brief life update, and a random question about Japanese

[edenfalling]

Intended to sleep in today and run errands in the afternoon -- it being my day off -- but GS is apparently sick with a fever, etc., and PM (the manager) called me at about 9am to ask if I could cover for him. So I was at work from 1-6pm, and there went my lovely naptime. *pouts*

On the bright side, at least one of my tax refunds seems to have come in, because otherwise there is no way to explain the sudden jump in my checking account balance. Yay! Now I can pay my rent for April and May, which was, for a while, looking like it might be damn near impossible.

I really need a better-paying job.

...

Do any people out there need editing advice on essays and whatnot, and if so, are you willing to pay me? I'm actually a very good editor -- I'm exhaustively thorough -- even though it drives me batty if I indulge too often.

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In a completely unrelated question, does Japanese ever use the consonant combination TS in front of any vowel other than U? Because I see the syllable TSU a lot, but I've never seen TSA, TSE, TSI, TSO, TSAO, etc.

ETA: Thank you to everyone who explained pieces of the Japanese syllabic system! (That stuff about appending Y syllables is absolutely fascinating, for example.)

Comments

tsu

[supplanter.livejournal.com]

I don't think so.  "Tsu" occurs in the sound-set that begins with the consenant 't', which is "ta chi tsu te to" (so "ti" never happens, either).  The reason you see sounds like "cha, chu, cho" is because those are actually the result of combinations between "chi" and "ya, yu, yo".  This can happen with the other special "i" sounds, like "shi", which occurs in the sound-set that begins with 's', "sa shi su se so".

(I made up some of this terminology.)

The reason I'd say I don't think so is the Japanese seem to try for some unusual sounds when using foreign loan-words, so something could happen there, maybe.

[willowgreen.livejournal.com]

You are an amazing editor, and I would totally pay you, if I had any paying-type work. Do you have any contacts at the university? Or have you considered just posting signs up there saying you're available? I used to make good money typing papers, but if I were looking for work now, I'd definitely go with the editing--I've charged anywhere from $25-$50 an hour, depending on the client.

If you ever do work for students, go with the hotel school people. They have low expectations, will be extremely grateful for any help you give them, and pay generously. On the other hand, do NOT solicity work from law school students, who are the exact opposite.

Re: tsu

[seito-no-senshi.livejournal.com]

No, they don't. TSA, TSE, TSI, etc, they don't exist as sounds in the Japanese language. Japanese only has so many syllables, which is why learning to speak English can be difficult for them.

With the comment above about the foreign loan-words, that uses the katakana .. alphabet, which, pronunciation wise, is the same as hirigana, so, same syllables. It could be that the unusual sounds come from ... well, young speakers are lazy, and they slur. They leave out sounds because it's too much work; for example, they'll go "daiski" instead of "daisuki". It's like in English.

*delurks*

[asprosdrakos.livejournal.com]

Hello. I got recced your writing and started reading your lj and just wanted to delurk about the "tsu" bit.

"Tsu" appears because it is part of the Japanese syllable alphabet. It's in the "t" character line - ta, chi, tsu, te, to. (The T line contains two of the odd Japanese syllables, the other lines being S, which is sa, shi, su, se, so and H, which ha, hi, fu, he, ho) There are only really two other ways to get unusual combinations - one is the created syllables from joining a ya, yu, or yo to another syllable to create, for example, the sha, shu, and sho sounds. (When I say join, I mean that the ya/yu/yo is place at half-size next to the primary syllable) However, those always join to the "i" syllables in each line - ki, shi, chi, ri, hi, mi - for example, when combined with yo become - kyo, sho, cho, ryo, hyo, myo - respectively. I may be missing a line. So tsu, never joing with any, could never become any of those combinations.

The other strange way to form things is via katakana. It's how you can get a 'fa' sound - it's a normal fu with a small a next to it. But that only happens with katakana, as far as I've seen. So while it's remotely possible that it could happen...maybe...I've been studying abroad in Japan since september and can't think of ever seeing it.

Sorry for the length.