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Friday, February 13, 2009

Two-Kanji Yo-ji Week Wrap Up

Just some final notes and additions to this week's Yo-ji posts:

  • Although 三三五五(さんさんごご; sansan gogo) is an officially recognized yo-ji, I decided not to write up a whole post for it because it's pretty basic and utilitarian, in the same vein as 天地無用. Rikai-chan will tell you that 三々五々means "in groups of twos or threes," but something in me balks at the idea of translating "five" as "two," so I prefer the second definition it offers: "in small groups."
  • 唯唯諾諾 (いいだくだく;ii dakudaku) means "ready and willing." I thought I might gloss over that one, because we'll need it, if we ever get around to writing "The Nightly Yo-ji." Also, I was scared to google it.
  • Much like yesterday's 喧々諤々、some people will list 各各然然 (かくかくしかじか; kakukaku shikajika) as a two-kanji yo-ji (using the above kanji or other ateji versions), but it's not a real one. It's a linguistic convention that has been turned into a yo-ji through common usage. It means the same thing as 「ま、そういうことで。」 It functions to mark the end of a topic of conversation, kind of like saying "So... that's that."

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