Judo, Music and Olympics

[Expugnator]

I have trouble distinguishing q' and ejective k' , they differ in place of articulation but to my ear the difference in sound is subtle (though it exists). As for any minimal pair, it is actually the aspirated feature that stands out, you really don't have to make 'an effort ' to hear the glottal stop typical of the ejective, but then as you get used to the language you learn to make the ejective quite naturally, and not overly contrastive as a beginner tends to do.

[Flarioca]

My first week for combined learning of Japanese, Georgian and OP has been way better than expected, let me explain why. This is the beginning of my vacations, which might mean more study time for most people, but it's quite the opposite when you have an active and healthy 6 y.o. at home who is also at the beginning of HIS vacations!!

That said, the main thing for me in this week has been to better understand how is it going to be with Genki, to start studying Japanese more seriously, to keep Georgian learning a pleasure, and not an extra burden, and to enjoy every end of the day with about one hour of a different language at different levels. Indeed, this OP should be a permanent project, because it's a shame that sometimes for many months in a row I don't even try to listen or read something in French, for instance. Even in the case of English, although there isn't a single day that I don't at least read something in English, speaking and writing are also abandoned activities during many months! It goes without saying that in the case of these "C1+" languages, grammar study is as rare as sapphire!

I have trouble distinguishing q' and ejective k' , they differ in place of articulation but to my ear the difference in sound is subtle (though it exists). As for any minimal pair, it is actually the aspirated feature that stands out, you really don't have to make 'an effort ' to hear the glottal stop typical of the ejective, but then as you get used to the language you learn to make the ejective quite naturally, and not overly contrastive as a beginner tends to do.

Thank you Expugnator for your comments. At this point, I'm not going to try way too hard to differentiate those quite similar (and unusual, for me) sounds. Indeed, I'm almost done with the initial learning of the Georgian alphabet. Of course, in the future (I hope) I'll need to come back to the subtleties of the similarities of these sounds, but it doesn't seem wise to waste too much time studying it at the moment.

[Flarioca]

It's almost funny to realize that one of the most important words, because it refers to THE essential substance for life on Earth, namely water [წყალი - ts'q'ali], in Georgian starts not only by one but by two from the most difficult ejectives, and they are consecutive!

If you want to listen to these sounds, maybe this this vídeo will help you to identify them.

It seems that my previous study of hanzi has reduced the anxiety about learning kanji and at this point I'm much more interested to understand other aspects of Japanese. It makes me feel much more comfortable.

[Flarioca]

はじめまして。フェルナンドです。ブラジリアだいがくのきょうしです。ごじゅうさんさいです。エンジニアです。よろしくおねがいします。メリー・クリスマス！

Merry Christmas for everybody!

[Flarioca]

I've found this very interesting explanation about demonstrative and interrogative pronouns and adjective in Japanese. It includes a wonderful table, which I'll print and put on my study wall. It would be nice to know whether this is completely right or we should be aware about exceptions or oversimplifications.

[vonPeterhof]

I've found this very interesting explanation about demonstrative and interrogative pronouns and adjective in Japanese. It includes a wonderful table, which I'll print and put on my study wall. It would be nice to know whether this is completely right or we should be aware about exceptions or oversimplifications.

It's a mostly accurate summary. The relationship between こx, そx and あx is often summarized in by the simple formula "こ=close to me, そ=close to you, あ=far from both of us". It's a handy formula for cases when you're not sure which one to use, but it oversimplifies some of the more abstract cases, so framing it in terms of simple distance like the linked page does can also be helpful.

There are a few things that the page doesn't mention that I feel are worth talking about. One is that the xちら construction is a somewhat formal one. In informal speech it's more common to say xっち instead (こっち, そっち, あっち, どっち). On the other hand, honorific polite language (the kind that's used by, for example, service personnel when talking to customers) makes extensive use of the xちら constructions, in many cases replacing the xれ constructions; even the word for who, 誰, gets replaced with どちら. So if someone asks you どちら様ですか they want to know who you are, not which way you're going

Also, due to the Japanese demonstratives' being able to indicate location in relation to the speakers, there are many examples where they are used in a way that resembles personal pronouns. You can often use either demonstrative or personal pronouns to translate the same phrase into English: この手 - these/my hands, その言葉 - those/your words, etc. In other cases a personal pronoun would actually sound more natural, like in the common business correspondence formula そちらの都合に合わせます ("We will accommodate your circumstances") or the stock anime phrase こっちの台詞だ！ ("That's my line!").

[Flarioca]

It's a mostly accurate summary. The relationship between こx, そx and あx is often summarized in by the simple formula "こ=close to me, そ=close to you, あ=far from both of us". It's a handy formula for cases when you're not sure which one to use, but it oversimplifies some of the more abstract cases, so framing it in terms of simple distance like the linked page does can also be helpful.

Thank you for your explanation. So far, I've bought only one Japanese grammar book, "Understanding Basic Japanese Grammar", which on page 49 contains an even better table than that on the website that I mentioned. It has some of the points that vonPeterhof has discussed, but without further explanations.

I must also say that the first thing that came to my mind after learning this feature from Japanese has been the Tabelvortoj from Esperanto, although they don't refer to the same set of concepts.