▼ Cover of Nihonjin no Shiranai Nihongo 3 Kinsui says this overreaching use of arimasu has its roots in the mid-19th century, as Japan’s feudal Edo period was coming to an end and the modernization of the Meiji period was beginning. Manga artist Hebizo and author Umino Nagiko asked Kinsui about the “Chinese people say arimasu” stereotype as part of the research for their new book, Nihonjin no Shiranai Nihongo 3 (“ Japanese Language that Japanese People Don’t Know 3”). So where does this stock speaking style for anime and manga come from? According to Satoshi Kinsui, a linguistics professor at Osaka University, it comes from history. The weird thing, though, is that you’ll rarely, if ever, hear actual Chinese learners of Japanese putting arimasu at the end of everything like this.
Instead of the grammatically correct “ Watashi ha Chugokujin desu” (“I am Chinese”), you’ll often hear Chinese characters saying “ Watashi ha Chugokujin arimasu.” Fuji is beautiful” is “ Fujisan ha kirei desu,” and, if you’re confident enough to make the same boast about your own fetching good looks, it’d be Watashi ha kirei desu.”īut in the world of anime and manga, if the scriptwriter or author is creating dialogue for a Chinese character who’s supposed to be less than fluent, there’s a better-than-even chance the character will completely bypass imasu and desu and just use arimasu, or it’s more casual version, aru, for everything. So for “I am in Japan,” it’d be Watashi ha Nihon ni imasu.” And finally, desu is used with adjectives that describe the condition of things or people. Fuji is in Japan,” you’d say “ Fujisan ha Nihon ni arimasu.” Imasu, on the other hand, is for the existence/location of people and animals. While they all more or less translate into English as “be,” they’re used for different situations in Japanese.Īrimasu is for showing the existence or location of inanimate objects. If you’re studying Japanese, three of the first words you’ll learn are arimasu, imasu, and desu. The introduction is followed by the translation of the entire play of three acts and twelve scenes.Linguistics professor explains the centuries-old background of the omnipresent anime and manga verbal tic. Bhaktin’s concept of chronotopes as used in the field of translation studies by Annie Brisset. The analysis of the original work and the process of translating it is informed throughout by M.M. The translation is defended and compared to a previous Italian translation. The focus shifts to the play’s historical background, inquiring into Endō’s motivations in choosing this subject and how he manipulated his sources to achieve certain goals. The introduction to the translation looks back at Endō’s career and his little known relationship with theater. The present work offers for the first time an English translation of his 1973 play, Menamugawa no Nihonjin, which deals with the career of Nagamasa Yamada, a Japanese adventurer who traveled to Siam in the early seventeenth century and became one of the most powerful men in that kingdom. Shūsaku Endō (1923-1996) is well known in Japan and abroad for his novels and his Christian faith.
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