Japanese etymology: Why we count animals the way we do
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 26 ก.ย. 2024
- The way animals are counted in Japanese may seem random:
Dogs, cats, mice, bugs, etc. = 1匹、2匹、3匹
I-piki, ni-hiki, sanbiki…
Elephants, lions, horses, etc. = 1頭、2頭、3頭
I-tou, ni-tou, san-tou…
Birds and butterflies = 1羽、2羽、3羽
Ichiwa, niwa, sanwa…
And then there are rabbits = 1羽、2羽、3羽
Ichiwa, niwa, sanwa…
WHY 😂!?
Biological classifications of animals came much later than language did. Instead of classifying animals into mammals, birds, etc., Japanese people seem to have counted them based on how they often looked from the human perspective.
Animals that are smaller than humans tend to run when people approach them. One theory is that a kanji character that represents animal butt 匹 (hiki) was assigned to small animals because humans saw them from behind most often.
Bigger animals were counted by their heads 頭 (tou) because they didn’t run. Big animals that faced us were rather threatening.
In line with this logic, a theory as to why rabbits are counted the same way birds and butterflies are is that their most prominent features are their wing-like ears.
So learning Japanese may not be a cumbersome memorization marathon after all. It’s the looks 😁!
Hi, I’m Kyota, the author of Amazon Best Sellers [Folk Tales of Japan] and [Underdogs of Japanese History]. Please check out my books at ☺️: kyotako.myport...
That's... actually incredibly helpful, thank you 😆
😂✨👍👍
Indeed I agree 😂
I swear to god I would sit there and ponder why something is the way it is in a language and my teachers would always tell me to just accept it the way it is.
My brain NEEDS some form of "Wow this is stupid...and hilarious....or cute" if the rules change or else it won't stick.
I could have read a thousand times how you count animals in japanese and I would have always forgotten that bunnies are "IchiWa".
Now I will NEVER forget this LMAO
😂😂😂 Congratulations you have acquired irreversible knowledge 😂👍!
I swear I'm the same 😂 I need to know the reason to accept the formula or it really won't stick on my mind. It's both a blessing and a curse cuz I become such a curious mind for EVERYTHING that it's inconvenient sometimes 😢
@@kyotako1372you mean linguistics PTSD 🤣
That's just learning. Our brains makes better memories when it makes many connections to that memory, and what's better than a piece of language trivia to help us memorize little language rules and words? =)
I’m the same way! Even though I’m a native English speaker, my spelling skills would probably be terrible if I weren’t so interested in etymology, haha. I’m terrible at memorizing, so I need to know where the inconsistencies came from
Wing-like ears, most of the run time in air due to highspeed...
When they run away it's certainly a flight.
Pun intended.
They do hop like a long jump athlete😁!
Like foolish Tooks
This man is singlehandedly educating, promoting and being a comedian about Japanese language and culture, one might even say - a true man of culture.
If you call spouting a bunch of made up lies that have no connection to reality, and pretending they're historical fact, "educating"...
Everything he said here is complete bullshit, has no basis in actual etymology or history, and several of the things he claims are actually obviously wrong if you do even a basic amount of research into the real history of the language.
He's just an internet poser who actually knows nothing about the history of Japanese, making up BS stories for internet clout and conning gullible people into believing him, nothing more.
Achievement unlocked: A comment!
Dogen
Such a great channel! And Kyota makes it always fun and interesting!
I wouldn't be surprised if most native Japanese people didn't know this. Thanks for the lesson!
Even linguists don't know this because it was made up. It's a folk etymology (俗説) and does not align with reality.
yup, i had no idea 😅
@@Xirnatts In what way does it not align with reality?
@@NiteSaiyaIt means we don’t know if that’s really the reason the language counts animals that way, or if it was a reason reverse-engineered to make sense of a seemingly illogical pattern.
I don't think we know for sure why rabbits are counted with 羽.
I've heard another theory that says it's because back when meat from mammals was banned in Japan people started categorizing rabbits as birds (with some weird justification like that their feet are just wings or something) so they could legally eat their meat, too.
In the end it's all just theories, though.
When I heard from my Japanese teacher that you count small animals with a different word than big animals, I immediately asked what are the smallest big animal and the biggest small animal.
What was the answer?
@@Nerthos He couldn't come up with one 😂 I think he also mentioned that even with dogs it depends on breed.
The aggressive why?!? And bunbun! made me laugh. This makes sense though
🤣😂🤣
Gotta get that range of emotions in fast lol
...the different ways of counting is actually exactly what made me go "you know what I'm fine just knowing a bunch of words rather than the proper language."
