| Explanation: compounds are made up of two or more words. Most technique names in Shōrinji Kempō are such compounds. The individual parts of such a compound can have various origins, but once in a compound must be in noun form. Knowing how these constructions work will help you understand their meaning, look up the words in the dictionary and also understand and be able to use them if you want to speak Japanese or you hear the word in a different form from that which you hear in the dōjō. eg: keri - komi (noun+noun) eg: uwa - uke (noun+noun) |
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| Verbs ending in 'su' are transformed into a noun by changing this to 'shi' | ||||
| otosu - otoshi | ||||
| osu - oshi | ||||
| kuzusu - kuzushi | ||||
| Verbs ending in 'ku' are transformed into a noun by changing this to 'ki', verbs ending in 'mu' change to 'mi' | ||||
| maku - maki | Examples: maki-nuki, keri-komi | |||
| nuku - nuki | ||||
| hiku - hiki | ||||
| komu - komi | ||||
| Exception: | 'kannuki' is not derived from a verb, but is a noun | |||
| Verbs ending in 'ru' - these fall into two verb group and are transformed into a noun by changing this to 'ri' or simply lose all endings and use the verb stem. | ||||
| Group I | keru - keri | |||
| furu - furi | ||||
| okuru - okuri | ||||
| nageru - nage | ||||
| Group II | shimeru - shime | |||
| Caution: | 'chidori' is a bird name and not a verb derivative. Chidori ashi ("plover leg") means to stagger (drunkenly); | |||
| Verbs ending in 'au' are transformed into a noun by changing this to 'ai' | ||||
| harau - harai | ||||
| N or M ? | |
In Japanese writing there is no 'M', only either Ma Mi Mu Me Mo. However, when written in Roman lettering words such as 'kempo' or 'embu' contain an 'M'. The reason for this is purely to facilitate pronunciation of the word. When the sound for 'N' precedes a labial consonent such as an 'P' or 'B' the resulting sound, in normal speech, is a cross between an 'N' and 'M' as the lips are already being compressed for the following 'P'or 'B'. When romanising Japanese it is therefore not incorrect to write words such as either 'kempo' or 'kenpo' ' or 'enbu' as 'embu'. The norm nowadays is to show the sound and hence write the 'N' as an 'M'. |
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| What's with the 'ō' and 'ū'? | |
| In Japanese the vowels I, O, U have both short and long sounds. To lengthen an 'I' or 'U' these are simply doubled (ii and uu). However, 'O' is in most cases shown as a long sound by the addition of a 'U': 'ou'. (there are also a small number of words where this is simply doubled to 'oo'). The first transcription systems into roman script also showed this extra U, eg kenpou. With modernisation of the transcriptions used, the long vowels were written as ''ō' and 'ū' : eg 'kempō' and 'jūji'. Lack of correct fonts (hence our logo above), unawareness of the different sounds, and sometimes sheer laziness or have resulted in most Westerners simply ignoring the fact that certain vowels are elongated, eg as in ''kempō'. |
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| When is it 't' or 'd', 'k' or 'g', 's' or 'z''? | |
In the middle of compound words the unvoiced consonants T, K, S become voiced, softer consonants D, G, Z. This is purely to do wth ease of pronunciation. Examples : 'tori' becomes 'eri-dori'; 'keri' becomes 'soto-geri'; 'sushi' becomes 'maki-zushi' |
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| Word Confusion - they all sound the same! The Japanese language as a very restricted number of sounds compared to other languages. Therefore there are a large number of homophones - words that sound the same( eg their, there) but have a different meaning.. Once transliterated into the Roman alphabet these then look like homonyms. Homonyms are words that look and sound the same, but have different meanings (eg ball - the round thing you play with, or the party with the fancy dresses). In context it is usually clear which is meant. However, this is where the use of Chinese characters (kanji) comes in very handy - although the words may sound the same, they are written differently. Below are few homophones/homonyms that crop up in Shōrinji Kempō |
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| DAN | dan-zuki and shodan have the same DAN (=step, level) |
| UCHI | 1) uchi - inside , eg uchi-uke zuki 2) uchi - a strike (from utsu= to strike) , eg shutō uchi TIP: uchi (inside) mostly found at front of technique name, uchi (strike) found in end of technique name |
| ZEN | 1) zen - the religion, eg kenzen ichinyo 2) zen - complete, whole, eg zen-tenkan 3) zen - in front, eg zenkutsu TIP: zen 2 + 3 are most likely to be found at the front of a compound as they are adjectival (descriptive) |
| TAI | 1) tai - opposing, eg tai-gamae 2) tai - body, eg gōjū ittai TIP: tai (1) is likely to be found at the front of a word, tai (2) in the middle or end of a word |
| TEN | 1) ten - to turn, change, eg zen-tenkan 2) ten - the kanji for heaven, eg tenchiken('heaven-earth fist'), tenbin no obvious tip for these |
| RYū | 1) ryū - dragon, eg ryū-ō ken (dragon king fist) 2) ryū - flowing, eg ryū-sui (flowing water) no obvious tip for these |
| kata | 1) shoulder (not used in any technique names) 2) shape, form - eg hōkei 3) one-sided - eg kata-te, kata-mune otoshi |