先週の新聞の連載では、頑張ってもなかなか発音ができない単語について書いた。ウルトラマン。ポルトガル語。離乳食。もちろん老若男女も言えんばい。けど、昨日、1番言えない日本語の単語を見つけた。セアカゴケグモだ。無理。
Last week, I wrote a newspaper article about all the Japanese words I find difficult to pronounce- Ultraman, Portuguese, and baby food. Of course, I struggle with ronyakunannyo (men and women of all ages) too. But yesterday, I discovered the word that befuddles me more than them all—seakagokegumo, or the Red-back spider.
初めて見た時、なんとかの和製英語だと思った。だって、バリ長っ！うちら外国人は、カタカナが永遠に並びよる単語を読みきらん。やけん、カラオケに行く時、カタカナだらけの曲を避けるバイ。
The first time I heard this word, I was convinced it
had to be Japanese English. I mean, geez! How long can a word get?? We foreigners have trouble reading super long katakana words, and I, especially, purposely avoid songs chock full of katakana at karaoke.
セアカゴケグモの話に戻ろう。やっと、意味がわかった。背中が赤いゴケクモだ。けどさ、ゴケグモってなん？言語の質問は永遠にある。
Anyway, back to the seakagokegumo. I finally was able to grasp the meaning of the word. A spider with a red back. But what about the gakegumo part? My linguistic questions are endless.
ゴケクモの夫婦は仲が悪いらしい。メスがオスを食うけん、自分を未亡人にするらしい。やけん、ゴケグモだ。スゲ〜。女性は強い。
The gakegumo marriage is obviously not a happy one. For in it, the female ends up eating the males, making herself a widow—which is the meaning of the word gake.
数年間前に、1番長い日本語の動詞はなんやろう？と思った。私は考えたのは、行きたくなくなってしまった. どう？バリ長かろう？
A couple years ago, I racked my brain trying to think of the longest Japanese verb that I could. The answer was ikitakunakunatteshimatta, or “unfortunately, it became that I didn’t want to go anymore.” Weird English, but a great Japanese word.
今日は、1番アンちゃんを困らせるような文章を考えた。行くよ。。
Today I tried to think of the Japanese sentence whose pronunciation gave me the most trouble.
老若男女のポルトガル人は、セアカゴケグモとウルトラマンに離乳食を食べさせた。ヤバイ。ワインを飲みすぎたかも。
Make and female Portuguese red-backed spiders of all ages fed Ultraman baby food. Yikes. I think I drank too much wine.
明日、早く起きて、セアカゴケグモを言えるようになるまで練習するバイ！
Tomorrow, I think I’ll get up early and practice saying seakagokegumo till I get it down!