The Sai

[LeaF]

Would it be imposible for sai to be both the singular and plural tense (this was what I always thought), just like sheep

[Jade_Lotus]

I never said that "sais" is the correct way to say it. I said that there are no plural distinctions in Japanese. In fact, "sais" is incorrect. What you are referring to is romaji, the romanization of japanese characters. There are so many different versions out there, many people shorten the words for expample...kado(place a line above the "a") and kaado, would both mean the same thing. They both indicate to hold the syllable "a" for another beat. When writing roomaji, the japanese don't put the lines above letters they spell it all out. I know many teachers and have many friends that are japanese and live in japan, this is how it is taught. The differnece in "sai" and "zai" is that one may be older japanese than the other, but it is NOT plurality. The "s" is not pronounced the same as the "z", they are two distinct sounds. Sei means something completely different thatn Zei. They are NOT pronounced the same. So therefore "sai" would not be pronounced "zai". I believe you need to educate yourself on the Japanese language a bit more. Not all pronounciations are from Kanji, they are mostly from hiragana, in fact the sounds that make up the Kanji, are taken from hiragana. The difference in Kanji and hiragana, are simple..hiragana are characters that are associated with a sound, they have no meaning, until they are put together. for example...the characters, "ka"....."ta"....and "na", mean nothing until they are placed together..."katana" or sword. Kanji are characters that are associtated with a meaning, one character could mean fire, or water, or just whatever, unlike hiragana, where one character means nothing. if you take for example the kanji for honor, it is two characters one is "mei" and the other is "yo" in hiragana, this wold be three characters "me"..."i"...and "yo" Kanji, is meant ot simplify the writing language and shorten it, that's all. Mr. Nishiuchi, is probably speaking older Japanese. But make no mistake about it, there is no plural distinctions in Japanese. I hope this clears things up.

[Tobias_Reece]

First let me say that I am not insulting you education. You quite clearly have more experience and knowledge about japanese than me, and I am not doubting that.

 

Could it maybe be an Okinawan name? I'm just guessing here, but I have noticed that there is a lot of difference in the names of techniques in the resources created Japanese ppl, compared to that of the Okinawan practitioners. Buri, Furi, etc..

 

Any further input would be appriciated.

[Jade_Lotus]

There are many dialects, in the Japanese language. These dialects differ from region to region, most of them mainting their "deep" or older japanese. Thus making them a different dialect. It is possible, the "zai" is a dailect of "sai", which is why I stated that he may be using older Japanese. So, yes that is very possible. Hope this helps.

[Tobias_Reece]

Yes it does help

 

Cheers

[BlueDragon1981]

That is correct japanese has a lot of dialects. Not to mention different sets of characters for writing depending on the region. Although there are 3 common universal types, still though that is not like 1.