Flying Witch, Ep. 1a, scene 6

Flying Witch

Episode 1a 1b

Scene 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10

Makoto and Chinatsu walk to the mall

dialog


parsed 日本語

ああ、やっぱり、こっち い ですね
「おちつ いいます
「じかん ゆっくり」 いいます


literal

ah, I-knew-it, this-one? good, isn’t it
“calm down” to-say?
“time! no-hurry” to-say?


English

ah, I knew it, it’s nice here.
I’d say it’s calm
I’d say time is in no hurry



ねえちゃん どこから き
しゅっしん で
わたし 「よこはま」って とこから きん です
ああ、よこはま しってる
とうきょうとこ でしょう
ああ、ちょっと おしい かな


big-sister? where-from came?
city-of-origin is?
I? “Yokohama” where-from came is!
ah! yokotama know
tokyo’s place’ the-one isn’t-it?
ah, a-bit almost(but-not-quite) is-it


Where are you from?
what city am I from?
I’m from Yokohama.
ah! I know Yokohama.
Isn’t it the one in Tokyo?
ah, you were so close!



ああ、ひろ です ね
千なつちゃん、まい子 なから はなれちゃ だめ で
どっち?


ah, spacious-is, right?
Chinatsu, lost-child will-be-because to-be-separated from no-way is!
which-of-the-two? !


ah, it’s big
Chinatsu, don’t go away so you don’t get lost!
Whose the one that would get lost?!


vocabulary

To listen to a word in Japanese, highlight it and press the speaker icon.


おちつく
じかん
ゆっくり

しゅっしん
とこ
おしい

ひろい
まい子 [まいご]
はなれる
はなれちゃだめ


quiet, peaceful
time, hour, period
slowly, without hurry

one’s place of origin (city, country, school, parentage)
alternative form of ところ, i.e., place, location
almost (but not quite); close (but no cigar)

spacious, wide
まよう + 子: to-lose-one’s-way + child, i.e., a lost child
to get separated, to put distance in between
don’t get separated


P&T notes – asking questions

In English we can turn a clause into a question without using question words (like ‘what’, ‘how’, ‘why’, etc.) in various ways: we can change the order of the words of the original clause; or we can keep the order of the words of the original statement and raise the tone, which we denote with a question mark; or we can do both:


original clause

change word order
raise tone at the end
change word order and raise tone


This is a date

Is this a date
This is a date?
Is this date?


In Japanese we can also ask questions without using question words in different ways. Unlike English, we cannot denote a question by changing the order of the words but, instead, we can append a question marking particle. We can also rise the tone, or we can do both. In formal speech, the question-marking particle is か, so we have:


original clause

raise tone at the end
use question mark particle
raise tone and use question mark particle


ほうき かいます

ほうき かいます?
ほうき かいます
ほうき かいますか?


In casual speech, the question-marking particle is の:


original clause

raise tone at the end
use question mark particle
raise tone and use question mark particle


ほうき かう

ほうき かう?
ほうき かう
ほうき かうの?


The reason we don’t need to change the intonation of a question in Japanese is because the question mark particle is already stating that the clause is a question, i.e., the Japanese question-marker particle says that we are asking a question in the same way that the English change of order of words says that we are asking a question.

tone-rise clause
formal question marker
casual question marker

We translate の, の?, か, and か? as the question mark “?”, so we cannot translate the nuance of formality of the particle.

Finally, we need to match the form of the speech with the corresponding particle. In particular, using the formal か in casual speech sounds insulting:

ほうき かう  # Don’t use this! It’s rude.

question-markers pair up with clauses

question clause, from ふらいんぐうぃっち
Neither English nor Japanese have a marker to indicate the beginning of the clause that the question mark covers; in both of these languages, it is left to context and the use of question words, like ‘where’, ‘who’, etc.’. Other languages have such a marker, e.g., in Spanish we mark the beginning of a question with ¿. As an example, in this scene Chinatsu asks Makoto where she is from. The question applies to not just the previous phrase but to the entire clause:


language
Japanese
English
Spanish


question clause
おねえちゃんて… (どこからきた)の?
big-sis… (where are you from)?
Makoto… ¿(de donde eres)?


comment: どっちが?

In English we use ‘between’ when we are comparing two things, like in ‘the football went between the posts!’, and we use ‘among’ when we are comparing three of more things, like in ‘we house was nestled among the trees’. Thus, ‘who do you like between them?’ and ‘who do you like among them?’ have different nuances. Japanese works like this too.

In Japanese, we use the [ko/so/a/do]chira family to choose between two things, while we use the [ko/so/a/do]re family to choose among three or more things, e.g.,


Japanese
kochira (thing)
kore (thing)

dochira (things)
dore (things)


English
this one between these two things
this one among all these things

which one between these two things
which one among all these things


どっちが?, from ふらいんぐうぃっち

The casual form of the formal [ko/so/a/do]chira family is -tchi or -chi. This is what Chinatsu uses in the last sentence of this scene, when she asks ‘dotchi ga?’. In this case, the two people she is talking about are Makoto and herself, so ‘dotchi’ is ‘who between us?’. But the point of her question is to refer back to Makoto’s comment about Chinatsu likely to get lost. Hence, Chinatsu uses a ‘ga’ to point out that she is not the one likely to get lost. In English, she would have said ‘You mean you are likely to get lost!’