But you just explained it in a way that made so much sense, I didn't even actually need you to point out the ears were wing-like. You said "One wing, two wings," and I immediately realized it was the ears just before you said it.
Japanese can be so confusing, yet somehow you make it make sense and do it in a memorable way so my stupid brain actually remembers it 😊 Thank you for sharing this with us for free ❤ Have you thought about doing a Patreon or something where you offer longer more in depth videos or classes for a price? Because if you ever do please sign me up immediately 😊 どうもありがとうございます！ お疲れさまでした。
励まされます。ありがとうございます！ For now, I will keep writing books and do more in-depth explanations there ☺️✨👍!
I've also heard that when eating meats was banned (or something like that, don't remember when but a long time ago) birds weren't considered meats or were seen as acceptable, but people still wanted to eat rabbits so they put them under that classification to get around the issue
Yup, they did as a loophole, one of many actually. It's similar to the Catholic Church classifying capibaras as fish so they can it them during lent or something holiday.
This was also the reasoning I heard.
ohh i read another version somewhere! that some people in a village weren't allowed to eat rabbits for some reason so when the villagers did it anyways, they counted them as "birds" instead of small animals. I'm not sure about the details w but it was something like that xd although I imagine there are similar stories running around and we may never find the real reason lol
Yes, it’s said that Buddhist monks spun rabbits as birds so they could eat them 😁! There are a few theories!
Like capybaras are designated fish in some South American countries.
I heard this one too!
@@ariaflame-au I have never heard this but it's super interesting, which countries?
@@ariaflame-auin medieval Europe dolphins and whales counted as fish, just like crocodiles, crabs, octopi, frogs, and non-land turtles. (Lives at least partially in water : fish). So I understand the logic !
few people know that when noone is looking, lagomorphs will happily flutter through the sky with their ears
Just like Cream? ;P
Raspberry Heaven 😊
In Chinese 一匹 is pretty much only used for horses. Cats, dogs, birds, tigers, mice, rabbits, etc as well as insects are 一只. 一头 (頭) is for really big animals like elephants, lions and cows. Snakes are counted 一条 because they are long and thin, same as rivers, roads and pants (and sometimes dogs which continues to puzzle me to no end 🤔)
Chinese counts horses and mules with 匹 and smaller animals with 隻 (the butt thing is folk etymology, so it only works when it works), which caused me a bit of trouble when I translated a movie dialogue where two Japanese people discussed about these counting words but gave 一匹狼 as one of the examples.
一匹狼 was the example I was looking to see if anyone mentioned.
THE WAY IT FINALLY CLICKED IN MY HEAD you really have a way with words I'm learning so much just by watching your videos wow I nearly gave up wuth the counters I thought I will just use -tsu for everything and hope the Japanese will get what I mean regardless of the items beung counted. Lol😂 pls do this for counter things too I'm begging
I’m glad it helped 😁👍👍👍
Haha! The more you know... though it makes it a pain for us Japanese learners! 😂
All Japanese kids go through the suffering 😂👍!
I am not learning Japanese. I am learning Norwegian. I just subscribed to your channel because THIS IS GOLD!!!😂
"If you see two lion-sans" you using "-san" for the lions even when explaining in English is so pure 🥺❤❤❤
Thank you for teaching us this!
@@osricfinvara3415 Lion-Sensei sounds so amazing 🥰
Ok, I just started my Japanese journey in earnest, and the counting suffixes absolutely made me go ‘what the heeeeck’, then this amazing video got dropped into my feed and you made it make sense in just over a minute. Incredible, really glad to find your channel, your explanations are clear, memorable and funny!
Understanding this potential “ why” for all the differences helps so much! ✨
Ngl, this is incredibly helpful for memorizing these animal counter words.
By that logic, we too should be 一羽, like the chickens that we are
😂😂😂
These etymology videos make learning Japanese a lot easier!! Thank you!!
How to count stuff is actually exactly one of the things that I truly felt was really hard to learn when I was learning Japanese a few years back 😭 Thanks for the tip!
I have never understood and remembered that…until now. Greatest explanation ever👍🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻。 本当にありがとうございました🙇♀️
I love the way you explain Japanese things, Kyota-san.
Thank you for letting me know ☺️✨✨
Clearly the logic is rabbits can fly with their cute ears.
😍😍😍
I just love the logic on this!!!! No joke!!!!
