I've heard that the names for the days of the week in Japanese are "elements". What are they in English and how do you pronounce it in Japanese?
2006-08-09 19:17:13 · 5 answers · asked by Strange Days 2 in Society & Culture ➔ Languages
Not the elements but the solar system.
Sunday - Sun
Monday - Moon
Tuesday - Mars
Wednesday - Mercury
Thursday - Jupiter
Friday - Venus
Saturday - Saturn
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After I read the answer yozora posted, I reconsider why we named,
fire star for Mars
water star for Mercury
wood star for Jupiter
gold star for Venus
soil star for Saturn
Long long ago, in China, they considered that the primitive elements were wood, fire, soil, gold and water.
Light and shade are mixed and the sun and the moon were generated. After that, wood star, fire star, soil star, gold star and water star were born.
Those words were imported to Japan. I think this story is what you really want.
fire - hi - pronounced like he
water - mizu - pronounced like me zoo
wood - ki - pronounced like key
gold - kin - pronounced like keen
soil - tsuchi - pronounced like too chee
2006-08-09 19:50:52 · answer #1 · answered by Black Dog 4 · 3⤊ 0⤋
Days Of The Week Japanese
2016-12-14 20:22:35 · answer #2 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You should listen to Black Dog, he's Japanese you know...!
He's told me a fact that I never even thought of too! Now I know the names of the planets (or some of them!) in Japanese ...
Mars is the fire star, kasei (Tuesday kayoubi)
Mercury is the water star, suisei (Wednesday suiyoubi)
Jupiter is the tree/wood star, mokusei (Thursday mokuyoubi)
Venus is the gold star, kinsei (Friday, kinyoubi)
Saturn is the ground/soil star, dosei (Saturday doyoubi)
and of course the sun is for sunday (nichiyoubi)
and the moon is for monday (getsuyoubi)!
You probably notice the resemblance to our day names, after Gods and planets...!
Tyr's planet was Mars, and Tuesday is derived from that.
Odin/Woden's planet was Mercury (Wednesday = Woden's day.)
Thursday is named after Thor, his planet was Jupiter.
Friday is named after the wife of Woden. Her name was Frigga, and she's the equivalent of Venus (the Goddess) and Venus is also her planet.
Saturday is more obvious, Saturn's day.
Sunday is more obvious still ...
And Monday is dedicated to the moon.
It's no coincidence that Japanese day names are so similar to ours...!
So there you go! YOU ask a question on Yahoo! Answers, and we all find out more than we bargained for!!!
; )
I'm afraid that there are a few errors in Appaloosa88's pronunciation guides though.
Tsu-chan has given you a much better guide, I'll just add that the 'oo' in each day name is not pronounced 'ooh' but ... well, it's hard to describe, but it's more like the 'o' in gone, but you just hold the vowel sound of the 'o' for about twice as long!
2006-08-09 20:49:16 · answer #3 · answered by _ 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Sun (Nichiyoobi), Moon(Getsuyoobi), Fire (Kayoobi), Water (Suiyoobi), Wood (Mokuyoobi), Gold (Kinyoobi), Earth (Doyoobi)
(Respectively means Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday)
2006-08-09 19:26:25 · answer #4 · answered by Tsu-chan 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Monday - Getsuyoubi (Moon)
(gets-YO-bee)
Tuesday - Kayoubi (Fire)
(ka-YO-bee)
Wednesday - Suiyoubi (Water)
(soo-YO-bee)
Thursday - Mokuyoubi (Tree / Wood)
(moak-YO-bee)
Friday - Kinyoubi (Gold)
(keen-YO-bee)
Saturday - Doyoubi (Earth)
(dough-YO-bee)
Sunday - Nichiyoubi (Sun)
(nee-chee-YO-bee)
So you can see, they are not all elements, exactly. Nonetheless, beautiful and interesting.
2006-08-09 19:34:08 · answer #5 · answered by Appaloosa88 2 · 0⤊ 3⤋