count to ten

[solypsist]

In my kendo class, we are required to count to ten in Japanese. However, the acoustics in the hall are pretty bad so I might have been hearing incorrectly all this time; I don't want to ask my sensei. So I was hoping to ask one of you knowledgable types if you could please write out and numbers from one to ten, with the phonetic pronunciation next to each. Thank you.

[ShadowKill]

i don't even know how to count to ten in english

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Fear not the sword to your front, but the blade at your back.

"Cutting down the enemy is the Way of strategy, and there is no need for much clever refinement of it"

"After a great fight between two mighty tigers, even a common dog may defeat the survivor"

Clan Shades
Shades

[The Black Ship]

well when I was a kid in Karate class it went something like this:

(phonetically speaking/spelling of course )
Itchy- 1
knee- 2
sun- 3
she- 4
go- 5
ro-kay 6
sech-a 7
hach-a 8
qu- 9
ju- 10

Now that's from memory....some 25 years ago!

[Minagawa Daimon]

1...ichi
2...ni
3...san
4...yon
5...go
6...roku
7...nana
8...hachi
9...kyu
10...ju

hope this helps you ...attu gyokusai Kenchikuka

[The Black Ship]

LOL...well I was closer than I thought

[solypsist]

an elephant's memory, Blacky!

thank you, Minigawa!

[Anssi Hakkinen]

You weren't that far off, Ship-sama.

Actually, 4 can be either shi (shee) or yon. The trouble is (I hear) that shi is also Japanese for "death", so yelling it out loud while there are people present might not be the smartest thing to do... The same goes for 7 - it's either shichi (she-chee) or nana, but the latter is preferred.

Someone who actually speaks Japanese may be able to tell you more. Just my 2, uh, Kanei Tsuho.

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"Kullervo, Kalervo's offspring, / With the very bluest stockings, / On the ground the haft set firmly, / On the heath the hilt pressed tightly, / Turned the point against his bosom, / And upon the point he threw him, / Thus he found the death he sought for, / Cast himself into destruction."
-The Kalevala, Poem XXXVI, verses 335-342

[This message has been edited by Anssi Hakkinen (edited 01-20-2001).]

[Ii Naomasa]

Anssi-san is dead on (was just tempted to go back and changed this untended bad pun, but figured I'd leave it in its so terrible ), so technically everyone is right.

Many older establishments (or just ones built/maintained by supersticious people) avoid using the number for (such as you'll find in older American buildings that skip the 13th Floor). Because the written form for both shi and yon are identical, I suppose it's best not to have someone mistake it for the one that sounds like death (even it 'shi' as in death is written differently).

This brings back memories. My brother, who had just started kendo, wanted to practice shouting off the numbers to me. Now at that point, I had been picking up counting in various languages and hadn't yet become to engrossed in Japanese culture, so I had learned it as 'shi' and he had learned it as 'yon'. Being silly boys who didn't consider that another country might have more than one way to say something as simple as numbers, we wound up arguing a whole weekend over the 'correct' word for four.

[Minagawa Daimon]

do itashimashite solypsist-san...as for black ship, i might say im impressed, its either you have good memory due to lineage or you drink way too much genko ...appare chushin Kenchikuka!

[Tachikaze]

If you really want to minimize your English accent, the pronunciation is like this:

ichi = eech' drag out the "ch"
ni = nee
san = sahn
yon = rhymes with "tone"
shi = shee
go = like English "go", but without rounding your lips, make the "oh" sound brief
roku = roh-koo, without rounding the lips. pronounce the "oo" softly
nana = nah-nah
shichi = sh'chee
hachi = hach' drag out the "ch"
kyû = kyoo, no rounding, drag out the "oo" sound
jû = joo, no rounding, drag out the "oo" sound

Try to pronounce all syllables with equal stress.

It's difficult to know when to say yon or shi and nana or shichi. Shigatsu is April (fourth month); but yon-kai means fourth floor. I'm always using the wrong one.

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A murky puddle becomes clear when it is still.

[solypsist]

thanks again. i went to my sensei and mentioned the whole number four thing and the substitutions of Yon with Shi and he looked at me like i was crazy.
so Shi it is.....