness! Strange that a “small competition” isn’t still neutral and just smaller. Rather, it’s a skirmish, a quarrel, or something of the sort. Good enough for me!
Time for your Verbal Logic Quiz!
Posted by Eve Kushner in Kanji Curiosity |
August 21st, 2009 at 11:28 pm
coincidentally, today i learn a new double-word
早々（そうそう）：quickly; promptly;
Ex: 早々のお返事、どうもありがおとう。
東京特許許可局
Tōkyō Tokkyo Kyoka Kyoku
i wonder if japanese have a problem reading this at normal speed… lol
August 22nd, 2009 at 1:15 am
If I heard someone saying そうそう, I know I would interpret it as some kind of hearty agreement (e.g., そうそうそう), regardless of context!
August 22nd, 2009 at 3:20 pm
Really an interesting read, as always.
Compound meaning often seems to change based on which kanji is seen as primary for the meaning.
(Train derailment due to a concurrence (合 being primary) of causes)
It still amazes me.
August 23rd, 2009 at 3:20 am
Thanks for the nice note, Erik! Great to hear from you!
Hmm, I’ve never heard this idea that one kanji in a compound acts as the dominant one, determining the meaning of the whole. Is this something you’ve heard/read, or is it a personal theory? Intriguing….
August 23rd, 2009 at 8:07 am
It seems to me, having much better Chinese and Japanese at the moment, that the exception to the repetition symbol rule is occurring when the two characters are on different sides of a Chinese word boundary. The only example that doesn’t jump out at me as coming directly from Chinese is 中城城, and according to Wikipedia the gusuku pronunciation of 城 is Okinawan.
Is it possible that the repetition symbol isn’t used (or isn’t used as often) in words of foreign (or relatively foreign dialect) origin?
August 23rd, 2009 at 8:20 am
Wow, John, great to hear from you. お久しぶりですね！
I like the way you say “Chinese word boundary.” Nice image!
It seems that 夜中中 is another non-Chinese word, in that it’s a kun-kun-on combo.
Not entirely sure I understand the question you pose. I think you must be referring to compounds that come whole from Chinese into Japanese. (If the words came from another language, they would likely be in katakana, in which case the repetition symbol would be very out of place!) Is that what you mean?
My feeling is that in words like 民主主義, 直接接触, and the tongue twister, we’re simply seeing two words that butt up against each other and happen to have the same kanji in adjacent positions but really don’t have any relationship to each other, so the repetition symbol isn’t appropriate. In English, a comparable example would be … Having trouble thinking of an example! This is unnatural, but “schoolhouse housemother.” Or “weekday day care.” Yes, that’s better! Or breaststroke!
August 23rd, 2009 at 9:53 am
夜中中 seems to be an interesting case. 夜中 is a Chinese word, and means “at night” all by itself. It seems to me that the second 中 was added to more fully accord with Japanese grammar (because 夜中 is a complete unit, so its 中 couldn’t play the “throughout” role that 中 sometimes does in Japanese). The pronunciation is strange, though, isn’t it? If that were the case, it seems like it should be on-on-kun… there’s also a possibility that 夜中 came into Chinese from Japanese, but I don’t have any word-level Chinese etymology dictionaries handy to check.
The thing I meant about foreign languages was that the examples you gave either seemed to be entirely from Chinese, or, in the case of 中城城, from another dialect (I don’t know this for sure, but Wikipedia indicated that 城’s gusuku pronunciation is Okinawan, where as the following 城 is a standard Japanese pronunciation). In that case, the double 城 might be like saying “RAM memory” or “ATM machine”, where the second 城 is an unnecessary repetition, but is added because the first 城 isn’t obvious to all native, standard dialect Japanese speakers simply from its pronunciation.
Does that make any sense?
August 23rd, 2009 at 9:58 am
It all makes sense, and it’s all fascinating! And I have no further info. to illuminate any of the issues you raise, so I’ll summon a native speaker and see if he has anything to say on the matter.
I like what you say about RAM memory, etc. I thought 競馬馬 might be such a case, but I found that 競馬 just means “horse racing.” So 競馬馬 is a “horse racing horse”! That sounds really funny!
August 23rd, 2009 at 4:17 pm
Aha! I thought of a comparable English example: JPod podcast!