What does sugoi mean???, What does sugoi mean???

What does sugoi mean???

quote:

---

Originally posted by megenta:
What does sugoi mean???

---

it means "cool" "awesome" "unbelievable!"

and it's fun to say

suuugooooooi!!!!

[sugoi] (adj) terrible/dreadful/terrific/amazing/great/wonderful/to a great extent/(P)

this is JEDI's definition http://www.notredame.ac.jp/cgi-bin/jedi

I was having major spelling problems...

[ October 05, 2001: Message edited by: Missheru ]

I think 'awesome' is the closest, as both the literal and slang usages are fairly apt.

I was told that the best translation is 'wow'.

For better or worse, it's a general purpose exclamation.

You can always check the MT FAQ on the MegaTokyo Fan Network for answers to this and other burning MT related questions.

})

quote:

---

Originally posted by Cynical Swashbuckler:
You can always check the MT FAQ on the MegaTokyo Fan Network for answers to this and other burning MT related questions.

})

---

Hmm, I suppose I should link you guys from the archives, shouldn't I? *starts plotting a links section*

how is it pronounced?

Phonetically (sp?), I'd pronounce it "soo-go-ee" with the "go" and "ee" sort of run together. What's cool about Japanese is once you know how to pronounce a syllable, it's the same no matter what the word is. It's just a matter of learning the syllabic characters and how they're pronounced. I've got some charts outlining the characters (Hiragana and Katakana). I also seem to remember seeing a site somewhere that had .wav files giving the pronounciations of some common Japanese words. Hope this helps

When run together, the "oo-ee" sound sounds like "oy", so English speakers speak (and hear)it as "sue-goy".

[ October 06, 2001: Message edited by: Khym Chanur ]

as in, "eskimo bob wa sugoi!"

When in doubt on pronouncing Japanese words written in English style, refer to the vowel rules used in Spanish.

Ditto on using Spanish vowel sounds.

And if you're a guy, it should probably sound like "sue-gaaay", because that's how the masculine vowel shift goes. (terminal oi->ei)

Sugoi, in my mind (since I have an inner-monologue spoken in L33t), means "Sw33t!" ("Sweet!").

Now, here's a quick lesson on Japanese pronunciation:

- Japanese words have MANY different spellings in Romanji. There is no "correct" way to spell a word in Romanji, so it's a closest-match case at all times. IE: You can spell the word for "no" in Romanji in many ways: i-e, iie, iye (and so on).

- There are MANY dialects of Japanese, just as there are of English. Each has its own set of rules on how to say certain pronunciations, however, they usually all follow a basic set. Tokyo-ites have this set of rules that deviate from normal Japanese pronunciation: 1) trailing "u" sounds on most sylables are shortened to the point of almost being silent. The name "asuka", for instance, would be pronounced "ahs-kah" (as in Neon Genesis Evangelion). 2) resonated sounds normally silent are pronounced in some sylables. "si" becomes "shi". 3) When not followed directly by a vowel, "m" sounds are spoken as "n" sounds. In normal Japanese speech, "m" and "n" are interchangable at will, but apparently in Tokyo, "m" is never used. This is not the case in instances with "m" / "n" are followed by a vowel. I'm still trying to figure it out, but apparently, there are sylables that require an "m" sound, even in Tokyo. 4) trailing vowel sounds are elongated (with the exception of "u". The Romanji would go from "sho" to "shou" or "sho-". 5) Men tend to use "-chan" a lot more than their non-Tokyo-ite brethren, although "-kun" and "-san" still dominate the suffix field. "-sama" is almost never spoken in Tokyo, however "-senpai" is.

- Don't try to speak "Tokyo-nese" to an Japanese immigrant in America. They'll stand there, staring at you like you're some freak. You should, instead, speak the formal Japanese pronunciations. Don't say "kahts" in the place of "kahtsoo", or "ahs-kah" in the place of "ahsoo-kah". And above all else, don't say "ohnayguy sheemahsh" in the place of "ohnayguy seemahsoo". Apparently, when "Tokyo-nese" is spoken with a thick American accent, it's uninteligible.

- Male speech is different from Female speech. There is a vowel-shift on certain sylables. For instance, "soo-goy" would be spoken "soo-gay" when spoken by a male. (however, in my opinion, it's more like "soo-geh".) The rules on this are not very well set in stone. It seems to me that males are taught a totally different language from birth, with a completely different set of rules and diction. Since most characters in Anime are female, those of us who learn Japanese from that tend to speak Japanese like 15-year-old girls. (Though, apparently in Tokyo, this is a common practice by young men under 30 years of age.)