😁😁👍👍✨
this is genuinely the most helpful explanation of why these counters are the way they are! I have struggled to remember them before but I don't think I'm going to forget the butt/head difference for a while! Bunnies having "wings" is also the cutest thing and definitely something that will stick in my memory. Japanese should continue to proudly ignore science, its doing fine on its own )
The more logical explanation to me is that 飛ぶ means both fly and jump, so since bunny jumps, it's counted as 羽
跳ぶ and 飛ぶ are different
maybe, but one explanation doesn't invalidate the other. It's quite possible these facts have worked in tandem. The video presented its theory in a more humoristic way but it does hold water. In the German hunters' language, rabbit ears are refered to as "spoons"; to me it doesn't sound far fetched for early Japanese hunters to have refered to rabbit ears as "wings" which survives in which counter leporids take. Your explanation may have aided this comparison.
japanese is beautifully poetic
I began studying Japanese in the 1980s, and the counters for animals was always difficult for me. Now I understand why.
I dont know why the algorithm brought me here, but I will stick around to learn.
Whoa! This guy is hilarious.😂 Subscribed, with admiration from Nagano.
Okay I understand animals now, but why literally anything else?? Why is paper counted differently from cylinders? Why can’t everything just use つ??? I’d much prefer to just say what the object is and then say “x amount thing” than all of this. It has me wondering how much of kanji is just counters.
Also, shout out to 画素 (counter for… pixels??). I hope I never have to have such a complicated conversation as to be counting pixels with someone.
😂 Your concerns are exactly what all Japanese people go through as children! Why can’t we just…!!
You could probably get away with つ for a lot of normal conversation.
I think a lot of people do use tsu for a lot of stuff in conversation, and you’re gonna be understood fine doing so.
I think the number classifications started in Chinese? It’s a neat feature of the language.
@@jasonmp85 That's true. Also in Chinese, you can get away with always using 個 which is the equivalent of つ.
It's similar to English. Can't say "2 breads," gotta say "slices/loaves" of bread.
2 waters? No, "drops/cups/pitchers" of water.
2 papers? No, "pieces" of paper. (Unless you're speaking of research papers, then you can say 2 papers!)
Most words are much simpler, like animals (unless you're counting groups of them...), but then there's oddities like sheep and fish.
Every language has oddly pedantic quirks, haha
This is the first time it was explained in a way that makes sense. :)
With how big some bunny ears get, I'm surprised they have not achieved flight already
Don't know how accurate this is but now I definitely wont forget.
Funny thing, in French at least, rabbit meat is considered as poultry, because rabbits and poultry used to be groomed in the same part of the farm, together.
But French people should keep quiet on counting things. Doing maths while counting is also very strange lol
In my Japanese language learning journey I'll continue to ignore counting for as long as possible. but thank you for an interesting video
This is a FANTASTIC way to describe this. More Please :)
ネイティブ日本人だけど、このチャンネルマジでずっと見てられる。
That's a very useful approach for remembering! butts, heads, and wings
I have no idea why I was recommended this since I'm trying to learn Spanish, but this is the best explanation of language I've seen.
I love this, would be amazing to have more videos on Japanese etymology like this!!
とてもいい説明だった。 面白い！ ありがとうございました。
I had no idea of this until now... learn something new every day.
Ur thingies are funny and cool. My favorite is ur Arrow-san episode.
"WHERE ARE YOU ARROW SAN !? 😭"
More Arrow-san episodes 😄
That's the most self-aware and funny and at the same time non-judgemental breakdown of a language I have ever seen hahahaha nice video!
Almost made me believe it makes sense 😂😂
That なんでやねん seems personal 😂😂😂😂😂
That's why I love to study languages
A practical aspect by distinguishing predator, and prey. When a child learns a name, he learns two important things.
This is hilarious 😂 Very clear and memorable! I have been watching this for 3 days on repeat, rolling on the floor after “The Japanese language will continue to proudly ignore science” line with the fierce face expression 😂😂😂
genuinely life-changing education
Language is interesting. I'm so fascinated by the history of languages
Indeed!
I like how you speak so passionately & that you added san to the lions 😂
Lion: look! i-PIKI human!
😂😂🪦
Sir this vid got you a new subscriber. I look forward to more language madness
this guy has some serious charisma lol
Memorizing the different counters was my biggest hurdle learning Japanese in high school. Now, well over a decade later, you’ve made it all make sense.
Ironically this makes enough sense for me that now I'll remember how to count them 😂
This is the type of lesson(?) I want because I kept asking "but why?" most of the time when learning. Not only do you know the context and reason why, but also explains it in a way that will help in remembering the word. Atleast to me
This reminds me of how American ranchers talk about how many head of cattle they have
I studied Chinese and never Japanese, didn't know that "measure words" (as they were called for Chinese anyway) were a thing in Japanese too.
