Fall is the best season for...?

It's not hot and not so cold, it's been beautiful weather these days. We call a sunny day in fall 秋(あき)晴(ば)れ /akibare/, which literaly means "fall sunny". The sky is high, leaves turned red or yellow, we can enjoy a beautiful scenary in this season.

I like fall not only because of its beauty, but also because there're bunch of yummy foods in this season! Have you ever heard of the word 食欲(しょくよく)の秋(あき) /shokuyoku no aki/? In fall, we have an increased 食欲(しょくよく) /shokuyoku/ appetite since it is the season of the harvest. So we say "Fall is the best season for eating". We also say 読書(どくしょ)の秋(あき) /dokusho no aki/, スポーツ(すぽーつ)の秋 /supootsu no aki/, or 芸術(げいじゅつ)の秋(あき) /geijutsu no aki/.

*読書(どくしょ) /dokusho/ reading
*スポーツ(すぽーつ) /supootsu/ sports
*芸術(げいじゅつ) /geijutsu/ arts

Fall is the best season for...? What do you think? :)

This song is one of Japanese traditional songs for children ―ちいさい秋(あき)みつけた /chiisai aki mitsuketa/ (Found a Small Autumn). Here's its lyric and my translation of it.

だれかさんが　だれかさんが　だれかさんが　見(み)つけた
/darekasan ga darekasan ga darekasan ga mitsuketa/
Somebody's, somebody's, somebody has found

小(ちい)さい秋(あき)　小(ちい)さい秋(あき)　小(ちい)さい秋(あき)　見(み)つけた
/chiisai aki chiisai aki chiisai aki mitsuketa/
A small autumn, a small autumn, found an small autumn

目(め)かくし　鬼(おに)さん　手(て)のなる方(ほう)へ※
/mekakushi onisan te no naru hou e/
Blindfold it, come to the sound of hands clapping

すました　お耳(みみ)に　かすかにしみた
/sumashita omimi ni kasukani shimita/
The strained ears caught it slightly

呼(よ)んでる　口笛(くちぶえ)　もずの声(こえ)
/yonderu kuchibue mozu no koe/
The sound of whistle and the call of a butcherbird

小(ちい)さい秋(あき)　小(ちい)さい秋(あき)　小(ちい)さい秋(あき)　見(み)つけた
/chiisai aki chiisai aki chiisai aki mitsuketa/
A small autumn, a small autumn, found an small autumn

※ 目(め)かくし鬼(おに) /mekakushi oni/ is a game in which one child ―the chosen child is called 鬼(おに) /oni/― chases the others. It's a bit different from the game tag, as 鬼(おに) /oni/ has to blindfold. The other kids clap their hands, call or whistle to give it a hint where they are.

This song reminds me of my grandma. She sang it for me when I was very small. :)

*Japanese Word of the Day*

ちっちゃい

/chicchai/

small, short, tiny = 小(ちい)さい /chiisai/

ちっちゃい sounds more casual and kinda cute. Sometimes it's used to emphasize how small it is.

I'd like to add one more word;

ちょっと

/chotto/

a little, a bit, a kind of = 少(すこ)し /sukoshi/

As I wrote in my previous post, it's often used when we want to tell something negative.

You know what? I just found an interesting thing. ちっちゃい is "کوچک
" /kʰuːtʃʰækʲ/ in Persian, and ちょっと can be translated as "beetje" /beːtjə/ in Dutch. These pronunciations are not the exactly same, but for me, it seems to have a similar sound "ch". I wonder if it's just a coincidence.

Speaking of which, it reminds me of an interesting study in linguistic. It said that we seemed to have a similar sense to attach sounds to shape, no matter what language we speak.


Well, that's all for today! Thank you for reading, and feel free to leave your comment :)