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not proficient in Japanese speech. I don't claim to be. However, I do know enough to order at my favorite udon restaurants here in San Francisco, as well as carry on a slight bit of conversation with the wait staff.

I know I probably should stay quiet here, since I didn't learn Japanese for very long, and things may have changed since then. But there are so many points here that push my pedant buttons that I can't help replying.

quote:

---

Originally posted by Jei-san, The Unemployed:
IE: You can spell the word for "no" in Romanji in many ways: i-e, iie, iye (and so on).

---

And if you use that last one, people will be very unhappy with you. "yi" and "ye" syllables did exist historically, though they're no longer used, so using things that look like them in romaji is a bad idea.

quote:

---

- There are MANY dialects of Japanese, just as there are of English. Each has its own set of rules on how to say certain pronunciations, however, they usually all follow a basic set. Tokyo-ites have this set of rules that deviate from normal Japanese pronunciation: 1) trailing "u" sounds on most sylables are shortened to the point of almost being silent. The name "asuka", for instance, would be pronounced "ahs-kah" (as in Neon Genesis Evangelion).

---

As far as I'm aware (I could be wrong here), that's not a Tokyo-ism, unless it applies to more syllables than just "su" and "tsu". As I was taught the language, those two in particular tend to have very shortened vowel sounds, especially at the end of words, but the others don't show it nearly so much.

quote:

---

2) resonated sounds normally silent are pronounced in some sylables. "si" becomes "shi".

---

This is not a Tokyo-ism, at least in that particular case. The syllable that appears in the kana charts at the point you would expect "si" is always pronounced "shi". Whether it should be romanised according to its kana position (which would indicate "si") or its actual pronunciation ("shi") is one of the main distinguishing points of the two main romaji schemes. (The same distinction applies to "chi", where the charts would indicate "ti", and "tsu", where the charts would indicate "tu".)

quote:

---

3) When not followed directly by a vowel, "m" sounds are spoken as "n" sounds. In normal Japanese speech, "m" and "n" are interchangable at will, but apparently in Tokyo, "m" is never used. This is not the case in instances with "m" / "n" are followed by a vowel. I'm still trying to figure it out, but apparently, there are sylables that require an "m" sound, even in Tokyo.

---

In normal Japanese, "m" never occurs without being followed by a vowel (ie, "ma", "mi", "mu", "me" and "mo" are all valid syllables, but there is no "m"). There "n" syllable is often pronounced more as "m" (this may well be a Tokyo-ism), but it's still officially defined as "n" in all romanisation schemes of which I am aware.

quote:

---

Don't try to speak "Tokyo-nese" to an Japanese immigrant in America. They'll stand there, staring at you like you're some freak. You should, instead, speak the formal Japanese pronunciations.

---

This goes for any foreign language (including English, should that not be your native language) - speak the language as taught, not some dialect, unless you're very fluent in the language in question.

quote:

---

Male speech is different from Female speech. There is a vowel-shift on certain sylables. For instance, "soo-goy" would be spoken "soo-gay" when spoken by a male. (however, in my opinion, it's more like "soo-geh".)

---

Although you didn't list it as such, this is described as an aspect of the Tokyo dialect in a paper on "standard" and "non-standard" language forms, which was the only relevant hit I found in a quick Google search. (It's a PDF, but Google has a text version.

quote:

---

The rules on this are not very well set in stone. It seems to me that males are taught a totally different language from birth, with a completely different set of rules and diction.

---

From elementary school, according to the above paper.

quote:

---

Since most characters in Anime are female, those of us who learn Japanese from that tend to speak Japanese like 15-year-old girls. (Though, apparently in Tokyo, this is a common practice by young men under 30 years of age.)

---

They've probably also picked up their speech patterns from anime and other TV shows, if that is the case - the paper mentioned above cites mass media as one of the channels by which the Tokyo dialect has spread around the country. (However, it doesn't seem to have actually displaced regional speech - instead, they seem to coexist in most places.)

Mind you, I'm not sure that the assertion is actually true. Certainly many of the mainstream-popular shows tend to feature younger characters (so even the male characters will be less likely to use the speech patterns common to older males), but then there's stuff like "Gundam Wing", where all the main characters are male...

[ October 08, 2001: Message edited by: Tarquin ]

I my opinion, sugoi is matches the german "geil" very closely.