Top all-time · #19551
Self Taught Japanese
Personal blog · selftaughtjapanese.comculturewriting
Self Taught Japanese is a personal blog at selftaughtjapanese.com about culture and writing. Since 2022, 4 different Hacker News readers have linked it 4 times. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-10-27, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (3) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link this blog for posts on Japanese words and their origins, such as a glossary of Portuguese-origin words and research on homophones. Commenters cite its posts as sources.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 3 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
What Hacker News says?
To your point I came across this a moment ago: https://selftaughtjapanese.com/2014/03/19/research-results-h... While there are a ridiculous amount of homophones (top 3 are 45, 38, 31!), it does look like the total number of words that include them is at 3.4%, increasing outside of daily language as you step into more specific topics. Not exactly small, but not as dramatic as I had pictured either. English apparently…
Comment linking /2014/03/19/research-results-homophones-in-japanese/
on “How writing has spread across the world”Submitted Kaze no Matasaburo (Matasaburo of the Wind), by Kenji Miyazawa (1934) as a story · 1 points
HN discussionYeah, they are definitely different from their original meanings. It’s my impression that in the US, hibachi usually means “guy cooks steak and similar food in front of you” and omakase usually means “sushi is made in front of you while you sit at a bar.” The words refer more to the style of restaurant or presentation method, which can probably be tied into historical American dining culture in some way or another.…
Comment linking /2018/10/09/a-confusing-japanese-loanword-in-english-hibachi-it-may-not-mean-what-you-think-it-does/
on “Restaurants Place Big Bets on Cooking Robots”On the contrary I feel the evidence is pretty much conclusive. arigatō comes from arigataku (an adverbial form), through a well-known "u-sound" change, as also explained on the page. Influence from Portuguese was not needed for that to happen. (And according to this page: https://selftaughtjapanese.com/2015/11/02/the-real-origin-of... the word was used in its "ou" form before the Portuguese even arrived in Japan - 1…
Comment linking /2015/11/02/the-real-origin-of-arigatou-%E3%81%82%E3%82%8A%E3%81%8C%E3%81%A8%E3%81%86-japanese-for-thank-you/
on “Glossary of Japanese words of Portuguese origin”