One of my favourite in that language is 一条鱼, a "stripe of fish", same used for roads and trousers. Whats used in Japanese for "fish" I wonder.
Omg I’m learning Korean not Japanese but idk this helped me with counting words! Did not expect this to be so funny! 💜
That's fascinating as hell! God I LOVE LANGUAGES
It's like he changes identity when he switches language
There is something very manly about this rule. It's decided by how the animal species appears to a hunter.
Might be adapted from Chinese because we use counting nouns too like 头and 匹too but we have more as well e.g 只 条. A lot of confusion in Chinese too as there are exceptions
I don't even care about Japanese, but your explanation of a thing I didn't know existed, was very informative.
Thank you so much for this. Would you mind doing more videos on Japanese counters? I've been studying Japanese language for years and memorizing counters has been a struggle for me.
Love the way you explained the differences. 😊 New subscriber here☺️
What the...This is the most aggressive education I've received in a long time 😂
i love the features of japanese language and shinto culture that are derived from a time when humans were still thinking in terms that put us correctly in perspective compared to nature
Very educational, easy well put and funny!
Very educational. Thank you
This is a really good explanation.
It might not fit modern science logic, but it follows its own logic and learning about that is part of the fun
I'm just going to count them all by butts...
Yes, winning strategy 😂👍
Medieval Japanese and even early modern Japanese used 匹 for larger animals too though. The 頭 thing didn't really come into play until the late Meiji period, and I've heard this was a direct translation of English "head [of cattle, etc.]"
This is hilarious to me, considering how much less developed overall counters are in English. We have head for cattle as well as lettuce and garlic (though I guess these are different because it's "five head of cattle", but "five heads of lettuce") and ears for corn, but this is kind of a weird thing where most of these words are mass nouns rather than count nouns for whatever reason, so they take another word in order to count them.
aah, excellent! 😹
that last sentence made me laugh out loud! :D
• I’ve also heard that rabbits were counted with _wa_ so Buddhist monks could make an excuse to eat them. They were forbidden from eating animals, but birds were an exception.
• Butterflies are also counted with _tou_ despite their tiny size by butterfly collectors, due to their high value (to butterfly collectors).
when im learning the eccentricities of japanese language. i would just chalk it to 'it is what it is". prevent my brain from hurting too much. but these are very helpful.
Yes, that mindset is everything 😌✨👍
Thank u sensei awesome lesson
Finally, some tasty etymology! I'm loving this fascinating history and insight as to how grammar and other aspects of Japanese came to be. :)
Meanwhile in Chinese we have “stripe (tiao)” “head (tou)” “length (pi)” “bit (zhi)” “unit (ge)”… for animals. Somehow we use “unit (ge)” for inanimate objects, but also for human. We use “stripe (tiao)” for fish or snake, but also for dog. We use “length (pi)” for horses, but use “head (tou)” for cows. And by the way in Chinese 匹 is the same character as in Japanese, but I think for us it never means butt, but originated from measurement for fabric.
Things that I didn't know I needed to know.
Thanks for this.
I’m glad you liked it 😁👍!
Informative and humorous as well. Thank you.
I’m glad you liked it 😁✨!
I figured it was because rabbits are animals you catch (like with a falcon) so at the end of the hunt you count up all the birds
This is a great explanation.
I haven’t used Japanese since my last college course and my favorite thing is still how cute it is when to count animals in Japanese ❤❤❤❤
As I was learning Japanese, I formed my own theory about 一羽:
With the Buddhist ban on red meat, some hungry, smart-ass monk probably argued that the ears looked like ears in order to be able to count rabbits among birds, which were acceptable for eating. And thus rabbit meat was back on the menu.
But I wouldn't know how to check when this way of counting was introduced and cross-check the meat bans and whatnot.
You can feel his repulsion when talking about rabbits.
In a way it does make sense, rabbit ears appearing similar to a pair of oddly-placed wings as a rabbit turns tail
I absolutely love this style of lecture, holy cow. If only my sensei back in the day had this energy, I might have language skills beyond that of a very pokite, awkward second grader with random words like 株式市場 (stock market) and 胎盤 (placenta) in my vocab bank. 😂
Probably popular etymology but still a good mnemotechnique
This actually makes sense.
Thank you!
☺️👍👍👍
really fun and interesting video!
I’m glad you liked it ☺️✨!
Oh my god now I can finally remember. Thank you.
this... videos like this is the reason i think your tutorials are the best. thank you for your channel 😊😊😊❤
Thank you so much 🥹🥹🥹